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Jerusalem (documentary film)
Jerusalem is a 3D IMAX documentary film made to convey the story of Jerusalem, focusing on the city’s cultural, spiritual and archaeological importance.

Background and film synopsis
Jerusalem was released in 2013 and is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch. It had an US$8 million production budget and some of the profits from the distribution of the film are to be given to projects in the city that promote co-existence.

A stated aim of the film is to show the diversity of Jerusalem and to promote understanding of the different cultures in Jerusalem.

The film-makers were given special access to holy sites and several of the little known parts of the city. They were permitted to film aerial shots of areas normally treated as no fly zones. The filmmakers formed an advisory panel that includes academic and theological experts. ‘’Jerusalem’’ presents the city through the eyes of three teenagers – a Jew, Christian and Muslim - and the archaeologist Dr Jodi Magness, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The teenagers are Farah Ammouri, Nadia Tadros, and Revital Zacharie. The film shows how the teenagers live in Jerusalem, where they go and how the city is important to them. Dr Magness uses archaeology to understand the past in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is expected to be 45 minutes long

The Film-makers
Jerusalem is a joint production between Cosmic Picture based in New York, USA, and Arcane Pictures based in London, UK Jake Eberts was the executive producer until his death in September 2012. His credits include Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, and Dances with Wolves. He described the city of Jerusalem as, “The beating heart of our world today”. Jerusalem is produced by Taran Davies, producer of Journey to Mecca , and George Duffield, the producer of The End of the Line. Daniel Ferguson, a Canadian filmmaker whose credits include Journey to Mecca, is producer, writer and director. Dominic Cunningham Reid, a producer of Journey to Mecca, is also an executive producer.

Reviews
The Washington Post described the panoramic photography as “at once awe-inspiring and intimate” and said watching the film “may be as close as a person can get to praying at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Western Wall, without actually going there”. It was described as “just stunning” by the Huffington Post and the Boston Globe said that in terms of educating, fascinating and being a visual treat the film “succeeds rather nicely”.

Taran Davies
Taran Davies (English American) is a film producer and director best known for his documentary film Afghan Stories (2002), and the IMAX feature documentary Journey to Mecca (2009).

Life and Education:
Taran Davies is a filmmaker, born in New York City and raised in London and Hong Kong. He graduated from Harvard University in 1993 with a BA in English and American Literature, and studied documentary filmmaking with Richard Rogers, Director of the Film Study Center at The Department of Visual and Environmental Film Studies at Harvard.

Career:
Davies founded Wicklow Films in 1994 to produce, direct and write a series of films about the Islamic world. Three - Afghan Stories, Mountain Men and Holy Wars and The Land Beyond the River - were broadcast on the Sundance Channel in March 2003 with its FilmFest Portraits of Islam. .

The Land Beyond the River (1998) is about his journey through Central Asia in 1995. It was broadcast by PBS in November 1997 and was shot entirely on Hi 8.

Davies travelled to the Caucasus in the summer of 1999 to film Mountain Men and Holy Wars.

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 marked a turning point for Davies. Having witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Center, he gave up his job in finance to set out to make Afghan Stories and commit to making films that might shed light on conflict, its causes and effects. Afghan Stories premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2002, and was described as “a brilliant portrait” by The Rough Guide to Cult Movies. The New York Times called it “invaluable”

Davies founded Cosmic Picture in 2004 with Dominic Cunningham-Reid to produce giant screen productions to enhance people’s knowledge of history, religion, culture and geography.

He conceived the IMAX film Journey to Mecca and developed it with Cunningham-Reid, Executive Producer Jake Eberts, and Director Bruce Neibaur. Journey to Mecca was released in January 2009 in Abu Dhabi on the world’s largest outdoor screen, specifically constructed for the occasion. Produced by Cosmic Picture and SK Films and distributed by SK Films and National Geographic, Journey to Mecca tells the story of one of the greatest travelers in history, Ibn Battuta, and his journey to Mecca in the 14th century. Journey to Mecca contains the first IMAX material ever filmed of the Hajj, one of the longest running annual events in history

Davies also produced and directed, with Ghasem Ebrahimian, Roads to Mecca, the story of the making of Journey to Mecca.

In 2009 Davies started work on the IMAX film Jerusalem with Daniel Ferguson (Writer, Director, Producer), George Duffield (Producer) and Jake Eberts (Executive Producer). The film will focus on the cultural, political and religious importance of Jeursalem and is scheduled for release in 2013

Other:
Davies is a member of the Explorers' Club He directed and produced his first film, Around the Sacred Sea, in 1993 about a five-month horseback expedition around Siberia's Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake

External links:
Wicklow Films site

Cosmic Picture site

UK official site of Journey to Mecca

International official site of Journey to Mecca

SK Films site