7th Art Releasing

Seventh Art Releasing distributes top-quality foreign and independent documentaries and narrative films that challenge and entertain. We specialize in Jewish History and Culture, LGBT, International and Human Rights, Music, Popular Culture and a wide variety of other issues.

Queen and I, The

World Affairs
Nahid Persson 90 minutes NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD! (included on the DVD is the short film Liberation.) When Nahid Persson Sarvestani, an Iranian exile, set out to make a documentary about Empress Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the Shah of Iran, she expected to encounter her opposite. As a child, Persson Sarvestani had lived in dire poverty, watching Pahlavi’s royal wedding as if it were a fairy tale. She joined the Communist faction of Khomeini’s revolution that deposed the Shah when she was a teenager, sending him and his family volleying from country to country. When Khomeini betrayed his promise for democracy, imposing even more violent measures, Persson Sarvestani was forced to flee as well. 30 years later, she needs key questions answered and goes directly to the source. Surprisingly, Empress Farah welcomes her as a fellow refugee from their beloved homeland, granting unprecedented access. Over the next year and a half, Persson Sarvestani enters the queen’s world, planning to challenge the shah’s ideology; instead, she must rethink her own. Iran’s former empress speaks out about unrest
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Blooming Business, a

International Human Rights

Ton van Zan

tvoort
52 minutes

World Premiere
THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL

Official Selection
NEWPORT INT'L FILM FESTIVAL

Official Selection
EDINBURGH INT'L FILM FESTIVAL

Official Selection
PLANET IN FOCUS,
ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL

Healthy Workplace Film Award
DOK LEIPZIG!

The roses we enjoy may come with more thorns that we realize. Delving deep into the heart of the global flower industry, A BLOOMING BUSINESS shows us the difficult reality behind the pretty flowers. In Kenya, giant flower factories use massive amounts of pesticides and chemicals to keep their flowers alive and then pollute the local water supply, harming the very same people they employ. A revealing investigation into the horrific working conditions and sexual abuse that the workers must endure in order have a job, A BLOOMING BUSINESS explores the human and environmental repercussions of the floral industry.

A rose may no longer smell so sweet.

Visit the Filmmaker's Website

Eye for Film Review - 4 out of 5 Stars!

“It’s time to wake up and smell the imported roses.” -Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival

“Part poetry, part explosive exposé.” -Newport Int'l Film Festival

“A quietly formidable film.” -Vancouver Film Festival

New Muslim Cool

Music
Directed by Jennifer Taylor 56/83 minutes BORN FROM ABOVE AWARD & SPECIAL MENTION Religion Today International Film Festival Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez ended his life as a drug dealer 12 years ago, and started down a new path as a young Muslim. Now he’s moved to Pittsburgh’s tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family, and take his message of faith to other young people through his uncompromising music as part of the hip-hop duo M-Team. Raising his two kids as a single dad and longing for companionship, Hamza finds love on a Muslim networking website and seizes the chance for happiness in a second marriage. But when the FBI raids his mosque, Hamza must confront the realities of the post-9/11 world, and challenge himself. He starts reaching for a deeper understanding of his faith, discovering new connections with people from Christian and Jewish communities. NEW MUSLIM COOL takes viewers on Hamza’s ride through the streets, projects and jail cells of urban America, following his spiritual journey to some surprising places — where we can all see ourselves reflected in a world that never stops changing.
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No. 4 Street of Our Lady

Jewish History and Culture
Barbara Bird, Judy Maltz and Richie Sherman 90 minutes CINE GOLDEN EAGLE AWARD GRAND PRIZE FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY Rhode Island International Film Festival If your neighbors were being hunted down and came to your door begging for help, would you risk your life to save theirs? This film tells the remarkable, yet little-known, story of Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish-Catholic woman who rescued 16 of her Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust, while cleverly passing herself off as a Nazi sympathizer. On the eve of World War II, more than 6,000 Jews lived in Sokal, a small town in Eastern Poland, now part of Ukraine. By the end of the war, only about 30 had survived, half of them rescued by Halamajowa. For close to two years, she hid her Jewish neighbors in her tiny home and cooked and cared for them, right under the noses of German troops camped on her property as well as hostile neighbors. Two families were hidden in the hayloft of her pigsty, and one family in a hole dug under her kitchen floor. In the final months of the war, she also provided shelter to a German. Even among the small minority of Poles who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, Halamajowa's is by all accounts an unusual story, considering the number of people she rescued and the amount of time she fed and cared for them. The film draws on excerpts from a diary kept by one of the survivors, Moshe Maltz, whose granddaughter is one of the filmmakers. It also incorporates testimonies from other Jews saved by Halamajowa, her descendants and formers neighbors, as they reconnect on a trip back to Sokal. Powerful location shots add another rich dimension to the story, providing the backdrop as the drama unfolds. Visit the Official Website
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Rachel Is

American Culture & Politics
Charlotte Glynn 67 minutes Official Selection TRUE/FALSE FILM FESTIVAL Best Documentary THIN LINE FILM FESTIVAL In her feature directorial debut, Charlotte Glynn moves home to chronicle her sister Rachel's last year in school. Rachel is developmentally disabled, and the resulting film, Rachel is, moves past the safety of political correctness and into the most intimate and honest moments in their family's life. Rachel is mysterious, funny, difficult and full of contradictions but she wants what most people her age want – to move out of her mother’s house. This dream of independence seems impossible. Rachel can’t be left alone and the social services needed for her to live an “adult life” are unavailable. Jane, Rachel’s mother is at her breaking point. Rachel is a difficult person and the relationship between mother and daughter is full of fighting and frustrations, both want independence from each other but at what cost? What is Jane willing to sacrifice for Rachel to be independent? What happens to a parent when they don’t have the support they need to give their child a good life. Rachel is is an observational style documentary capturing the rawest and most revealing moments of Rachel and her mother’s relationship. Charlotte dives into her family’s life in order to understand how Rachel sees the world and how the world sees her. Rachel is - an honest, heartbreaking and funny film about parenthood, disability, and the universal struggle for happiness.
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Art & Copy

American Culture & Politics
Doug Pray 89 minutes *OFFICIAL SELECTION - Sundance * *OFFICIAL SELECTION - Hot Docs * *WINNER - Best Director - Documentary, Atlanta Film Festival* “An embracing glimpse into big industry, pop culture and the creative process” - The Hollywood Reporter “An addictive tour of 50 years of adspeak!” - Seattle Times “A richly entertaining glimpse at the American ad world’s dream factory” - The Stranger I Want My MTV. Think Small. Just Do It. Got Milk? Where do these phrases come from? ART & COPY introduces the cultural visionaries who revolutionized advertising during the industry’s golden age by creating slogans to live by and ads we all remember. You may have never heard of them, but pop pioneers Lee Clow, Hal Riney, George Lois, Mary Wells, Jeff Goodby, Rich Silverstein, Phyllis K. Robinson, Dan Wieden and David Kennedy have changed the way we eat, work, shop, and communicate—often in ways we don’t even realize. From the introduction of Volkswagen in America to the triumph of Apple Computers. ART & COPY explores the most successful and influential advertising campaigns of the 20th century, and the creative minds that launched them. Directed by Doug Pray (SURFWISE, HYPE!, SCRATCH), ART & COPY captures the energy and passion of the individuals who have defined and redefined American popular culture for more than four decades. Featuring rare interviews with industry legends, the film reveals the stories and personal odysseys that have shaped some of the most profound and influential advertising messages of our time. ART & COPY opens a window to the creative process, and identifies the critical elements that can transform a singular idea into a global phenomenon. View the Trailer! Screening Information
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