Arts and Entertainment

Film screening will provide personal, professional insights

A driven faculty filmmaker and a 25-year veteran of the film industry will bring their expertise to a discussion and film screening scheduled as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week at Penn State.

The free public session -- “Women Entrepreneurs in Film: An Evening with Distributor Nancy Gerstman of Zeitgeist Films and Filmmaker Pearl Gluck” -- begins at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19, at the State Theatre on West College Avenue in State College.

Gerstman, of Zeitgeist Films, will discuss the film industry during the event that includes a screening of the award-winning “Divan” (2004), which was directed and produced by Gluck, an assistant professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies. “Divan” is heartfelt and humorous documentary that addresses family, love and religion by following the journey of an ancestral couch from Hungary to Brooklyn, New York. 

A question-and-answer session with will follow the screening of the 77-minute film. To view the trailer, go here. 

With "Divan," Gluck breaks the mold of Hasidic storytelling and takes an unorthodox approach to a religious icon -- an ancestral divan in Hungary that illuminates both the conflict and necessity of repairing the fractured trajectory of personal history and identity. "Divan" is a visual parable that crosses family heritage with the possibility of culturally re-upholstering a couch. 

“It was my father who gave me my first video camera in 1996 as a gift for my trip to Hungary on a Fulbright grant. Five years later we end up in an editing room together viewing footage for ‘Divan,’ a film he does not approve of and does not want to participate in,” Gluck said. “And yet, ‘Divan’ is at its heart a father/daughter tale -- he, the unwilling protagonist, which makes me the unwilling antagonist.”

Along with Gluck’s entrepreneurial and personal connections to the film and the filmmaking process, Gerstman, the co-president and co-founder of Zeitgeist Films, a New York-based distribution company,  brings valuable expertise about the industry.

Gerstman has worked in all aspects of film distribution and exhibition, including a stint at Landmark Theatre Corp., the largest independent theater chain in the United States. She is in demand as a juror, panelist and commentator on issues related to independent and foreign language film and is Permanent Artist-in-Residence in the master’s program in media and communication arts at the City College of New York.

During her visit, Gerstman also will visit several film-video classes and hear pitches from students about their film projects.

The screening and discussion -- co-sponsored the College of Communications, Jewish Studies at the College of Liberal Arts and the State Theatre -- is one of seven separate College of Communications events coordinated as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Last Updated June 2, 2021