PRESS
“Her own Emerging was a sensitive exploration of the oboe’s singing character and technical armory.”
—Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
“I was especially moved by the Sunday church variation, with its long plangent English horn solo, beautifully played by Miriam Kapner.”
—Richard Scheinin, Mercury News
Aftermath 9/11 central at NYC Independent Film Festival
NEWS PROVIDED BY
EIN Presswire
Apr 25, 2023, 4:33 PM ET
A lot has been told about the 9/11 disaster in New York, but some stories still deserve to be brought to your attention. Two films are examples of this this year.
‘OUT OF THE DARKNESS’ is a short documentary by Miriam Kapner. The film highlights the power of music and the arts to heal trauma. In this case, that trauma is the event and immediate aftermath of 9/11 in New York City.
Kapner talks to musicians who volunteered to play music for the first responders during 9/11. Volunteer musicians and artists spent much of their time in Lower Manhattan for weeks and months. The two the film focuses on developed the same lung cancers that later afflicted many of the first responders, and unfortunately made the ultimate sacrifice for their work.
Miriam Kapner is both the executive producer and composer of ‘Out of the Darkness’. For this film she worked with students at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and the University of Denver in Colorado.
‘DUST’ is a feature-length documentary by Bridget Gormley about the September 11 attacks and the victims they still cost today. The attacks killed 2,996 people directly, but by 2023, the World Trade Center Health Program counts nearly 10,000 first responders, residents, workers and students with cancer due to exposure to dust on 9/11. As first responders and volunteers searched “the pile” in a rescue effort that soon turned into a recovery, the dust settled on their skin and into their lungs.
For many, the status of a 9/11 survivor comes with horrific health complications and all too often leads to a painful death.
FDNY firefighter Billy Gormley was one of the first to respond with his Ladder Company to Lower Manhattan after the second tower collapsed. While he survived the attack, the poisonous dust lingered over his shoulder for sixteen years.
In January 2017, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He passed away in June.
His daughter, Bridget, began documenting her father’s case.
Dust brings the tragedy to the painful present and explores a new direction in the story: “What is happening now and what have we learned?
The NYC Independent Film Festival is completely back in 2023, at the Producer’s Club from June 4 to 11, and the award show on June 11th. The NYC Independent Film Festival is especially for the independent filmmakers who don’t have the backing of major production companies or international distribution companies.
Filmmakers selected for the NYC Independent Film Festival are often the film creator, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and director, all in one. For them, the festival is the ideal platform to launch their new film and to reach a wide audience in New York. And to make important contacts in the film world.