(TEANECK) -- “It’s worth noting,” says Teaneck International Film Festival Executive Director Jeremy Lentz, “that in the year of Roevember, there are six women with connections to Bergen County communities - including Teaneck and other near-by towns - who are involved with films that we are showing this year.”
The 17th annual TIFF begins on November 13 with three nights of virtual viewing plus talkbacks. The films are Neighbours, Three Minutes: A Lengthening, and 1982. The live portion of the festival begins at 7:30pm on Thursday, November 17 at Teaneck Cinemas (503 Cedar Lane), when the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., Bergen/Passaic Chapter presents A Story of Bones, a documentary about the discovery of the remains of thousands of freed slaves during construction of an airport on St. Helena. Peggy King Jorde, a renowned burial ground preservationist who is conducting global outreach for the St. Helena project, will participate in the talkback. She lives in Englewood and has served on committees and been involved as a consultant to organizations there and in Teaneck. She has made her mark locally, nationally, and internationally.
On Friday, November 18 at 7:30pm, at Teaneck Cinemas, the Bergen County (NJ) Chapter of The Links, Inc. is sponsoring the documentary, Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands, and the short film, The Invitation, which is about the two African American women from Philadelphia who founded The Links, Inc., during the height of WW II, as a social and civic organization for influential women to come together in friendship and service to create social and civic change for their communities. A co-producer of the film is Teaneck’s Allison Davis, a television and non-profit executive whose career has included NBC; MSNBC, which she helped launch; CBS; the Jackie Robinson Foundation; and positions at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism, Howard University’s School of Communications, and the City College of NY. She has received numerous awards and honors, including Emmy nominations, and has made time for local activism – as a member of the Township Parks, Playgrounds, and Recreation Advisory Board.
Rose Marie McCoy: It’s Gonna Work Out Fine is a seven-minute film that will be shown before the film Tomaro on Sunday, November 20 at 5:00pm at Teaneck Cinemas. The Emmy award-winning short is about a resident of Teaneck of over 57 years, who, by the time she died in 2015, had written over 850 songs recorded by over 320 artists, including Elvis Presley, Ike and Tina Turner, Nat King Cole, Al Hibbler, Faith Hill, James Taylor, and many more. As an African American woman, McCoy broke barrier after barrier in the music business. The story of this amazing woman will be followed by the documentary, Tomaro, which is about TIFF committee member, retired Teaneck Public Schools teacher, activist, and another extraordinary woman - Teaneck resident Dena Grushkin, who built three schools on a remote Nigerian island. Grushkin will participate in the talkback. Sponsors of the short film are the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. Bergen/Passaic Chapter and the YWCA Northern New Jersey. The YWCA is also sponsoring Tomaro.
Julia Scotti: Funny That Way, follows the life of a former Bergen County resident who transitioned (from Rick Scotti, father of two) and followed her dream – making it to the final rounds of America’s Got Talent, and becoming a successful comedian. The film will be shown at Temple Emeth on Sunday, November 20 at 5:45pm. Scotti will participate in the talkback following the screening and will also perform. Sponsors are the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County and Larry Bauer.
Paula Eiselt, who directed the closing film, Aftershock, with Tonya Lewis Lee, is no stranger to the TIFF. A resident of Teaneck, her award-winning documentary, 93Queen – about a group of tenacious Hasidic women who shattered the glass ceiling in their Brooklyn neighborhood by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in NYC - was shown in 2018. Aftershock tells the story of events that followed the deaths of two young women due to childbirth complications, when their bereaved families galvanized activists, birth-workers, and physicians to reckon with a pressing American crisis today: maternal health. The film, which will be shown at Temple Emeth on Sunday, November 20 at 7:45pm, is sponsored by the Bergen County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Teaneck Women Together, and Wise Older Women – WOW – whose annual Woman of the Year award will be presented to another Teaneck star: Reshma Khan. Eiselt will participate in the talkback.
The Teaneck International Film Festival mourns the loss of its veteran moderator and committee member, Sandi Klein, and is dedicating this year’s TIFF to her. She was a Teaneck resident, member of Temple Emeth and its Social Action Committee, retired WINS broadcaster, creator of the podcast Sandi Klein’s Conversations with Creative Women, and an inspiration to all who knew her.
Tickets for all films are on sale now. For ticket purchases and complete details about the TIFF 2022 programs, go to the website: www.teaneckfilmfestival.org.
