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The New Day Newsletter

Spring, 2002

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Hello!

For 30 years, New Day's independent filmmakers have produced award-winning educational films and videos on social issue topics. In this newsletter, you'll find descriptions of 14 of our newest films, notices of upcoming broadcasts and screenings in your area, recent awards, and up-to-date information on New Day films and filmmakers. Please check our website for all the latest news: www.newday.com!

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CONTENTS
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---New Releases
---Recent Releases
---Awards
---Upcoming Broadcasts & Screenings
---New Day Conference Beat
---Member News

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NEW RELEASES
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Downside Up is a new film by filmmaker Nancy Kelly. When America’s largest museum of contemporary art –- the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) -- opened in the abandoned factory where filmmaker Nancy Kelly’s family once worked, Kelly wanted to know whether something as ephemeral as art could save her moribund home town. (Order Now, Toll-Free 1-888-367-9154)

Heather Courtney´s new documentary Los Trabajadores/The Workers tells the story of immigrant day laborers Ramon and Juan, and through their words, explores the American paradox of both reliance on and abuse of immigrant labor. (Order Now, Toll-Free 1-888-367-9154)

The new documentary portrait One + One by filmmaker S. Leo Chiang takes an unflinching look at the lives of two couples -- one straight, one gay - as they navigate the sexual and emotional minefield inherent in every mixed HIV-status relationship.

Tangled Roots is the new film by New Day member Heidi Schmidt Emberling. This compelling film offers a new way for people to look at the complexities of the past as the filmmaker tries to reconcile her dual heritage as the daughter of a German father and a Jewish mother. Other films in the collection by Heidi Schmidt Emberling include Spirit of the Dawn, about Native American Education.

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RECENT RELEASES
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A Day's Work, A Day's Pay by Jonathan Skurnik and Kathy Leichter follows three welfare recipients in New York City from 1997 to 2000 as they participate in the largest welfare-to-work program in the nation. When forced to work at city jobs for well below the prevailing wage and deprived of the chance to go to school, these individuals decide to fight back, demanding programs that will actually help them move off of welfare and into jobs.

Brother Born Again is a recently completed film by New Day member Julia Pimsleur in which a Jewish woman journeys to find her born again Christian brother. The film traces Julia's efforts to understand her brother's conversion and attempt to salvage their relationship. The filmmaker travels from New York City to her brother's religious community, where she and Marc search for common ground and rediscover the meaning of family.

New Day member Jay Rosenstein's short film Erased is a poignant and personal look at aging and memory loss, and raises the question of how families cope with the diminishing memory of a relative.

No Loitering by New Day member Ellen Frankenstein is an intimate portrait of teenagers trying to understand their world and their possibilities. The film weaves together video shot by teens and by the filmmaker, as they work together to make a film and create expressive outlets for youth in the community.

How were 50,000 Bulgarian Jews saved from the Holocaust despite the efforts of the government to deport them? The award-winning film, The Optimists by Jacky and Lisa Comforty tells the dramatic story of Christians and Muslims who, at the eleventh hour, secured the safety of their Jewish neighbors.

Rabbit in the Moon is a visually stunning and emotionally compelling documentary/memoir about the events, meanings and lingering effects of the World War II incarceration of the West Coast Japanese American community. The Emmy-award-winning film is also the story of two sisters, filmmaker Emiko Omori and writer Chizuko Omori, who revisited the absence of this vital history in their lives while searching for the memory of their mother who died shortly after their release at war's end.

Scout's Honor by filmmaker Tom Shepard, traces the conflict between the anti-gay policies of the Boy Scouts of America and the broad-based movement by many of its members to overturn them. The story is told predominantly through the experiences of a 13-year old boy and a 70-year-old man -- both heterosexual, both dedicated to the Scouts, and both determined to change the course of Scouting history. Winner, Audience Award for Best Documentary & The Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance Film Festival.

That's a Family is the new award-winning film by New Day members Debra Chasnoff and Helen S. Cohen. With blunt and sometimes hilarious candor, children from over 50 diverse families open the door to their homes, and explain things like "divorce," "mixed race," "gay and lesbian," "birth mom," "single parent," "guardian," and "stepdad" -- and get right to the point of what they wish other people would understand about their families. See our website for other films by these talented filmmakers.

Women of Mystery: Three Writers Who Forever Changed Detective Fiction by Pamela Beere Briggs, is the first film to celebrate three writers -- Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller -- who started a literary revolution and, in the process, captured readers' imagination around the world. You can also find Pamela Beere Briggs’ film Funny Ladies in the New Day collection.

Yield to Total Elation by New Day filmmaker Pat Ferrero, explores the life and work of the enigmatic and visionary artist Achilles G. Rizzoli. By deftly weaving Rizzoli's words, archival footage, photos and evocative present day scenes of San Francisco's historic architecture, the film tells the story of Rizzoli's life and his work -- an exaltation of architecture as pleasure, as memorial, as redemption.

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AWARDS
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Filmmaker Heather Courtney´s new documentary about immigrant day laborers Los Trabajadores/The Workers has won numerous awards, including the Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival, the Humanities Award at the Great Plains Film Festival, and Best of Show at the Cinematexas International Film Festival.

Women of Mystery by Pamela Beere Briggs, was selected an "Editor's Choice" by Booklist as one of 2001's best reviewed videos. Women of Mystery was one of 10 "outstanding videos" reviewed by Booklist over the past five years to be included in the February 2002 listing "Women Who've Made the Mark."

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UPCOMING BROADCASTS & SCREENINGS
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Heidi Schmidt Emberling's new film, Tangled Roots, about one woman’s struggle to reconcile her dual heritage as the daughter of a German Lutheran father and an American Jewish mother, will be presented by the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in late July 2002 and will receive its national television premiere in the fall of 2002 on the Oxygen Channel.

Women of Mystery, which tells the story of three women writers who forever changed detective fiction, screened in March 2002 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. Pamela Beere Briggs, the film's producer-director, will return to the Museum in June 2002 to teach an one-week visual storytelling workshop.

Recent screenings of Los Trabajadores/The Workers included the San Diego International Latino Film Festival in March, and the Chicago Latino International Film Festival in April. Los Trabajadores is scheduled to broadcast in May on 13 PBS stations across Texas as part of "The Territory," a Texas PBS series that showcases independent works from across the country.

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NEW DAY CONFERENCE BEAT
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Look for three New Day films selected to show at the 2002 Western Regional Psychology Conference in Irvine, California in April: Theresa Tollini's film Breaking Silence, a film about incest and child sexual abuse. Heidi Schmidt Emberling’s new film Tangled Roots, about one woman’s struggle to reconcile her dual heritage as the daughter of a German Lutheran father and an American Jewish mother. And Ellen Frankenstein's new film No Loitering, an intimate portrait of teenagers trying to understand their world and their possibilities.

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MEMBER NEWS
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Pat Ferrero's film Yield to Total Elation: The Life and Art of Achilles Rizzoli recently played at the Santa Fe Film Festival, and was shown at both the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA for their "Eye of the World: Miniature and Microcosm in the Art of the Self Taught" and at the Intuit Gallery in Chicago, IL.

Debra Chasnoff and Helen S. Cohen recently received a major grant from the California Endowment to organize teacher training thoughout California in conjunction with That's a Family!, their highly acclaimed film about changing family structures. TAF! was recently screened at national conferences hosted by the National Association of School Psychologists, Coalition for Essential Schools, and the National Council of Teachers of English. Chasnoff and Cohen are in production on a new film about name-calling, the next part of their "Respect for All" series.

Thank you for supporting social-issue films!

 

Read our previous newsletter from Winter 2002


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