PRAYING IN HER OWN VOICE:
Luke Ford

Praying in her own Voice, the new film I produced had a sneak peek screening at the Israeli film festival 08 this week at the Laemmle Sunset 5, one of the best theaters in the Los Angeles (Even thought technically some might say it's located in West Hollywood and not LA) .
It was a sold out screening that's aimed at helping us improve the film before the official premiere at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 08 in July.

Luke Ford a famous blogger came to see the film and immediately afterward wrote about it in his blog. I met Luke Ford some time ago. He is a charming but controversial person that loves stirring things up. To some he is quite radical. Some might be offended by his review of my new film. Some might be offended by the ideas and his point of view of women in general and will find more justifications of that point of view in his review and the way he writes about the women of the wall.
It's is debatable if in our media savy world a public campaign can be run by women who are not 18 and are not gorgeous models.
My last two films have proven that I personally am more attracted to the beauty of a woman's soul rather than just to exterior looks.
But I will respect if disagree with those who think otherwise.

I appreciated the fact that Luke Ford came to see the film and wrote what he thought about it.I'm delighted that he liked the film even thought he had issues with the way the women look.
His review proved to me that the target audience is much wider than I expected at first and that even those who are oppressed by the figures of exterior beauty will also find meaning relavance and satisfaction watching this important and powerful film about women with a beautiful soul that I admire and that inspired me as well as the director who spent 5 years filming their battle and bringing it to a much wider audience.

Here's the review. Take from it what you may- and hope that it will make you think not just about the film itself but about the continuing battle of the sexes :


June 24, 2008
‘Praying In Her Own Voice’
Listen to this article. Powered by Odiogo.com

http://lukeford.net/blog/?p=3306

It’s a testament to my growing spiritual sensitivity that I’m able to enjoy a movie about such ugly women.

People will either love or hate the protagonists of this documentary from Yael Katzir.

The hour-long production makes no pretense about whose side it is on.

It is billed:


"The new documentary Praying in her own Voice is a thought provoking powerful piece about Feminism and Judaism . It depicts the struggle of the Women of the Wall in the last few years for the right to pray like men do at the Western Wall. It includes commentary from some of the top women rabbis in LA: Rabbi Laura Geller, Rabbi Naomi Levy , Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rabbi Denise Eger , Rabbi Lisa Edwards and Rabbi Lynn Brody. Rabbi Levy, Rabbi Edwards, and Executive Producers Dan Katzir and Ravit Markus will attend a panel discussion after the film, moderated by Rabbi Brody. The film was directed by award winning director Yael Katzir and is an hour long, Hebrew and English, with English sub-titles."

The leaders of this small group (they never seem to number more than two dozen, of which about a dozen are Israelis and the rest largely American visitors) want to do everything that men can do at the Western Wall — wear tefillin, blow a shofar, tallitot (prayer shawls), call women to the Torah and conduct a service (in Orthodox Judaism, only men do this). These are mad manly women. I said an involuntary "Oy vey!" when I saw some of them wearing tefillin (traditionally reserved for men, with a few exceptions such as Rashi’s daughters).

These women are fat and passionate and old and bizarre. They convey no sympathy for the Jewish tradition they want to overturn and no doubts about their own righteousness.

Their opponents are just as old and ugly, screaming epithets and starting fights.

I love watching this hour-long fight. To some it makes Jews look bad. I think it makes Jews look good that they care so much about Torah and prayer.

Beijing World Art Musuem - Sigal Bussel.

My friend Sigal just had large exhibition of her paintings in one of the largest Modern art musuems of Beijing.
She asked me to take some pictures of her for the catalogue- but I was blown away when one of my still photographs of her was blown up and placed on a full wall in a Chinese Modern art musuem.
Sigal showed me pictures of Chinese musuem goers taking pictures of my still photograph at the entrance to her exhibition in the Beijing musuem.
For a videographer and documentary filmmaker like myself- it was a really interesting experience capturing the essence of a person in one frame. I am used to capturing moving life. So the fact I succeeded in capturing a frozen moment in life was a wonderful experience.

That still photograph made it's way to CCTV's website- the website for China's TV station that interviewed Sigal as well.
They Zoomed in on the photograph and that looks just as interesting.

Here are the different variations on the picture and the article from CCTV's website:

Sigal's an amazing artist and I hope this exhibit will be one of many to come for her new and powerful collection of paintings titled: HEAD.

Heads: A voyage of self discovery
Source: CCTV.com

05-13-2008 10:00

The rules and conventions of interpersonal relationships are unraveled at an exhibition that opened Sunday. It's at the Art Exhibition Center of Beijing's Millennium Monument. Viewers are guided on an Odyssey of self discovery, through the works of American Artist Sigal Bussel.


