On May 13th, Rosenwald was screened at Boston for the JEWISHFILM.2015 film festival to an enthusiastic audience. The sponsors of this event, the National Center for Jewish Film, are now our official distributors for the theatrical release of Rosenwald! The NCJF has served as distributor for all of the Ciesla Foundation’s productions and it is a pleasure to be working with them again.
A trip to Toronto provided Aviva with a great opportunity to catch up with her family in the area. After the reunion, Aviva’s family joined her in attending a new festival screening of Rosenwald.
Aviva Kempner enjoyed returning to the Toronto Jewish Film Festival to screen another one of her films on May 10th for the showing of Rosenwald. It should be to no surprise that Julius Rosenwald’s contributions are even less known in Canada than they are in the United States. Being the case, it was exciting to spread the story to more people who would not normally have heard it. The audience was still very receptive and appreciated the movie and it’s message.
A special screening of Rosenwald was held yesterday morning, May 2nd, for the cast and crew of the film. Many of the interviewees were in attendance.
Loretta Lynch was just confirmed as the first black female attorney general after a 166-day wait for the vote. Loretta’s father, Rev. Lorenzo Lynch, says her story begins with Julius Rosenwald, who built 5,300 public schools for African American children around the country. Loretta’s mother went to one of the Rosenwald schools. Loretta herself was very intelligent, doing so well on a standardized test that her white teachers made her take it again. She graduated top of her senior class from Durham High School. But still, Lorenzo was shocked when he found out about his daughter’s nomination. Republicans used her nomination as a “proxy fight against Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration.” Lorenzo believes that his daughter’s legacy will be, “Don’t give up.”
To read more about Lynch’s connection to the Rosenwald schools, click here for the article from Politico, and to learn more about Julius Rosenwald, don’t forget to check out Rosenwald when it hits theaters all over America later this year.
Last night, April 19th, Rosenwald screened at the Nashville Film Festival. After the screening, a Q & A was held with director Aviva Kempner, interviewees Frank Brinkly and Peter Ascoli (grandson of Julius Rosenwald), and editor Marian Sears Hunter. It was exciting to show the film near Fisk University, where so much research had been done for the film, and the Cairo school, whose restoration we had filmed.
At the end of the festival, the was named the winner of the Lipscomb University Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.
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