Ilan Ziv was born in Israel in 1950 and came to the United States after fighting in the Yom Kippur (The October) War in 1973. Ilan Ziv is a graduate of New York University film school, and in 1978 he co-produced New York's first Middle East Film Festival. That same year he founded Icarus Films, an educational film distribution company, which he left in 1980 in order devote himself to making documentary films, and since then he has directed dozens of documentaries dealing broadly with issues of human rights, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and investigations of contemporary history.

His most recent film before The Junction was Human Weapon, a film on the history of suicide bombing, which ran at Film Forum in 2002 and which Stephen Holden of The New York Times called, "A gripping and important documentary." His other critically-acclaimed films have included On the Edge of Peace (1995); Tango of Slaves (1994); and The Hundred Years' War: Personal Notes (1983). His films have been broadast by leading television networks and presented in film festivals around the world. Accolades include the Prix Europa (Europe highest television award), Silver Nymph and International Jury Award in Monte Carlo, and Cine Eagle in the United States. The Junction, his latest film, is the recent recipient of the Best Documentary Award at Israel's Haifa International Film Festival.

First Run/Icarus Films is proud to have distributed Ilan Ziv's films for over twenty years.

Litigating Disaster - December 3, 1984. Bhopal, India. The worst chemical disaster of all time. How has Union Carbide manipulated the US and Indian legal systems for 20 years to avoid facing justice?

The Junction - They had little in common in life, but Israeli soldier David Biri and Palestinian Fahmi Abou Ammouneh are linked in death, their fates tied to a Gaza crossroads between an Israeli settlement and Palestinian refugee camp.

Human Weapon - The first sober, in-depth examination of the history of suicide bombing. Filmed in Iran, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Israel, Palestine, Europe and the United States.

Arab Diaries series - A five-part documentary series that presents a fresh, insightful picture of contemporary life across the Arab world.

Safe Haven: The United Nations and the Betrayal of Srebrenica - Investigates the possibility of complicity - knowing or not - by the commanders of the United Nations forces in Bosnia in the disaster that befell Srebrenica.

Yellow Wasps : Anatomy of a War Crime - Chronicles the Yellow Wasps, a Serbian paramilitary unit operating in Bosnia in 1992.

On the Edge of Peace - Chronicles the first year of the implementation of the Israeli-Palestinian accords as experienced by both Palestinians and Israelis from all walks of life.

Tango of Slaves - A Holocaust survivor's journey to Warsaw becomes the springboard for a meditative essay about history, memory, and their preservation in imagery.

Media War in El Salvador - Analyzes the Madison Avenue style media barrage employed by rival parties during El Salvador's 1989 presidential campaign.

People Power - The first in depth look at non-violent revolutions around the world.

Fire in the Andes - Tells the story of the ongoing conflict in Peru which, to date, has left over 10,000 dead or "disappeared."

Shrine Under Siege - Describes the coalition formed by Fundamentalist U.S. Christians and militant Israeli Jews to destroy the Dome of the Rock, Islam's third holiest shrine, and to build a new Jewish temple in its place.

The Hundred Years' War : Personal Notes

Guatemala : A Journey to the End of Memories - Guatemalan refugees comment on the "new" Guatemala of army-built "model villages" and "reeducation camps."