FALL ROVING EYE FILM FESTIVAL: NOVEMBER 6, 7 & 11TH

FLICKERS PARTNERS WITH ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY TO PRESENT THE RABBI MARC JAGOLINZER JEWISH EXPERIENCE FILM SERIES

FREE PROGRAM sponsored by the Helene and Bertram Bernhardt Foundation

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 2018 sidebar program on the Jewish Experience through short films, documentary, media and guest speakers. The event takes place November 6, 7, & 11th. This year’s series explores representations of the Jewish experience in Israel, across the globe and the Holocaust through 10 recent films and is dedicated to the late Rabbi Marc Jagolinzer and 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. All programming will take place on the Bristol, RI, campus of Roger Williams University at the Mary Tefft White Cultural Center and Global Heritage Hall, Room 01.

The series is free and open to the public!

http://www.film-festival.org/RovingEye_JewishExperienceFALL2018.php

"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.

The Fall Jewish Experience sidebar of the Roving Eye Festival is presented in partnership with the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Helene and Bertram Bernhardt Foundation, RWU School of Humanities, Arts and Education, Dean Cynthia Scheinberg, RWU Department of Communication, Graphic Design and Web Development, Dr. Roxanne O’Connell, Department Chair, RWU Hillel, and the Spiritual Life Office.

THIS YEAR’S SCHEDULE:

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

6:00 p.m.

HOW WE SEE OURSELVES…

Documentary and Narrative Film Screenings with Director's Discussion

Location: Mary Tefft White Cultural Center, RWU Library

The Museum of Lost Things
Directed by: Gregory Cioffi | 22 min. USA, 2017

Synopsis
The Museum of Lost Things concerns a writer in his late 40s who, while sitting in an all-night diner, tells to an affable waitress the story of his stumbling upon a strange museum on an obscure street in downtown Manhattan. His story takes us through the labyrinths of the museum, where, with the help of a nonchalant museum guard, he encounters exhibition rooms seemingly dedicated to him alone, each one representing a piece of the man’s lost past. Some rooms are filled with objects, such as his lost umbrellas or his lost books, and still others contain aspects of his life that he hardly remembers. In this absurdist mystery, the museum visitor discovers rooms of lost hope, of lost patience, of lost illusions, and is always surprised by what he finds. But will he find what he’s looking for? Will he recapture his past? Or is the museum only a fantasy, one of the writer’s own inventions?

A Soldier's Dream: The Milt Feldman Story
Directed by: Eduardo Montes-Bradley | 50 min. Belgium, Germany, USA, 2018

Synopsis
Born in 1924 to hard working immigrants from Russia, His parents had a candy story in Brooklyn and he vividly remembers the social transformations that followed the Great Depression, a time in which the quite Jewish neighborhood where he grew up, bared witness to the Nazi youth parading swastikas alongside the Stars and Stripes. By 1937, the echoes of Fascism in Europe were an open invitation for thousands to gather at Madison Square Garden where thousands of Hitler sympathizers cheered the speech of rightwing Nationalists.

The fall of 1944 will find Milt amongst the troops of the 106th Infantry Division, on board the HMS Queen Elizabeth on his way to Europe. He was ready to do his part of the American deal, just as his father Jack and done before him in some of the major battles of World War I. Milt’s was going to be an easy ride, after all most of France and Belgium had already been liberated and it was a matter of time before the Third Reich would collapse.

However, on the morning of December 16th Hitler launched a massive offense in the Western Front in what came to be known as The Battle of the Bulge. Private Milton Feldman was capture a few days, then marched and shipped by train on a boxcar to Stalag IV-B, a POW camp deep into German territory.

Now, the elderly gentleman, the veteran of The Bulge, approaching 94, becomes the subject of “Milt Feldman: A Soldier’s Dream”, a documentary by Eduardo Montes-Bradley.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

6:00 p.m.

MEMORIES NEVER DIE

Documentary and Narrative Film Screenings with Director's Discussion

Location: Global Heritage Hall, 01

Stamm
Directed by: Jacob Grodnik | 10 min. USA, 2017

Synopsis
In the hours preparing for America's first offensive in WWI, a young American soldier leaves his forward post momentarily. Upon returning, he finds his fellow marine missing and is met with German gunfire. He narrowly escapes, only to trip into a foxhole with a German solider. They struggle for their lives. The American sees that the German wears a Star of David around his neck. His last chance at survival is to prove to the German that he himself is also Jewish, in the hopes that one loyalty will outweigh the other. The two young men, in broken English and half-comprehended German connect; describing their homelands, trying to communicate what it's like to be a Jew in America and Germany.

