Support Your Local Filmmaker

Syracuse -- The Redhouse, a renovated three-story brick building in downtown, is one of this city's cultural jewels. Since opening in 2004, it has presented musicians, plays, visual artists and films from around the world. But for the next two weeks, the focus is on talent cultivated right here in central New York.
The Redhouse’s Local Filmmakers Showcase starts today and runs through March 18. The event features three documentaries and one feature film, all created by filmmakers with roots in this region.
Each film will be presented twice during the showcase; tickets are $6 per show. I produced a podcast about the event, which you can listen to at http://pulse.syr.edu/podcast/
Here are brief summaries about each film (I haven't seen any of them):
* In “Prisoners of Freedom,” we learn the little known story of Fort Ontario, a camp in Oswego where nearly 1,000 European refugees were housed during WWII. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and was both a sanctuary and a prison for the people who stayed there. The 90-minute documentary features old photos, reenactments and interviews with surviving residents. The film was written by two Syracuse University professors, Tom Friedman and Owen Shapiro. Shapiro also directed the film.
* “North of 49” examines the burning of a temple in rural Oswego County two months after Sept. 11. The temple was a converted farmhouse that belonged to members of the Sikh faith, a religion founded in the Punjab region of India. The temple was set aflame by four teenagers who thought the Sikhs supported Osama Bin Laden. The 55-minute film was directed by Richard Breyer, an SU professor, and co-written by Breyer and David Coryell.
* In “Pledge of Allegiance Blues,” we meet Michael Newdow, a California doctor and atheist who brought the “under God” lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court. Newdow believed his daughter shouldn’t be forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school. The issue was complicated by the fact that Newdow didn’t have legal custody of his daughter. The 70-minute documentary, which features the publisher Larry Flynt, was directed by Lisa Seidenberg, a Syracuse native.
* In the fictional film “Hearts Unarmored,” a young man and woman meet a small train station, where time seems to have stopped. The woman is deeply troubled by her marriage to a soldier who has just returned from war, while the young man carries his own dark secrets. The film was directed by Radu Olievschi, a native of Romania and Utica College graduate.
For more information, visit www.theredhouse.org. – JM