Monday, August 30, 2010

Opening in Ashkelon!

These are my Names will premier at the Jewish Eye Festival in Ashkelon on Monday, October 18 at 6 p.m! If you’re in Israel, save the date. It’s at the International Convention Center, Ashkelon Academic College, Ben Tzvi 2, Ashkelon. Tickets (NIS 25; NIS 15 for groups of 10 or more) can be reserved by calling the Center at 08-678-9246. A preview will be held Sunday October 17, at 10 a.m. for schools along with two other documentaries about Ethiopian Jews: Making the Crooked Straight (about Rick Hodges M.D.) and Falasha 62. If you have a group that might want to attend the morning event, please call Smadar at 054-9413388. I like the idea that we are opening in the periphery.

Here's the trailer for those who haven't seen it. And here is Brian Blum’s article about the film - I feel he really got what I was trying to do; and my article about Ethiopian Jews who disappeared on the way to Israel, which appeared on the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.

Be careful what you wish for
Years ago, in a group run by Elana Rozenman I, along with the other women participants was asked: Given unlimited resources and talent, what would you like to do in your next life? The answer came to me immediately: make documentary films.

It seemed like the next logical and creative step for an idealist/activist/reporter. Documentaries are a captivating way to communicate with the public; to raise awareness and in the best case, get people to act on the world’s multitudinous problems. My friend Ellen Bruno does this with aplomb with her beautiful, award-winning films about injustices in Tibet, Burma, Cambodia. But I never dreamed I would make a film in this lifetime. It was enough for me to have been published – something way beyond my modest teenage dreams (well, not so modest given that I wanted to help make the revolution.)

To my astonishment, circumstances led me to accomplish in this life what I was saving for the next. With the filming and editing help of friend and neighbor, Naomi Altaraz,
the support of the Fox Family Foundation, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and 45 friends and relatives, I made These are my Names. See our new Facebook page, put up by the wonderful Laurika Harris-Kaye.
Now that that’s done, I have a new dream for the next life: singer-songwriter. That way I get to be creative and get my ideas across in an even more entertaining and fun manner. Might as well throw in dancer while I’m dreaming.

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