Island of Roses: The Jews of Rhodes in Los Angeles

In 1994, when the Holocaust reached the Mediterranean island of Rhodes, a 500-year old civilization was destroyed. Today some of the last surviving Rhodeslis are living in Los Angeles. This film probes the fate of this Sephardic culture‒how these immigrants have passed down their traditions, food, songs, rituals, and medieval Ladino Spanish dialect to their American-born children and grandchildren. Through recorded memories, footage of traditional ceremonies‒including a faith healing, and the impressions of second and third generation Rhodesli descendants, this charming documentary explores how a transplanted culture is both preserved and transformed in a new land.

Born in Los Angeles in 1970 to a Catholic, French father and a Sephardic-Jewish, American mother, Gregori Viens is a dual citizen of France and the US. He lived in France (mostly Paris but also Provence and Alsace) until the age of 19. In 1989, he transferred from the University of Paris XIII, to USC and then to UCLA, from which he graduated, Magna Cum Laude, with a BA in Political Science in 1994. In 1998 he received a MFA in Film Production from Syracuse University, NY, where he also taught for three years, first as a TA for the School of Art & Design (Issues in Art course), then as a part-time instructor for the Film program, giving lower-division lecture courses (Introduction to Film History and Realism in Film). Gregori became actively involved in filmmaking in 1994, while still a senior at UCLA. He began gathering information on the - mostly oral - history of the Sephardic Jews in L.A. and decided to make a documentary. While working as an intern for a freelance film editor in Hollywood, he was given access to a Steenbeck editing machine. With a DAT recorder, a used Eclair NPR and minimal grant funds from the California Council for the Humanities, he shot his first film, Island Of Roses, The Jews of Rhodes in Los Angeles (1995, 55 minutes). His second 16mm film, Punching The Clown, A Portrait of Henry Phillips (1997, 58 minutes), about a modern-day troubadour in L.A., was the prototype for a feature-length project currently in pre-production. His new 35mm short film Adio (1998, 19 minutes) is presented at this festival. FILMOGRAPHY Island Of Roses, The Jews of Rhodes in Los Angeles (1995, 55 minutes) Punching The Clown, A Portrait of Henry Phillips (1997, 58 minutes) Adio (1998, 19 minutes)