The JEWISH FILM SHOWCASE offers an exciting slate of new feature documentary films telling vibrant stories from around the world.
Curated and presented as a mini film festival, by The National Center for Jewish Film, the showcase presents three award-winning films, each exploring a dynamic story rich in history, art, and culture.
Paraphrasing one of this year's protagonists, "these films reach deep into history and bring something back."
“Carvalho's Journey” is a real-life 19th century American western adventure story about Solomon Nunes Carvalho, an observant Sephardic Jew born in 1815 in Charleston, South Carolina.
In 1853, traveling with John Fremont’s 5th Westward Expedition through Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and California, Carvalho became one of the first photographers to document the sweeping vistas and treacherous terrain of the far American West.
Living alongside mountain men, Native Americans, and Mormons, Carvalho overcame enormous odds to produce beautiful art: daguerreotypes that became the lens through which the world experienced the West.
The film interweaves stunning HD digital and 16mm film landscape cinematography, rare 19th century photographs, Carvalho’s surviving artwork and daguerreotypes, and interviews with scholars and artists, including modern day daguerreotypist Robert Shlaer who recreates Carvalho’s original daguerreotypes on location.
The documentary is narrated by award winning actor Michael Stuhlbarg (BOARDWALK EMPIRE, "Steve Jobs") with original music by Jamie Saft (composer, "Murderball").
REVIEWS:
“Staggering...breathtaking.” –-Wall Street Journal
“Great story…stunning visuals...a very rare treat." –-Huffington Post
“Stories about Jews on the frontier are rare, and Carvalho’s Journey, filmed largely among the astonishing geographic formations of the Southwest, is both a surprising and a visually stunning work.” –-The Forward
UP NEXT:
"Raise The Roof " will air Tuesday, Dec. 12 at 9 p.m., and "Ahead Of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber" will air Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV.
CREDITS:
Director/Producer/Writer: Steve Rivo. Narrator: Michael Stuhlbarg. Editor and Co-Producer: Kathryn Barnier. Cinematography by David A. Ford and Antonio Rossi
