My Emo Life - Film
(50 minutes)
(50 minutes)
"My Emo Life" is the observation of a family over multiple generations in search of a sense of belonging. In this story, Rafael Attias sifts through his own family’s experience to find a sense of purpose, questioning what to carry forward from the teachings of previous generations, and more importantly, for his role in determining what to leave behind for his own children.
Work-in-progress screening
NY Sepharedi Film Festival
The American Sephardi Federation
15 West 16th Street, NY NY 10011.
March 15, 2016.
47 minutes https://nysephardifilmfestival.org/film/my-emo-life/
Work-in-progress screening
The Columbus Theatre
Providence, RI.
May 31, 2016.
50 minutes
Work-in-progress screening
NY Sepharedi Film Festival
The American Sephardi Federation
15 West 16th Street, NY NY 10011.
March 15, 2016.
47 minutes https://nysephardifilmfestival.org/film/my-emo-life/
Work-in-progress screening
The Columbus Theatre
Providence, RI.
May 31, 2016.
50 minutes
Born in the mid-1960s to the offspring of Jewish immigrants who settled in Venezuela in the early 1900s, Rafael grew up in a household of mixed Jewish ancestry, his father Moises Attias from a Sephardi family of Moroccan descent, and his mother Anabella Zisman from Romanian Ashkenazim Jews. Rafael's childhood in the then vibrant 1970s of Venezuela offered a unique mix of colliding worlds and generations. Rafael, now the parent of two teenagers who are about to leave the house, re-explores his own experience of leaving the country of his childhood in the late 1980s to start a new life in the USA. Using personal family films, family photos, narration, and an original musical score, in "My Emo Life" Rafael constructs an organic collage that simultaneously looks at the past, the present, and the future. Through the use of memories, observation, and imagination the story spans the period between 1905 and 2015, and travels through Eastern Europe, North Africa, South and North America. The story that emerges is both a reflection of his role as a father and husband, but also a quest for clues from ancestors, and a poetic exploration into the meaning of place, and belonging. Themes of generational and geographical displacement are prevalent, as are concepts of familial continuity, and of aging, all explored with the loving gaze of someone looking to understand their place in the context of a modern day family.