Today’s guests include Louise Rosen, Executive and Artistic Director with the Maine Jewish Film Festival. Richard Kane of Kane Lewis Productions and Filmmaker with the Maine Jewish Film Festival and Larry Rubenstein, retired rabbi and supporter of the Maine Jewish Film Festival. Now in its 17th year, the Maine Jewish Film Festival has presented over 300 domestic and foreign films. Sold over 32,000 tickets to both Jewish and non-Jewish attendees. This year the Maine Jewish Film Festival will be held from March 22 to 29 in venues around greater Portland as well as selected sites around the state.
Guests
Richard Kane
Richard Kane is director of Maine Masters, a New England Emmy-nominated series of artist portraits that airs on MPBN and is currently in negotiations for PBS network syndication. His 2011 release on painter David Driskell has screened at eight film festivals to date and premiered in Washington, D.C. at the National Gallery of Art. “Jon Imber’s Left Hand” will be the fifteenth episode. With partner Melody Lewis-Kane of Kane-Lewis Productions, Kane seeks out subjects that are of greatest benefit to the community. In 2013 he directed two short documentaries about hunger — In These Times and Turning Clothing into Food – both aimed at encouraging people to support their local food pantry. Both films have been playing in theaters across Maine as well as on MPBN. In 2009 Kane produced the Natural Resources Council of Maine’s 50th anniver-sary film Protecting the Nature of Maine and an independent documentary Rock Solid on the Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium. Since 2007 Richard has served as chair of the Maine Film + Video Association, a trade association promoting greater opportunity and professionalism.
Louise Rosen
Louise Rosen is the Executive + Artistic Director of the Maine Jewish Film Festival. She began working with MJFF in November 2012. Her key responsibilities are to work with the board to program and manage the festival, fundraise and serve as spokesperson. Louise is a media executive with over 25 years experience in all areas of the international television and film business. Her projects have included Oscar, Emmy, Sundance, Prix Italia and International Emmy-winning films. After many years as a distributor, she launched an agency in 1996 to focus on working with independent non-fiction producers as an editorial and business consultant, sales agent and distributor. Louise tutors and lectures annually at Documentary Campus Master School and at festivals and conferences including DOKLeipzig, IDFA, Thessaloniki and HotDocs. She is on the Advisory Board of the Independent Feature Project/NY and the Board of Directors of the Maine Media Workshops + College where she also chairs the Programming Committee. She is former Vice Chair of the Maine Film & Video Association and continues to serve on their Advisory Committee. She is also the co-founder of Movies in the Park, a free summer screening series of Hollywood films in Brunswick.
Larry Rubinstein
Rabbi Larry Rubinstein is a retired rabbi and a supporter of the Maine Jewish Film Festival.