Hillel Invites Filmmaker as Distinguished Artist in Residence

Experimental filmmaker Abraham Ravett will be spending three days at Ithaca College as the Hillel distinguished artist in residence. In addition to conducting master classes for students, Ravett will hold three public screenings of his works. The screenings --- cosponsored by the Cinema on the Edge and Jewish Life and the Arts Series --- will take place in Park Hall Auditorium at 7:00 p.m.

On Monday, March 4, Ravett will show and discuss Everything’s for You, In Memory, and The March. The three films center on the Holocaust experiences of Ravett’s parents, who survived the Lodz ghetto and Auschwitz. The works include interviews conducted with his mother --- his father never talked about his ordeal --- as well as archival footage, home movies, children’s drawings, and computer graphics.

On Tuesday, March 5, Ravett will present and discuss his 1994 film Forgotten Tenor, a tribute to Wardell Gray, considered by many as one of the greatest tenor saxophonists from the 1940s and 1950s. Running for 136 minutes, the film uses a combination of archival footage, family photographs, memorabilia, and conversations with family and colleagues to commemorate the life and music of this great but unheralded musician.

On Wednesday, March 6, the program will consist of Zeger’s Note, Horse/Kappa/House, and The Balcony. These three films use a note from a friend in a far-off land, the haunting aspects of Japanese folk tales, and the comings and goings of high-rise dwellers to explore the forces of memory and loss.

Born in Poland in 1947, Ravett grew up in Israel and immigrated to the United States in 1955. Trained in filmmaking and photography, he has been making independent films for the past 20 years. His work has been screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Innis Film Society in Toronto, Image Forum in Tokyo, and L.A. Forum. He currently teaches filmmaking and photography at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

More information on Ravett and his work is available at http://helios.hampshire.edu/~arPF.