VIDEO

A Good Uplift
Faye Lederman

Web Site Click Here www.squeezethestone.org

Perky? Saggy? Straps sliding south? A GOOD UPLIFT is a light-hearted documentary about a Lower East Side lingerie shop, where owner and Jewish grandmother Magda, will size you up, hook you in, and set you free in the perfect bra. With the wink of an eye and quick tug of a strap, Magda supports her customers’ self-esteem and bustline, embracing and enhancing women of all shapes and sizes.

Once reserved for customers only, Magda is now lending her grandmotherly wisdom to the documentary’s outreach campaign along with filmmakers Faye Lederman, Cheryl Furjanic and Eve Lederman. Drawing together women of diverse ages, backgrounds and cup sizes, the film catalyzes discussion about body image and self-esteem, generating powerful personal assessments and compelling dialogue.

BIOS Director/Producer: Faye Lederman received her MA degree in documentary film from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Her independent films include Women of the Wall, about the Jerusalem women’s prayer group, The New Old Country, about memory, nostalgia and history on Manhattan’s lower east side, and A Good Uplift, about a bra store in the same neighborhood. Faye spent two years screening and self-distributing Women of the Wall nationally, and another two years facilitating workshops for young women and girls using the film A Good Uplift. Her work has screened in dozens of festivals, universities, museums, conferences and community/political organizations, and has been broadcast on PBS and screened in Europe and Africa. She serves on the steering committee of New Day Films, a cooperative of independent social issue media makers committed to activist self-distribution. Faye is a part-time faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and a member of the Jews. Religion and Media working group at NYU’s Center for Religion and Media. Her work has been supported by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the NY State Council on the Arts, the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, the Sister Fund, the Littauer Foundation, the Pacific Pioneer Fund and the Fleishackker Foundation.

Director/Producer: Cheryl Furjanic is an award winning documentary filmmaker currently teaching video production in the Culture and Media Program in NYU’s Department of Anthropology. She holds a BFA in film production from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Her short comic documentary DIMASSIMO TO THE RESCUE was screened in the New Filmmakers Series at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Her documentary TAKE THIS HAMMER, a study of the traditions of American work songs through the eyes of legendary folk singer Pete Seeger, screened at the 1998 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival and was awarded a Silver Apple in 1999 from the National Educational Media Network. Cheryl worked as associate producer on the documentary feature film BLUE VINYL, directed by Judith Helfand & Daniel B. Gold. Cheryl's narrative short comedy BAR TALK, completed in 2002, has screened at over 40 film festivals worldwide. Ms. Furjanic is currently in pre-production on SYNC OR SWIM, a full-length documentary about the journey of the United States Synchronized Swimming team to the 2004 Olympics.

Director/Producer: Eve Lederman has been a freelance writer in New York City for ten years and is the author of three business books and numerous articles. She has received grants from the Carnegie Fund for Authors, the Penn American Center, and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Her humorous memoir Letters From My Sister wwas published fall 2005. She has discussed her work on Good Day New York and WCBS radio and has guest lectured at several universities including SUNY Brockport and Manhattan Community College. Eve received a B.S. from Cornell University in 1990.

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