Elly Kenner
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Subject of my article is... Elly Kenner
Elly Kenner (born Elyezer Kenner on October 7th 1948) is a Director Producer and Editor of films. Among his cinematic work are 3 feature films that have been screened in movie theaters and more than 3500 news reports for the French TV station France 2 (France Télévisions). President of the Jerusalem Rotary Club 2011-2012.
Biography
Elly Kenner was born in 1948 immediately following Israel's War of Independence. During the siege on Jerusalem, his pregnant mother (also born in the Old City) and father found refuge in the Monastery of the Cross, that is also known as Monastere de Georgiens and Musallabe. He attended school at Gymnasia Rehavia, was selected for the Pilot Course of the Israeli Air-force upon enlistment to the IDF and later served in a surveying unit of the Artillery. He studied Psychology and Theater at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was on the Dean's list, served as Cultural Director of the Student Union and was a reporter for Pi Ha’Aton, the University weekly. In 1972 he began studies for a Master's degree in Film at Boston University, USA, and following a short film he wrote and directed, he won a grant from The Directors’ Guild of America in Los Angeles.
Upon completing his studies at BU and with the aid of the grant that he had received, he produced and directed his first feature film, "Falling" which received positive reviews in The Boston Globe and The Los Angeles Times. The film won a Cinematography award from ASC, the American Society of Cinematographers in LA. Elly moved to Hollywood in 1976 where he edited films for the American Film Institute's program for Women Directors and later established and ran his own post production studio.
In 1983 he directed his second feature film "The Black Room" starring Stephen Knight and Cassandra Gava.
In 1984 he returned to Israel with the intention of withdrawing from movie making. He established the first Apartment Hotel in Jerusalem in the neighborhood of Talpiot and received the commendation of "Recognized Tourism Operator" from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. However in 1986 he was called for an interview at Kastel Films with Micha Shagrir who told him that he had received his first job 25 years earlier at the Israel Broadcast Authority from Elly's father - Zvi Moshe Kenner. Having heard about Elly’s work in Hollywood and having watched his feature film "The Black Room", he appointed him Director of the series "Hello Jerusalem", at that time screening coast to coast in the USA.
In 1989 Elly Kenner made a program for the Israeli National TV "Mabat Sheni" under Michael Karpin titled "No Free Enterprise" that countered the socialist bureaucracy that so typified Israel of those times. The revolutionary program received rave reviews from Heda Boshes of Ha’Aretz Newspaper and Sima Kadmon of Maariv Newspaper.
In 1990, after becoming a partner in the Jerusalem advertizing agency "Sheta", where he established a department for commercials and image films and also produced a series on Christian sites named "Visions of the Holy Land" that was sold all over the Christian world, Kenner began his "mystical" period of his film career with the production of "Esoterica Jerusalem" which dealt with Healing and Channeling with the participation of Phyllis Schlemmer. One of the chapters of this series was screened in January 1992 at the Film Festival at Tours in France. In the newspaper "BaMachane" journalist Eitan Bar Yoseff called Kenner "Atlantis’ Ambassador to Israel".
In 1992 Elly began producing "The Sixth Dimension" on Israel's then temporary Chanel 2, a weekly program dealing with mysticism and alternative medicine. The presenter was Oded Teomi together with an unknown public relations woman, in later years the authoress Shifra Horn. It was the first time in Israel that these subjects were looked upon positively and treated with seriousness, not with a wink and a nod and mockery. The program became very popular all over the country.
In 1994 Kenner directed a short dramatic film for the "Israel Film Service" about the new peace accord agreement with Jordan, starring Dubi Gal and Oded Menashe. The film was screened in schools around the country by the Ministry of Education. This success gave birth to Kenner's third feature film "Who is the Father" starring Dubi Gal, Nitsa Shaul, Uri Banai and Maria Ovanov, which he produced and directed in 1995. The film was invited to screen at the International Film Festival in Shanghai in 1997.
In 2003 Kenner wrote a book about life in Hollywood named "Big Pond Small Fish" under the pen name Joe Sherman that was published by Sitra Ahara Publications.
In the same year he joined the Jerusalem real estate company "Anglo Saxon" and ran the rentals department until 2011.
During most of the above years, 1988 to 2011, Kenner worked for French TV, in the Jerusalem Bureau of the National French station France 2, as a news editor with reporter Charles Enderlin. Among the news reports he edited - the death of Mohamed A Dura, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's murder, the Israeli invasion of Ramalla and Jenin during the second Intifada and The Second Lebanon War. All in all, during his years at France 2, Kenner edited more than 3500 reports.
On July 2011 Elly Kenner was elected President of the Jerusalem Rotary Club.
Elly Kenner lives in Jerusalem, is father to two daughters, Dafna and Nurit. His brother is musician Avner Kenner.