The Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival has partnered with Roger Williams University (RWU), to present its Fall-edition of the annual Roving Eye International Film Festival. The popular and acclaimed festival celebrating global cinema and artists, announces its 2016 sidebar program on the Jewish Experience through short films, documentary, media and guest speakers. The event takes place November 8, 9 & 13th. This year’s series explores representations of the Jewish experience in Israel, across the globe and the Holocaust through 10 recent films and is entitled: “ARTS AND CULTURE: SHAPING THE FUTURE, REFLECTING THE PAST.” The series includes a talk by the Rev. Nancy Hamlin Soukup, University Multifaith Chaplain, RWU and Andrew Lund, Associate Professor and Director of the Integrated Media Arts MFA Program in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College of the City University of New York.
All programming will take place on the Bristol, RI, campus of Roger Williams University at the Mary Tefft White Cultural Center and the Global Heritage Hall, Room 01.
"Through film and scholarship, this series tells the stories of the Jewish experience globally—stories of joy, sorrow, faith, a rich culture, diasporas, fear and ultimately, hope,” said the Rev. Nancy Hamlin Soukup, RWU University Multifaith Chaplain co-organizer of the event with Flickers.
All programming is free of charge and open to the public.
The Fall Jewish Experience sidebar of the Roving Eye Festival are presented in partnership with Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Helene and Bertram Bernhardt Foundation, the RWU Department of Communication the RWU Feinstein College of Arts and Sciences, Dean Robert Cole, Associate Dean Roberta Adams, the RWU Film Production Collaborative, RWU Hillel, and the Spiritual Life Office.
Introduced by Adjunct Professor George T. Marshall and hosted the Rev. Nancy Hamlin Soukup, University Multifaith Chaplain, RWU, with commentary by Jake Sussman, President of RWU Hillel.
ALL THESE VOICES | Directed by: David Henry Gerson | 15 min. USA, 2015
When a young SS soldier encounters an avant-garde theater-troupe of survivors celebrating the end of WWII, he must come to terms with his complicity in their grief.
THE WAY OUT | Directed by: Mikhail Uchitelev | 33 min. Germany, Russian Federation, 2015
The first weeks of the Nazi's occupation of a city. A theater director (ethnically German) hides a Jewish opera diva, from the Nazis in the cellar of the theater. The Nazi commandant got to know about it and issues an ultimatum to the director: the director is required either to bring the opera diva to the Nazi or is promised to be shot.
BIRD IN THE ROOM | Directed by: Ari Davidovich | 67 min. Israel, 2015
Two poets, father and daughter, in a dangerous game of words. The mysterious life and death of Tirza Atar (1941-1977) - the daughter of poet Nathan Alterman, one of the all-time paragons of Israeli and Jewish culture. Atar’s fragile, beauteous image and her short, turbulent life remain shrouded in mystery, many years after her tragic death at the age of thirty-six. The film fuses the fascinating parts of the life and work of this slight woman of prodigious talent, a kind of princess, whose entire being and output were enmeshed in her complicated and charged relationship with her dominant father. The film converge - along with recollections, song segments and photos from the private family albums - into a multi layered emotional and musical journey
Location: Mary Tefft White Cultural Center, RWU Library
Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI
Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m. (ending in enough time to catch the election results)
Cost: Free Admission
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 9th:
FACING FORWARD WHILE LOOKING BACKWARD: THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE TODAY
Introduced by the Rev. Nancy Hamlin Soukup, University Multifaith Chaplain, RWU
JEWISH BLIND DATE | Directed by: Anaëlle Morf | 16 min. Switzerland, 2015
Unhappy in love, Mary Lou decides to reconnect with her religious roots by marrying a practicing Jew. In order to get married, she has to pass the Shidduch test, which will determine whether her life will be a success or failure.
THE IMPOSSIBLE JOY | Directed by: Karl Richter | 27 min. Germany, Switzerland, USA, 2016
An 11-year-old illegal immigrant seeks the guidance of a reluctant, old man to help him win the heart of his first love at school, while he cleverly overcomes violent prejudice from fellow students.
WANNABE | Directed by: Matthew Manson | 15 min. USA, 2016
New York City, 1991: In order to win over his crush, a neurotic Jewish boy must first impress her skeptical Jamaican family.
MADE LIKE A GUN | Directed by: Eldad Prywes & Eitan Zur | 53 min. Israel, India, 2016
An extreme motorcycle journey to the Himalayan peaks as a therapeutic tool for the turbulent souls of a group of veteran Israeli trauma victims. An unconventional treatment in which men get out for a few weeks from the trauma bubble in which they live, allowing them to turn their minds from the suffering and into coping. War experiences and emotional scars bring them together as they deal with the complexity of Israeli masculinity in face of another round of war in Gaza. Will the distance allow the fighters to clean their wounds and see their situation in new light?
Location: Mary Tefft White Cultural Center, RWU Library
Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI
Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Cost: Free Admission
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13th:
TRANSCENDING BOUNDARIES
Introduced by the Rev. Nancy Hamlin Soukup, University Multifaith Chaplain with Guest Speaker, Andrew Lund, Associate Professor and Director of the Integrated Media Arts MFA Program in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College of the City University of New York.
THE PROMISED BAND | Directed by: Jen Heck | 99 min. USA, 2016
'The Promised Band,' is a feature-length documentary about a group of women in Israel and Palestine who start a fake band as a way to explore their taboo friendships. The band is a metaphor for the greater society, with each character playing an archetypal role. The band struggles and fails for the same reasons the society itself struggles and fails, and when the women are able to achieve a modest triumph, the film posits that women in warring societies may be the key to peace.
