Meet the Filmmaker: Sumner Jules Glimcher

Meet the Filmmaker: Sumner Jules Glimcher
"A Problem of Power"
 
Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Location: NY NATAS, 1375 Broadway, Suite 2103
Reception: 6:00-6:30 PM ~ Program: 6:30-8:00 PM
 
*FREE to NY NATAS Members
$15 for those without current NY NATAS membership
 
“A Problem of Power” is a 45 minute documentary produced and directed by Sumner Jules Glimcher on poverty in South America. Sponsored by the National Council of Churches, it explores the daily lives of the people of Colombia where socio-economic conditions in many ways are representative of all of Latin America. Candid interviews with people at all levels of Colombian society provide insights into their true feelings about the problems that affect their lives. Listening to the voices of the people who subsist under the heels of the oligarchy raises the question of how much the poor can endure before rising to claim their rights.
 
In the film, a long-time missionary to the area discusses the effects of North American policies--governmental, financial and religious--on the population. The wealthy owner of a larger estate speaks kindly but patronizingly of the peasants who work his land while large German shepherd police guard dogs hover in the background. The peasants themselves describe their pathetic attempts to support themselves and their families on totally inadequate incomes. They tell of non-existent funds that are supposed to reach them through US AID and how they cannot afford the simplest medical care. A rebel Roman Catholic priest who lives and works amongst the poorest of the poor talks about how the official Catholic hierarchy exploits the peasants whose hard-earned pesos pay for bishops who live princely lives. A university student risks jail and torture by talking about how powerless the student and peasant population are in creating change. Two television executives--one a member of the rich power elite, the other working for the public television interests--clash over what the lack of original programming versus the importation of commercial television programs from North America does to keep the local population intellectually impoverished. The residents of the barrios voice their frustrations to our cameras. Interviews were recorded in Spanish and English with the Spanish later translated into English as in the simultaneous translations used in the United Nations.
 
Sumner Jules Glimcher has spent a lifetime creating educational programs, documentaries and video portraits. He is professor emeritus from New York University where he previously was the Director of the Department of Film, Video and Broadcasting at NYU’s School of Continuing Education. There he created one of the finest film schools on the east coast. He also taught at Harvard, his alma mater, and at Columbia. He has been a consultant to the United Nations, the President of Harvard, and for more than twenty years the Consulate General of Japan. His films have been awarded more than three dozen major national and international film festival awards. He is the principal author of “Movie Making: A Guide to Film Production,” a best-selling text which was required reading at many of the top film schools when it was first published.
 
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED DUE TO BUILDING SECURITY. ALL NAMES MUST BE ON GUEST LIST.
PLEASE RSVP VIA EMAIL
info@nyemmys.org or call 212-459-3630 ext. 200
 
Produced and Moderated by Sumner Jules Glimcher

Location: NY NATAS
1375 Broadway between 37th and 38th Streets, 21st Floor, Suite 2103
New York , NY 10018

Date: July 14, 2009, 2 p.m. - July 14, 2009, 4 p.m.