Furman Film Series Announces 77 Steps & The Artist Screenings

Furman Film Series - screening of 77 Steps with director Ibitsam Mara'ana in attendance and announcement of special preview screening of Cannes award-winner, The Artist.

November 3rd brings the Long Island premiere of 77 Steps, with director Ibitsam Mara'ana in attendance. The film premiered at the 2011 Jerusalem Film Festival and will have its New York premiere at Other Israel Film Festival in Manhattan.

From the Jerusalem film festival: "Ibtisam Ma'arana has a remarkable talent for making documentary films with tension, development and denouement, as was seen in her Lady Kul el-Arab. She is an outspoken, modern, and articulate woman who is desperately trying to straddle the diverse parts of her identity. Having grown up in a traditional Muslim family in Furadeis (a village on the coast, near Zichron Yackov), she decides to move to Tel Aviv. In her newest film, 77 Steps, she looks specifically at where she fits in as a professional-Israeli- Palestinian-Muslim-woman-filmmaker.

A film which begins as a personal journey to discovering life in Tel Aviv soon becomes a portrait of a love story - a love story between Ibtisam and Jonathan, a Jewish immigrant from Canada. This is the story of two people in love, trying to make it work, who aren't willing to compromise on who they are and what they believe in.

Ibtisam has joined the leftwing political party, Meretz, and is on their list for the Knesset. However, after Israel invades Gaza in January 2009, and her political party supports the invasion, she decides to resign from running for the Knesset. Meanwhile, we are witness to a developing love affair. But things are not so easy with their families. In phone conversations with her mother, Ibtisam reveals some of what she is feeling about how the Arabs of Israel are treated. At the same time, her mother wants her to come home with a nice Muslim boy. Similarly, Jonathan honestly relates that his parents will not be very welcoming to their son's new girlfriend. He explains that they are looking for the ideal girl - white, English-speaking and Jewish.

In discussion with the audience, following the premiere screening of the film at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Mara'ana explained "when you fall in love, the heart doesn't ask you for permission."

The title of the film refers to the 77 steps that you have to climb to get up to Ibtisam's parents' home in Furadeis, where she grew up. These steps represent her childhood home, her roots. Even though she says she has stopped counting the steps, she can't get away from her identity, her connection to her past, her parents, her upbringing, her belonging, and her roots." (Amy Kronish)

November 10 brings The Artist, from French director Michel Hazanavicius. This modern masterpiece takes place in Hollywood between 1927 and 1931 and focuses on a declining male star and a rising actress as silent cinema grows out of fashion and is replaced by the talkies. The Artist is itself a silent film, in black and white with music and English title-cards. Shot in Los Angeles and painstakingly researched, The Artist's lead, Jean Dujardin won the Best Actor Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival where it premiered. It was also one of the top films at the Toronto Film Festival.

November 17 brings The Descendants from Alexander Payne (Sideways), starring George Clooney. This Toronto Film Festival hit is a comedy-drama based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings about a Hawaiian land baron who tries to re-connect with his two daughters after his wife falls into a coma.

December 1 brings Hot Coffee, the stunning Sundance Film Festival and HBO documentary by Susan Saladoff about how one infamous lawsuit allowed corporations across the United States to brew a concoction of manipulation intended to protect corporate interests and keep regular citizens out of the courts. Hot Coffee is a special presentation of a grass roots film hoping to make a difference by getting the word out.

Films begin at 7:30pm. Entry is 7:00pm for subscribers, 7:15 for ticket holders. Each screening has a Q&A with a notable personality after the film.

Tickets to select Gold Coast Furman Film Series are $15 ($20 at the door. $10 for students.) For more information call 516.829.2570 or go to www.greatneckarts.org/Film.htm. The series is held at Clearview Cinemas Great Neck Squire Theater at 115 Middle Neck Road in the heart of Great Neck.

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