World premiere

Director: Charlotte Glynn
USA, 2007, video, excerpts
English
“Some day you’ll write about Rachel, too,” Jane Bernstein told her daughter Charlotte as she was leaving Pittsburgh for film school. Jane, author of the acclaimed memoir Loving Rachel, was wrong. Charlotte didn’t write about her sister, a young woman with mental retardation.  But in 2004, she moved home to make a feature-length documentary about Rachel and the struggle to fulfill her dream of living in a group home. Nationwide, more than 200,000 people with mental retardation are waiting for residential services.  Would Jane be able to find housing for Rachel in the US?  Or would she send Rachel to Kishorit, a kibbutz-like community in Israel, where Rachel had lived for five months? Jane will read excerpts from her new book, Rachel in the World, and Charlotte will show scenes from her documentary, Rachel Is.

A discussion with filmmaker and author will follow.

In collaboration with the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.