Yair Qedar is an Israeli filmmaker and activist. His films deal with
issues of GLBTQ rights, Human rights, and Hebrew culture, and were
screened in major film festivals – the Berlinale, Doc Aviv, Frameline,
as well as many others.
He's latest film, The 5 Houses of Lea Goldberg, Israel 2011,
Documentary, 52 minutes, tells the story of Israel's most beloved
poet, Lea Goldberg. The premiere of the film is at Doc aviv 2011, and
it is supported by the Israeli film service, the new foundation for
Cinema and TV and Israel's second authority.
His first film, Gay Days, Israel 2009, Documentary, 71 minutes, tells
the story of the GLBT community in Israel, based on his own personal
story with the stories of other prominent gay men and women in Israel
(Gal Uchovsky, Eytan Fox, Dana International, Offer Nissim, Michal
Eden and others), was premiered on May 2009 in Tel Aviv in Docaviv
festival, and also was screened at the official opening of the Tel
Aviv Gay pride events of 2009, was the official selection of the Tel
Aviv International LGBT Film Festival, 2009, and the official
selection of the Panorama, Berlin festival, 2010.
As a social and cultural activist, Qedar initiated various media
projects in Israel, in the fields of culture, specifically Hebrew
literature, and in the GLBT community. He was founding editor of Pink
Time (HaZman Havarod) Israel's first Gay, lesbian and transgender
Newspaper, writes in various publications, such as Haaretz, Yedioth
Ahronoth, Masa Acher, and is recipient of various journalistic prizes,
including winner of the B'nai B'rith World Center Award for Journalism
in 2003, and Euromed Heritage press awards in 2005 and 2006.
In the 1990s, as a student for Hebrew Literature in Tel Aviv University (MA
+BA), he founded the first reading group for GLBT studies and Queer
theory. He edited the first gay theatre show in Israel in 1994, edited
the "Beyond Sexuality", an anthology of Gay & Lesbian studies,
established Subculture, Tal Tarbut, a magazine for Queer culture and
more.