Treyf

TREYF ("not kosher" in Yiddish) is an unorthodox film by and about two Jewish lesbians who met and fell in love at a Passover seder. This witty and cinematically innovative documentary explores the intersections between the lesbian and Jewish communities. Often funny, sometimes poignant stories from the filmmakers and their friends tackle questions head on and reveal new and imaginative ways to express present-day Jewish identities. TREYF is the first comprehensive filmic look at the concerns of Jewish lesbians in relation to culture, family, homophobia, anti-Semitism, Zionism and progressive politics. It brings into focus the issues that arise when two dynamic cultural identities intersect.

Alisa Lebow (Co-Producer, Director, Writer, Editor) is an independent filmmaker and writer. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships and her work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The New Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, and in theaters and festivals around the world. In 1995 she completed a short video in collaboration with Cynthia Madansky entitled Internal Combustion about lesbians and AIDS (distributed by Video Data Bank). In 1994 she produced, shot and edited Outlaw starring Leslie Feinberg (distributed by Women Make Movies) broadcast on WNET's Reel NY series. Lebow teaches courses on documentary aesthetics at NYU Graduate Film and TV., Cynthia Madansky (Co-Producer, Director, Writer) is a filmmaker, visual artist, and graphic designer. She recently completed a conceptual art installation entitled "On the Jewish Question." In 1995 she also made two short films: Internal Combustion, (distributed by Video Data Bank) in collaboration with Alisa Lebow, and; We At Her, shown at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and screened at the prestigious Feminale in Cologne, 1996. Madansky is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program and recently completed her MFA at Rutgers University. Her work has been exhibited in East and West Jerusalem, Caracas, Sydney, Copenhagen, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco and NYC. cynthia madansky education 1993 - 94 Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University, MFA 1988 - 89 Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, NYC 1985 - 87 Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem 1979 - 82 Hebrew University BSW, Jerusalem exhibitions 2001 Yeshiva University, New York, NY 2000 White/Hot, Smack Mellon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 1999 College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1998 YYZ, Toronto, Cananda (solo exhibition) 1996 YYZ, Toronto, Canada Update Exhibition, Copenhagen Denmark 1995 Center for the Visual Arts, Denver, CO Esperanza Gallery, San Antonio, TX Zimmerli Museum, New Brunswick, NJ 1994 National Gallery of Australia, Sydney Australia Artists Space, NYC (solo exhibition) 1992 "Salon Show", Art in General NYC 10 on 8 Installation, NYC Cooper Union Houghton Gallery, NYC (solo exhibition) 1991 "Young NY Artists", Sala Mendoza, Venezuela "Maps and Madness", Bronx Council on the Arts "New Work", Marine Midland Bank, NYC "Queer Art", New Langton Arts Gallery, San Francisco Group Show, CUNY Graduate Center, NYC 1990 "Works on Paper", LI University Gallery, NY 1989 Whitney Museum Open Studio, NYC 1988 Houghton Gallery, Cooper Union, NYC 1987 Il Hakawati Gallery, East Jerusalem films 2002 Past Perfect , directed by Cynthia Madansky 16mm film 38 min. 1998 Co-Producer/Director: Treyf, 60 min. 16mm film in collaboration with Alisa Lebow. 1996 We At Her, a film by Cynthia Madansky (RT: 8 min/super 8). Internal Combustion: by Alisa Lebow and Cynthia Madansky. (RT: 7:30 min/video). film screenings (selection) Museum of Modern Art, NYC Jerusalem International Film Festival, Israel Charlotte International Film Festival, North Carolina The Brooklyn Museum, NY The Other America, San Antonio Margaret Mead Film Festival, NYC Jewish Film Festival, NYC Jewish Film Festival, San Francisco The New Festival, NYC Women in the Director's Chair, Chicago broadcast 1999 Sundance Channel publications 1995 Treyf, Documents Issue #4, Spring 1995 1997 "Fierce Fists" in Gendered Epidemics, Routledge, NY "Where are the Rebels?" Jewish Socialist Review, London. grants 2000 NYSCA (New York Council on