The rules and conventions of interpersonal relationships are
unraveled at an exhibition that opened Sunday.(Photo: CCTV.com)
The sole subject for Sigal Bussel's exhibition is the head - the primary center for control of human activity and the seat of consciousness.

The Heads, executed in propylene pigment, face different directions. Other materials, such as ropes, chains, resins, wood chips and sticks complement the works.

The exhibition is entitled "Heads: A Voyage of Self Discovery". Bussel says she wanted to examine estrangement in interpersonal relationships - the connections between people and the world around.

Sigal Bussel, artist, said, "I feel the heads are very symbolic. They express all our emotions, and who we are. Everything is expressed through our facial expressions. And I really want it by removing some of the facial features, to remove our individuality and our differences. I think by removing our differences, then we'll afterwards face the humanity. These heads can be used as a mirror to go through a self-voyage, a self-discovery."
Lei Zhengmin, arts critic, said, "The various materials Bussel used in her productions bear different connotations. Seemingly the works are simple and plain but they're actually profound in nature. The Heads are presented as a perfect starting point."

Sigal Bussel lives in Los Angeles. Her paintings and sculptures have been showcased many times in her home country and outside. She's had exhibitions at Harvard University where she earned her Master's degree, and at China's Xi'an Modern Art Gallery.

The exhibition runs till May 16th.

http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20080513/106225.shtml

PASADENA NEWS:

PCC Presents "Yiddish Theater: A Love Story"

The producer of the film, Ravit Markus, will also be present during the Wednesday viewing
From STAFF REPORTS
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 | 9:5 am

Pasadena City College's Social Sciences Division and the College Diversity Office present "Yiddish Theater: A Love Story" on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The gentle homage to Jewish theater will take place in room C333, said a spokesperson in a news statement.

This independent film poignantly reflects the life of holocaust survivor Zypora Spaisman and her role in bringing Yiddish theater to America, said Pasadena City College spokesperson Juan F. Gutierrez.

The moving images express the early roles of American society in theater, the development of unions, and a powerful consideration of elderly members of our society and how we treat them, as compared to other cultures, Gutierrez said.

Honoring Women's History Month, Spaisman is highlighted throughout the film as "the woman who has kept Yiddish theater alive in the U.S." he said.

"This film makes you cry and it makes you laugh," said Lauren Arenson associate professor of Social Sciences. "It's one of the best films I've seen in years."

The producer of the film, Ravit Markus, will also be present during the viewing. He will be available for a question-and-answer session following the film.

"Yiddish Theater: A Love Story" is free and open to the public. Parking is available in any PCC student lot for $2.

For more information: (626) 585-7736.

http://www.pasadenanow.com/_News/publish/article_2278.html

Sweet 16 (Film) party

12 weeks in Los Angeles and still running.

This week Yiddish Theater: A Love Story got a long article in the Pacific Palisades Palisadian Post:

http://www.palisadespost.com/content/index.cfm?Story_ID=3691

Cinematic Love for "Yiddish Theater"

March 05, 2008

Michael Aushenker , Staff Writer

'I never saw a play in Yiddish and, to be honest, I never thought I would,' says Dan Katzir, expressing a sentiment not uncommon among many young Jewish people. Yet unlike the situation of most Jews, that changed for the Israeli-American filmmaker after he met Zypora Spaisman, a vivacious octogenarian. His resulting film, 'Yiddish Theater: A Love Story,' is an English language documentary about one little old lady's fight to keep her Yiddish theater open against all odds and, by extension, keep a moribund culture alive. 'Yiddish Theater' plays this weekend in Santa Monica.

'I was vacationing in New York and I met Zypora by chance,' Katzir tells the Palisadian Post. 'She was the grand dame of Yiddish theater. She did everything to keep her show going''from acting to sweeping the floors.'

The 80-minute 'Yiddish Theater' follows Spaisman through a hectic week during which she must raise enough funds to keep her production of Peretz Hirschbein's classic Yiddish-language play 'Green Fields' going, or see the theater that she started, the Yiddish Public Theater, come to a close'in tandem with her acting career.

Filmed during Chanukah 2000, which that year culminated on New Year's Day, the Jewish Festival of Lights adds meaning and structure to Katzir's real-life drama. Ostensibly, the filmmaker uses the eight days of Chanukah as a device to provide suspense''each lit candle calibrating a day''as viewers sit at seat's edge to see if Spaisman's cast will prevail. They encounter extreme highs (The New York Times gives the production a glowing review) and lows (a severe snowfall slams New York). Obstacles materialize in between, from potential investors flaking, to the attendance-draining Christmas holidays. The movie culminates on New Year's Eve 2001, nine months before the events of September 11, adding an unintended layer of poignancy to the viewing; 'Yiddish Theater' gives a glimpse of a more innocent, bygone Manhattan in more ways than one.

