The Desperate wins best short at the Hollywood Film Festival
by Karmel Melamed
Iranian Jewish filmmaker Ben Hur Sepher was shocked on Sunday night Oct. 24 when his independent short film “The Desperate” was announced as the best short film at the Hollywood Film Festival. A humble Sepher accepted the trophy for the heart-wrenching film that deals with an eminent Jewish surgeon imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II who is conscripted at gunpoint to perform emergency surgery on the son of a fearsome Nazi general. The film stars television series regular Peter Mark Richman, who gives a remarkable performance as the guilt ridden Jewish surgeon Dr. Blumenthal in the film.
But this latest award is not the only acclaim the film has received since it was released earlier this year. “The Desperate” has so far won 17 top honors at a whole host of national film festivals including best Short Film of 2010 at the California Independent Film Festival and runner up for best Short Film of 2010 at the Los Angeles Jewish film Festival.
I caught up with Sepher who was caught off guard with his film’s latest win when he said “I am honestly surprised to receive such an honor at the Hollywood Film Festival— I wasn’t expecting it at all”. Sepher is one of the Iranian Jewish community’s rare filmmakers who has made a name for himself in Iran and the United States for writing, directing and producing provocative films. His occupation as a filmmaker is indeed unique in the Iranian Jewish community because individuals who pursued careers in the arts or entertainment in Iran were typically not looked highly upon or even respected. Nevertheless Sepher was trained in his craft at the Swedish Film Institute and began his career at the Stockholm State Theatre as a protégée to renown film director Ingmar Bergman. Sepher went on to direct films and plays in Iran and was the personal filmmaker to the late Shah of Iran— shooting the Shah’s private meeting and gatherings. Since immigrating to the U.S. three decades ago, he has gone on to direct a whole host of television programs and short films in Hollywood.
(left to right; cast member Leonardo Foti, Ben Hur Sepher and cast member Alexander Leeb.
What I found truly remarkable was the fact that the “The Desperate” was produced by a filmmaker of Iranian descent. This speaks volumes in light of Iran’s current president denying the existence of the Holocaust. No doubt this short film will draw the attention of Iranians living worldwide who are interested in learning more about the realities of the Holocaust.
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Bluebeard screens at Vancouver International Film Festival
Madame Perrault’s Bluebeard
plays in Insomnia
(Canada, 2010, 6min, Color)
Directed By: A.J. Bond
Cast & Credits
A fantasy re-envisioning of the classic fairytale Bluebeard by Charles Perrault, in which Perrault’s young wife reads
herself into his dark allegory on marital mistrust.
Show Times
Tue, Oct 12 – 9:15 pm
Empire Granville 7 Th 2
$12.00
Wed, Oct 13 – 4:00 pm
Pacific Cinematheque
$10.00
VW-Dreamteam Commercial launches National
VW Dreamteam
After four years of blood, sweat and tears, top Volkswagen designers and product engineers assembled from around the world are ready to soak in the glory of their creation — or so they think. The all-new 2011 Jetta. Great. For the price of good.
Undercovers airs on NBC
An innocent nurse sits at a desk covering the night shift at a German mental hospital when she’s approached by two strange men, who shoot and kill her. The two men walk through the hospital until they reach the room where a young man, Mathias, is kept. They grab him, take him to a car and tell him he must cooperate with them. Back in Los Angeles, the Blooms start the day off right. After a morning lovemaking session, Samantha suggests they spend the whole day in bed. Before she can get the words out, Steven already has his phone and remote control in hand, proving he’s addicted to technology.
Bluebeard screens at Atlantic Film Festival
Madame Perrault’s Bluebeard
A.J. Bond 2010
Categories: Drama
Run time: 6 min. | Canada
Fiction and reality are blurred when Madam Perrault stumbles upon pages from her husband’s manuscript, giving her a glimpse into a surreal and haunting portrait of her own life.
9:25 PM Thu, Sep 23
screens with…
Shorts 4
Family Jewels | Martin Stitt 2009
GirlLikeMe | Rowland Jobson 2009
Green Crayons | Kazik Radwanski 2010
Savage | Lisa Jackson 2009
SIS | Deborah Haywood 2010
Little Children, Big Words | Lisa James Larsson 2010
The Birthday Circle | Philip Lepherd 2010
Park Lane – 7
about the film
cast & crew
Director
A.J. Bond
Screenwriter
Victor Schoucair
Cast
Alexander Leeb
Kim Haden
Producer
Amy Belling
Cinematographer
Amy Belling
Filming Undercovers
Undercovers is an American action spy television series created by J. J. Abrams and Josh Reims for NBC. They were executive producers of the pilot along with Abrams’ frequent collaborator Bryan Burk.
Premise
Five years after leaving the CIA to open a catering company, Steven and Samantha Bloom are recruited back into the agency by Carlton Shaw. They take on special missions the average agent cannot handle. Having made a pact to never discuss their pasts with each other, the Blooms find surprising new things about their spouse in the course of each mission. They are aided by Leo Nash, a top agent who was once Samantha’s boyfriend, and geeky computer expert Bill Hoyt, who worships Steven. Lizzy is Samantha’s sister, a recovering alcoholic who helps run the catering business and is unaware of what the Blooms are really up to. The Blooms are unaware that Shaw has a secret agenda for reactivating them.
IBM Smarter Water
Water is something we all take for granted, but there is a limited amount in the world. Smarter water management is necessary to ensure our farms, factories and businesses keep running.
“”IBMer : There is only so much water in the world.
