Past Screenings 2008

A single Jewish woman, her mother and her nose. A dangerous love triangle. One can hardly come closer to stereotypes than talking about Jewish noses and Jewish mothers. In My Nose Gayle Kirschenbaum proves that there is still room for an original take on both subjects. Her witty journey is an attempt to come to terms with both body image and family ties and is certain to make you laugh. Its endearing charm is also guaranteed to make you look at your profile as soon as you're out of the cinema.

GAYLE KIRSCHENBAUM (Director, Producer, Writer)
An Emmy award-winning filmmaker, she has made documentaries for television. She also has produced news and reality shows including America’s Most Wanted (FOX TV), New Attitudes (Lifetime series), and The Rosie O’Donnell Show (NBC). Her film, A Dog’s Life: A Dogamentary (http://www.dogamentary.com/) premiered on HBO/Cinemax. The DVD is widely distributed. Ms. Kirschenbaum created a series called Judgment Day which premiered on HBO. Look Who's Ticking, a feature film written by Gayle was a winner of the AIVF Screenwriters Mentorship program and is in development along with a TV series called Body Parts.

What happens when Chris Nolan, out for a drive in the family car to pick up some heroin, discovers his mother Maggie stowed away in the back. Will he do the right thing and take her home, or will she go with him on an unusual adventure?

Pills, adapted from the feature script Funny Peculiar (which Rip Torn calls “great American literature”) premiered at The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. Pills stars Ari Fliakos, a featured member of the Wooster Group, and Elizabeth Kemp, one of the leading lights of The Actors Studio.

Elizabeth Foley has directed three films including the award-winning short film about Joan of Arc, Jeanne & Hauviette, which screened in 2001 at Anthology Film Archives in the CINEWOMEN NY/New Directors series. In 1999, she produced a UNICEF documentary narrated by Julia Ormond, as well as the award-winning short Silver & Gold, directed by Ben Wolf. Foley's producing credits include projects for Dean Silvers, Cinemax, Ikea, Florentine Films, Lear Television and Bravo. She teaches at the New York Film Academy, the International Film Institute, Five Towns College, and Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Peter Hobbs has written over twenty feature screenplays and written and directed numerous shorts, including An Open Letter to William Wegman. He has been a quarterfinalist in the Nicholls Fellowship in Screenwriting Competition (sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) three times, and a semifinalist in the America's Best Screenplay contest (sponsored by The Writers Foundation.) He teaches at the New York Film Academy and the International Film Institute.

Elyria Pictures, (Director/Writer/Producers Peter Hobbs and Elizabeth Foley ), are in production on their upcoming feature, Bridge of Names, a fairy tale about a disaffected punk rocker named Steve who’s taken up by a visionary preacher Brother Wilf, and his beautiful and underage disciple Agnes.

In the midst of his parents' divorce, a 5 year old boy seeks out friendship with a gift his father left behind for him. The fact that the newfound friend is a large pumpkin seems harmless at first, but Stephanie finds herself facing her own emotions as her son grows more and more attached to the pumpkin in the absence of his father. Will the friendly vegetable drive the family apart or somehow bring them together?

Tiffany Bartok received her BFA in Theater at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia appearing in many productions including Nine. She moved to NYC, and continued to pursue acting, a highlight being a role opposite Hayley Mills in the short film Stricken. Surprisingly she found herself in the role of makeup artist on a few productions, and realized she enjoyed being behind the camera as well. Inspired to make a film, she soon embarked on her first directing venture Altered By Elvis, an acclaimed documentary about lives that have been permanently affected by Elvis Presley. She has co-founded a production company called Vinyl Foote Productions based in Brooklyn, NY to continue producing feature films, documentaries, and shorts.

Through the lens of memory, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor re-visits the pain of remembering, tinged with the fear of forgetting, that silently haunts her father, herself, and now, her young daughter as well.

