Miércoles 9/4/2008, 19hs en Salguero 758
Proyección del filme "Más allá de la Perla de las Antillas"

Sinopsis:

This film documents the lives of the many Cuban Jews who left Cuba, where they lived since the early 1900's, in 1960. The film also has a political perspective and clearly illustrates the severe adverse effect that Castro has had on the Cuban people and their economy. The Jewish community in Cuba continues to survive. The film explores how they arrived in Cuba, how they continue to practice their religion, and why they have remained close to their roots.

Acerca de la película:

"Cuba, Beyond the Pearl of the Antilles" documents the lives of the many Cuban Jews who left Cuba in 1960, where they lived since the early 1900's. The film also has a political perspective and clearly illustrates the severe adverse effect that Castro has had on the Cuban people and their economy.

The Jewish community in Cuba continues to survive. We explore how they arrived in Cuba, how they continue to practice their religion, and why it is that they have remained close to their roots. What was the Cuban Jewish community of yesterday? What happenned to the 1500 of the 15,000 that remained to endure forty-five years under Castros regime?

The Jewish community in Cuba continues to survive. We explore how they arrived in Cuba , how they continue to practice their Judaism and why it is that they have remained close to their Jewish roots. “It's like hearing a song from your youth, you know who you are, you know where you came from and you know where you are going,” Rabbi Pearlson.

Comentarios:

"En Cuba la gente vice con dos caras. Un día son revolucionarios a los ojos del mundo. Al día siguiente, dentro de sus corazones, se preguntan, ¿Porqué hago esto? Hago esto porque no tengo opción, solo puedo sobrevivir." - Jacobo Epellaum.

Festivales en los que participó o participará:

• Festival Internacional de Valdivia en Chile Sept 30- Oct 7, 2005
• Boston Latino Film Festival October 14, 2005 Friday.
• Los Angeles Latin Film Festival October 21-30th, 2005.
• World Jewish Film Festival junto al Steven Speilberg Film Archive November 16-24, 2005

Belina Crespin y Joycelyn Bejar
en el Miami International Film Festival
Febrero-marzo 2008
[más fotos del festival]

Acerca del director:

Joycelyn Bejar began her career as a journalist with the intention of becoming a foreign correspondent. As she began to travel, explore and investigate the world over, she discovered the art form of story telling. She realized the different methods of recounting stories through her travels and experiences. As a graduate in Journalism/Political Science from the University of Florida in her last semester she was awarded an internship with ABC NEWS NIGHTLINE. From there she moved to Washington, D.C. to find out what the nation’s Capitol was all about and began work as a segment producer/writer for WTTG, The Fox Morning News. After gaining some experience, she moved back to her hometown, Miami, to work for WTVJ, an NBC owned and operated station, as a writer for the morning news. After seven years of working in the news industry, Bejar yearned for something more creative. She searched for a way to get the picture to the world. She entered the film industry and continued her career producing commercials, music videos and other independent films.

In 2003, Bejar founded Imperial Dragon Films a non-profit organization, the venture to facilitate the development of her talent in blending fact finding with storytelling through the art of the cinema and sharing it with the world. Now, Bejar premieres her first independent film, “Cuba: Beyond the Pearl of the Antilles.”

Miami resident Clifton Childree is a filmmaker/artist who in 2003 completed his six-year solo feature film project, “The Flew”, which Cashiers Du Cinemart Magazine named as one of the top 50 Midnight Movies made in the last ten years. In 2004 Clifton received the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship and presented an installation of “The Flew” at the Miami Art Museum. His recent projects include “She Sank on Shallow Bank”, a stop-motion animated/live action dance film and “Something Awful”, a slapstick comedy/gore film co-commissioned by Carnival Center for the Performing Arts and Miami Light Project for Here & Now: 2006. His current projects are a series of nightmarish slapstick short films each to be looped through an antique hand cranked film projector, controlled by the viewer and a script for his second feature length film, “It Gets Worse”, a 1920s style silent horror/slapstick film about an old sea captain troubled by a cursed coffin shaped nickel arcade game which changes his appearance and personality, transforming him into the Mr. Hyde alter ego of his character.