"Steel Toes": David Gow on the Canadian Perspective and Working with David Strathairn

Interview by Josh Ford

"5 Questions for..." in which we ask WJFF filmmakers 5 things about themselves, their films and other stuff you want to know.

Steel Toes co-director David Gow speaks with WJFF Director Josh Ford.

Can you tell us a little bit about the development of Steel Toes, first as a play and then as a film?

The play upon which Steel Toes is based is called Cherry Docs. It premiered in Toronto in 1998. I wrote two monologues and a scene and had two actors read them in a kind of cabaret. The response was fantastic. The actors, both well-known in Toronto, challenged me to finish the play and told me we'd get it on within a year, and so it was. One actor, Ross Manson, produced the play with his own company, Volcano (Toronto), and the other actor, R. H. Thomson, helped secure a great venue and a great director, Richard Rose. The play was quite a success, with huge word-of-mouth. The next year I had productions all over Canada. It was in the third year that the play made its premiere in the US, in Philadelphia with David Strathairn at the Wilma Theatre. Developing the film was a long road, Francine Allaire deserves a lot of credit there. We got it done, but it took a while.

How did David Strathairn come to the project? Since he originated the role onstage, how much did he influence the development of the character?

Jiri Zizka, the artistic director of the theatre, asked David S. to look at the play, and David agreed to do it. The play is a huge workout for both actors, as is the film. In the film, we also have other performances, the play is only two actors. David S. greatly influenced the development of the character that you see in the film. It is uniquely his interpretation, and it is a different animal altogether to that which he created onstage. David inhabits a character very fully, and the character also seems to live in him. It was a great process altogether and wonderful to work with him in both mediums. Onstage, David was directed by Jiri Zizka. At that time, David told me, if you ever make a film based on this... and so we did.

In what ways do you think your film is uniquely Canadian? How did growing up in Montreal affect your writing?

I think the visuals are uniquely Canadian and in fact particular to Montreal. The play is set in Toronto, but we shot in Montreal, so I re-set the story in Montreal and I think the feeling is a little different. I do think though, that it's a universal story that can be understood across cultures and that's why the story has travelled so much, both as a play and as a film. I grew up in Montreal and Ottawa, I think I do have a Canadian perspective on things. I'm told it's liberal, I strive to be a humanist in my writing, and I try to tell stories that will be relevant across a larger throw than the distance physically travelled, when I was growing up. We all carry with us a greater distance in psychic terms and I try to chart that territory.

Your play Bea’s Niece ran at MetroStage in 2003. Did you get to experience any of the Washington theater scene?

I experienced MetroStage and the accomplished powerhouse, Carolyn Griffin. We had marvelous actors and a stylish production. I was also invited graciously to the Helen Hayes awards, and found everyone I met to be exceedingly pleasant, and open to introductions. I was really taken with the scene, floating in a sea of silk and tuxedos, punctuated by warm smiles. I went home and said to my wife, let's move to Washington; but I had the film to make.

If you could have one Washington, DC celebrity (political or otherwise) attend your screening, who would it be and why?

No comment, I am a visitor and happy if anyone comes. As a visitor, I try to refrain from lecturing in public forums. I say what I have to say in my writing, and there is a lot said therein, it's quite wordy... Of course at a screening, often people have questions etc...


Steel Toes screens at 3:45pm at the AFI Silver Theater on Sunday, December 3, 2006 and at 6:30pm at the Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema on Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Interview by Josh Ford

"Lover Other": Barbara Hammer on the Struggle for Visibility

Interview by Josh Ford

"5 Questions for..." in which we ask WJFF filmmakers 5 things about themselves, their films and other stuff you want to know.

Lover Other: The Story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore director Barbara Hammer speaks with WJFF Director Josh Ford.

Tell us a little bit about the genesis of Lover Other? How much did you know about Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore before you began researching the film?