IBMer: But demand is increasing
BIZMAN: It takes about 35 gallons to make a cup of coffee.
IBMer: 700 gallons to make a t-shirt.
GARY: Our team is thinking of ways to make water management smarter.
BOB: Nanotechnology that removes salt from water.
FOREMAN: Smarter factories
WOMAN: that run on reclaimed water.
FARMER: Smarter farms that use
TEENAGER: less water to grow more food.
IBMer: If we cant make more water
IBMer: we have to be smarter about the water we have.
IBMer: Thats what Im working on.
IBMer: Im an IBMer.
MAYOR: Lets build a smarter planet.”””
Review "The City" LA Stage Times
Director Stan Mazin Revives The City at Group Rep
by JULIO MARTINEZ | February 10, 2010
The City, presented by The Group Rep, continues Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 3 pm; through Feb. 28. Tickets: $15-$22. Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd. North Hollywood; 818.700.4878 or thegrouprep.com.
If one were to peruse the simple description of the play, The City by Clyde Fitch, it would seem to be culled from today’s headlines. The action centers on the machinations of a charismatic young politician running for governor whose façade of wholesome virtue begins to crumble once the extent of his unbridled ambition and other unsavory facts about his personal life are revealed.
“Actually, it premiered on Broadway in 1909,” says Stan Mazin, who has adapted and staged the work for the North Hollywood-based Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre. “We became attracted to the work because there was such a strong parallel between the things Fitch was writing about and what we are witnessing in politics right now.”
Though little known today, Fitch (1865-1909) was America’s first commercially successful playwright with 36 published plays, which varied from social comedies and farces to melodrama and historical dramas. He was the first American playwright to publish his plays. His first work of note was Beau Brummell (1890), followed by such critical successes as Masked Ball (1892), Nathan Hale (1898), Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines (1900) which made a star of Ethel Barrymore, The Climbers (1901), The Girl with the Green Eyes (1902), The House of Mirth (1906) and others. At the height of his career, Fitch was earning up to $250,000 from his plays at a time when the average working man’s salary was a dollar a day.
“Group Rep’s Artistic Director Earnest Figueroa brought The City to me and asked me to read it,” Mazin recalls. “I loved it in its present state, set during the turn of the 20th century. The play had such a wonderful classic structure but contained so many contemporary evils: corruption, political blackmail, incest, a celebrity divorce, criminal financial manipulation. It was like reading about Enron.
Hector Hank, Bix Barnaba and Alexander Leeb
“Earnest wanted me to update it to present time. So I updated the language, set it in today’s world but didn’t tamper with the basic structure of the work. It was Fitch’s last play. He died soon after it was produced on Broadway. When it did premiere it caused a scandal. It was the first play to use the phrase, ‘God damn.’ Actually, the line in the play is, ‘You’re a God damn liar.’ Despite the controversy, The City had a very successful run.”
Mazin wasn’t too fazed about adapting a play set during a time when the manual typewriter was the height of mechanical sophistication to today’s world of cell phones and fiber optics.
“Actually, there was very little to change,” Mazin recalls. “There were small things like the use of the term ‘blackguard’ which I eliminated. Also, there is a scene where the main character, George Rand, throws a letter into a fire. Now, he puts it through a shredder. There is another scene where a mother and daughter are arranging flowers in a room as a distraction, all the while talking to the father. They wouldn’t do that today. I have the mother talking on a cell phone and the daughter text messaging as the distraction. These things all heighten the reality of today’s world but do not distract from the themes Fitch created.”
Group Repertory Theatre has had a long and storied history of taking classic works and making them work for contemporary audiences, beginning with their first production, the 1974 staging of Round Dance, an adaptation of Schnitzler’s turn of the 20th century classic La Ronde.”
Under the original guidance of Founder/Artistic Director Lonny Chapman, Group Rep established a permanent company of actors, directors, writers and technicians. The company has produced over 200 productions including more than 37 world premieres of original works. Chapman continued to lead the company until his passing in 2007. In April of 2009, the company welcomed Figueroa as its new Artistic Director.
Stan Mazin is a longtime member of Group Repertory Theatre which is 36 years old. Mazin has been with it for 35 of those years, when the company had only 20 members. “I am one of three people who have been in it continuously,” Mazin affirms. “Some members have come and gone and then returned. I have kept my membership in the company current for 35 years.
“Our first space was a converted garage on Van Ness Avenue in Hollywood. Then we moved to North Hollywood on Magnolia, near Vineland. We have been in our current home on Burbank Boulevard for 25 years.”
Mazin has managed to keep busy in the company. He has directed Prisoner of Second Avenue and the recent Give ‘Em Hell, Harry! Some of his acting credits include Broadway Bound, Company, California Suite, 411 Joseph, and Chaim’s Love Song. Along the way, he also found time to do four Broadway shows: High Spirits, Bajour, Holly Golightly and Walking Happy which brought him to LA in 1967. He also did a tour of West Side Story in 1965, playing Bernardo opposite Christopher Walken as Riff.
He has also done a plethora of television shows, including 10 years as a dancer on The Carol Burnett Show. And he still operates Stan Mazin Travels, taking five or six tours every year to various destinations around the world. He leaves Feb. 21 for India. Noted dancer/director Dom Salinaro, his partner of 44 years, passed away last year.
“The City has been my first opportunity to adapt a play for Group Rep,” says Mazin. “It has been a wonderful experience for me. I am working with a phenomenal 10-member ensemble and directing a play I think is going to surprise everyone with its relevance to today’s world.”
Feature image by Doug Engalla