Still(e) is an award-winning narrative short about the legacy of trauma left to future generations through silence. It is 1992 in America. Julia’s 11th birthday party happens to fall on the anniversary of the day in 1938 Vienna, that marked the end of life, as her grandfather Sam once knew it. A photo album. An aria. A solitary boat ride and the lighting of memorial candles. All converge to catalyze memories that have shaped this family’s emotional landscape ever since the Nazi terror first shattered Sam’s youth, as perfectly as the broken glass shards of Kristallnacht. While Sam retreats into the familiar silence these memories provoke, Julia’s mother Lily has an epiphany: She was Julia’s age when she first began to understand her family’s silence to be a loud, ineffable language that was not about quiet, and might never be.

Still(e) is Susan Schwarzwald’s directorial debut. Her introduction to filmmaking was in the mid-1970s as a crewmember on commercial and experimental films of the late Robert Rivlin. Concurrently she developed a career as an accomplished ceramic artist. Upon becoming a mother, she gave up her studio work to pursue writing and to raise her daughter. Together with Werner Bargsten, she is co-owner of ICBA, Inc. (specializing in design services for the advertising, television, and film industries) and of First Gaze Films. Susan received her BA in Philosophy from Alfred University and holds a Masters Degree in International and Comparative Education from Columbia University. Still(e) is a story inspired by her experiences, both as the daughter of a survivor, and as a parent. Her resolve to shape a cinematic vision was born in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001 in New York City.

Eleven year-old Mariam begs her mother for the extra money she needs to buy a cake at the local bakery. Her mother begrudgingly relents, but when Mariam arrives at the bakery, she realizes that she still doesn't have enough. Determined to get the cake, she sets out to brave the obstacles and land some cash. What begins as a simple trip to the bakery turns into a journey that depicts not only the subtle tensions of a politically charged environment, but also illustrates the grief that can result from growing up under occupation.

Born to Palestinian immigrant parents, award-winning independent filmmaker and television writer Cherien Dabis has been recognized by the industry’s top organizations and trade publications, including the Sundance Institute, IFP and Filmmaker Magazine. A 2004

graduate of Columbia University’s Masters of Fine Arts Film program, Dabis’ short films have screened at some of the world’s top film festivals. Her latest, Make A Wish, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival as well as Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival where it won the Prix de la Presse and Mention Spéciale du Jury. The film went on to win top awards in Dubai, Rotterdam, Cairo and Aspen. Dabis received several generous grants in support of the film, including the National Geographic’s All Roads Film Project Seed Grant, the Jerome Foundation’s New York City Media Arts Grant as well as the New York State Council on the Art’s Electronic Media and Film Distribution Grant.

Currently in development on Amreeka, her feature film writing and directing debut slated to begin production in the fall of 2007, Dabis was invited to participate in the Sundance Institute’s 2005 Middle East Screenwriter’s Lab, 2006 Cannes Film Festival's Mediterranean Films Crossing Borders program and 2007 Berlinale Co-Production Market. An alumnus of Film Independent’s 2005 Director’s Lab, Project: Involve Mentorship Program and Los Angeles Film Festival’s Fast Track Program, Dabis also received a 2006 artist fellowship in screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts in support of the screenplay. She was most recently honored with the L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Vision Award at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. Screen International listed Amreeka as one of their “Ten Arab Films to Watch” in 2007.

Dabis is an accomplished staff writer and co-producer on Showtime Network’s original hit series The L Word and has been with the show for three seasons. As a feature film screenwriter, she has been awarded several distinguished awards in support of her screenplays including the Zaki Gordon Award for Excellence in Screenwriting, the Institute for Humane Studies Film and Fiction Scholarship and the New York Women in Film and Television Scholarship.

In 2003, Dabis was awarded a screenwriting grant from the Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up (Power Up) for her short screenplay Little Black Boot (acquired by The Sundance Channel). Premiering at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the film went on to win several best short film awards and was a grand prize winner of the 2004 PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards. Dabis is also a recipient of the Power Up Filmmaker’s Fund for her short Memoirs of an Evil Stepmother (acquired by MTV/Logo). Her short film-writing debut, Nadah, premiered at the 2003 Rotterdam International Film Festival and was nominated for the VC Film Festival’s Golden Reel Award. Her production credits include Jane Campion’s psychological thriller In the Cut and NBC’s critically acclaimed television series The West Wing.

