Micha Shagrir (; November 1, 1937 – February 4, 2015) was an Israeli film director, producer, radio presenter, and journalist. He produced feature and documentary films and TV shows.Micha Shagrir - 50 years of FilmmakingHannah Brown, Micha Shagrir, pillar of the Israeli film industry, dies, The Jerusalem Post, February 4, 2015
He was the head of Kastel Productions, a co-founder of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem, and a chairman of the .
Biography Micha Shagrir was born in Linz, Austria as Josef Michael Schwager. (Among other films, Shagrir made a documentary Linz. Bischofstrasse 7 about the street in Linz where his family lived.) His father Karl Schwager emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1921, where he lived in kibbutz Heftziba and where he met Micha Shagrir's mother, Vally (Yehudit). She already had a son Chaim, from her recently deceased husband Georg Grünwald. They returned to Austria in 1932 or 1933, but immediately after the Nazi's Anschluss, in April 1938 they emigrated to Palestine. At first they lived in Heftziba, later in Tel Aviv and Holon. Later Micha lived in other places. In 1949 the family changed their surname to Shagrir (which means "ambassador" in Hebrew). The father took the name Hanan, and the mother YehuditMicha Shagrir, interviewStudio portrait of the Schwager family taken shortly before the Anschluss, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Micha Shagrir graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Family Micha Shagrir was married to Aliza Shagrir ( Levi) in Jerusalem in 1961. She was murdered during the 1980 Paris synagogue bombing while on Sukkot vacation and passing by the assaulted rue Copernic synagogue. They had two sons, Oron and Hagai.עליזה שגריר לוי זל Micha Shagrir established the Aliza Shagrir Foundation in her memory, for awarding young documentary filmmakers.Greer Fay Cashman, Grapevine: Shagrir’s career, The Jerusalem Post, February 18, 2016
Awards 1999: Honorary Fellow of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School 2005: Jerusalem Film Festival Life Achievement Award Israeli Film Academy's Life Achievement Award 2008: Gold Medal of Honour of the City of LinzEhrenzeichen der Stadt Linz an Micha Shagrir (in ENglish) 2009: Kulturmedaille des Landes für israelischen Filmemacher Micha Shagrir
Filmography Shagrir directed and produced over 250 documentaries, television and feature films. 1967: (Scouting Patrol) (feature film, director), about a squad that infiltrated across the border to capture a wanted terrorist (based on a real story)סיירים 1969: (full-length documentary, director)המלחמה לאחר המלחמה [תיעודי]
References
External links Micha Shagrir Film Collection, Israeli Film Archive