Wednesday, February 9, 2011

2011 NOMINATED SHORT: Strangers No More

In the lead up to the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27th, we are taking a closer look at this year's nominees. Today, one of this year's Best Documentary Short Subject contenders, Strangers No More.

Best Documentary Short Subject nominee, Strangers No More
STRANGERS NO MORE USA/40 MIN

Directors/Producers: Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon

In the heart of Tel Aviv, there is an exceptional school where children from 48 different countries and diverse backgrounds come together to learn. Many of the students arrive at Bialik-Rogozin in the wake of poverty, political adversity and even genocide. Here, no child is a stranger.

Kirk Simon and Karen Goodman have made over twenty documentaries and in the process have garnered four Academy Award nominations, three Emmys and the DuPont-Columbia Award for Independent Programming. They have received filmmaking grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, and the American Film Institute.

Their documentaries have been broadcast nationally on PBS, HBO, and MTV, and screened at festivals around the world including the New York Film Festival, Sundance, New Directors / New Films, London, Berlin, Montreal and St. Petersburg. In addition, they have overseen and filmed dance preservation projects for the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Lincoln Center's Library and Museum of the Performing Arts.

Both Mr. Simon and Ms. Goodman are active voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They have served as consultants to the National Endowment for the Humanities Media Program, on the Documentary Screening Committee for the Academy Awards and as judges for the Emmy Awards and the DuPont-Columbia Broadcast Journalism Award.

View an exclusive clip from Strangers No More below.