Trees Cry for Rain

Trees Cry for Rain: A Sephardic Journey
Directed byBonnie Burt
Release date
  • 1989 (1989)
Running time
33 min.
LanguageEnglish

Trees Cry for Rain: A Sephardic Journey is a short documentary film by American documentary filmmaker Bonnie Burt[1] that follows "America's Internet Champion of Ladino"[2] Rachel Amado Bortnick, as she explores her Jewish-Turkish heritage and the vanishing world of Sephardic culture and the Ladino language. The film was officially released in 1989, but drew public attention in 1992 with screenings at a number of Jewish film festivals worldwide, including the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival[3] and the Madrid "Festival de Cine Judio" which was dubbed "the biggest Jewish cultural event held in Spain in 500 years".[4] This was followed by a public screening at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York,[5] and airing on The Jewish Channel.[6]

The film returned to the screen ten years later at the 2002 Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival.[7] It was featured again in 2011 with a special screening at the 15th Annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival, 22 years after its debut.[8][9]

The film is used as an academic resource in Middle Eastern studies, Jewish studies and World History, at the collegiate and high school levels.[10][11][12]

  1. ^ "Filmmaker: Bonnie Burt". KQED Truly CA. KQED. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  2. ^ Rosenberg, Martin (27 January 2013). "Meet America's Internet Champion of Ladino". The Forward.
  3. ^ "Trees Cry for Rain: A Sephardic Journey". Jewish Film Institute. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  4. ^ Rosenthal, Donna (17 October 1992). "Jewish Film Festival Forces Spain to Focus on the Past". Culture. Los Angeles Times.
  5. ^ "The Film Society of Lincoln Center". New York Magazine. New York Media. 4 January 1993. p. 58.
  6. ^ "Trees Cry for Rain". The Jewish Channel. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  7. ^ "Series scheduled". Datebook. Las Vegas Sun. 18 January 2002.
  8. ^ "Biskochos i el filmo "Trees Cry for Rain" en Seattle luviozo" [Bizcochos and the movie "Trees Cry for Rain" in rainy Seattle]. Diario Judio (in Ladino). 19 March 2011.
  9. ^ "15th Annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival - 2011". Jewish Film Festivals. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  10. ^ Adamson, Lynda G. (1998). Literature Connections to World History 7-12: Resources to Enhance and Entice. ABC-CLIO. p. 461. ISBN 978-0313077555.
  11. ^ Epstein, Shifra (1993). "Syllabi: The Sephardi Experience 1492 - Today". Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review. 15 (2): 162–163.
  12. ^ "Middle East Center". Penn Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 17 March 2017.