SYNOPSIS
Summer is short film about two teenage girls in a Hasidic sleep-away camp who, despite their every effort to maintain their purity, explore a forbidden book which leads them to a sexual awakening neither of them are prepared to encounter. Featuring Thea McCartan, Juliet Brett, and Emmy James, the film is shot in situ in the heart of Hasidic Upstate New York.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
In some ways, it should come as no surprise that I took up film to tell stories. The camera was always a presence in my family history, my Hasidic father behind the super 8, a silent witness to both the dissolution of a family and also its ultimate realignment. But where I come from, it’s not part of the norm to watch movies, let alone create them, because it is considered a diversion from a life of piety, devotion, and modesty. Hence, the paradox of my cinematic projects: on the one hand, film has informed my entire life, on the other hand, it is entirely forbidden.
I was brought up Hasidic, and when I was in high school, I was the one who found the science books before the principal ripped out the chapter on Reproduction and Evolution. What I saw astounded me and I snuck into the library to uncover more of the censored world: I studied Our Bodies, Ourselves like it was one of the five books of Torah without anyone discovering my secret self-awareness and sexual awakening. This is precisely why I am intrigued to see what may happen if I put the same book into the hands of two teenage girls in a summer camp. What will they discover about themselves, their community, their faith, and their affinities.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Lakefront Film Festival
Columbia, MD
July 27, 2018, 1:30pm
& July 28, 2018, 9:30am
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
San Francisco, CA
July 24, 2018, 12pm
& August 4, 2018, 12pm
OutFest LA
Los Angeles, CA
July 15, 2018, 2pm
Berlin Jewish Film Festival
Berlin, Germany
July 5, 2018, 7pm
Female Eye Film Festival
Toronto, Ontario
June 28, 2018, 12pm
Moscow Jewish Film Festival
Moscow, Russia
May 22-30, 2018
Washington Jewish Film Festival
Washington, DC
May 2-12, 2018
LGBT Film Festival
Poland
April 13-19
SAG/AFTRA Short Film Showcase
New York City
Wednesday, March 28, 7pm
Deep In the Heart Film Festival
Waco, TX
March 22 – 24, 2018
New York Jewish Film Festival
Film Society of Lincoln Center
January 21, 8:30pm
Big Apple Film Festival
Women’s Filmmaker Showcase
January 20, 6.30pm
Arts Kibbutz Artist Residency
New York
September 8, 2016
Artists Residency for Development
IN THE PRESS
Girls at Hasidic Summer Camp
April 12, 2018
Lilith
KEY CREDITS
Director/Writer/Producer
Pearl Gluck
Executive Producer
Matt Isi Geller
Co-Producers
Malky Goldman
Melissa Weisz
Malky Squared Productions
Director of Photography
Lauretta Prevost
Editor
Kristan Sprague
Composer
Lisa Gutkin
Featuring
Juliet Brett
Emmy James
Thea McCartan
Additional Cast And Crew Credits Here
RESOURCES
