Live conversation with short film filmmakers including Jen Kaplan and subject Steven Branfman (A Father's Kaddish), Randi Cecchine & Miriam Lewin (Commandment 613), Daniella Bokor & Leanna Berkovitch (Fata Morgana) and Omer Ben-Shachar (Tree #3) on Sunday, November 8th, 4:00pm included with your ticket.
JEN KAPLAN first film Mixed Blessings: The Challenges of Raising Children in a Jewish-Christian Family was shown in film festivals across the globe (including the Boston Jewish Film Festival, in 2004) and aired on several PBS stations. She worked as a Fundraising Producer at Connecticut Public Television and served as the Associate Director of Filmmakers Collaborative in Boston. She currently serves as a member of the Newton Cultural Commission. Since 2011, she has focused her efforts on producing 5-7 minute films for clients including Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Brandeis University, Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh, and LimmudBoston. A Father’s Kaddish is her most recent film with her company Spencer Films.
STEVEN BRANFMAN received his MAT from Rhode Island School of Design in 1975 and enjoys an international reputation as a clay artist. In 1977, he founded The Potters Shop and School in Needham, MA as his studio, pottery school, gallery and pottery bookstore. He has been teaching pottery at Thayer Academy in Braintree, MA for 42 years. His Raku ware is in the collection of several museums. He is the author of four pottery and Raku books. Steven is a popular workshop presenter, giving guest demonstrations and lectures of his pottery forming, glazing and firing techniques all over the world.
MIRIAM LEWIN has made documentary shorts on topics ranging from housing discrimination in Georgia to the 50th anniversary of undergraduate coed singing at Yale. She also writes and produces radio programs on classical music, and is developing a science podcast. Miriam’s first career was in opera administration, and she manages the world’s oldest collection of opera supertitles.
RANDI CECCHINE’s documentaries include Scrambled: A Journey Through Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, and Trail of Feathers, about a radical political performance troupe. Her interest in spiritual topics began well before her bat mitzvah. She and Miriam Lewin met when they were asked to create a video project about preschoolers’ understanding of math. Randi is pursuing a Master’s degree in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image at the University of Amsterdam.
DANIELLA BOKOR is a filmmaker, 2D animator and concept artist based in Israel. Graduated Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, in 2019. Works as a freelancer and as a graphic designer at the Israeli N12 news channel. Director of short, award-winning Focusing on finding interesting, unique ?animated-documentary film called “Fata Morgana” characters and giving them a surprising visual look.
LEANNA BERKOVITCH is an independent filmmaker and animation art director expertise in concept art development and layout backgrounds design. “Fata Morgana” it’s her graduating film from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Leanna focusing on creating poetic moment that holds a story or specific emotion by combining between video and animation, documentary and experimental genres, and how it’s serving the idea behind the content.
OMER BEN-SHACHAR was born and raised in Tel-Aviv, Israel. In 2019, Omer won the Student Academy Award for his short film Tree #3. The film also won Urbanworld’s Best Young Creator Award, the Palm Springs ShortFest’s Audience Award, and AFI’s Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award, among other accolades. An AFI Conservatory alum, Omer is currently a participant of the 2019–20 Viacom Viewfinder Emerging Directors Program, the 2020 Warner Bros. TV Directors’ Workshop and the BAFTA LA Newcomers Program. He was named to Forbes Israel’s 30 Under 30 list in 2020.