'Stamm' is German for tribe. The film aims to illustrate that we are all of the same tribe, regardless of the arbitrary boundaries of country; there is only one tribe, 'the human tribe.' Over 100,00 Jews fought for Germany in World War I, and this is the story of one, whose loyalties are challenged and tested.

A THOUSAND KISSES
Directed by: Richard Goldgewicht | 17 min.  USA. Germany, 2018 (animation)

Synopsis
Inspired by the actual correspondence recovered by the couple’s grandsons 80 years later in São Paulo, A Thousand Kisses presents a peculiar love story tainted by the harsh historical context of its time, with a light appeal of irony and real-life poetry.

ALONE IN KLEZMER
Directed by: Kenneth O’Brien-LLontop | 11 min. USA, 2018

Synopsis
A book with a marked sheet is what Gretel finds in an old bookstore in Miami. The intimate memory of a past of misery in another country is mixed with the history of the Nobel Prize for Literature Isaac Bashevis Singer in a film that is an essay on exile, literature, and those daily gestures that are shown as beautiful revelations.

Footsteps of My Father
Directed by: Paul Allman | 38 min. Belgium, Germany, USA, 2018

Synopsis
This act of bravery would have been forgotten and lost to history, had it not been for the rediscovery of Edmonds’ private journals, by his son, and a chance encounter with one of the surviving POWs.

Chris Edmonds set out to locate the survivors, and discover the truth about his dad during his time as a P.O.W.

Roddie's story is a testament to how a simple commitment to fairness and equality can make a huge difference in the world.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

2:00 p.m.

THE STORIES WE TELL. the Stories we share

Documentary and Narrative Film Screenings with Director's Discussion

Location: Global Heritage Hall, 01

The Visitor
Directed by: Justin Olstein | 10 min. Australia, 2018

Synopsis
In present-day Melbourne, just after midnight, Naomi is awakened by a frantic young woman on the run. Naomi grapples with a situation that defies reality and, as the night unfolds, she must decide how far she can go to protect her visitor from rapidly encroaching danger.

Valentino And The Prodigy
Directed by: Matt Anderson | 20 min. USA, 2018

Synopsis
A washed-up pianist is hired to train a young piano prodigy who is suffering from stage fright after the death of his father

Aharon's Childhood
Directed by: Arnaud Sauli | 66 min. Israel, France, 2018

Synopsis
Aharon’s Childhood (76’) main character is the late great Israeli writer Aharon Appelfeld. The film explores in depth Appelfeld’s writing process in his study and his relationship to a childhood under the shadow of tragedy. Appelfeld talks freely on love, women, Jewishness, Israël and his experience of being an eternal refugee with his French translator Valerie Zenatti. She came to his home to receive his last manuscript, and beyond that his artistic testament. The film has a poetic approach to his literary work travelling in time and space, from carpathian ills to Jerusalem, from 1941 to the present in a Jerusalem café.

Aharon Appelfeld is a survivor, he was until 2018 one of the last writer who survived the Holocaust. His writing elicits breath from a life doomed to death. Born in Ukraine in 1932, he escaped as a child and survived in a forest. Since, cultivating a deep sense of being alive, he is trying to retrieve the voices and faces of the ones who didn’t survive.

Aharon’s Childhood is a love story. Love is embodied in language, in writing, in a relationship eyeing a past and present world. She seizes his words, transmits them in French as an accomplishment of « being simultaneously writer and reader. » He looks at her, wandering what heritage would remain of him in this world.

Reception Follows at 3:45 p.m.

4:15 p.m.

Eva
Directed by: Ted Green & Mika Brown | 118 min. Germany, Israel, Poland, Romania, USA, United Kingdom, 2018

Synopsis
As a 10-year-old 'Mengele Twin,' Eva Kor suffered the worst of the Holocaust: being experimented on by the Auschwitz 'Angel of Death.' At 50, she launched the biggest international manhunt in history. Now 84, she urgently circles the globe in failing health to promote the controversial lesson her journey has taught: healing through forgiveness. “Eva” tells the full, unvarnished story of this historic figure for the first time. Narrated by Hollywood icon Ed Asner, it features spectacular new footage from Auschwitz, from the Transylvanian hamlet from which Eva’s family was carted off to slaughter, and on a boat off Israel where she first tasted freedom. Interviews include Holocaust experts, celebrities she's moved (Elliott Gould, Wolf Blitzer, Ray Allen), fellow survivors she's enraged, and myriad young people whose lives she’s changed -- in many cases saved. Eva Kor has emerged as a worldwide spokeswoman for peace — a recent Buzzfeed video has 187 million views — and 'Eva' will be her legacy.

