The Jewish Art Salon is proud to co-sponsor The American Sephardi Federation’s film screening of Siona Benjamin at the Center for Jewish History.
Blue like Me’: An Indian-Jewish Artist’s Boundless Imagination”, film screening of a documentary about Jewish Art Salon’s Founding Member Siona Benjamin will be followed by “Baghdadis & The Bene Israel in Bollywood & Beyond”, a new exhibition in ASF’s Leon Levy Gallery.
3 November at 7PM – 8:30 PM
Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10010
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Light Reception to Follow Program
Mumbai-born artist Siona Benjamin creates images that span cultures. Join us for a documentary screening, a post-film Q&A with the artist, as well as to inaugurate a new exhibition on Indian Jews in the movies by Kenneth X. Robbins.
Having grown up in the enigmatic community of the Bene Israel in Mumbai, India, Siona Benjamin’s art synthesizes her Jewish roots with the Hindu, Catholic, Muslim, and Zoroastrian iconography of her homeland. ASF and the Indian Consulate at New York are proud to present Blue Like Me, a new documentary on Siona’s life and work.
The evening will also feature Kenneth X. Robbins, author of a multi-volume history on the Jews of India, for the inauguration of “Baghdadis & The Bene Israel in Bollywood & Beyond,” At a time, when custom and tradition kept many Indian women from performing in movies, liberated Jewish actresses and Jewish scriptwriters built the now world-renowned Bollywood brand.
7:00-7:05 Introductions
7:05-7:15 Indian Consul General
7:15-7:30 Kenneth Robbins
7:30-8:00 Blue Like Me Documentary
8:00-8:30 Discussion with Siona Benjamin and Ryan Arye, moderated by Yona Verwer (Jewish Art Salon).
8:30 Closing remarks