Hillel F. Damron

Hillel F. Damron was born in kibbutz Heftzi-bah in northern Israel, to parents who survived the Holocaust. After graduating from high school he worked with inner-city kids in Haifa for a year, then joined the army and became an officer in an elite paratroops unit. He experienced war and was wounded in battle.

He studied the “Art and Technique” of film making at the “London International Film School.” His final short film at the school, The Petition, represented the “British Arts Council” as an official entry to the film festival in Tours, France.

Back in Israel, and after paying his dues in many aspects of film production, he directed documentaries for television, numerous video shorts and magazines, as well as a feature film: Hasamba Ve-Shodedey Ha-Susim (The Undercover Kids).

He wrote film reviews, published short stories – one of which received a “Fantasia 2000 Magazine” award – and a sci-fi novel: Milhemet ha-minim (The War of the Sexes); referred to by the American “Science-Fiction Studies” as “the best of all Israeli sci-fi literature.”

After marrying for the second time he moved to California, where he now resides permanently in Sacramento. For three years, he was the Executive Director of the Hillel House in UC Davis and Sacramento State. His screenplay, Saint Daniel of L.A., was awarded an Honorable Mention in a “Writer’s Digest Magazine” writing competition. His short story, The Messiah, was published recently in “Sambatyon,” a new literary journal in Northern California.