Bruner Blog

Congratulations Pearl!

I am so proud of our dear friend Pearl Gluck who, after six years of work, debuted her new documentary film “Divan” this week at the Tribeca Film Festival. And let me hasten to add how tremendously proud I am at the same time of my beloved wife, Adrienne Haspel, who gets her first ever film credit as assistant editor on this film. Yay! I knew you could do it, baby! And while I’m at it, shout out to good friend Miklos Buk, who was second camera on the film.

I have seen this film at various stages of edits before, and honestly it just got terrifically better each time. It is now is nothing short of a great film.

It’s hard to do the story justice in a nutshell and I don’t want to give too much away, but it documents Pearl’s attempt to understand her relationship to the ulta-orthodox Hassidic Jewish community she grew up in, in Borough Park, Brooklyn, till her parents divorced when she was 15 and she went to live with her mom. Her unlikely metaphor for this emotional and physical journey is a couch. More specifically, a “divan,” as the Hungarians say, a sacred family heirloom that famous rabbis had slept on before WWII, which held a special place in her father’s heart. All girls really want is daddy’s approval, so six years later she’s debuted her film at a big important film festival all about this couch and the amazing story that surrounds it.

You really have to see it. Hilarious, heartrending, fascinating, full of great characters, and in its final edit, a sharp, gripping narrative that pays off beautifully at the end.

The dilemma in going on about all this to you kind readers is that as of this writing I’m not aware of her having a distribution deal, but the film only debuted two days ago (Wednesday), to a packed screening room (and such a big screen!). I’m am fairly sure it’s going to get decent exposure on the festival circuit anyway, and likely more mainstream attention, as it really deserves it. Check out the web site link above for opportunities to see it.

UPDATE, CALIFORNIA SCREENING TIMES:

For those of you in the SF Bay Area, you’ll have a chance to see Divan in July:

July 23, 6.45pm @ the Castro
July 27, 2.30pm @ Wheeler Auditorium, Berkeley

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2003 at 5:36 pm and is filed under aa-home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.