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May 27-29, 7pm nightly
Free and open to the public
Tishman Auditorium
66 W 12th St.
Reception for all filmmakers, 9 pm, May 29
Faith, Hope and Family
What brings us together can also tear us apart.
Sisters of the Spirit
Engaging the power of women.
Only in New York
What could only happen in New York makes people stay in New York.
Yael Bridge
Kibud Av Va'Em (Honor Your Father and Mother) is a personal exploration into the dynamics of adulthood. Yael turns her camera on her own family examining her own Jewish faith, raising questions about identity, independence, responsibility and family.
Yael Bridge grew up in Philly but calls Portland, Oregon her home. As an undergraduate she studied cognitive psychology but has since come to embrace a medium where the scientific method falls apart and questions do not need a definitive answer.
Chloe Walters Wallace
What does it mean to own a home -- on a very unusual historic street in East Harlem, New York City? Owning the Oasis is an experience of life and philosophy on the extraordinary street of Sylvan Terrace, as portrayed by filmmaker and co-owner of #19 Sylvan Terrace, Chloe Walters Wallace.
Chloe Walters Wallace grew up in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, West Indies. Though she spent most of her college career acting, Chloe grew up around film in Jamaica, production-assisting on various film jobs. Chloe is now focusing on a career in cinematography and directing.
Kristine Lorefice
Second Sight is a short documentary about a street vendor from Flatbush…who happens to see and speak to the dead. This is the story of 39-year-old Chris Scherillo who struggles to redefine himself as he switches professions from selling handbags on Lexington Avenue to pursue a career in his lifelong talent as a spirit communicator, a gift he once resented and has come to accept. This is a story about love and togetherness, as Chris’ close-knit Italian family and quirky spirit friends come together to help Chris get his name out in the public eye in their goal to help people connect and feel at ease with the ghost world.
Kristine Lorefice is a recent graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina. She is attempting to make a career out of her love of writing, filmmaking, photography, old music, analyzing dynamics, meeting animals on the street, and documenting all forms of reality.
Sue Hagedorn
Lifeline tells the story of two home health registered nurses and their vulnerable, chronically-ill, and dying patients in the Bronx and Harlem. Cathy is passionate about her patients, but ambivalent about nursing; Luther, a late-comer to nursing, believes in the power of love with his aging and dying patients. Cathy is in awe of her patients' ability to age, heal, and experience illness; Luther demonstrates compassion and commitment to patient autonomy even in the face of death. Lifeline highlights the value of home health nursing, illustrating how home health nurses are their patients' lifeline to survival.
Sue Hagedorn is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado School of Nursing and a practicing nurse practitioner. Dr. Hagedorn recently completed a film, said to have contributed to passage of new legislation, about advanced practice nursing in Colorado. She is currently making a film about nurses' struggle for patient safety in Appalachia.
Jeremy Kaplan
Has the Jewish Lower East Side disappeared? Is the storied history of Jewish immigrants all that remains? Not according to the Stanton Street Shul and its Modern Orthodox congregants, who exemplify the life, vibrancy and history that still reside in the Lower East side. Opening Orthodoxy follows three of its members: Benny, the 93-year old president, Yori Yanover, the Shul scholar, and Yossi Pollak, the youthful new Rabbi. The film documents how the traditions and rituals of Modern orthodoxy adapt and evolve in light of the synagogue’s 95-year old history. It’s a community of faith, which Rabbi Yossi affectionately calls “where the hip replacements meet the hipsters.”
Jeremy Kaplan is an aspiring filmmaker (documentary and fiction) who grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Boston College majoring in Film and Philosophy with a minor in African studies. Having worked on documentaries in several different countries, he hopes to use film as means to affect empathy, compassion and equal dialogue in a more inter-connected world.
Stine Exler
While growing up in Puerto Rico, two little boys with very different backgrounds slowly discovered they were unusual: they felt like girls. After years of loneliness and rejection, the boys moved to New York City to live their lives as women. One found a steady job and an apartment; the other struggled to survive prostitution, drug abuse, jail, and HIV. Seven years ago, a chance encounter would bring Michele and Denise together. This is the story of their friendship.
Stine was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark where she studied journalism, psychology, and cultural encounters. She has freelanced as a journalist, done voice-overs for web news and TV, and in 2005 she accepted a position as an instructor and editorial consultant for the Yemen Times in Sana’a, Yemen. The following year she received a film grant and traveled to Somaliland to shoot her first documentary My Other Name.
Adele Pham
Two half Vietnamese documentary filmmakers, both named Adele, weave a shared narrative of mixed Asian (hapa) experiences through interviews with 5 other hapa subjects. History, memory, and anecdotes on mixed race and ethnicity are represented by archival images, super 8 film, verité, and interview.
Adele Pham grew up in Portland, Oregon, and has been pursuing documentary and fiction filmmaking in New York City for the past four years. She also has a background in creative writing and journalism.
Trinidad Rodriguez
On a crumbling sidewalk in the heart of Spanish Harlem, a small but impassioned group of women are fighting for their community. When the Archdiocese of New York locked the doors of the church where many of them spent their entire lives worshiping, this determined family of parishioners decided to resist the ministerial decision and take matters into their own hands. A portrait of faith and disobedience, Our Lady Queen of Harlem is an exploration of activism and the very definition of church.
Trinidad Rodriguez is a student of anthropology, landscape architecture, and photography. As a lapsed Catholic with remedial Spanish language skills, Our Lady Queen of Harlem was the perfect fit for her first documentary. She is indebted to all participants.
Camille Park
Rosa was chosen by divine oracle to be a priestess of the Afro Brazilian religion Candomble. To fulfill her spiritual calling -- albeit reluctantly at first -- she invents ways to adapt the ancient traditional rituals of this nature-based faith from its native Brazil to the cold urban labyrinth of New York City, in order to ensure its survival.
