Date: Feb 22, 2012

Hofstra Hosts An Evening with Artemisia Gentileschi

Thursday, March 1 – A Compelling Film About the Renowned 17th Century Artist

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … As part of the Women’s History Month launch at Hofstra University, there will be a screening of the film a woman like that - An Evening with Artemisia Gentileschi which will feature a discussion and Q/A with the filmmaker Ellen Weissbrod and Producer Melissa Powell.
 
This screening will be held on Thursday, March 1, 2012, at 5 p.m. at Hofstra University’s Helene Fortunoff Theater, Monroe Lecture Center, South Campus. Admission is free and the event is open to the public. For more information call the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669 or visit www.hofstra.edu/culture.
 
Artemisia Gentileschi was a woman ahead of her time. She was one of the first female artists to achieve widespread recognition and to make a career for herself as an artist. She had the friendship and support of Galileo and the Medici. Her art depicted women from history, mythology and the Bible. At the time she was 17, Artemisia was at the center of a high profile rape trial – she had been assaulted by a man who was supposed to be her mentor.
 
In a woman like that filmmaker Ellen Weissbrod merged her own coming of middle-age story with her pursuit of the truths behind the legend of Artemisia. a woman like that is the first personal documentary directed by Weissbrod, who has had an illustrious film career directing work-for hire films for almost three decades. In 2002, at a career crossroads and fascinated by Artemisia’s story, Weissbrod decided to make her own documentary. Mysteriously, she was denied permission to film a once-in-a-lifetime retrospective of Artemisia and her father Orazio at the St. Louis Art Museum. Undeterred and emboldened by the life of her subject, Weissbrod donned a spy camera and went undercover, secretly filming the exhibition. This bold act set her on a five-year journey, which included travels to Italy where curators and collectors opened their museums and homes to her.

The Hofstra screening  is sponsored by the Hofstra Cultural Center, Hofstra University Honors College, the Queensboro Unico Foundation Endowment, and Stanislao Pugliese, who is Hofstra’s Queensboro Unico Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies. Other sponsors include the Departments of Women’s Studies, Fine Arts and Art History, and Radio, Television, Film and Video.
 
 Previous sold-out screenings of a woman like that include the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The Zimmerli Museum at Rutgers University, The Davis Cinema at Wellesley College, The Portland Art Museum in Portland Oregon, The Palm Springs Art Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Rosendale Theatre in Rosendale, New York, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Cincinnati Art Museum and The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The DVD release is scheduled for 2012.
 
For more film information visit www.awomanlikethatfilm.com.
 
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