In the Sack of the Wind

This video is one element of a larger collaborative art installation by visual artist Benny Ferdman, with original music compositions by Yiddish singer/composer Michael Alpert and Ukranian-American composer, singer and bandura player Julian Kytasty. Celebrating the work of one of the most prominent Yiddish poets, Avrom Sutzkever, this piece interprets and reflects on his early poem "In the Sack of the Wind" written in 1935 in Lithuania--before the war brought Sutzkever to the Vilna Ghetto and beyond. It was filmed in the studio, in the Santa Monica mountains in California, and in towns and ruined Jewish cemeteries in Poland and Ukraine. This video intertwines original compositions by Alpert and Kytasty with Ferdman's reflections on nature, the text of the poem and art he creates inspired by symbols and images from old Jewish manuscripts and photographs of now destroyed wooden synagogues.
Created and Presented January 2011 for "Celebrating Sutzkever" -- a seminar at the American Jewish University, Los Angeles, honoring the poet's life and work in commemoration of his recent death in 2010.
Music Titles:
1. "Elli" by Julian Kytasty with Michael Alpert.
Copyright Kytasty/Alpert 2010. All rights reserved.

2. "A Shpay in Yam." Music & lyrics by Michael Alpert. Copyright 2006 Michael Alpert. All rights reserved. Published by Pinorrek Music, GmbH, Hamburg, Germany (GEMA).

3. "Lydia." By Julian Kytasty with Michael Alpert. Copyright Kytasty/Alpert 2010. All rights reserved.

Video editing--Jacob Ferdman

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• In the Sack of the Wind
• Avrom
• Sutzkever Benny
• Ferdman Michael
• Alpert Julian
• Installation