Florentine Films | Sherman Pictures

Cinematography Reel

Admin — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:31:33 +0000

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Food Fright

Admin — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:39:33 +0000

CINE Golden Eagle

Synopsis

A musical comedy about women and their attitude toward food and their bodies. Dramatic. Written by two women—one recovering from bulimia, the other from anorexia—this film aims to reach young women and girls in a new and different manner, through humor.

Running time: 30 minutes. Format: 16mm film.

Our apologies, this film is not available for purchase at this time

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A Dream House

Admin — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:36:42 +0000

Synopsis

Writer Tom Wolfe, fashion designer Geoffrey Beene, architect Robert A.M. Stern, film production designer Richard Sylbert, cookbook writer Sheila Lukins, painter Kenny Scharf, Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters, artists Daniel Mack and Bennet Bean, floral designers Pure Madderlake, architect Adam Tihany, designers Jed Johnson and Alan Wanzenberg—all design fantasy rooms in a New York City brownstone, to benefit Design Industry Foundation for Aids (DIFFA). The video shows the start-to-finish transformations and helped raise $1,000,000. Profits from the video go to DIFFA.

Running time: 13 minutes.

Our apologies, this film is not available for purchase at this time

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Fast Eddie and the Boys

Admin — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:32:14 +0000

Winner, New England Film Festival, Best Independent Video

Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Contemporary Documentary Series

The South Beach Film Festival

Portland International Film Festival

Hamptons International Film Festival

Silver Images Film Festival

Synopsis

This intimate portrait of a tight-knit group of wisecracking octogenarians features Fireball Abe, Punch Shot Al, and Shmatta Dave, all of whom literally live for handball. They play hard, recall their childhood games played against tenement walls in New York and Boston, Chicago and Detroit, and feel the poignancy of their dwindling ranks. In their own words, they are “a dying breed.” They tell wonderfully embellished stories of injuries and heart attacks suffered on the court, sex after 70, and fortunes won and lost. Viewers hear a stream of banter, bad jokes and macho challenges.

Running time: 14 minutes.

Our apologies, this film is not available for purchase at this time

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The Garden of Eden

Admin — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:26:03 +0000

Academy Award nominee

Blue Ribbon

American Film Festival

Winner

North American Outdoor Academy Awards

International Wildlife Film Festival

Ten additional awards and citations

Synopsis

In the next 30 years, 20% of all forms of life will cease to exist. The first film showing that it can be for good business to save the environment. Discoveries in the plant, animal, and microbiology worlds show that what you might think of as unimportant could be the cure to a major disease, save an entire species of plant, or ward off pests.

Running time: 30 minutes. Format: 16mm film.

Our apologies, this film is not available for purchase at this time

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Strings Without Borders

Admin — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:19:58 +0000

Synopsis

In this planned cinéma vérité documentary, viewers witness Pierre Bensusan’s creative process—on the road in New York, Aspen, Paris, and Dublin, in scenes shot backstage, on the streets, in concert, and with friends like legendary guitarists Steve Vai, Bobby Thomas Jr. of Weather Report, Ry Cooder, and others. We’ll see rare footage, including shots of Pierre playing a mind-blowing duet with the late finger-style great Michael Hedges. Our cameras are behind the scenes with the masters as they discuss set lists, work out solos and harmonies, and trade licks.

Bensusan has recorded ten albums—six with Rounder Records, three with Favored Nations—and an anthology. In 2002, Intuite was named Best Acoustic Instrumental Album as well as Guitar Album of the Year by the Association for Independent Music. John Kelman, writing in All About Jazz, sums it up this way: “Bensusan’s remarkable technical ability has never been in question, but it’s the sheer musicality and lyricism of his body of work that has cemented his position as one of the most accomplished acoustic guitarists on the planet.”

Strings Without Borders allows viewers an intimate window on the life of this dedicated and prolific musician.

Our apologies, this film is not available for purchase at this time

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Don’t Divorce the Children

Admin — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:00:27 +0000

CableAce nominee

Winner, Best Documentary

Front Page Film Festival, New York

Gold Medal

Houston International Film Festival

Bronze Plaque

Columbus International Film Festival

Special Citation

National Council on Children’s Rights

Synopsis

An emotional story about the effects of divorce on children. Hosted by Timothy Busfield; produced for Lifetime Television. Told from the children’s point of view, without experts, this film has become mandatory viewing in court-ordered divorce workshops in a dozen states.

Running time: 60 minutes. DVD $19.95 (plus $5.00 Shipping & Handling)

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What To Do?

Admin — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:52:26 +0000

Synopsis

…When No One Has a Clue?

An upbeat author video I made for the book “What to Do When No One Has a Clue” by Stephanie Pierson and Barbara Harrison, a humorous take on 21st century etiquette.

Famous people share their wisdom about awkward situations like: is it okay to ask a lesbian how she got pregnant? Can you ask for a doggie bag at a four star restaurant? Who gets the dog in a divorce?

The 3 minute film, shot hand-held, takes its tongue-in-cheek style from the book.