Plus the 2016 RIIFF Award Winners:
SHOSHANNAH'S SKATEBOARD | Directed by: Kate Ascott-Evans | 14 min. USA, United Kingdom, 2016
After seeing a flyer for a Youtube skating video, eighteen-year-old Shoshannah sneaks out of her strict Orthodox community to meet aspiring teen director, Aaron. Together they go on a day long film-making adventure through his secular world. But as Shabbat approaches, Shoshannah must choose between her family’s acceptance and her new found freedom.
THE CHOP | Directed by: Lewis Rose |17 min. UK, 2015
'The Chop' is a comedy about Yossi, a charismatic Kosher butcher who loses his job, cannot find work at other Kosher butchers, and therefore decides to pretend to be Muslim in order to get work at a Halal butchers.
ABOUT OUR GUEST SPEAKER:
Andrew Lund, a filmmaker and entertainment lawyer, Andrew is an Associate Professor and Director of the Integrated Media Arts MFA Program in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College of the City University of New York and a Faculty Associate at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute; he is also a faculty member of the Film Studies Department at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and has taught in the Graduate Film Division of Columbia University, where he received J.D., M.F.A. and B.A. degrees. Brief Reunion, a feature film that Andrew produced and co-edited, won the top prize for narrative filmmaking at the 2011 UFVA conference and the Audience Award for Best Film at New York’s 2011 Gotham International Film Festival. My Last Day Without You, on which Andrew served as executive producer, recently won the top producing honors at the 2011 Brooklyn International Film Festival and will be released theatrically in Europe this fall. Andrew is the Executive Producer of nine feature films, including The Hungry Ghosts, written and directed by Michael Imperioli; Vanaja, named by Roger Ebert as one of the top five foreign films of 2007, and Arranged, an international hit that Variety called “a pure pleasure to watch” Andrew has also written and directed five award winning short films. In addition to worldwide festival screenings and television broadcasts, his shorts are included in film textbooks, DVD compilations, and distributed theatrically and non-theatrically. Andrew founded and curates CinemaTalks, the independent film screening and discussion series, and he created the Short Film Repository, which houses educational extras that support short filmmaking. Andrew’s writing on film includes an essay, “What’s a Short Film, Really?” in “Swimming Upstream: A Lifesaving Guide to Short Film Distribution” by Sharon Badal, numerous book reviews for the journal, Film International, and two books on independent filmmaking in the works for Peter Lang Publishers.
A Reception Sponsored by RWU Spiritual Life Office will take place during the intermission.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, Room GHH 01
Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Cost: Free Admission
Fall 2016 marks the beginning of the 35th year of the Flickers Arts Collaborative, the creator and producer of the Annual Rhode Island International Film Festival (that will
take place August 8-13, 2017 at locations throughout
the state of Rhode Island.) Through its affiliation
with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
RIIFF is a qualifying festival for the Short Film and Documentary Short Academy
Awards, the only festival in the region with this distinction. It was recently named a qualifier for the British Academy of Film and Televisions Arts (BAFTA).
RIIFF provides a venue to encourage new talent and establish
the contacts needed for wider distribution.
ABOUT ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY:
Roger Williams University located in Bristol, R.I. is a leading independent, coeducational university with programs in the liberal arts and the professions, where students become community- and globally-minded citizens. With 42 academic majors, an array of co-curricular activities and study abroad opportunities on six continents, RWU is an opencommunity dedicated to the success of students, commitment to a set of corevalues and providing a world-class education above all else. In the last decade, the University has achieved unprecedented successes including recognition as one of the best colleges in the nation by Forbes, a College of Distinction by Student Horizons, Inc. and as both a best college in the Northeast and one of the nation’s greenest universities by The Princeton Review. For more information, go to: www.rwu.edu.
ABOUT FLICKERS' RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL:
The Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF), has secured its place in the global community as the portal for the best in international independent cinema, earning the respect of domestic and foreign filmmakers, filmgoers and trend watchers. This confluence of art and commerce brought together world-class celebrities, award-winning filmmakers, new talent and audience members in record numbers last year. Ranked as one of the top 10 Festivals in the United States, RIIFF is a qualifying festival for both the Live Action, Animation and Documentary Short Film Academy Awards through its affiliation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). There are only 6 film festivals worldwide that share this distinction and RIIFF is the only festival in New England. The Festival takes place every August.
For more information about the Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, running August 8-13, 2017 at The Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) and The Vets (formerly Veterans Memorial Auditorium), please visit our website at www.RIFilmFest.org or call 401.861.4445.
RWU PARKING INFORMATION:From Providence: Take Routes 136 South or 114 S passing campus on the left. Take a left at the traffic light just before the Mount Hope Bridge, onto Old Ferry Road. Take the first right into the parking lot.
From Newport: Take 114N over the Mount Hope Bridge and take the first right off the bridge onto Old Ferry Road. Take the first right into the parking lot.
Guests should enter through the main entrance at the fountain. they will be able to obtain a guest parking pass. Lot 24a will be blocked off for guests of the festival. Proceed through the main entrance through to the lot 24a on left. This event will take place in the Global Heritage Hall.
The 2016 Roving Eye International Film Festival is sponsored by The RI Film & the Television Office; Flickers; the Edwin S. Soforenko Foundation; the Helene and Bertram Bernhardt Foundation; Roger Williams University Office of the Provost; the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences; the Department of Communication & Graphic Design; Hillel; and the Spiritual Life Program.
