This is an extended web version of Art Focus as host Tom Cramer speaks with artist Esther Podemski about her new documentary "The Peasant and The Priest," which is about how globalization manifests in two aspects of Italian life today: the passing of traditional farming in Italy and the increase in enforced prostitution. The film is threaded with a metaphor from a medieval fresco in Siena, "The Allegory of Good and Bad Government" by Ambriogio Lorenzetti.
Esther Podemski is a visual artist who also produced and directed "House of the World", a documentary film about the aftermath of the Holocaust. Shot in Poland, it screened in Europe and traveled throughout the United States with the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Discovery Communication purchased the film for national broadcast. The film also screened at Lincoln Center, the LA International Jewish Film Festival, Portland Art Museum’s Film Center and at numerous colleges. As a painter, Podemski has exhibited extensively in the Pacific Northwest and in New York City. She is currently represented by the Sears Peyton Gallery in New York and has had numerous exhibitions at the Alysia Duckler Gallery in Portland, Oregon. She has won a painting
fellowship from the New York State Council on the Arts and twice participated in the Yaddo Residency Program. Esther Podemsk has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Parsons School of Design in New York and at Sarah Lawrence College. Recent work includes a video installation about the Newark riots of 1967 entitled 5 Days in July. This dual screen projection traveled to
galleries and museums throughout the U.S and was recently exhibited at the Director’s Lounge in Berlin , Germany. The project has been included in the “Black Miria Film Festival, a traveling festival screening at over 40 venues throughout the U.S. where it won 3rd director’s prize. 5 Days in July also one best short at The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival. Podemski also co-produced a radio drama about the
Newark riots, also titled 5 Days in July. The radio program was broadcast throughout the U.S. on NPR and can be heard on PRX, it was awarded the Zeitfunk award for radio.
Esther Podemski grew up in Portland Oregon and lived here most of her life prior to moving to New York. She has deep ties to the region and visits frequently.
www.thepeasantandthepriest.com
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