the Arts) 1998 NYSCA (New York Council on the Arts) 1997 National Foundation for Jewish Culture New York Foundation for the Arts Jerome Foundation 1996 Vito Russo Award, Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, NYC 1995 Funding Exchange Astraea Foundation 1990 Art Matters Grant 1989 Art Matters Grant medium length synopsis Past Perfect, Director: Cynthia Madansky, 38 min, 16 mm, color, 2002 Past Perfect is a spirited meditation on the elusiveness and inaccessibility of (Jewish) history as conveyed through four interwoven distinct voices: 1) an absurdist sightseeing tour of "Jewish" Poland; 2) an immigrant grandmother's reluctant recollections of life in America during War II; 3) five fictional memoir excerpts, imagining the final moments of a great aunt's life who dies without a trace in the camps; and 4) interrogations of the emotional expressions of crisis states: anxiety, hopelessness, fear, anger, and depression. Shot almost entirely in contemporary Poland, Past Perfect lyrically portrays the relentless yet ultimately futile attempt to resuscitate a history literally gone up in smoke. short length synopsis Past Perfect, Director: Cynthia Madansky, 38 min, 16 mm, color, 2002 Past Perfect is a spirited meditation on the elusiveness and inaccessibility of (Jewish) history as conveyed through sightseeing tours of "Jewish" Poland, a grandmother's recollection of life in America during War II, and memoir-like "last moments" of a great aunt believed to have died in Treblinka. FILMOGRAPHY Past Perfect 16 mm, Color, Sound, 38 min., 2002. Credits: Producer/Director/Writer: Cynthia Madansky. Past Perfect is a spirited meditation on the elusiveness and inaccessibility of (Jewish) history as conveyed through four interwoven distinct voices: 1) an absurdist sightseeing tour of "Jewish" Poland; 2) an immigrant grandmother's reluctant recollections of life in America during War II; 3) five fictional memoir excerpts, imagining the final moments of a great aunt's life who dies without a trace in the camps; and 4) interrogations of the emotional expressions of crisis states: anxiety, hopelessness, fear, anger, and depression. Shot almost entirely in contemporary Poland, Past Perfect lyrically portrays the relentless yet ultimately futile attempt to resuscitate a history literally gone up in smoke. Past Perfect premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2002. Treyf 16mm, Color, Sound, 54:15 min., 1998. Credits: Co-Producer, Director, Writer, Editor. Made in collaboration with Alisa Lebow. Treyf (which means "unkosher" in Yiddish) is an unusual autobiographical documentary by and about two Jewish lesbians who met and fell in love at a Passover seder. This hour long film exemplifies the struggle to retain a strong sense of ethnic identity and pride in the midst of rampant assimilationism. Treyf is iconclastic and intelligent, humorous and poignant. The film is the first of its kind to consider the issues and concerns of Jewish lesbians in relation to culture, family, homophobia, anti-Semitism, Zionism and progressive politics. Screening History: Museum of Modern Art NY, Margaret Mead Film Festival, Jerusalem Film Festival, Charlotte Film Festival, The Brooklyn Museum, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Society for Cinema Studies Conference, New York, Toronto, London, Los Angeles, Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals. Awards: Certificate of Merit, Chicago Film Festival; Honorary Mention, Jerusalem Film Festival; Special Jury Prize, New Festival, NY. Broadcast: Sundance Channel. North American Distribution, Women Make Movies; CS Associates, International Sales. Internal Combustion Video, 7:30 min., 1995. Credits: Co-Producer, Director, Camera. A video meditation on lesbians and AIDS, juxtaposing two voices of an HIV+ Latina l esbian and and HIV- Jewish lesbian. Made in collaboration with Alisa Lebow. Screening History: The New York Women's Film Festival, Jerusalem Cinematheque, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals. Distributed by Video Data Bank. We At Her Super 8mm, 7:30 min., 1995. Credits: Producer, Director, Writer. An ode to the demise of a Jerusalem love affair. Screening History: Jerusalem Cinemtheque, Cologne Feminale, Zimmerli Museum, Rutgers University, New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.