Saturday, Feb 1, 2025 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm
The Thomas Edison Film Festival and the Mahwah Public Library is proud to present a program of three top award-winning documentary films including: Academy-Award Short List 2024 and TEFF Global Insights Stellar Award winner “Between Earth and Sky” by Andrew Nadkarni, TEFF Jury’s Citation Award winner “Note of Defiance” by Brian Henderson, and TEFF Jury’s Choice Award winner “13 Drivers’ Licenses” by Ryoya Terao. Ryoya Terao, director, and Elisabeth Gareis, writer/producer, will attend and join festival director Jane Steuerwald for a Q&A following the screening.
Director Ryoya Terao, is currently working on a feature length documentary that digs even deeper into the past and how the meeting of third-generation descendants of the former Jewish residents and current non-Jewish residents of the town address questions of guilt, remembrance and reconciliation.
Elisabeth Gareis teaches courses in intercultural communication at Baruch College, CUNY. Her research focus is on intercultural friendship and its role in prejudice reduction. Elisabeth’s work on the friendship between international and domestic students has been widely covered in the media. In recognition of her contributions at her home college, she received the Presidential Excellence Awards for Distinguished Service in 2018 and for Distinguished Teaching in 2021. She has authored the book Intercultural Friendship: A Qualitative Study, the textbook series A Novel Approach, and numerous journal articles.
Ryoya Terao has co-produced and/or directed documentaries focusing on human-interest subjects. For NHK and PBS, stories include Sled-Dog Dreams about a sled-dog team from an animal shelter in Durango, Colorado; Go Achilles! on
disabled athletes from around the globe; Gun Runners on gun-violence through the eyes of former gang members in New York; and Klavierhaus on immigrant brothers who import and restore antique pianos. With respect to environmental concerns, he worked on a documentary about asbestos litigations and in the 3 process, discovered a groundbreaking historic document that led to compensations or asbestos-related diseases in Japan. He also directed Bamboo Bicycle, a story on an innovative bike studio in Brooklyn operated by three young men, hand crafting bamboo bikes for eco-friendly New Yorkers and people in the developing world.
For 40+ years, the Thomas Edison Film Festival has been advancing the unique creativity and power of the short film. TEFF is an international juried competition open to all genres and filmmakers across the globe. An Academy Awards
Qualifying Film Festival for animation and experimental shorts, TEFF is a socially conscious, traveling showcase that connects diverse audiences to the compelling works of independent filmmakers worldwide. By focusing on underrepresented voices, TEFF provides a platform for accomplished and emerging artists who celebrate innovation and excellence in filmmaking.
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