"If Anna Deavere Smith, Sarah Koenig, and Joey Soloway wrote a self-reflexive musical about finance and religion, it might approach [this] film’s impish, mystical spirit...it's a blessing."
--The Atlantic
WINNER: Audience Award, 2021 Ashland Independent Film Festival
WINNER: Jim Ewing Young Director's Award, 2021 Port Townsend Film Festival
WINNER: Terry Porter Visionary Award, 2021 Sarasota Film Festival
A KADDISH FOR
BERNIE MADOFF
SYNOPSIS
An artistic excommunication set on Wall Street in 2008,
A Kaddish For Bernie Madoff is a mystical meta-musical about the greatest financial fraud in history, as seen through the eyes of musician/poet Alicia Jo Rabins.
A hybrid of musical memoir and narrative fantasy, A Kaddish For Bernie Madoff tells the story of Madoff and the system that allowed him to function for decades through the eyes of musician/poet Alicia Jo Rabins, who watches the financial crash from her 9th floor studio in an abandoned office building on Wall Street. Fueled by her growing obsession, real-life interviews transform into music videos, ancient spiritual texts become fevered fantasies of synchronized swimming, and a vivid, vulnerable work of art is born from the unique perspective of an artist watching the global financial collapse up close.
AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON DEMAND IN N. AMERICA COURTESY OF FREESTYLE DISTRIBUTION.
Credits
Directed & Edited by: Alicia J. Rose
Starring & Created by: Alicia Jo Rabins
Adapted for screen by Alicia J. Rose & Alicia Jo Rabins
Produced by: Lara Cuddy
Executive Producers: Alicia Jo Rabins and Alicia J. Rose
Director of Photography: Asia Brown
2nd Unit Director of Photography (NYC): Brad Reeb
Animation: Zak Margolis
Composer: Alicia Jo Rabins
Choreography by Tahni Holt
Production & Costume design by Nora Colie & Sarah Turner
Key HMUA: Eve White
Still photography: Alicia J. Rose
Supported by generous grants from:
Portland's Regional Arts and Culture Council;
Peleh Fund;
Jack Straw Cultural Center