Camille Park spent four years as a producer in the fashion world, a role which developed her aesthetic sensibility, eye for composition, and fast-thinking production skills which she uses in documentary filmmaking. Camille founded Project Caxixi Capoeira, a NYC government-subsidized volunteer program whose mission is to provide a safe space for at-risk children and teens while teaching them the art of capoeira. Camille's two passions, capoeira and documentary filmmaking, share a common goal: to circumvent preestablished channels of communication in order to reach across cultural, social and political borders in order to foster an educated, emancipated and self-aware future generation.
Ron Grunhut
Knock on Wood is the story of percussionist Valerie Naranjo's groundbreaking trip to Ghana where her mastery of an obscure West African xylophone led to a decree that women be permitted to play the instrument for the first time. Part performance and part biography, it is also a tale of cross-cultural interaction and how one individual can be a catalyst for positive change.
Ron Grunhut earned a BA in music from the University of Miami, and was active as a performing flutist and saxophonist in the New York City area before embarking on a career as a Wall Street technology executive. Following a narrow escape from the September 11th World Trade Center attacks, he has transitioned back to the arts as a student of nonfiction film. He is interested in using the medium to tell real-life stories that inform, inspire and encourage new ways to look at the world we live in.
Alexis Neophytides
Coney Island's for the Birds takes us into the quirky underground world of pigeon racing, following Anthony and Larry Martire, a father-and-son racing team. From training to the actual races, through wins and losses, we witness the Martire's ups and downs and get an intimate glimpse into a special relationship bonded by their shared love of these amazing rooftop creatures.
Alexis Neophytides grew up on Roosevelt Island and graduated from Brown University with BAs in Biology and French. She spent the next several years pursuing an acting career in NYC and Los Angeles. Her interest in documentary filmmaking was a natural progression from being on the other side of the camera, offering her a chance to work on more socially rewarding themes and at the same time have more creative control over her work.
Janet Nakano
A New York City 17-year-old is choosing a unique path in life: join the circus. As her peers apply to college, Zane Frazer will be auditioning at one of the top circus schools in the world. She will have to train hard as competition is tough. Fly is about coming-of-age, passion, dedication and the underground world of circus arts.
Janet Nakano was born and raised in Los Angeles. Before coming to New York, she worked as an independent radio producer reporting news for public radio, including NPR-affiliate stations, Pacifica, KQED’s Pacific Time, BBC’s The World, as well as MBA Podcaster, a career-focused podcast. She will be shooting her next documentary film in China.
Bill Gallagher
Jacob Massaquoi is a survivor. He fled his native Liberia during its brutal civil war to the projects of Staten Island. Sweet Liberia follows Jacob’s journey from across the ocean to his tireless work in his community’s fight against mandatory deportation to maintain the home they have come to love.
Bill Gallagher was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He earned his degree in journalism at the University of Massachusetts while making brief stops in both Washington, D.C., and Sevilla, Spain to study. Before moving to New York, Bill lived in Boston where he worked as photographer with the Boston Red Sox and at a non-profit assisting individuals with mental illnesses.
Bibi Fadlalla
Damon Peruzzi is the promoter of the longest running hiphop party in New York City. Over the past eight years Peruzzi, originally from Detroit, has created his own world where the kids, the thugs, the dragqueens, and the celebrities flock every week, and
everyone's beautiful under the flashing lights. Stars in His Eyes explores this dynamic scene and trails its svengali, Damon Peruzzi. A dizzying ride, through
an unbelievable world, Peruzzi's parties are all about looking great and having fun. But is that really all there is to it?
Bibi Fadlalla was born in Cairo, Egypt and grew up in the Netherlands. Since graduating from the Media Studies graduate program at the University of Amsterdam in 2002, she has worked as a teacher (UvA), documentary researcher (Submarine) and radio host (Lijn5) in the Netherlands.
Carlos Barbot
After a long, hard day of work, you greet a small furry face at your door: quality time or freak out time? Depends on who you ask. Rattus profiles New York City rat owners who address the culture of pet ownership and the difference between “pet” and “pest.”
Carlos Barbot is a New York City native who is pleased to have had the opportunity to make a film about his fellow New Yorkers and looks forward to continue working in both documentary and narrative film.
Sarah Frank
Betty Brassell has spent nearly every day of her retirement - rain or shine - protesting in the streets of New York City, her walker currently emblazoned with "Arrest Cheney." But when an injury sidelines her from a busy schedule of protests and vigils, Betty is homebound and finds herself wondering how much longer she will be able to take it to the streets. In Bed With a Mosquito is an intimate portrait of activism and aging in New
York City.
Sarah Frank grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and earned her B.A. in journalism from Michigan State University. After working as a newspaper reporter, photographer and creative writing tutor for K-12 students in Michigan, Sarah decided to move to New York City and pursue documentary filmmaking.
Corinne E. Manabat
We all go through transitions in life, whether it's a career change, or moving, but for Davina Wan, hers has been very extreme - from the gang life to a "normal" life. Excuse My Gangsta Ways is a visual poetic documentary portrait on Davina Wan, a Chinese American woman, who was a former gang member from the 1990s Lower East Side. With interviews from her grandmother and godfather, we will take a look at the person she was and the person she has become, where fate and inspiration endure.
Corinne E. Manabat, a native New Yorker from the forgotten borough of Staten Island, is an aspiring documentary filmmaker by day, and spoken word artist/lyricist by night. Her vision is to use documentary media to tell the stories of people who are on the periphery of mainstream media, specifically Filipino and Asian-Pacific-Islander-Americans (APIAs).
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