When she came to campus this past fall, visiting School of Film professor Pearl Gluck wanted to make sure that she was able to connect with the community of Athens.
This Wednesday at 8 p.m., Gluck will demonstrate her work and heritage when the Athena Cinema, in association with Hillel at Ohio University and the School of Film, will screen her film Divan.
“We’ve been trying to highlight works from the School of Film, and since Pearl is a new professor, we hadn’t had the chance to showcase her work yet at the theater,” said Chris Iacofano, executive director of the Athena Cinema. “We wanted to explore some of the topics in the film, such as her life with her conservative Jewish family, and she got involved. It was a natural fit.”
Gluck spent five years making Divan, which is her first film. It began as a quest to visit Hungary and find a turn-of-the-century Hungarian couch, upon which Hasidic rabbis slept. When she didn’t initially find it, she worried that she didn’t have a film anymore.
Her crew encouraged her though, including William Tyler Smith, her director of photography, who told her that this was not the end of her story, but rather the beginning.
From there, the film became a personalized account as Gluck studied her heritage, her family and her life through an assortment of different characters, landmarks and sites she visited on her journey.
“It had to become a personal film,” Gluck said. “Initially, I was scared of making a movie so personal, but my crew encouraged me so much and it made the movie so much more true and more universal.”
Alexandra Kamody, managing director of the Athena Cinema, said she hopes this movie will attract a wide audience, and will “draw a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds and heritages to watch the film and explore the variety of different messages and truths it has to offer.”
Based on the film’s topic, and Gluck’s care and passion for her culture and heritage, Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, director of Hillel, said she felt it was only natural the two would come together to put on this event.
“It was a really organic process,” Leshaw said. “Whenever a Jewish professor focuses on Jewish ideas and culture and comes to Athens, it’s very likely that they’ll be working with our organization. It was a natural occurrence that we were going to meet and utilize our resources.”
In addition to the film, there will also be a Q-and-A discussion afterward, in which Gluck will speak with the audience about any questions or topics they want to discuss from the film.
“If there is one thing I want people to take away from this film, it’s that I hope people learn to always insist on having a deep passion and love for what you’re doing and what you’re wanting to say,” Gluck said.
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