Member Screening Series – America 1979 and Sense the Wind

Join us for this month’s NYWIFT Member Screening Series showcasing the films America 1979 by Lila Yomtoob (Writer/Director/Editor/Producer); and Sense the Wind by Christine Knowlton(Filmmaker/ Director/Producer) and Cheree Dillon(Editor). The filmmakers will be available for a Q&A immediately following the screening.

The screening series provides members with the opportunity to show their work in a theatrical setting. Screenings take place at Anthology Film Archives, followed by networking at a nearby bar.

America 1979
Lila Yomtoob (Writer/Director/Editor/Producer)
2014, 14min

The Iran Hostage Crisis is in full effect, and even though Regina’s parents are Iranian, she was raised to be American. When political tensions create problems for her in school, Regina’s confusion about her identity causes a crisis at home. America 1979 is a short narrative film written and directed by Lila Yomtoob.

Lila Yomtoob is an Iranian American New York-based writer and director. Shortly after receiving her degree from NYU film school, she went on to direct the “perfectly honed” and “razor sharp” (Variety) feature film High Life. Her current short, America 1979, is traveling to film festivals now. She has directed several digital shorts including branded content for Nintendo, Plinko and other entities. Yomtoob also works in post-production on films by directors such as Spike Lee, The Coen Brothers, Mary Harron and John Cameron Mitchell. In 2006, Yomtoob received an Emmy Award for sound editing on the HBO documentary Baghdad ER. Her films have screened at festivals such as San Francisco Indiefest, Reykjavik International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, New Filmmakers, Pop Montreal and Noor Iranian Film Festival.

Sense the Wind
Christine Knowlton (Filmmaker/Director/Producer)
Cheree Dillon (Editor)
2016, 54min

Highlighting ability, not disability, this documentary tells the remarkable story of four individuals who share a unique bond—each is vision impaired and striving to race in Japan’s 2013 Blind Sailing World Championship while navigating all the other challenges in life. Between seasons, one of them gains something more valuable than a trophy and must learn to live and to sail with new sensibilities.

Christine Knowlton evolved from a career in textile design into digital media. She is Producer/Director of her first feature, Sense The Wind about blind sailing. Her award-winning first short, Going Blank: Alzheimer’s Stories, screened in festivals internationally. She has created videos for non-profit organizations and experimental multimedia videos. In broadcast production she worked on the HBO hit, Bored to Death and other series and features. She was Film Festival and Outreach Distribution Coordinator for The Children Next Door, Lynda Hansen Producer. She was an Outreach Advocacy Consultant with CreativeFuture, an anti-piracy arts organization. Christine is an active NYWIFT Archive Committee Member.

Cheree Dillon is an award-winning independent film/TV editor based in NYC. Her first documentary feature was the Emmy-nominated Off and Running, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2009 before broadcasting nationally on PBS’s P.O.V. series. More recently, she co-edited Death By Design, which had its European premier at Sheffield Doc Festival (2016) and edited the broadcast version of the Emmy-nominated documentary, The Homestretch, for PBS’s Independent Lens (2015). Additional feature documentary credits include Sense The Wind (2015), Sons of Ben (2015), Surviving Amina (2010) and Song of Hannah (2003), along with award-winning short docs Southmost USA (2013), An Imaginary Thing (2012) and Sonny (2010). Dillon is a member of NYWIFT’s Documentary Committee and a recognized leader in the field, producing a number of industry panels on editing career building, interactive filmmaking, independent film distribution and social media/marketing.