Avner Faingulernt

As of 2014 Faingulernt is the chair of the school of Audio & Visual arts at Sapir Academic College alongside being the head of the Master's Degree program of the school.

The Diary of a Brazilian (2013)) - a one-man-show, on stage and screen together, that tell the journey of searching for identity and the meaning of being a film maker, following the death of his father. His Israeli-Zionist-Kibbutz world has become one and he journeys towards the exile from which his parents and grandparents flee. In his journey he wanders between small Jewish towns in West Ukraine, Odessa, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil and until Brur Hayil, the Kibbutz in which he was born and raised. A journey that takes place both in real life and in abstract memory, controlled by fantasy and ghost meetings from the past and from the Jewish exile of Eastern Europe and Brazil. During the journey has asks to penetrate deep into the depth of the complicated relationships between his father, his grandfather and his son and their path to his own soul. The show was performed in The Monodrama Festival in the Gerard Bechar Center in Jerusalem as part of the Israel Festival, in Cinema South Festival in 2013 and in the Israel Society Convention in Sderot 2013. At the end of the convention a discussion was held between Faingulernt, PhD Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin and the members of the audience.

As of 2011, upon the opening of its Master's degree program in the University of Haifa, Faingulernt was recruited as a part of its academic faculty. In 2012 he was a visiting professor in the University of Columbia in New York City. He also teaches a practical workshop of "Desert and Journey", a collaboration between the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and Sapir Academic College's master's degree program.

Matador of War cinematic installation (2010) - A cinematic installation at Petach Tikva Museum unfolding a journey along the Gaza-Israel border during Operation Cast Lead, the travelogue sketches an intimate portrait of a vulnerable border area, striving to introduce a profile of Israel in a time of crisis. Parts of the film projected in three different screens that divide the creation like in a bullfight ring where the audience observe the rises smoke over Gaza. - Producer, Director, Script Writer and Cinematographer.

Between the years 2005 and 2009 he studied for a Master's degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in the University of East London in England. The subject of his doctorate was: The Fathers Return in the Modern European Cinematic Odysseys.

The following stage in his life was to return living and working in the south of Israel creating his unique cinematic language. In 1999 he established an independent studio for documentary and experimental film making in Bror Hayil, and worked then in collaboration with Macabit Abramson and Lev Goltzer on his following films. He was among the founders of the School of Audio & Visual Arts in Sapir Academic College and has been the head of it since 2001. He initiated and founded the Cinema South Festival in Sderot, the Cinema South Notebooks and the Cinema South The Curator Book, which are journals that offer a stage for articles and discussions regarding film. He completed his PhD studies in London.

Faingulernt has a Bachelor's degree in Film & TV department and Psychology department at Tel Aviv University, 1993. In the year 1999 he was one of the people who initiated the Film Department with Professor Haim Bresheet at Sapir Academic College. They opened the film school and Faingulernt has been the head of it since 2001.

In 1992, at the time of birth of his first daughter, he returned to the Kibbutz where he was born and raised and dedicated himself to establishing a local education system, with intent to provide an ideal environment for his and his friends' children. Afterwards he worked as a director of documentaries reportages for the show "Ha'She'elah Ha'ba'ah" on Keshet Broadcasting, produced by Yaron London and Nurit Kedar. In 1997 he directed and produced his first documentary film, along with Maya Bar, The First Will Be the Last.

Like many other Kibbutz youth Faingulernt chose to do a service year as a regional coordinator in Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council and in Sderot. In 1981 he was recruited to the Israeli Defence Forces to the commando squad of Sayeret Matkal special ops unit. After his army he wandered for five years in Israel and all over world. Among other occupations he worked as a Truck Driver and of lighting and camera gear on movie sets and as a fisherman in New York City. According to him, his exposure to film making and especially his job as a lighting best boy filled him with great love towards cinema, and especially for Documentary film making. In 1990 he began his studies of Cinema and Psychology in the Tel Aviv University, where he also directed his first movies.

Avner Faingulernt was born in Bror Hayil Kibbutz, as most residents are, to Brazilian immigrants. His parents came from Rio de Janeiro in 1955. He studied in Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council high school and worked at the agricultural fields.