DIVERSITY, HISTORY
KEY TO NY JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
by Karen Kramer The Reeler, 09 Jan. 2007
NEW YORK CITY CINEMA, FROM THE ART HOUSE TO THE RED CARPET
The diversity of international and historic Jewish life will once
again presented at Lincoln Center when the 16th annual New York
Jewish Film Festival opens Wednesday. Featuring 31 films from 14
countries -- many of which will be seen in New York for the first
time -- the festival boasts a program almost as varied as the Jewish
experience itself.....
New York filmmakers are also well-represented, with two local directors
presenting documentaries about relatives they knew only by legend
and whose colorful lives had an impact on the culture at large.
In Sonia, Director Lucy Kostelanetz explores the life of her aunt,
Sonia Dymshitz-Tolstaya -- a Russian avant-garde painter and free-
spirited bohemian who continued to make her own personal style
of art under the shadow of an oppressive Soviet regime. “She
was one of the very few Jewish women involved in the Russian avant-garde,”
Kostelanetz said. "She was the sister who broke all the rules.” Comprising
interviews and archival footage (and taking 12 years to
make), Sonia is one of the festival's two world premiere documentaries.
“This will be my first time out in the world seeing how people
respond,” Kostelanetz told The Reeler. "So I’m
very excited and also I’m very terrified.”
Photo: Sonia standing in the middle of her siblings, above
her brother and mother, 1903.
CONTACT:
LUCY KOSTELANETZ
contact@soniathemovie.com
© 2010 Lucy Kostelanetz Productions, LLC