'Everything what I do is Yiddish,' Spaisman says in the film. 'I live Yiddish, I eat Yiddish, I breathe Yiddish.'

In the 10th century, Yiddish became the official language of Central and Eastern European Jews (Ashkenazi Jews). A hybrid of medieval German and Hebrew, the Yiddish language, written in a Hebraic alphabet, also borrowed some English. Today, even non-Jews pepper their vocabulary with this expressive dialect; words such as schmooze, kibbitz, schlep, putz, and chutzpah have entered our lexicon, thanks largely to our country's long tradition of Jewish entertainers.

Yiddish culture also consists of a theatrical tradition that bridged the shtetls (Jewish villages) to early 1880s American life at a time when pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe caused Jews to immigrate to the United States. By 1924, two million Jews had arrived, bringing with them a rich culture. When the Folksbiene Theatre was founded in 1915 on New York's Lower East Side, 14 other Yiddish theater companies existed. But as the U.S.-born children assimilated into the mainstream, this theater audience dwindled with Yiddish culture among the new generation.

'There's one thing that can be said about the Yiddish theater that can't be said about any other foreign-language immigrant theater,' says Palisades resident Marvin Zuckerman, a Yiddish culture authority. 'It's the longest-lasting.'

'The Yiddish theater is generally thought to be started in Romania by Avrom Goldfadn,' explains Zuckerman, dean emeritus of Los Angeles Valley College. 'Goldfadn [1840- 1948] is considered the guy who tied it all together. He wrote Yiddish operettas. The Broadway of Yiddish theater was Second Avenue''Yiddish art theater, vaudeville, musicals.'

Yiddish theater enjoyed a respectable reputation in its 1900-1950 heyday. Lincoln Steffens called it the best theater in New York. The genre, which peaked in the 1940s, coincided with Yiddish cinema (i.e., 'Yidel Mitn Fiedl' with Molly Picon) produced in New York and pre-war Poland. Hirschbein wrote 'Green Fields' in 1908 in Odessa, and a 1937 film version was shot in upstate New York.

'He happens to be buried in Los Angeles behind Paramount [at Hollywood Forever cemetery],' says Zuckerman of Hirschbein, who died in 1948. 'He was a world traveler, he wrote for travel books, and he wound up in L.A.'

'A lot of famous American actors came out of the Yiddish theater,' continues Zuckerman, husband of Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, the real-life 'Gidget' recently profiled in the Post. 'Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni, our very own Palisadian, Walter Matthau.' Joel Grey's father was renowned comedian Mickey Katz, who incorporated Yiddish into his act. The grandfather of conductor Michael Tilsen Thomas was the great Yiddish actor Boris Thomashefsky. One of Thomashefsky's rivals was Jacob P. Adler, whose wife, Sara, was a prominent Yiddish theater actress. If his surname sounds familiar, it could be because his daughter was Stella Adler, whose acting disciples included Marlon Brando.

The unspoken irony for the filmmakers is that Spaisman's mission is a metaphor for their movie''itself a valentine to the culture and something of an underdog. 'Yiddish Theater' has squeaked by from screening to screening since its 2006 premiere in San Francisco.

'It's sad,' Katzir notes, 'that after 1,100 years, just as Hitler lost in his attempt to destroy this Yiddish culture, it's fading away in the secular world. I'm Israeli. For Israelis, Yiddish is even more foreign than it is for Americans.'

In Israel, Yiddish culture has not been preserved among the overwhelmingly secular youth. As if to make that point, the lead in Spaisman's play, a young Israeli, ironically shows off armfuls of tattoos (a corporeal desecration forbidden in the Jewish religion) after acting in Hassidic garb.

But Eric Gordon, director of the local Yiddish culture society, The Workman's Circle/Arbeter Ring of Southern California, quibbles with Katzir's premise that Yiddish culture and theater is dying.

'The movie has a kind of quality of lamentation about it that I take issue with,' Gordon says, pointing out that the Folksbiene remains vital. mount major annual productions and stages plays in both English and Russian translations.

Gordon's own Workman's Circle chapter celebrates its centennial this year, while California's oldest Workman's branch, in San Francisco, turns 101.

What's sure about 'Yiddish Theater' is the passion for Yiddish culture exuded by both Spaisman and the filmmakers. Another Palisadian, Los Angeles Times movie critic Kenneth Turan, called the film 'charming and disarming.'

'Nothing can take away from the flavor of being caught up in the battles and dreams of a formidable group of people,' Turan continues in a November 2007 review. 'For a brief moment in time, we share their struggles, and that feels like a privilege.'

There's something wonderful about seeing these dedicated actors, young and old, partaking in their uphill production. 'Yiddish Theater' is as much survival story as it is love story, and tenacious firebrand Spaisman's spirit is entertaining, contagious and ultimately inspiring.

