Hartley Announces Completion of 11 New Docs - 28 More in Pipeline

A number of films are making news:

Defamation
Defamation will have its North American Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this month. Film director Yoav Shamir challenges viewers with intelligent, complex and very wry interview commentary on anti-Semitism. Is anti-Semitism on the rise or on the decline? Shamir travels widely to deconstruct the concept of anti-Semitism and speaks with many individuals including the head of the Anti-Defamation League, the controversial author Norman Finkelstein, and the man in the street. Defamation also sheds light on the sharply contrasting and wide-ranging views on anti-Semitism that exist among Jews themselves. Click here for details.

The Truth Will Set You Free
Director Macky Alston, Producer Sandra Itkoff and their crew attended the Presidential inauguration this January in order to film the Right Reverend Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire and the first openly gay bishop in Christendom, as he offered the opening prayer at the first inaugural event at the Lincoln Memorial. On the eve of the inauguration, they also filmed Bishop Robinson in an interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Walking alongside the Rt. Rev. Robinson, The Truth Will Set You Free crew documented Gene's civil union in New Hampshire last June and the once-every-ten-years global bishops' gathering in Canterbury last summer, and will follow the current fracture within the Church that's inching towards total schism, as well as this coming summer's biennial gathering of the Episcopal Church of America. Facing the real possibility of death, but committed to the fullest and richest life possible, Gene Robinson and the movement gathering around him have an extraordinary path ahead and The Truth Will Set You Free will follow them every step of the way. Production on The Truth Will Set You Free began in December of 2007 and will continue at least through December of 2009. For more on the story, go to the film's website.

Bronx Princess
Bronx Princess will make its debut on PBS's premiere documentary series P.O.V. on September 22nd. The film follows headstrong 17-year old Rocky as she leaves behind her mother in New York City to reunite with her father, a tribal chief in Ghana, West Africa. Filmed during the tumultuous summer between high-school and college, Bronx Princess tells Rocky's coming-of-age story. By confronting her immigrant parents' ideas of adulthood and faith, Rocky reconciles her African heritage with her dream of independence. Bronx Princess had its world premiere at IDFA, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, last fall and continued its European run at the Berlinale in Berlin. Check here for an update.


Project Kashmir
Co-directors Geeta Patel and Senain Kheshgi's film Project Kashmir recently screened as part of the Sundance Documentary Showcase in Park City, Utah. Project Kashmir was accepted by the Sundance Institute as one of four projects in the prestigious 2006 Documentary Film Editing and Story Laboratory. This film follows Patel and Khesghi, two Americans who are Hindu and Muslim, as they investigate the war that divides Kashmiris. The co-directors found on their journey to one of the most dangerous places on earth that their friendship was tested over deeply rooted religious biases that they never had to face in this country. According to News from Sundance Institute, Patel and Khesghi followed up the screening of their film in Park City with an audience discussion about global conflicts. They also visited a high school in Park City after the Sundance Documentary Showcase screening, where they met with students and "split the kids into two groups to represent the division that exists in Kashmir. Afterward, the room was silent, the students' frustration about life in a war zone apparent." Kheshgi and Patel are in partnership with MTV online to reach a global audience with this film. Click here for more information.

Praying with Lior
Praying with Lior is now available on DVD! A winner of seven Audience Awards for Best Documentary, Praying with Lior follows Lior Liebling, a thirteen-year-old Philadelphia boy with Down Syndrome during the four months before his Bar Mitzvah. Filmmaker Ilana Trachtman is currently involved in outreach efforts through film screenings "to change the way people with disabilities are perceived and received by faith communities." Praying with Lior is as inspiring as it is educational. Click here to purchase the film.

New Muslim Cool
New Muslim Cool is slated in late June as the opening film of the 2009 season on the PBS series P.O.V. Check your listings! Filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tells the story of Hamza Perez, who left life as a drug dealer for Islam ten years ago. In a rundown building surrounded by crack and crime, he helps start a new community for African-American and Latino Muslims. Like Hamza, many are ex-gang members who are using hip-hop culture to take their religious message to the streets, slums and jail cells of urban America. Raising his two kids as a single dad and longing for companionship, Hamza finds love on a Muslim networking website and seizes the chance for happiness in a second marriage. But when the FBI raids their mosque, Hamza and his community come face to face with a whole new set of challenges, and have to choose how they respond. Click here for details.

Four Seasons Lodge
First Run Features, a top independent film distributor, has acquired Four Seasons Lodge for theatrical release. In the coming weeks, First Run will announce the New York opening, which will be followed by more cities across the country. Filmmaker Andrew Jacobs and a team of cinematographers, including Albert Maysles, chronicled a remarkable group of Holocaust survivors who have vacationed together in the Catskills for decades; the documentary captures living history and celebrates the Lodgers' intoxicating passion for life even as they struggle with bracing loss and trauma. Jacobs and producers Matt Lavine and Kelly Shehan are involved with the Four Seasons Project, which was created to address the film's educational components and spearhead community and educational outreach. Four Seasons Project has been recognized as one of the fifty most innovative non-profit organizations in the North American Jewish community by Slingshot, an annual guide published by a non-profit consulting division of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. Four Seasons Lodge will be the centerpiece of an innovative teaching tool for engaging people of all faiths, young and old, in cross-generational discussions of genocide, immigration, racism, spirituality and the notion of family in all its forms. Go to the film's website for more information.



