"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.
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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