When I was working on Resisting Paradise, my 2003 documentary that questions what artists do during a time of war and focus on artists and resisters of WWII who worked near Cassis, France, I tried to find a lesbian or gay man who was also a resister. As a lesbian filmmaker and as an artist, I wanted to find a lesbian resister. People told me that during the war one didn’t think about sexual preference, but only about saving lives. I remembered coming across the photographs of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore at Hotel Sully in Paris in 1988, but since my film was centered on Cassis and the Mediterranean coast, I couldn’t include them. However, I could focus on their artistic lives and heroic, incredible acts of creative resistance to the Nazi occupation of Jersey Isle during WWII in my next film, Lover Other.

You’ve been called a pioneer of “lesbian-feminist experimental cinema.” Modesty aside, do you think that accurately describes your work?

As far as I know it does. I am cataloging my film/video/paper archive right now and I am astounded. Didn't I do anything but work for the last 40 years?

How big a part does Jewish identity, your own or your subjects’, play in your films?

In the last two films, Resisting Paradise and Lover Other, Jewish identity is crucial, as I am dealing with the WWII historic period and we all know what that means. In Resisting Paradise the story of Lisa Fittko, a Jew who had fled to Paris from Berlin (and later to the South of France) who walked Walter Benjamin, the great Jewish philosopher, over the Pyrenees before circumstances overwhelmed him and he committed suicide, Jewish identity is crucial.

As for myself, I am of no denomination. It is the subjects of my films who struggle for visibility and life itself that interest me.

You’ve been on the documentary jury at Sundance – what do you appreciate in other documentary films and which filmmakers work do you seek out?

I appreciate the filmmaker who expands the form or genre in documentary, narrative, or experimental. Most exciting film work being done today often crosses and confuses the genres. We media-savvy people want more from the screens than Hollywood and even the so-called "independent" cinema provides. Please don't make us go back to kindergarten when it comes to watching films.

If you could have one Washington, DC celebrity (political or otherwise) attend your screening, who would it be and why?

It would be a new gender-blended person with half the DNA of Hillary Clinton and half the DNA of Barak Obama. Sitting beside her/him would be a Pelosi/Schumer make-over. As for other celebrities, it would be the entire Lesbian/Feminist/Queer/Transgendered/Jewish/Buddhist/Christian/Muslim communities en masse.

Most seriously and importantly I want to say it would be Joy Zarembka, founder of Break the Chain Campaign, and leader of Promise Central, an advocacy group for former indentured servants. She is current co-chair of Freedom Network.

P.S. I hate the celebrity concept that seems to drive this and other nations.


Visit the filmmaker's Web site at http://www.barbarahammerfilms.com and for her Web site for Lover Other see http://barbarahammerfilms.com/lo.html

Lover Other: The Story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore screens at 6:30pm at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) on Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Interview by Josh Ford

"Brother's Shadow": Todd S. Yellin on Video Store Serendipity, Duncan Sheik, and Hebrew School

Interview by Josh Ford

"5 Questions for..." in which we ask WJFF filmmakers 5 things about themselves, their films and other stuff you want to know.

Brother's Shadow director Todd S. Yellin speaks with WJFF Director Josh Ford.

Tell us a little bit about the genesis of Brother's Shadow – you wrote the screenplay as well?

I co-wrote the film with Ivan Krim, who I met when we were teaching test prep (GMAT, LSAT, GRE, SAT) at Stanley Kaplan in NYC. Ivan and I both love early seventies dramas (Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, Panic in Needle Park, etc.) and wanted to write a screenplay that had the grit and texture of such character driven pieces. I was also looking to make my first feature after working in documentaries; what I needed was a script that would attract top notch actors but could be shot on a modest budget. Living in Brooklyn at the time, and having cut salmon in Alaska, I wasn’t hard pressed to pick the locales. The furniture making was more about immersing ourselves in a sub-culture we weren’t familiar with at the time; we wanted the main character to pursue a type of art that hadn’t been the focus of a feature film.

