Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan

Restless Creature allows the audience extraordinary access to a behind the scenes world at the New York City Ballet with long-time principal dancer, Wendy Whelan, as she faces injury, retirement, and having to redefine herself as a dancer. Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger’s film is a beautiful tribute to a resilient and extraordinary artist.

Date: Saturday, February 11, 1PM
Location: Miller Theater, 2960 Broadway, Columbia University
Q&A session to follow screening with  filmmakers Adam Schlesinger, Linda Saffire and  executive producer Diana DiMenna

Filmmaker Bios:

Based in New York City, Adam Schlesinger is an Emmy nominated independent film producer of award winning films. Schlesinger produced “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”, a documentary on the Chinese artist and social activist Ai Weiwei. The Film had its premiere in the documentary competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival where it won a special Jury Prize. Released theatrically by IFC/ Sundance Selects in 2012 it made the Academy Award short list for best documentary, it was nominated for a Golden Eye Award and was the winner of the prestigious DuPont- Columbia Award. Schlesinger produced the documentary “Smash His Camera” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010 winning the Best Director Award. For his work on “Smash His Camera”, Schlesinger was nominated for a 2011 Emmy Award for Outstanding Arts and Cultural Programming as well as by the Producers Guild of America for outstanding producer. Schlesinger was a producer of “Page One- Inside The New York Times” which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Released by Magnolia Pictures, it played in theaters around the world and was nominated for a 2012 Emmy Award for Best Informational Programming, Long Form.  He was an Executive Producer of  “God Grew Tired of Us”, a documentary film that won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Most recently, he was an Executive Producer of “Mateo” a documentary that premiered at the SXSW Film Festival this past March. Presently, he is working on a variety of projects including a fiction version of “Smash His Camera” written and directed by Matt Tyrnauer. He is directing and producing a documentary on the world renown American ballerina Wendy Whelan, as well as a documentary on youth sports and the American dream for Al Jazeera America.

Linda Saffire, a producer and director of non-fiction films, has worked on numerous award-winning film and television productions.  Among her feature documentary and film credits are A Conversation with Gregory Peck, a collaboration with Barbara Kopple & Cecilia Peck, which was invited as a special selection to the Cannes 2000 Film Festival; Wild Man Blues a feature length film on Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band, which was selected by the National Board of Review and the Broadcasts Critic’s Association as Best Documentary of 1998; My Generation, a non-fiction feature film that examines the Woodstock legacy; Married In America, a film by British director Michael Apted.  Married In America,similar to Mr. Apted’s acclaimed 7-Up Series, is a mulit-year, multi program documentary following the lives of nine couples across the country, all married in the year 2001; and Smash His Camera, a collaboration with Adam Schlesinger and Academy Award winning director, Leon Gast, (When We Were Kings). Smash His Camera a feature length documentary about famed paparazzo, Ron Galella, won Best Director at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary by the 2011 Producers Guild Awards and the 2011 News & Television Emmys. She is also collaborating with Leon Gast and Adam Schlesinger on a documentary film for Al Jazeera American examining youth sports in America. Ms. Saffire is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Film Division of the School of the Arts.

Diana DiMenna is executive producer of the film, as well as a philanthropist, mom of two daughters, and wife of Joe DiMenna.

Sponsored by: