Avner Faingulernt

Avner Faingulernt was born in 1961 in Bror Hayil

Faingulernt was born on December 22, 1961, in Kibbutz Bror Hayil, to parents who had immigrated from Brazil. He went to high school in Sha'ar HaNegev and worked in the fields. He then did a service year as a regional coordinator in Sha'ar HaNegev and Sderot.

He joined the IDF in 1981 and served in Sayeret Matkal. After the army he traveled in Israel and abroad, working as a truck driver and lighting worker on film sets and as a fisherman in New York. In 1990 he began studying film and psychology at Tel Aviv University, where he directed his first films.

In 1992 he returned to Bror Hayil and worked on its education system. He directed segments for the Keshet program Ha'She'elah Ha'ba'ah, and in 1997 he made his first documentary with Maya Bar. In 1999 he set up an independent studio for documentary and experimental film in Bror Hayil.

He helped found the School of Audio and Visual Arts at Sapir Academic College and headed it from 2001 to 2018. He founded the Cinema South Festival in Sderot and its journals. He earned his master's and doctorate at the University of East London between 2005 and 2009.

He was a visiting professor at Columbia University in 2012 and taught in Haifa, Prague and Ludwigsburg. Since 2019 he has been dean of the Faculty of Arts at Kibbutzim College. During Operation Pillar of Defense he publicly opposed the military operation, and he is a father of four.