Return to Afghanistan, by Vida Zaher Khadem

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:

Vida Zaher Khadem was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, the granddaughter of the renowned senator and poet Qyammuddin Khadem. In 1980 the Russians invaded Afghanistan and killed several members of her family including her grandfather. Vida and her family fled the country, trekking over mountains on horseback and on foot for several days before reaching the bordering country of Pakistan. She was seven years old.

In October of 1984 her mother was hired as a broadcaster for Voice of America and the family finally immigrated to the United States. Vida showed a passion for painting and theater early on. She began writing and directing short commercials at the age of eleven. While still in school she wrote and directed plays and short comedic films, and hosted a festival of short plays during the summer holiday. By the age of sixteen Vida had made eleven short films and four sitcoms for the Cable Access Network. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Media Communication and Film from George Mason University and was awarded the Best Student Film Award for her thesis film Bound by the Flesh.

Vida is a courageous soul who has put her life on the line many times to give voice to those in need. During the time of the Taliban she was the first woman to enter Afghanistan with a camera and interview the Taliban Foreign Minister on the subject of Women's Rights. This brave effort became the much sought after documentary A Bleak Existence which was showcased at the Beijing Plus Five Summit in New York City and at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. A Bleak Existence was screened by the State Department, the International Organization for Migration, UNICEF and other NGO's and became a primary educational tool for understanding Afghanistan and its politics. Vida began working on her first feature Film FireDancer as the Assistant Director and Co-Producer. FireDancer was the first film of its kind, telling the story of the Afghan Diaspora living in America. After the untimely death of the director, Vida became the Associate Director, finishing the film on his behalf. The film went on to become Afghanistan's first official entry into the Academy Awards. It was an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival and Film Fest DC. It opened at the Quad Cinema in New York City and played in theaters all over United States and Canada.

The film went on to become Afghanistan's first official entry into the Academy Awards. It was an official selection at Tribeca Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival and Film Fest DC. It opened at the Quad Cinema in New York City and played in theaters all over United States and Canada.

In the summer of 2001 Vida was ready for the role she had prepared for all her life, the chance to direct a feature length documentary and become the first female Afghan director. Return to Afghanistan is Vida's directorial debut, a highly personal coming of age story. It will premiere at the United Nations on October 16, 2007.

www.returntoafghanistanthemovie.com.

TWO MONTHS TO HOME (Janice Ahn, director/ producer, dist. by Third World Newsreel), is a short documentary about an Afghan woman who has fled the Taliban prior to 9-11 gets taken from her family and home in New York, and told she will be deported.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:

Janice Ahn hails from Brooklyn, New York, by way of Terre Haute, Indiana, and Los Angeles, California. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University (English MA & BA, Art History minor), she dropped out of a Ph.D. program and reclaimed her love of practicing the arts through film.

Ahn's other films include Stutter (writer-director/ producer), a dramatic short about how a jilted woman's New Year's Eve gets turned upside-down; and Keith Davis' Surface of Things (producer), an improvisation-based dramatic short about how a Brooklyn couple's relationship is defined by a critical moment. Her films have screened at Cinequest, CineVegas, Chicago International Film Festival, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, Slamdance, Northampton Independent, etc.

Currently Ahn is co-writing an animated feature with animator/director m dot Strange (We Are the Strange), and is penning a sci-fi adaptation (the notes on the previous page are about this project).

Janice Ahn, Daniel Patterson, Keith Davis, and Darius C. Monroe are co-founders of Relative Noise. Current Relative Noise productions include Evolution of a Criminal, The Untitled North Korea Project, and The American People. For more information: http://www.janiceahn.com/.

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MARY OLIVE SMITH, Director, Producer and Cinematographer