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Cinematic Meditation about the German-Jewish Architect Erich Mendelsohn to be Screened at Ramapo College

(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)October 3, 2012

(MAHWAH, NJ) – Israeli Director Duki Dror will screen and lead a discussion of his film “Mendelsohn’s Incessant Visions,” at Ramapo College of New Jersey on Thursday, October 18 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Laurel Hall Screening Room. The screening is being co-sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Art History program at Ramapo College.

“Incessant Visions,” a seductive and complicated new documentary from Dror, tells the story of the German-Jewish architect Erich Mendelsohn’s many triumphs, from his rise as an architectural superstar in Berlin to his triumphant designs in the Middle East and America.

Mendelsohn was one of the great German architects of the Weimar era, having designed a series of iconic structures from the Einstein Tower (1919-1921), which housed the astrophysical observatory in the Albert Einstein Science Park in Potsdam, to a number of modernist department stores for the Schocken concern in the late 1920s. Forced to leave Berlin after Hitler came to power in 1933, Mendelsohn continued his architectural career in England, Palestine, and the United States. The film delves into the development of his life and work by blending letters, drawings, and interviews with period and contemporary footage.

A native of Tel Aviv, Israel, Dror studied theater and classical studies in UCLA and graduated from Colombia Collage film school in Chicago. His graduate film, “Sentenced to Learn”(1993), which tells the story of life-time inmates in Illinois prisons, was selected to screen in a historical retrospective of American Documentary at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

Among his other notable films are “Radio Daze” (1996) that depicts the life of a radio-quiz-show-star, “Café Noah” (1996), and “Taqasim” (1999) that exposed the work of musicians from Iraq and Egypt, who immigrated to Israel during the 50’s and never got any recognition for their art. In 1998, he collaborated with Rashid Mashrawi on the first Israeli-Palestinian co-production “Stress,” an impressionist documentary in two parts about the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. That same year he also completed “Red Vibes” (1998), which followed a group of young artists who immigrated to Israel from Russia and were spreading a subversive neo-communist ideology.     

The screening and presentation are free and open to the public. For more information or to reserve a seat, please call 201.684.7409.

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About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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