This documentary is a short snippet of the filmmaker’s grandfather’s life from being born in Sicily, going to school in fascist Italy, serving in the Italian army, then meeting his grandmother, immigrating to the United States, building a large family, and achieving the American Dream. Half of the film is from the perspective of the filmmaker’s grandfather while the second is from his grandmother’s and concludes with a mixture of the two. The film is a mixture of the expository and observational documentary modes told through the interview style with archival imagery displayed throughout.
Behind the Scene
Behind the scenes shows images of children in their drama classes, narrated by a teacher, a doctor-psychoanalyst and a pedagogue who explain the benefits of this artistic education in children.
The Campfire Project
In December 2017, actress Jessica Hecht, producer Jenny Gersten, director Arin Arbus and music director Mary Mitchell Campbell made their first visit to the Ritsona Refugee Camp, one hour north of Athens. Their host was I AM YOU, an NGO devoted to bettering the lives of displaced persons through education, healthcare and legal support. The mission which Jessica was still planning became The Campfire Project.
Six months later, 15 international theatre artists, a psychiatrist, a NYC schoolteacher, a translator and a documentary crew returned to the camp. Over the next four weeks they created an Arabic language version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, provided basic educational assistance, ran wellness classes for residents of all ages and provided translation for the multitude of residents suffering from trauma- and stressor-related disorders. The film documents their journey.
An Outsider’s Perspective
The United Kingdom is renowned for it’s multicultural and diverse society. But has the theme of ‘community’ changed or faded? And how do outsiders perceive the working class, council estates of the United Kingdom?
Brazilian Palestine
Marked by ethnic and cultural diversity, Rio Grande do Sul now houses thousands of Palestinian immigrants and their descendants. The communities born of the nakba – the Arabic word whose meaning is catastrophe or disaster – seek, in the diaspora, full integration and a new citizenship in Brazil. Today, they try to survive, grow and gain recognition for their economic, social and cultural contribution. But who are these immigrants and refugees? How do they live, preserve their identities and relate to local societies? How do you see your present reality and your future? Have your dreams of peace been fulfilled? Do you want to go back to the land where you were born? How do you perceive the current political storms in occupied Palestine? With scenes filmed in southern Brazil and the Middle East, the documentary “The Brazilian Palestine” reveals the roots, the degree of integration, the sense of belonging of six families reached by prejudices, persecutions and wars. It questions its current condition, and shows how men, women and young people stand in the face of their rights and the ethical and religious values of their traditional culture. They are narratives of the lived, that rescue lost places and stories that are behind. They are shared memories, letters, photographs and memories that re-live the past and how much of it is left in the present.
The Many Pink Triangles
This documentary tells the story of the LGBTTI communities who have suffered persecution, prison and torture for their sexual condition under different military dictatorships in recent decades.
The idea borns from the photographic and archival project for the recovery of the historical memory of the different LGBTTI communities in the world, a chapter of history too often hidden and forgotten.
This first chapter is a journey around Spain, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, countries where the dictatorship has strongly marked the history of the LGBTTI community, oppressed by police regimes and social intolerance.
A Woman Who Paints Thangkas
Rebgong (Qinghai province, China) is well-known for its Tibetan Buddhist thangka art for centuries. However, Tibetan women were not allowed to learn or to paint thangkas, until recent years. Lutso is one of the few Tibetan female thangka painters in Rebgong. She is also a mother, a wife, and the oldest daughter in the family. The film captures Lutso’s unique life as a thangka painter, who has a career to develop and a family to support..
GADIYA LOHAR
This documentary is an “Ethnography” which describes the lives of Gadiya Lohars, who are nomadic community of Rajasthan , India, they are also known as Military of Maharana Pratap (Emperor).
The Girl with Blue Eyes
Anphouc is an 11 years old girl from Vietnam. her pairs of big bright blue eyes attracted many photographers from all around the world to visit her. she is one of the Vietnam tourist attractions icons but despite all that, An Phouc and her family are suffering from poverty and struggling with racism. She also has some bad memory of modeling for some doggy Photographers.
In The Green Room
Kasiel Noah Asher, Krasimira Kuzmanova, Lilia Maraviglia and Stefka Yanorova are all talented female actors with different creative and personal biographies. The things they share are the education in the Sofia Theatre Academy and the reputation as established performers in plays, films and TV. The trade has its own rules and their interactions are not an exception – they are riddled with competition, putting their friendship under a continuous strain.
But a fatal attraction commands them to work together one more time. The reason is their love for the legendary Valeri Petrov play “Theatre, My Love”. Playing the roles of actors in it, they play themselves, building together the complicated character of “the Actress” by pieces of their own lives. Emotions flow from the green room to the stage and back. Old wounds open, new fires ignite. The theatre life and the theatre of life become one. The metaphorical world of the play becomes home for the everyday lives of the women, a place where their triumphs and miseries become real.