It is an amazing cast – how were you able to get Judd Hirsch and Scott Cohen on board for an indie film like this?

I worked my way through film school (USC) in the early nineties by managing the laser disc department of a Sunset Blvd. video store. Celebrity brushes were a daily occurrence; I sold the Planet of the Apes series to Roddy McDowell and The Godfather series to Diane Keaton. Always with my short film reel under the counter, I impressed an A-list casting director Louis DiGiaimo (The Godfather, Rain Man, Gladiator) enough to pay me $300 a week as his assistant. After six months of the hardest 300 bucks/week I ever earned, Lou and I went our separate ways. Over ten years later I called him and was pleased when he remembered who I was. He read the script, liked it and agreed to cast it for a fraction of his usual rate. Lou pulled in Scott Cohen and the two of them then landed Judd Hirsch.

How big a part does Jewish identity play in your characters? Did you think you were making a “Jewish film” at the time?

For a long time I rebelled against my Jewish roots, mainly because my secular parents forced me to go to an Orthodox Hebrew school, the one that had the least expensive dues and a convenient car pool arrangement. When writing the script we wanted to create flesh and blood characters; defining their relationship with religion was another way to make the Grodens well rounded. I had enough research to do about furniture makers and wanted them to have a religion that I knew something about. It’s a film about furniture craftsmen who happen to be Jewish.

Again, the soundtrack is amazing. How did Duncan Sheik get involved in the film?

I was invited to a Duncan Sheik concert while we were in post-production and was struck by how much the audience were exactly the people who I thought would connect with Brother's Shadow. I enjoy Duncan’s cerebral rock style and was thrilled when he liked the rough cut and decided to come on board.

If you could have one Washington, DC celebrity (political or otherwise) attend your screening, who would it be and why?

Barbara Boxer. As someone who lives in California, it’s refreshing to have someone who represents me that I respect both personally and ideologically.

Visit the filmmaker's Web site for Brother's Shadow at http://www.brothersshadow.com/

Brother's Shadow screens at 6:30pm at the Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema on Thursday, December 7, 2006 and at 3:20pm at the DCJCC's Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater on Sunday, December 10, 2006

Interview by Josh Ford

What’s That Buzzing Sound?

by David Horowitz

Why, it’s all the anticipation for the 17th installment of the Washington Jewish Film Festival!

Take a break from your Chanukah shopping and join the excitement. Tickets are on sale now, and advance purchase is recommended, as many screenings sell out. For complete ticketing information, see the Web site at http://www.wjff.org/

Check back frequently for multiple daily updates to this blog. We’ll be recapping the parties, the events, and the screenings, as well as posting interviews with special guests and filling you in on what’s coming up.

The Festival kicks off in the Nation’s Capital on Thursday Nov 30 with Daniel Burman’s Family Law, the official 2007 submission from Argentina for the Foreign Language Academy Award competition. A reception will follow.

Described as the “Woody Allen” of Latin America, Daniel Burman’s latest film is the third installment in his semi-autobiographical trilogy, which includes Waiting for the Messiah and Lost Embrace, previously screened at WJFF. Ariel (Daniel Hendler), now a law professor and father, is having an early midlife crisis and is struggling to adjust to his adult responsibilities.

The festival has grown this year to 9 venues, and spans 45 films from 15 countries over 10 days (through Dec 10). One theme in many of this year’s films is the complexity of family relationships.

Venues in this year's Festival include the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater at DCJCC; Avalon Theatre; Landmark Bethesda Row; AFI Silver Theatre; National Gallery of Art – East Building; Goethe Institut, Washington; Embassy of Switzerland; National Museum of Women in the Arts; and Busboys and Poets

Countries represented in this year's Festival include: Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA, Vietnam

New this year is the WJFF Decade Award, which honors a filmmaker whose body of work spans a period of at least 10 years and has made a significant contribution to Jewish cinema. The inaugural recipient of the award is Eytan Fox. His groundbreaking films over the years 1994-2005 have looked at the pluralism of contemporary Israeli life, often with a GLBT focus. Yossi & Jagger, Walk on Water, Song of the Siren, Time Off, and the Israeli television series Florentene, have all been popular with previous WJFF audiences.

