BBI Sponsors Syracuse International Film Festival Screening of Award-Winning Documentary Dolphin Boy
The Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse will sponsor a screening of Dolphin Boy, the award-winning documentary by Israeli director, screenwriter, and producer Dani Menkin, at the 2011 Syracuse International Film Festival. Dolphin Boy will be shown 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 12, at the Palace Theater in Syracuse. Menkin will be present for the film screening and a question and answer session following the film.
Dolphin Boy was recently nominated for Best Documentary at the Ophir Awards, also known as the Israeli Academy Awards. The film features an Arab teenager recovering from physical and mental trauma after a violent beating from a group of youths. It is only after being sent for treatment with dolphins at an aquatic center that he begins to heal.
“Menkin’s thought-provoking work piqued our interest because it brings attention worldwide to the challenges facing people with diverse disabilities,” says University Professor Peter Blanck, BBI chairman. “The Burton Blatt Institute is delighted to bring this inspirational story to the Central New York community”
Menkin previously won an Academy Award in Israel for his documentary 39 Pounds of Love. This story, about an animator who uses a wheelchair, was screened in 2005 at the United Nations Disabilities Conference. Menkin is currently a visiting artist in the Department of Transmedia at Syracuse University and has chosen Syracuse as the location for his next film.
More information about the event, held in collaboration with the SU Humanities Center and LeMoyne College, can be found at syrfilm.com. Tickets for the screening of Dolphin Boy will be on sale at the theater door ($7 adults, $6 seniors and students, $5 AARP members), or they can be reserved by calling (315) 443-8826.
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