Director/Cinematographer: Roger Sherman
Editor: Anna Jacobson
Authors/Talent: Stephanie Pierson, Barbara Harrison

Publisher: Random House

Our apologies, this film is not available for purchase at this time

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The American Brew

Admin — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:44:42 +0000

Synopsis

This is American history told through beer. Find out why the Pilgrims were not supposed to land at Plymouth Rock. Hint: they were running out of beer. See beer brewed in a fireplace in the colonial method in Colonial Williamsburg and on a stove by a home brewer in the Bronx. Learn how Germans changed America’s taste for beer in the 19th Century and how they became the scapegoats to begin Prohibition.

Hear Fritz Maytag of Anchor Steam and Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada tell how they started their breweries, and how craft brewing began. Watch Dick Cantwell of Elysian in Seattle brew his Jasmine IPA and see what Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River in Sonoma thinks of his concoction in used, oak, chardonnay casks. Plus, the late legendary beer connoisseur Michael Jordan, Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery, and much much more.

“To understand American, one must know beer, not Baseball. “The American Brew” explains with wit and insight our infatuation with beer in its infinite variety.” Dick Kreck, The Denver Post

Running time: 60 minutes.

Purchase this film at shopPBS.com

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The Search for Israeli Cuisine (in development)

Admin — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:28:59 +0000

The Search for Israeli Cuisine

in development

ANNOUNCING

Philadelphia Chef Michael Solomonov of Zahav has agreed to be the guide for The Search for Israeli Cuisine. Born in Israel and brought up in the states, Mike is passionate, knowledgeable and articulate about Israeli cuisine. He won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic in 2011 and was a contestant on Iron Chef. At Zahav, one of his three restaurants, he cooks Israeli cuisine with authentic roots, taking traditional flavors he discovers and making them his own. It was named one of the best 100 restaurants in the United States.

“This is the moment for Israeli cuisine. There’s nothing in the world like it.” chef Michael Solomonov

Executive Summary

Background: Israel has an amazing cutting edge food scene. For people who have never been there (and even for some who have) that comes as a shocking surprise. This is the first film to bring the richness and variety of Israeli cuisine to Americans.

Story: Chef Michael Solomonov, a young, inspiring Israeli born American grew up in Pittsburgh. Solo, as he’s known, travels all over Israel, eating and talking about how ethnic traditions from across the diaspora have been incorporated into one diverse Israeli cuisine. “This is the ultimate melting pot!” he tells viewers as he reveals this rich cultural and biblical history. ”We’ll visit the birthplace of wine and see olive trees so wide, they’ve probably been growing since the second temple.”

chef Michael Solomonov

This is the story of cultures coming together, foods that are brought from far and wide, becoming Israeli cuisine. Our cameras follow Solo as he shows Americans a cuisine most know nothing about. “Israeli cuisine is as good as you’ll find in Paris, Rome, San Francisco, or New York,” he declares. The chef travels the whole country — Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the North, and the South — in search of the best cooking – Jewish, Muslim, and Christian. He visits home cooks and top chefs. He dines in fine restaurants, holes-in-the-wall, and on the street. He shows food savvy Americans remarkable cheese makers and the robust wine scene – 250 wineries, some awarded Robert Parker’s highest ratings.

Solo never stops being amazed at reinvented ideas drawn from the diaspora. He delights in the ways Israel’s hottest chefs revere their grandmothers’ cooking, as does he. From Bulgaria, she taught him how to make bourekas, a savory puff pastry. “It’s become the universal Israeli breakfast.” Viewers are taken into kitchens where ideas have been adapted from Poland, France, Morocco, Moldova. Solo’s hosts show him and viewers how some traditional foods are the same as they were generations ago, while others are adapted to this new, diverse, and exciting Israeli cuisine.

Goals: The Search for Israeli Cuisine has a mission to surprise and inform viewers. It’s part travelogue, part history, always illuminating. The film will shift the focus away from all conflict all the time. It will introduce Israeli cuisine to the fast growing population of food travelers, people who were unaware of the country’s hot food scene.

“I think it’s important for Americans to realize, that regardless of what you see on TV, regardless of your political stance, this is humanity at its best. And, the easiest way for people to relate sometimes, I think, is through food and culture.” chef Michael Solomonov

Length: 2 hours – divided into 4 half-hour documentary segments

Schedule: Shooting Fall 2013 – Airdate: 2014

Broadcast National PBS: WNET — PBS sponsoring station

Distribution: First Run Features

Production Costs: A detailed budget is available

Promotion: a major PBS outreach campaign will be mounted including a nationwide promotional tour. Screenings will be held in the six largest American cities with Jewish populations.

Sponsorship: Major supporters receive fifteen second image spots at the beginning and the end of each half-hour segment, a total of four spots. Names and logos will be included in all advertising and promotional materials. Private screenings, dinners, and other special events can be arranged.

Support

Israel Ministry of Tourism

Israel Ministry of Cultural Affairs

Israel Ministry of Media and Public Affairs

PBS sponsoring station: WNET-13, New York

Distributor: First Run Features

UJA Federation of New York

Non-Profit Donations The International Documentary Association, a U.S. 501C-3 non-profit organization. U.S. donations can be tax deductible.

The Search for Israeli Cuisine is in development. We are accepting tax deductible donations through The International Documentary Association, a U.S. 501C-3 non-profit organization.

We are happy to provide a treatment, full budget, and details about how the film will be disseminated, and credit information for sponsors. If you’d like to help make this film happen, please give us a call at 212.980.5966, or contact us via email.

Thanks for your interest.

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