Jewish Film Institute WinterFest - Supergirl
Naomi seems like a typical nine-year-old girl, until her passion for powerlifting transforms her life with world record-breaking championships and national news headlines. SUPERGIRL explores Naomi’s coming-of-age journey as she and her Orthodox Jewish family are changed forever by her inner strength and extraordinary talent.
Interview with Director/Producer/Editor Jessie Auritt
Watch Supergirl on Kanopy, Prime Video and iTunes
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thanks! I read an article about Naomi and I was very intrigued that a modern orthodox Jewish girl, whose religion typically has very traditional gender roles, was participating in the male-dominated sport of powerlifting. Having grown up as a secular Jew and an athlete myself, I was interested in the dichotomy of her world. I immediately wanted to find out more about Naomi and explore the intersection of these two facets of her life.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
SUPERGIRL tells a heartwarming, personal, and empowering story that sheds light on the fascinating subcultures of competitive powerlifting and modern Orthodox Judaism. It also highlights a strong young female protagonist who breaks stereotypes, which I think we need to see in the media now more than ever. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and hopefully it will inspire you to pursue your own dreams.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
While the circumstances of Naomi and her family and their story are unique and personal, the film delves into a lot of universal issues. For one, we can all relate to going through adolescence - grappling to figure out who we are and our place in the world. The film also deals with questions about parenting and navigating the balance of how much to push your child and how much to let them push themselves.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?
When you're capturing a story in real time, you can't predict what's going to happen. As Alfred Hitchcock famously said, "In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director." During the course of production there were unexpected things that happened with Naomi's health that definitely reshaped the film.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The film has gotten an overwhelmingly positive response at festivals so far. We screened at DOC NYC the week after the election and multiple people, friends and strangers alike, said that the film lifted them up from a dark place and gave them a renewed sense of hope for the human spirit. It doesn't really get better than that.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
The more people that hear about the film, the better. We are trying to get as many people to see the film as possible so we hope that people will learn about the film on www.wearemovingstories.com and then go see it!
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I hope that SUPERGIRL will be a source of empowerment and inspiration for people, particularly women and girls. I hope that the film will encourage them not be afraid to pursue their goals, even in the face of adversity. I also hope that audiences will identify and empathize with Naomi and her family on a personal level that will transcend preconceived stereotypes or stigmas — that they’ll realize you shouldn’t make assumptions and judgments about people before getting to know them.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Do you think it's ok for Naomi to be lifting? That question always comes up in Q&As.
Interview: February 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Supergirl
Naomi seems like a typical nine-year-old girl, until her passion for powerlifting transforms her life with world record-breaking championships and national news headlines. SUPERGIRL explores Naomi’s coming-of-age journey as she and her Orthodox Jewish family are changed forever by her inner strength and extraordinary talent.
Length: 80 min
Director: Jessie Auritt
Producer: Jessie Auritt, Carmen Delaney, Justin Levy
About the writer, director and producer:
JESSIE AURITT - Director/Producer/Editor Jessie Auritt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in New York City. Her short film, THE BIRDMAN, screened at festivals around the country and received multiple awards, including the Slamdance Grand Jury Prize for Short Documentary in 2013. In addition to independent filmmaking, she has shot, edited, directed, and produced videos for UNICEF, IFC.com, the New York Daily News, and many other companies and nonprofit organizations. Jessie is an alumnus of the IFP Documentary Lab and a member of the women’s filmmaker group, Film Fatales. SUPERGIRL is Jessie’s debut as a feature film director.
CARMEN DELANEY - Cinematographer/ProducerCarmen Delaney is a NY & LA based cinematographer, known for her unique narrative approach to shooting documentaries. Her work has been screened at film festivals around the world. Delaney has shot corporate, industrial and commercial work for clients such as Google, Adobe, HP, AirBnB, Puma, Sephora, Chase, Pfizer and The City of New York. She is a fellow of CIFF’s Points North Fellowship, Film Independent’s Fast Track program and Doc Lab, IFP’s Spotlight on Documentaries and Documentary Labs and she is currently a 2016 Project Involve Fellow.
JUSTIN LEVY - Co-Producer Justin Levy is a freelance film producer and writer working in documentary and narrative film. He is currently the associate producer for SACRED, a feature documentary for PBS by Academy Award-winning director Thomas Lennon. Heworked with director Marshall Curry on his latest documentary, POINT AND SHOOT, which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, released theatrically in over 75 cities, and aired on PBS, BBC, and other networks worldwide. His narrative work includes the features VALEDICTORIAN (Rotterdam, 2015) andI USED TO BE DARKER (Sundance and Berlin, 2013).
Key cast:
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):
Funders: Fork Films, NYSCA
March 4th - Jewish Film Institute WinterFest, San Fransisco, CA
March 10th - Omaha Film Festival, Omaha, NE
March 19th - Hartford Jewish Film Festival, Hartford, CT
March 28th - Seattle Jewish Film Festival, Seattle, WA
April 2nd - New Jersey Jewish Film Festival, West Orange, NJ
More festivals TBA on the film's website: www.supergirldoc.com and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/supergirldoc/
The film will also air on Independent Lens on PBS in the fall.