Dogma 4.8 | Einat Weizmann

“Art changes perspectives by appealing directly to hearts and minds, subverting the mundane, and questioning what media and politics often occlude. It can open a window to the no-man’s lands we avoid.”

– Einat Weizmann

Dogma 4.8 is a unique art-documentary project consisting of 8 short pieces by Jewish and Palestinian artists inspired by archival state documents, that started showing in May 2023. It was curated and created by veteran director, actor, and SFP graduate, Einat Weizmann. The aim was to create a live performative archive that exposes the obfuscated Israeli policies across the decades, showing how past decisions inform present actions. Each artist incorporates an old and a contemporary archival document in their work. “Israel is like a haunted house,” says Weizmann, “we must revisit suppressed events, or continue to face specters.”

Every piece is 8 minutes and 40 seconds long, alluding to 1948, or the “year of primal sin,” as Weizmann calls it. ‘Dogma’ alludes to Dogma 95, the 90s Danish cinema movement, that pushed the medium to redefine its role, inspiring Weizmann to use theater to address oppression, and as a catalyst for political action and critical thinking. Featured artists explore subjects like censorship, institutional violence, political prisons, and many others.

Weizmann participated in an Agents of Change in Journalism course in 2010, and has led a unique Agents of Change course for Stage and Screen Artists in 2022, where she developed the idea for Dogma 4.8. For her, “the aim of the course was to create a new generation of daring and politically active artists, driven by a desire to change reality. Such artists are the key to a better future, and cultivating them is a great personal achievement.”