Five Films in Development Added to Hartley's Roster:

One in a Billion
Geeta Patel turns her camera on arranged marriages in the Hindu community in the U.S. in this comedic documentary. She follows her brother Ravi, who wrestles with his American upbringing and his dawning desire to seek an arranged marriage, as his parents send him around the country to meet potential Hindu wives. One in a Billion will submerge audiences in a subculture that thrives in this country. The film is about first-generation Americans who struggle with the idea of marrying within one's religion and culture and the pressures that first-generation Americans put on themselves to maintain that culture. Click here for the story on One in a Billion.

Dis-Continuity
Is Jonah the last Jewish baby? Can a minority/religious community survive declining birth rates, intermarriage, feminism, individualism and secularism? In the Jewish community, it's called "the continuity crisis," and it's a cause of real anguish and a focus of massive philanthropic projects aimed at jump-starting identity and baby-making among young Jews. The debate over this idea of continuity can get heated as critics contend that the crisis is a myth. Check here for details.


Home Again
Director Julie Englander, in association with Kartemquin Educational Films, takes an intimate look at the challenges faced by American children of missionaries as they enter adulthood. These Missionary Kids, known as MKS, dug wells in Senegal and Bolivia, translated the Bible in Romania and Papua New Guinea, lived under the rule of dictators and learned to cope in countries where clean water is not easily available. But many claim that the hardest task is to find a place to call home, in the many senses of that word, when they return to the U.S. More on Home Again can be found here.

The Jewess
Many films have addressed Jewish-Christian relationships during the World War II era from the Jewish perspective. Director Erin Reese tells the story of The Jewess from the perspective of a Christian German American named Julia Cato, and this documentary is about a Jew saving Germans, not Germans saving Jews. Many residents of the German village where Julia Cato's Christian grandparents lived and worked were able to survive on care packages sent to them by a former Jewish factory owner of that village, who had emigrated to the U.S. Reese shadows Cato as she sets out to track down the identity of the former factory owner, a Jewish woman who gave to save Germans. The Jewess is a tale of unanswered questions and forgotten stories. Details here.


Imperfect Master: The Life and Times of Shlomo Carlebach
The story of this talented and charismatic "rebel Rabbi" is full of contradictions. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's spiritual evolution started with a parochial focus on restoring through his music the losses suffered by his fellow Jews during the Holocaust. His spiritual journey evolved as he embraced the need to break down the barriers that separate Jews from non-Jews. Rabbi Carlebach tried to "fix the world" by singing and telling Hasidic tales to Buddhists in ashrams, to German youth in Berlin, to Jews and blacks in Crown Heights and to Catholics in Poland. But he remained a lonely man, comfortable with the troubled and homeless yet unable to form lasting bonds. Directors Oren Rudavsky and Menachem Daum will draw a portrait of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach not as a perfected master, but rather as a spiritual seeker whose sources of personal strength were also sources of personal weakness. For more, click here.

Also in the News:

Hartley Sponsors Annual Full Frame Inspiration Award
Israeli director Nati Baratz's film Unmistaken Child is the winner of the 2009 Full Frame Inspiration Award, sponsored annually by Hartley Film Foundation. The award was announced at the Full Frame Film Festival on Sunday, April 5th, in Durham, North Carolina. Baratz's film follows a Buddhist monk, Tenzin Zopa, who is sent by his superiors and by the Dalai Lama to find the reincarnation of Tenzin Zopa's Buddhist master. The monk searches for a very young child who will be taken from his family and his village to live life in a monastery. Tenzin Zopa's humility and hopefulness, the stunning cinematography, and the contemplative nature of the film, blend to carry the viewer on a rich adventure through the austere Tibetan countryside.


Diana Barrett Guest Speaker at Hartley's Meet 'N' Greet Series
In early February, Hartley Film Foundation held another in its series of Meet 'n' Greet luncheons for filmmakers who are supported by the Foundation. Our special guest was Diana Barrett, founder of The Fledgling Fund. Diana also serves on the Fund's board. The Fledgling Fund seeks to improve the lives of vulnerable individuals, families and communities by supporting innovative media projects that target social problems. Diana explained to the filmmakers in attendance that her organization takes a "three-pronged approach to funding." The Fledgling Fund supports "solution-based films," funds strategic outreach campaigns for those films and provides financial support for community-based organizations with missions that address issues raised in the films. Hartley Film Foundation is grateful to Diana for her time and shared insights.

Hartley Film
For more information on Hartley Film, please visit their website.