The film’s co-director, Ted Green, will be available for a Q&A following the screening.

Following the screening:

Join us for a conversation with the family of the late Rabbi Marc Jagolinzer after whom our November programming is dedicated. Hosted by the Rev. Nancy J. Soukup, RWU Multifaith Minister.

For more information, contact the Spiritual Life Program at Roger Williams University, email nsoukup@rwu.edu. Directions to Roger Williams University can be found at www.rwu.edu

Location: Global Heritage Hall, Room 01

Roger Williams University, One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI

Time: 2:00 and 4:15 p.m.

Cost: Free Admission

My Dead Dads Porno Tapes

I found this piece interesting because it is most definitely not what the title suggests. The story is one that is reminiscent to many family dynamics that I have seen including some of my own. It struck a cord with me because my parents have made it a point to not be their own parents. The type of determination that we see in the film and the misguided attempts by the father to try and bond with his son made me realize how my own dad tried to bond with me. It made me more appreciative of what he did and the lengths that he would go to spend time with me. This film made me reexamine my childhood from a different view and be more understanding of what my parents have done for me.

My Dead Dad's Porno Tapes Response

When I think of documentaries I generally have just one style in mind. Most of the documentaries I have seen fall under this category that is full dialogues and conversations from talking heads that tells the story of a person or event over the course of a feature length film. This style is not bad by any means, but it is refreshing to see how other people can take the genre and create a new and engaging form of storytelling. My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes is a perfect example of a documentary going against the standard formula to grab the audience’s attention and lead them through a story in a way they are not used to. The first thing to note is the film’s title. For an unorthodox film that is trying to lure in the audience into a story about someone not personal to them, this title does a great job. It is eye catching and just odd enough to intrigue almost anyone to at least giving it a second glance or a try. The rest of the film uses a very powerful effect of nostalgia to keep everyone interested in the story. The filmmaker could have easily used stock footage and recreations but instead only used home videos from his family during the 1990’s which gives the footage a simple homemade aesthetic that has become very popular lately. When the film does not use home videos, it tells the story in a very unique and impressive way. The story revolved around the narrator’s late father and so he tells the story primarily through his father’s stuff. Through editing and stop motion these objects come to life and unravel and create new images before your eyes. These shots alone are worth watching but they really help progress the story. The film starts by literally dissecting the father’s porno tape stash but by the end his stuff reveal not only a lot about him but a lot of what is missing in his story. The moral at the end of the story is that all of the father’s useless junk can explain part of the story but you will never get to fully know someone without spending lots of time with them.

Lee Atwater

I had never heard of Atwater before watching this documentary so I was able to form an opinion solely based off of what I saw in the film. To me, he seemed like a narcissist. He obviously knew the political system inside and out but he used it to mostly benefit himself. He was a showman up until he died and while I think he did have regrets, he did not talk about them sincerely with anyone. The Bible he asked for that was left unopened basically says he doesn't actually care about actually reading the Bible, but rather he wanted people to give him Bibles to make it seem like he was a changed man. It was pretty weird to see his tactics to manipulate the political system still being used today, especially with this presidency.

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Simon Abrams

February 13, 2015

The vampire protagonists of horror-mockumentary "What We Do in the Shadows" may seem like creatures of habit, but they're really just slow. While one vamp uses a modern convenience like eBay to "do my dark bidding," the rest rely exclusively on their limited intelligence and human servants. So it's only fitting that they've only recently become the subjects of a "Real World"-style reality show documentary.

The leading men of "What We Do in the Shadows" are definitely not of this era: they're walking, heavily-accented, frilly-blouse-wearing corpses and that's the source of a lot of energetic, expertly-timed gags. Like their characters, New Zealand co-writers/directors/stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi have their seemingly-improvised routines down cold. As a result, "What We Do in the Shadows" is an irrepressibly charming B-movie that never over-stays its welcome, and is both conceptually clever and admirably well-executed.

Case in point: "What We Do in the Shadows" immediately scores several belly laughs during its first scene. After sundown, Viago (Waititi) calls his three eccentric roommates together to talk about house chores. Frustrated womanizer Vladislav (Clement), whose facial hair and fur coats make him look suspiciously like Australian rocker Nick Cave, mostly keeps to himself. But young rebel Deacon (Jonathan Brugh)—he's not even 200 years old—hasn't done the dishes in five years, while millennium-old Petyr (Ben Fransham), a bucktoothed distant cousin of Max Schreck in "Nosferatu," can't be bothered to clean up the human remains that litter his corner of the apartment.

