Tulip Time--The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano

Tulip Time is a fascinating profile of Trio Lescano, a musical group of Dutch Jewish sisters who could really swing. Stylistically similar to the Andrews Sisters, the three Lescanos were enormously popular in Italy in the 1930s and 1940s; their career took off in 1938 with the songs “Anna” and “Tulip Time.” Sandra, Giuditta and Caterinetta, daughters of Hungarian circus artist Alexander and Dutch operetta singer Eva Leschan, grew up in Holland but performed widely. They were discovered in a circus near Verona by Italian impresario Carlo Prato, who changed their name to Lescano. Their meteoric rise was strangely simultaneous to the ascent of the fascist regime and was surprising even to the sisters, one of whom said, “We were welcomed in the best houses; us—the Jewish daughters of a clown.” Ultimately their recording contract was cancelled in 1943 because their songs were declared anti-Fascist. The Trio was arrested and held in custody for weeks. The sisters had a complex relationship to their Judaism, which was at times downplayed when convenient. Marco De Stefanis and Tonino Boniotti’s first-rate documentary features rare found footage from the Fascist period in Italy and entertaining film sequences of these unique performers.

From 2008 Festival: Director, Netherlands Tonino Boniotti was born in Grevo (BS) in 1951 and since 1973 lives in Amsterdam. He studies directing at the Migrant Education Amsterdam and Hilversum and follows several workshops at the Media Academy in Hilversum and the Binger Film Istituut in Amsterdam. He has worked for many years for Migranten Televisie (Television for the foreigners) in Amsterdam, Den Haag and Rotterdam as director, producer and chief editor. He has worked for the Dutch national television as a director on films concerning topics of current interest and documentaries, From 2008 Festival: Director, Italy Marco De Stefanis is an Italian filmmaker born in 1971. He has essentially worked in the field of the documentary with great attention to experiment and mix languages. Among his more important jobs and collaborations in the art documentary there are to remember some episodes for the series on architecture “Common Places” (RAIsat*Art); the korean painter's portrait " Kim Joo Yeon' for the Korean Television (KBS); the portrait of Giovanna Caruso, Italian painter for the indu temples in Pashupatinath-Nepal (RAI TRE); "Maison des Artistes" (RAIsat*Art). Among the other jobs of relief the docu-drama " Gladiators" for the Questar Video - Chigago and the recent series for children " Amazing History" for RAItrade, RAI and Discovery Channel. Tonino Boniotti has worked for many years as director, producer and commission editor for the MTV (Migranten Televisie) in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. He has worked for the Dutch television as documentary director in current affairs like the social and political situation in Cuba, the racism in Berlin and the problems between Slavs people in Rotterdam during the Yugoslavian war. For the national television he was the director of the documentaries “ Between the sky and the earth”. “ On the tracks of the Panama hat”, “ Spaghetti’s eaters” and “Little Italy in Delft”.