Private Screening | Sunday March 1, 2020 from 1-5pm.
Please join Loni Efron and Joel Gershon
for the final
Cirqe du Cambodia
From the Rice Fields to the Big Time
Directed by Joel Gershon
ilon Art Gallery
204 West 123rd Street, Harlem
917-270-4696
Sunday March 1, 2020 from 1-5pm.
You are invited to attend a private advance screening of the documentary film Cirque du Cambodia. The director of the film, Joel Gershon, will be on hand and hopes to get last-minute feedback from the audience.
The screening will take place from 2:00–4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 1 at Ilon Art Gallery, 204 West 123rd Street (between Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. and Frederick Douglass Blvd.). Free admission. Please arrive no later than 1:45.
About the Film:
Filmed in four countries, Cirque du Cambodia follows two teenage boys, Sopha Nem and Dina Sok, over a seven-year period as they journey from the rice fields and dusty roads ofrural Cambodia to train at the world's most prestigious circus school, the National Circus School of Montreal. Their ultimate dream is to perform with Cirque du Soleil, whose headquarters is right across the street from the school.
The two learned circus skills in their village in Cambodia at an extraordinary school for the arts, Phare Ponleu Selpak, that has a special "social circus" program in which challengedchildren of all ages, including orphans, recovering drug addicts and other at-risk youth, learn skills like juggling, tightrope walking and trapeze.
With minimal resources, Sopha and Dina managed to become accomplished performers and received full scholarships to the National Circus School of Montreal, even though theynever even heard of Montreal before applying. If they were to be hired by Cirque du Soleil, they would be the first Cambodians ever to perform with the world-renowned entertainment company.
Will they make it? You need to come see the film and find out!
The soundtrack includes Cambodian music and three songs from Vermont's Phinest band, Phish, along with klezmer and a little dubstep.
Prepare to be inspired!!
Opening Celebration of Troublemakers by Art Shay
January 16, 2020 at ilon Art Gallery
Photographs by Richard Shay, Judy Weiner and Eric Davidson