On Saturday, Dec 2, Mr. Fox will be presented with the Award and will participate in a discussion with NPR’s Neda Ulaby. He will also show sneak preview clips from his upcoming film The Bubble. A reception will follow. Retrospective screenings of Yossi & Jagger, Walk on Water, and Florentene will be held during WJFF 17 on Thursday-Sunday, Nov 30 through Dec 3. Check the Festival Web site for details and tickets.

The Festival closes on Sunday Dec 10 with the DC Premiere of Henry Meyer’s Four Weeks in June. Winner of the Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, this poignant film from Sweden looks at the unlikely friendship between a struggling young woman and her Jewish neighbor. A reception, with special guest producer Peter Kropenin, will follow.


Additional highlights in this year’s Festival include:

• Lisa Alessandrin’s steamy comedy You’re So Pretty, a French Sephardic Sex and the City meets Desperate Housewives;


• Brother’s Shadow, a family saga with Scott Cohen and Judd Hirsch;


• Steel Toes, a courtroom drama starring David Strathairn as the Jewish court-appointed lawyer assigned to defend a skinhead accused of a racially motivated murder;


• Portnoy’s Complaint meets Office Space in director Jeremy Weinstein’s wacky debut comedy, Wil;


• Toots, Kristi Jacobson’s documentary about her grandfather, the legendary Toots Shor, includes interviews with Jackie Gleason, Walter Cronkite, Mike Walace, Lauren Bacall, Yogi Berra, and Whitey Ford;


• The World Premiere of Saved by Deportation, the documentary by Slawomir Grunberg and Robert Podgursky, tells the little-known story of Polish Jews who were saved from the Nazi death camps by Stalin’s deportation of Russian-occupied Eastern Poland;


• In the critically acclaimed documentary 51 Birch Street, filmmaker Doug Block examines the hidden truths in his parents’ ostensibly happy 54-year marriage;


• Blues by the Beach is the unplanned and unscripted documentary that resulted from the film crew’s coincidental presence (coming from work on another project) at Mike’s Place on the Tel Aviv beachfront, during the April 2003 terrorist bombing of the bar. Filmmaker Jack Baxter will be in attendance.


• MacArthur “genius grant” award winner Alan Berliner (Nobody’s Business, The Sweetest Sound) turns the camera on himself with his new documentary, Wide Awake, that looks at insomnia and one person’s impact on the whole family. Local filmmaker Aviva Kempner will introduce the film and Berliner.


• Vaan Nguyen grew up in Israel speaking Hebrew, but her parents had fled Vietnam in 1979 and were among 200 “boat people” who were granted refuge in Israel. The Journey of Vaan Nguyen tells the story of her quest to travel back to Vietnam.


• Swiss director Gabrielle Antosiewicz is 30 and looking for a Jewish husband in Zurich. In Matchmaker: In Search of a Kosher Man, she invites suitors to her house to bake challah and talk about what they’re looking for in a mate.


• 18-J is a collection of 10 shorts by South American directors (including opening night’s Daniel Burman) that were made in response to the terrorist bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, which killed 86 people and wounded 300.


• Freida Lee Mock’s Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner follows Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Kushner for three years, interviewing his collaborators, and looking at stories and personal accounts from his hectic life.


• Tomer Heymann’s Paper Dolls looks at a group of drag performers from the Philippines who came to Israel in search of a better life and work as caretakers for elderly Jewish men.


• A special works-in-progress screening of local filmmakers Carolyn Projansky and Susan Barocas’ documentary, Breaking the Rules: The Untold Story of White Resistance to Apartheid.

by David Horowitz