Q&A filmmaker Joan Micklin Silver and cowriters John Silverstein and David Chudnovsky with RECEPTION

Sunday, Mar. 19 2017, 4:00

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In early 1970s, Joan Micklin Silver, a blossoming television writer/director, was ready to make her first feature film, Hester Street. Studio heads praised her credits but insisted that women were “one more problem” they didn’t need and that Jewish films would never reach a general audience. So with the support of her husband, Raphael Silver, who raised its $400,000 budget and became the film’s producer, Joan Micklin Silver made and released Hester Street, to critical acclaim—and it grossed over $5 million in the United States (an unheard-of amount for a small indie film), garnered her a Writers Guild nomination for Best Screenplay, and earned Carol Kane an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Micklin Silver, one of the country’s premier independent film directors, continued to defy film industry insiders for over 40 years. We’re thrilled to host her Jewish trilogy—Hester Street, Crossing Delancey, and A Fish in the Bathtub—and look forward to having her and other special guests here at the JBFC.

John Silverstein was born and raised and continues to live in Toronto. In his varied and checkered past he has been a public art gallery curator and director, a university art history lecturer, and the proprietor of a business called Hot Property that supplied props and set decoration to the film, television and advertising industries. He is also a life-long lover of classic Jewish humor and along the way had the good fortune to have his and writing partner David Chudnovsky’s script for A Fish In the Bathtub made into a feature film. Despite a near total incompatibility with David, often leading to fisticuffs and even rude name-calling, the two have maintained a warm and close friendship for almost fifty years. Go figure.

David Chudnovsky grew up in Toronto. There, at York University, he met the amazing John Silverstein. David studied film at Sheridan College and acting at the Loft Studio in Los Angeles. In 1978, the fledgling Toronto film industry, fueled by tax shelters and a sixty cent Canadian dollar, was taking off. David hopped on board. For thirty years, he worked various on-set jobs, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Big Bird, Tony Curtis, Christopher Walken and Mr. T. Despite the glamour, eventually the appeal of an eighty hour work week began to wane. In 2013 David opened Geary Guitarworks, a studio where he builds custom electric guitars and teaches guitar building.