INTIMATE STRANGER
Alan Berliner examines the life and legacy of his maternal grandfather, Joseph Cassuto, a Palestinian Jew who brokered cotton purchases for the Japanese in Egypt before the outbreak of World War II.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2009
7:00 PM
Alamo Downtown (320 E 6th Street)
Tickets are $6 / $4 for AFS Members and students with ID
“INTIMATE STRANGER,” says Berliner, “walks the fine line between sorting the dirty family laundry and polishing the precious family jewel.”
Famous for his personal and often intimate explorations of himself and of his family in such films as THE FAMILY ALBUM, NOBODY’S BUSINESS, THE SWEETEST SOUND, and WIDE AWAKE, here Alan Berliner examines the life and legacy of his maternal grandfather, Joseph Cassuto, a Palestinian Jew who brokered cotton purchases for the Japanese in Egypt before the outbreak of World War II. After the war Cassuto reunited with his family in New York, but his Japanese ties were strong. Soon he was living in Japan most of the time, while his wife and children remained in the US. Nearly two decades after his death, his grandson Alan constructed a documentary study of the man who was alternately labeled “a romantic adventurer or a shirker of family responsibility; a man at the center of historic events or a nobody.”
Berliner spent the first nine months of pre-production going through his grandfather’s archives. Joseph Cassuto threw nothing away and kept carbon copies of all his correspondence. One day, while searching through the vast amount of material, Berliner found $500 in an envelope, almost as if to say that Joseph Cassuto blessed his grandson’s project and willingly offered the initial financing. INTIMATE STRANGER can certainly be considered a hand-made object since Berliner shot all the footage and copied the family photographs he wanted to use. True to his film roots, the filmmaker edited on a classic Steenbeck system. – Chale Nafus
Intimate Stranger, USA, 1991, distributed by Independent, color, 60 min
Along with this fascinating family portrait, Berliner will show a selection of his rarely seen short films, “City Edition” and “Everywhere at Once.”
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Austin Film Society Documentary Tour
Austin Chronicle Interview by Anne S. Lewis
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