Venue: Sentient Bean
Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 8 PM

A group of transvestite Filipinos emigrate to Israel to take care of elderly religious Jewish men. On their one day off per week, they perform as drag performers in a group called the Paper Dolls. On the political level, the film explores the perils of global immigration. In this case, after the second Intifada, the Israeli government unofficially opened its doors to illegal workers to replace the Palestinians who were no longer allowed in the country. As tensions eased, the government changed its policy and began to forcibly deport these foreign workers with dramatic consequences for our characters. On the human level, the film is about people who are rejected by their own families for being gay/transvestite and who emigrate and end up with jobs taking care of other people's parents who have been rejected by their own children because they are old, difficult, etc. They work grueling hours to send money back to the Philippines to support the families that have rejected them. As unbelievable as it may seem, these very different people (old religious Jews and transvestites from the Philippines) form very deep, quasi-familial bonds.

Director: Tomer Heymann
80 min. Documentary
Hebrew, English, Tagalog

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2010 Film Festival Sponsors

Sponsors as of 1/28/10

Producer's Circle
Dayle and Aaron Levy
Beth Vantosh and Kenneth Richards

Actors Circle
Lynn and Dick Berkowitz
Peggy and David Byck
Cookie and Barry Gale
Sharon and Murray Galin
The Daughters of Joan and Murray Gefen
Carol and Joel Greenberg
Joanne and Dick Hochman
Miriam and Jake Hodesh
Toby Hollenberg
Robyn Joffe
Harriet and Paul Kulbersh
Jessica and Mark Lebos
Arlene and Allan Ratner
Samra and Ron Robbins
Linda and Steve Sacks
Ashley and Scott Samuels
Sandy and Lewis Schneider
Southern Motors - The Kaminsky Family
Susan and Amos Timna
Peggy and Harold Yellin
Sylvia Yellin
Sheree and Larry Zaslavsky
Linda and Michael Zoller