30° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
WAVES

THE EARTHQUAKE

THE EARTHQUAKE
by Danielle Lessovitz
Country: USA
Year: 2012
Duration: 10'


Aristha is a twenty-three-year-old Haitian girl who, after the earthquake in Haiti, lives in a small apartment in Brooklyn. She is nine months pregnant and is worried because she hasn’t felt the baby move since arriving in the United States. She also hasn’t had any news from her parents and her husband who, like many refugees, are still missing. Despite the uncertainty and the tension, the girl manages to take care of her sisters, who fled Haiti with her, giving them hope that they will soon find the rest of the family.

Biography

film director

Danielle Lessovitz

Danielle Lessovitz (Kansas City, KS, USA) graduated with a major in documentary film and sound design for installation and has been a scholarship at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York to study directing. In 2009, she directed her first short, Batteries, which was screened at the film festivals in Philadelphia and Tallgrass, Kansas. Her third short, The Earthquake, has been screened at 30th Torino Film Festival, and has received a New Filmmaker Award from the Philadelphia Jewish Film Society and Best Heartland short at the Kansas City Film Festival. Port Authority is her first feature film.

FILMOGRAFIA

Repetitive Act (cm, 2008), The Fish (cm, 2008), Batteries (cm, 2009), The Earthquake (2012), Neon Heartache (cm, 2013), The Anatomy of Injury (cm, 2013), Port Authority (2019).

Declaration

film director

“In January of 2010 I stumbled upon an article in the ‘New York Times’ about a predominately Haitian Parish in Queens, NY, dealing with the loss, uncertainty, and care of their relatives in Haiti after the earthquake. After some weeks I felt compelled to write a screenplay that would combine these images in an honest way. It was important for me to show not only the desperation of the situation, but also the vitality, the hope and the opportunity for reconnection the situation gave to some families.”

Cast

& Credits

regia, sceneggiatura, montaggio, produttore/director, screenplay, film editing, producer Danielle Lessovitz
fotografia/cinematography Anna Stypko
scenografia/production design Audra Brandt
suono/sound Laura Moss
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters Aristha Israel (Aristha), Miliaca Laurent (la piccola/little baby), Emanuella Pierre (la zia/aunt), Watchana Pierre (la ragazza con l’aeroplano/girl with plane), Junior Pierre (il ragazzo sull’autobus/boy on bus), Ludme Pierre (la ragazza/girl), Watson Pierre (il ragazzo che inizia a giocare/boy who starts game), Hardley Dupont, Charles Miller
coproduttore/coproducer Ralph Belance
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