Last Friday (May 23), the Heschel Center hosted a festive premiere screening of Nitzan Horowitz's new film, Urban Legend, as part of the Ekolnoa environmental film festival [1]. Nitzan, foreign desk reporter for Channel 10 News is a Heschel Environmental Fellow leading the incorporation of sustainability issues into mainstream Israeli media (more on Nitzan here [2]).

The cinema hall was filled to overflowing (in fact many people, including Heschel staff, had to wait outside!). The film is part of a series to be screened on Israel's Channel 10 (one of the two commercial networks), which explores major international cities from Singapore, LA, Portland, Beijing, Quritiba investigating how our cities will look in the 21st Century. It looks at the best and worst models for building cities of the future and what Israel can learn from them. After the screening Nitzan particiapted in a panel discussion with Dr Eilon Schwartz (Heschel's Director) and Yudan Rofeh (from the New Urbanism organization) on urban challenges for Israel, particularly in the lead-up to the municipal elections in December. The panel, which included audience participation, stimulated lively and active discussions which continued out to the open square in front of the Tel Aviv Cinemateque .