'We live in a Seinfeld society where everything is fast, edgy, funny, but also smells a little cynical and jaded,' Katzir says. 'Yiddish has a lot of heart and emotions.'

'Yiddish Theater: A Love Story' screens Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. at Laemmle's Monica, 1332 Second St. Katzir and Markus will speak following each screening. For tickets, call (310) 394-9741 or visit laemmle.com/viewmovie.php?mid=3304. The movie's Web site: yiddishtheater.net

Yiddish Theater in WEHO NEWS: (West Hollywood News)

http://wehonews.com/z/wehonews/archive/page.php?articleID=2070

Film Review - Yiddish Theatre: A Love Story

February 14, 2008 – Film Review by Roy Oldenkamp, West Hollywood

West Hollywood, California (February 14, 2008) - Sometimes in life, we have to do what we think is right to fulfill a destiny.

Often in life, few others assist in this goal, watching quietly as a life becomes absorbed by a cause.

Such is the story of Zypora Spaisman in the enthralling new film, Yiddish Theatre: A Love Story.

This award-winning documentary chronicles the travails and triumphs of this fine actress, by necessity the company founder/director of the Yiddish Public Theater company in New York.

The film unwinds as a love song to the indomitable Ms. Spaisman, 84 year old survivor of Hitler’s pogroms and not ready to be taken down in her efforts to preserve Yiddish theater by something as inconsequential as sheer money.

Israeli filmmaker Dan Katzir lets his story unfold rhythmically and ensnares us scene by scene, getting us to root for the grand dame’s success in preserving a dying art form in an obscure language.

As cultures assimilate, the languages of indigenous peoples and isolated communities fall to the wayside, from the Indian reservations in the west and northwest to the Jewish dialects from streets of Brooklyn.

Yet Zypora Spaisman will persevere and keep this Yiddish art form alive, in New York, off Broadway and in the middle of one of the worst winters on record.

In the course of a Hanukah observance, the story reaches its peak and we watch the travails unfold daily and resolve themselves as smashing reviews come in and snowbound audiences stay home.

Throughout the film, one has the sad feeling that this is the final throe of both Ms. Spaisman and Yiddish theater.
It is charming and hopeful to see a handful of younger generation actors become involved in the art form and really pick up the mantle and fall whole heartedly into their work, inhabiting roles originated in the early twentieth century and making them their own.

Watching producer David Romeo become completely absorbed by his efforts to save the show is both heartfelt and poetic. Ms. Spaisman has the assistance of a vital few: she is not alone.

She has made her mark and kept a dream alive. With gratitude, we thank both Zypora Spaisman and Dan Katzir for allowing us to glimpse the sincerity and beauty of Yiddish theater.

Yiddish Theater: A Love Story. Check your local theatres for times and locations.

The Beverly Hills Courier
The Cutler Review
February 8 2008

by Jerry Cutler
3 Bagels out of 4

Yiddish Theater: A Love Story doesn't hold out much hope for the future of Yiddish Theater.
The Award winning documentary directed by Dan Katzir and produced by Ravit Markus and Yael Katzir was, for my, a delightful trip down memory lane.
It tells the story of Zypora Spaisman, a sprightly and charismatic 84 year old actress and Holocause survivor, whose fortitue and dedication to the Yiddish art form had kept the Folksbiene theater alive for many years. There is great insight into the psyche of the elderly actors who are unwavering in their love for the theater. The story begins on the now multi-cultural lower East side of New York, as the show Green Fields, is performed to less than capacity customers.
Undaunted, two elderly producers and the hearty Ms. Spaisman, try to raise enough money to take them from the hard to get to theater to a Broadway venue and the possibility of more patrons.
You can guess the outcome of the venture, but the anticipation, the never say die attitude and Katzir's photography of the stark winter streets of New York, is a treat. When I wasa a young child, I remember my parents taking me to the second Avenue Yiddish Theatre to see a play starring Molly Picon. Her antics, even though I didn't understand the dialogue, stay with me till this day. My father was a Yiddish scholar and had his own program on New York's leading Jewish station, WEVD.
He spoke mainly English in the ouse with my New York born, mother. Today I can't hold an in depth Yiddish conversation.
I mourn the passing of Yiddish Theater and feel that I, and others like me, are in someway responsible for its demise. I apologize to Ms. Spaisman who I met during the run of a play at the the original Folksbiene Theater in the jewish Forward building on the lower East Side.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the Yiddish Theater: A Love Story which transported me back to a less complicated and carefree time of my life. It is currently at the Laemmle's Monica.
So, go see it already and enjoy.
3 bagels out of 4

http://www.thebeverlyhillscourier.com/editions/files/Courier-02-08.pdf