MAY
8, 2005 --
From
Central Park May 1, LPR was back at the NYIIFF, and saw a gentleman
outside the Village East Cinemas, home to this film festival, who
looked a lot like the man Daniel Ellssberg seemed to be criticizing.
But it was not President Bush. It was Bush impersonator John Morgan, at the
festival for his son's short film, "Kaleidoscope."
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Not-W
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LPR attended the
May 1 screening of "Arek," a documentary about Holocaust
survivor Arek Hersh, directed by Tony Lloyd and produced by Glen Williams
and Nigel Flanagan, British trade unionists, based in Liverpool. In
the film, Arek mentions that he was liberated from a concentration
camp in Czechoslovakia
on May 4th.
LPR informed the filmmakers that Rabbi
Avi Weiss was holding a Holocaust Memorial Seder, attended by Holocaust survivors,
May 4th, but they said
they were returning to England May 3rd.
Mr. Flanagan told LPR that they intended to distribute their documentary to British
schools, adding that Mr. Hersh takes British schoolchildren on tours of Auschwitz,
the Nazi death camp.
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Rabbi
Avi Weiss, at the conclusion of the Holocaust Memorial
Seder, at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale.
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LPR intended to
return to the film festival the next evening, to see, in particular,
Mauro John Capece's Il Sopranista, described as "A short [21 minutes]
film
concerning Faith & Opera."
But the LPRmobile was vandalized in its garage, the early hours of May 2, and
LPR did not get back to the festival until May 4, and left to attend part of
the Holocaust Memorial Seder led by the dedicated Rabbi Avi Weiss.
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That
is shattered glass on the hood of the LPRmobile. Glass
in cars is supposed to be in the window and
windshield, and not in bits and pieces elsewhere in or on the vehicle.
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The films LPR
did see, in some part, included Steven Gillilan's "The Fall
Before Paradise," and Tom Horan and Diane
Dragone's "Caven Point".
Mr. Gillilan is a Baltimore-based director whose film shows a psychiatric patient
trying to find a kidnapped young
girl -- or is he imagining it?
The cast includes Devere Jehl as the patient and Shelley McPherson as one of
the kidnappers. Mr. Gillilan's next feature is planned for filming on location
in New York City.
Caven Point is based on the experiences of Ms. Dragone's mother who was among
Italian-Americans in Jersey City, encouraged to convince Italian prisoners
of war to write home to ask their families not to cooperate with the Nazis.
Films LPR was not able to catch included Manhattan Confidential, by Milos Savage
who has been trying to get his film, a variation on La Ronde, entered in a
film festival since 1995 -- and Christopher
Flaherty's documentary on the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York
City, Counter Convention: A Free New York Special.
Once again, the New York International Film Festival, led by Executive Director/CEO
Stuart Alson presented a
week-long banquet of filmmaking (along with a music festival) giving festival
audiences a sense of the vitality and talent at the independent grass roots
level, across the United States and, indeed, the globe.
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Adriana
Ospina Mesa, director, Residents on the Railroad.
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Glen
Williams, Nigel Flanagan, producers, Tony Lloyd, director
for the film "Arek," a documentary on the
life of Arek Hersh, a Holocaust survivor who emigrated to England after
he was released from a concentration camp, May 4, 1945. Williams, Flanagan
and Lloyd are trade unionists in Liverpool and their
documentary is presented by Unison, a public sector union. They plan
to distribute the film to schools in
England. Mr. Hersh takes English children on tours of the Auschwitz death
camp.
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Tom
DeGrezia (l) director and star of Xtacy, screened April
30, with Jake Glaser.
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The
Cast of Misfortune (which was screened May 4):
Left to right -- writer-director Michael Dixon, Leon
Canty, Nick Oleson, Alyssa Roehrenbeck, Kristin Muri,
Jayson Portman.
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Peter
Ramdass, director of Comedy on the Streets.
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Carolyn
Yates, (l) and Tracey Wilson (r), performing live before
the screening of their short film, Step in Time, about
two friends who form a dance act.
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Steven
Gillilan, director of The Fall
Before Paradise, and associate producer Ann Gallow.
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Tom
Horan, director of Caven Point, with Diane Dragone, choreagrapher.
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A
face in an after-party crowd.
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