Viago's group is pretty set in their ways, until they prey on and turn Nick (Cori Gonzalez- Macuer), a schlubby working-class guy who looks like a wannabe soccer hooligan, into a vampire. The addition of Nick to the group's ranks predictably has a big impact on the vampires' after-lives: for starters, Nick helps his inhumanly old friends to sneak into night clubs that they were previously not allowed to enter.

That last joke perfectly encapsulates the best qualities of "What We Do in the Shadows." Watching Viago and his buddies try to get into various clubs is an inherently clever twist on a familiar vampire trope: blood-suckers can't enter anywhere they're not invited into. But watching the group's frustrated attempts at breezing past several unkind bouncers in a brisk, perfectly-paced montage sequence makes an already-funny joke even funnier.

You can hear Clement's Vladislav protesting in the background while Waititi's Viago skittishly explains through voiceover narration why his friends always wind up at "the hottest vampire night club" (ie: it's always empty).

In this brief gag, you can see that "What We Do in the Shadows" is a real ensemble comedy instead of a glorified star vehicle for Clement ("Flight of the Conchords," "Men in Black III"), the most famous of the film's minor league stars. The only exception to this rule is Gonzalez-Macuer, who doesn't get much to do given his character's minor role as an outsider/catalyst. Gonzalez-Macuer does at least stand out during an uproariously gross projectile-blood-vomiting scene, a slapstick-y throw-away gag that he performs with consummate gusto.

Clement is predictably great as a sulking brute, but Brugh and Waititi are the film's standout performances. Waititi's nervous nice-guy schtick brings Andy Kaufman's Latka character from "Taxi" to mind, especially during the scene where Viago genially chats up a college-aged victim while putting newspaper underneath her feet (all the better to prevent blood stains with). And Brugh delivers one of the movie's biggest laughs when he rambles to Nick about the inhuman condition of being a vampire, and eventually reveals that he once made "the simple mistake of fashioning a mask out of crackers, and being attacked by ducks and geese and swans." Brugh's sullen, dead-pan line-delivery is priceless as is Gonzalez-Macuer's impassive response.

It would be very easy to take for granted what the creators of "What We Do in the Shadows" get right. Many scenes feel like master-classes in cringe comedy, like the above-mentioned blood-barf scene. And the group's chemistry really can't be overstated. This is especially true of scenes where Viago and the gang literally take flight while hissing at each other, like airborne feral cats. You've got to give it up for comedians who are this good at translating their apparent behind-the-scenes joy (watch the scene where they chase Gonzalez-Macuer around the house "Scooby Doo"-style, and tell me they're not having a blast) into a tight hang-out comedy. It may seem like there's nothing to "What We Do in the Shadows," but it takes a lot of skill to be this silly.

 

Lee Atwater Response

The tactics and morals of Lee Atwater were scattered throughout the film. Before watching, I had never heard of Atwater or his impact in the construct of modern day politics. He became ruthless and inhumane when doing whatever it took to gain power and win against who ever challenged. It was very important to hear from those who's lives were hurt by the selfish gain of Atwater and there is no question his tactics left a negative imprint on politics. What confused me more than anything within the film was the portrayal of Atwater surrounding himself with people of different culture but then when it came to political gain, he put them on the spot to be feared and attacked. You can look at the "rape case" propaganda in different ways, one obviously being he targeted a black man with intent to blame and create racial fear, another being selecting a brutal current case that any man would have been put on the spot for orchestrating. Its society's perception which creates the untold truth behind it so all we can do is assume; in many cases. With that said, many of Atwater's actions cannot be justified or looked at in a positive way because of the pain and lies he spread. Whether he was honest or not within his final days, Atwater acknowledged his wrongs and it was meaningful to at least hear he reached out to apologize to those close to him who he hurt. If he hadn't become sick would he had noticed his fault and owned up to it?

Jesus Camp Response

I found this film very shocking and frustrating to watch. The rhetoric and brainwashing going on at the camp seems parallel to mental abuse which can last a life time for many of the kids who experienced it. Because they are so young and prone to believe whatever is taught in consistency at this camp, they believe they are right and anything else is wrong. For a young kid to be confident and committed to spread the messages going on at the camp was sad to watch because their whole soul became based off an alternative motive and something that cannot be proven. Theres a difference between being confident and comfortable with yourself as oppose to developing your mental strength which solely depends on the fantasy of someone else. The woman who ran the camp spreads and screams her fantasy into the ears and souls of the kids who attend. A fantasy which became the truth for many of the children there, and even empowered some to be fearless and motivated in their newly adopted illusion. It is scary when a child becomes developed based on such a fantasy, not because they are predicted to do harm, but because they will never truly live in reality.