Acknowledgements
by Janis Plotkin
from 4th Edition
We want to recognize Deborah Kaufman, our founding Director, for her intelligence
and vision in conceptualizing, writing, editing and publishing the first
two editions of the book INDEPENDENT JEWISH FILM: A RESOURCE GUIDE. In
addition we are very grateful to founding President Alan Snitow for his
leadership, eloquence and steady encouragement in taking the Festival
to new heights.
The Second Edition was improved through the efforts of Rena Orenstein, the coordinating editor in 1991 and the Third Edition with the savvy of Josh Feiger and the editorial savvy of Caroline Libresco. We would like to thank Rena, Josh, Caroline and all the staff who with humor, patience and hard work, have assisted the Festival over the last twenty years. Those talented people include: Sarah Edelstein, Stacy Bloom, Eva Eilenberg, Leslie Krongold, Marc Smolowitz, Susan Rivo and Laurie Russman.
The 20th Anniversary Edition of INDEPENDENT JEWISH FILM was updated and edited online. With the new technologies available to us in the last five years, the information about these films can also be accessed through our online library of independent film, sfjff.org. We would like to thank our in-house website producer Peter Jacobson who coordinated the research for the print edition of the guide and this website, and his staff of assistants, Stacey Marbrey, and Mike Voon. The efforts of Sam Ball to find the right publisher were greatly appreciated as was the steady guidance of Elizabeth Greene.
We also wish to thank our Board of Directors for the time and thoughtful support they have given to the Festival: Marcia Freedman (President), Dan Wohlfeiler (Vice President), Lela Sarnat (Secretary), Susie Coliver (Treasurer), Gila Almagor, Lena Bernstein, Rick Cummings, Michael Ehrenzweig, Carl Grunfeld, Debbie Hoffmann, Virginia King, Donna Korones, Sara Newman, Avi Rose, Seth Safier, Sam Salkin, Peter Samis, Judy Schaefer, Veronica Selver, Marion Sofaer, Corey Weinstein, Steven Zipperstein. Past Board Presidents, Alan Snitow, Alan Ramo and Howard Herman remain important advisors to the Festival's overall vision which this web site utimately reflects.
We have received encouragement, assistance and good advice from special friends whom we wish to acknowledge: Jerry Ross Barrish, Melanie Beene, Ted Greenberg, Jeff Jones, Vivian Kleiman, Jenni Olson, Debra Plotkin, Diane Scheiman, Eviatar Shafrir, Ella Shohat, Deb Sibony, Judy Stone, and the Saul Zaentz Film Center. We are particularly grateful for editorial and marketing savvy we gained in consultation with Marcia Freedman. We thank Development Consultant Susan Freundlich who crafted the winning proposals that funded this web site and the book that inspired it.
We are indebted to the authors of the articles published in this book for the insight they add to this body of work. Included are Annette Insdorf, Director of the Film Studies Department, Columbia University; our founding Director and filmmaker, Deborah Kaufman who authored two of the articles; Judd Ne'eman, Israeli filmmaker and Chair of the Film Department at Tel Aviv University; Jordan Elgraby, founder of Iwri Nasawi, and academic Lital Levy.
We are grateful for the inspiration we have received from independent filmmakers, whose tireless work urges us on. We acknowledge the distributors of these films, without whose help this entire endeavor would not be possible.
We were able to edit, publish and distribute this GUIDE, in part, through a generous grant from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund followed by additional funding from the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of San Francisco, The Cummings Foundation, the Righteous Persons Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
We gratefully acknowledge Festival leaders and loyal audience members Carolyn Cavalier Rosenberg, Rick Cummings, Maurice Kanbar, Hannah Kranzberg, Victor and Lorraine Honig, Janet Traub and Dan Wohlfeiler for their significant and ongoing support and vision.
The statements and views expressed in the book INDEPENDENT JEWISH FILM: A RESOURCE GUIDE and this website are solely the responsibility of the editors.
Articles:
Producing
Your Own Film Festival
Independent Jewish Film in America
Sephardic Cinema
Israeli Cinema
Film & The Holocaust
The SFJFF In Moscow
