SANTA ROSA FILM FESTIVAL - Santa Rosa International Film Festival

Santa Rosa International Film Festival
Screening of
heaven’S mirror:
a portugueSe voyage
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Deerfield Ranch Cave, 6:15pm
Paintings by world renowned Portuguese-American artist Joao de Brito will accompany the
screenings, followed by a discussion of the intersection of film, art and music in Portguese-
American culture during a special Panel Event.
DIR: Joshua
Mellars
PROD: Joshua
Mellars CAM:
Joshua Mellars
ED: Joshua Mellars
MUS: Carlos
Goncalves
FEATURING:
Joana
Amendoeira,
Mafalda Arnauth,
Camané
70
Minutes, 2011,
USA
The evenings at Deerfield Ranch Winery on September 17 and
Summerfield Cinemas in Santa Rosa on the 18th featuring
presentations of film and art will be complemented by Live music
by Conjunto de Fado Os Rouxinois and fadista Carmencita. The
band, all in their early twenties, are an example of the rising
resurgence of fado both in Portugal and the US. And in addition,
authentic Portuguese food and fine wines will be served.
Heaven’s Mirror:
A Portuguese
Voyage
World Premiere
Arts in Film
Director Joshua Dylan
Mellars’ love song to fado music, this documentary is a Chatwinesque travelogue of
the filmmaker’s encounter with fado that goes deep into the spell of this hauntingly
beautiful Portuguese folk music and its salient emotion--longing, or “saudade.”
In telling fado’s story, Heaven’s Mirror travels from the Portuguese immigrant enclaves
of California to New England’s former whaling ports, then to Lisbon’s candle-lit
fado houses and Indian Goa’s steamy, pastel bungalows.
New generation fadistas Ana Moura and Mafalda Arnauth are featured in Mellars’
documentary, bringing a fresh approach to fado: Moura, filmed singing in an intimate
cabaret setting, has sung “No Expectations” on the big stage with the Rolling Stones;
Arnauth is filmed at Sintra’s windswept Moorish castle and on the rugged coastline
which inspires her own songs, and has recorded Astor Piazzolla’s Argentine tangos
and Tom Jobim’s Brazilian bossa novas, as well as traditional fados.
ALSO PLAYING: Sunday, Sept. 18, 4:00 pm, Summerfield Cinemas 2
Santa Rosa International Film Festival
Screening of
only a number
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Summerfield Cinemas 3, 1pm
Community Partner: Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival
Join in with Holocaust Survivor Lillian Judd and Director Steven Besserman
as they discuss the film, and the process of Forgiveness, followed by debut of
Liliian’s book From Nightmare To Freedom, and a book signing.
DIR: Steven
Besserman
SCR: Steven
Besserman,
Aranka Mozes
Besserman
CAM: Gerardo
Puglia
ED: Iva Drufovka
MUS:
Allen Krantz
FEATURING:
M. Katrin Daria
65
Minutes, 2010,
USA
Only a Number
West Coast Premiere
Cinema of Conscience
Stephen Besserman’s
parents, Aranka and
Joseph, are survivors
of the Holocaust. Both
have numbers tattooed
on the inside of their left
arm: hers is A17855, his
is 159337.
To better understand his
parents’ history, he travels to Europe and follows the same path his mother did. Starting
in her home of Atkar, Hungary, he moves on to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, the
place where she began her descent into hell and where she became only a number
to the Nazis. Then he moves to Waldlager in Muhldorf, Germany to the concentration
camp where his parents met, fell in love and found the will to live. The journey
continues to Troubing, Germany, where they married, and finally onto America to
begin a new, free life.
While a majority of the film is narrated by his mother’s words, the film’s interspersed
dialogue beautifully depicts Besserman’s ambivalent feelings about the Holocaust because
had such a horrific event not occurred, he may not have come to be.
ALSO PLAYING: Monday, Sept. 19, 2:00 pm Summerfield Cinemas 2
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