»If someone asked me: what is the film about I would have to say: It is really about the
essence of human life! I find it incredibly beautiful! It is really a moving experience ... I
think it is obviously art built and master full ...« (Prof. Howard Davis University of Oregon
on my film And the alley she whitewashed in light blue.) At a time of existential threat to the
physical and human environment we live in architect and film maker Nili Portugali takes the
readers through a poetic text and spectacular photo gallery extracted from her awarded new
film into a deeply intimate journey of memories in the Galilean »Kabbala« holy city of Tsefat.
A childhood journey that unfolds gradually from her present holistic Buddhist
phenomenological point of view to a discovery of profound universal insights of what is the
secret of all those timeless places endowed with beauty and soul where one feels »at home«? And
what is that »one pure art of making« that creates them? At any culture at any place and at any
time. Nili Portugali unfolds the way in which her holistic-phenomenological approach to the
arts as a whole and to architecture in particular generated her creative process in making her
film. A process fundamentally different from the common production processes in the film
industry. The book includes a free streaming access to watch the film. Nili Portugali a
seventh generation descendant of a family living in the city of Tsefat is a practicing
architect lecturer researcher author and film maker. Her work focuses on both practice and
theory closely connected to the holistic-phenomenological school of thought. Her first book
The Act of Creation and the Spirit of a Place. A Holistic-Phenomenological Approach to
Architecture was nominated for The RIBA International Book Award 2007: »There is no other book
quite like this one it really is singular and worthy of your close attention.« Her film is the
third chapter in her creative trilogy following the buildings she designed and the books she
wrote. She did post-graduate studies in architecture and Buddhism at the University of
California in Berkeley and participated there in research with Christopher Alexander at the
Center for Environmental Structure. She taught at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in
Jerusalem and at the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa.
