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For the Record: The World Tribunal on Iraq
A collectively made activist video, For the Record, reminds us that
activists can do more than gather for weekend marches and sign online
petitions. Given the will and the people-power, huge internationally relevant
events that may well, down the line, provide the needed evidence to indict
international criminals of the most egregious kind. Until then, this video is a
document of the momentous culmination of a series of world tribunals held in 30
cities around the world, providing testimonials of the war crimes committed by
the US and it’s allies in the war in Iraq. This culminating session was held in
Istanbul in 2006. The video has been uploaded in sections on YouTube. Co-Directed
by Alisa Lebow, Başak Ertür, Zeynep Dadak, and Enis Köstepen.
Edited by Merve Kayan.
Treyf
TREYF —“unkosher” in
Yiddish— is an unorthodox documentary by and about two Jewish lesbians who met
and fell in love at a Passover “seder”. With personal narration, real and
imagined educational films, and haunting imagery, filmmakers Alisa Lebow and
Cynthia Madansky examine the Jewish identity of their upbringings and its
impact on their lives. Incisive cultural critics, astute, poignant, and
poetic—never cynical—they weave their way from New York to Jerusalem in pursuit
of a progressive, secular Jewish identity that draws from their childhood
reminiscences as much as from their contemporary queer lives. As referenced in
Alisa Lebow’s book First Person Jewish, TREYF is iconoclastic and intelligent,
humorous and poignant, a personal journey from kibbutz summers to coming out,
from keeping kosher to “Bat Mitzvahs.” A reflection on culture, community, and
individual desire, this witty film follows the filmmakers as they discover what
they thought was most profoundly “treyf” about their worldviews still has roots
in Jewish history. Co-directed and produced by Cynthia Madansky. Broadcast on
Sundance Channel.
What people have said:
“Courageous,
angry, witty, and joyous, this docu-diary examines the construction of lesbian
Jewish-American identities with unflinching honesty and considerable love.”
Linda Dittmar, Univ of MA, Boston
“Far more than autobiographical
navel-gazing, this is a thoughtful exploration of contemporary Jewish
identity—the Holocaust, religious practices and Israel—as well as how Jewish
American lesbians of different ages and races live their lives with regard to
family, homophobia, Judaism and anti-Semitism.”
Goldie Charles, The Jewish Week
Distributed by Women
Make Movies.
For all other requests, please contact the filmmaker.
Internal Combustion
This experimental
video breaks many the silences surrounding lesbians and AIDS. Interweaving the
voices of two friends—an HIV+ Latina lesbian and an HIV- Jewish lesbian—the
video juxtaposes two very different yet overlapping experiences.
The piece
points to the often unspoken tensions occurring within this epidemic—survival
and power, mourning and loss. Co-directed with Cynthia Madansky.
Distributed by Video Data Bank
Outlaw
Leslie Feinberg (1949
–2014), a self-identified "gender outlaw" who has spent much of their
life passing as a man, speaks with passion and intelligence about their
experiences in this video manifesto. Raw and confrontational, this film asks
its audience to examine their assumptions about the "nature" of
gender and calls for more sensitivity and awareness of the human rights and the
dignity of transgendered people. Feinberg is the author of STONE BUTCH BLUES
(Firebrand), an account of a working-class lesbian who passes as a man.
What Kate Bornstein, transgender activist,
author and performer extraordinaire, has said:
"Hard-hitting, straight from the heart, with an excellent sense of
humor...It's a must see."
Kate
Bornstein, Author, Gender Outlaw
Distributed in North America
by Women Make Movies.
For all other requests, please contact the filmmaker.
