The Dorothy Parker Society is pleased to be invited to two free private screenings, in New York and Los Angeles, for the exciting new documentary about the artist-sculptor Altina Schinasi. Altina from filmmaker Peter Sanders won best Film and Best Director Award at the 2013 Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Mr. Sanders will attend the screenings and be available for a Q&A.
New York Screening:
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 7pm
IFC Center
323 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10014
Los Angeles Screening:
Wednesday, September 24 (time TBD)
Laemmle Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills
9036 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 9021
TO RSVP: EMAIL YOUR FULL NAME AND IF YOU WANT TO ATTEND NYC OR LA TO: Email RSVP here. You will be sent a confirmation from the film’s publicity office.
About the film, from the press release:
Altina Schinasi, (1907 – 1999), was a paradox. Simultaneously seductive and reserved, her sheltered upbringing was in sharp contrast to the bold sexuality of her artwork, and she created a fashion sensation in the 1930s with her design for Harlequin eyeglasses. Altina is an affecting, provocative, and richly informative documentary about an American trendsetter–a woman before her time.
Free of academic constraints and confident in her keen intellect, she crafted fragments of her life into sculptures that defined her surreal and original world. Her whimsical art was also anchored in social issues: her film on George Grosz took on the Holocaust, earning her an Oscar nomination and winning her the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. She befriended Martin Luther King Jr. and supported his struggle. And during the Red Scare, she did not hesitate to hide John Berry–who was blacklisted for having directed a documentary on the Hollywood Ten–in her Beverly Hills home. As a sculptor, her most original creations were called “chairacters.” Exuding Altina’s unencumbered feminist sexuality, these large, almost life-size chairs and benches depicted lovers in passionate embrace or turning away from each other to express the absence of love.
First Run Features Presents a Victoria Sanders Film Partners Production with Eight Twelve Productions, LLC. A film by Peter Sanders; Music by David Robbins; Edited by Clark Harris; Executive Producer Diane Dickensheid; Produced by Victoria Sanders and Peter Sanders. Directed by Peter Sanders.
For more information about the film, please visit www.altinathefilm.com.