Team | TPP WiP

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

I first saw some of the films in Paris during my almost daily pilgrimage to the Cinémathèque at the Centre Pompidou. I was captivated by the beauty of the richly textured, black and white cinematography. The films showed a Puerto Rico quite different from the urban country I knew - They were perhaps an idealized version of the island. But I recognized in them the drive for political and social change I had seen in my parents and their generation. The urgent desire to build the country anew. I could see it was a mythical Puerto Rico but that there was something real and true and necessary in it. And I feel mournful because it was at odds with the Puerto Rico that I know today. There is a reason these films were shown in Puerto Rico and around the world and there is more than good reason for the story of these films to be told again.

THE TEAM

RAMÓN RIVERA MORET

Ramón Rivera Moret was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and is based in New York. Ramón's works include LA DIRECCIÓN DEL CIELO, a series of films reflecting on astronomical traditions across the Americas that explore our relationship to the world; The Ordinal Directions, a four-channel video installation recorded over a year in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, NY. The flow of time and space provides the piece’s forward momentum through a cascade of encounters. The feature film On Calloway Street interweaves the stories of a group of immigrants from different cultures living in an apartment building in Queens, NY. Chishimo: A Lunda Story, follows the life of a traditional African doctor in northwest Zambia. Eyes Upside Down, is a site-specific outdoor projections of the night sky.

His work has been exhibited at Anthology Film Archives; Millennium Film Workshop; The Queens Museum Of Art; The Birmingham Museum Of Art; The American Museum Of Natural History; Chicago Filmmakers; Amherst College; Hampshire College; as well as at numerous Film Festivals. Ramón has received grants and awards from The Independent Television Service (ITVS), The National Endowment for the Arts; The Jerome Foundation; the New York State Council On The Arts; the Institute Of Puerto Rican Culture; the Puerto Rico Film Development Fund, and The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Rivera Moret is an Associate Professor in the Film/Animation/Video Department at the Rhode Island School of Design. Prior to his appointment at RISD, he held positions at Pratt Institute in New York and Amherst College.

Oren Rudavsky is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and several National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts grants. Rudavsky co-wrote and directed the American Masters documentary: Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People. The film was nominated for an Emmy as part of the American Masters series as well as a Critics Choice Award. His film A Life Apart: Hasidism in America was short-listed for the Academy Awards and broadcast on PBS and his film Hiding and Seeking was nominated for an Independent Spirit award and was chosen for the PBS POV series. Oren co-wrote and directed The Treatment, his fiction feature starring Chris Eigeman, Ian Holm and Famke Janssen. The film premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival where it was awarded Best Film, Made in New York. Other work written and directed by Rudavsky includes Colliding Dreams, Witness Theater, Time for School, And Baby Makes Two, Spark Among the Ashes, At the Crossroads, Theater of the Palms, Dreams So Real and A Film About My Home. Oren also worked as a post-production supervisor on the film unit of Saturday Night Live and the syndicated series Tales From the Darkside and Monsters. He is currently producing and directing feature documentary Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire in co production with PBS American Masters.