Produced and Directed by Owen Shapiro

Musical - 18 Minutes

Basilio the Musical is a hybrid experiment in musical and dramatic forms. The film treats the movements of boxing as dance while the actors intone, rather than sing, and speak their lines, staying true to their characters.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

 - Rome Independent Prism Awards, Italy

 - Film in Focus, Bucharest, Romania

   Nominated for Best Experimental Film and Best Screenplay.

BY OWEN SHAPIRO // Edited by: Emma Piper-Burket

Documentary - 27 Minutes

The filmmaker’s mother and mother-in-law present powerful portraits of women from a past generation. Barbara (76) recounts her experiences with abuse and lost dreams. Muriel (92) remembers family history through a photograph that becomes more puzzling with time. Both women have passed since being filmed.

BY OWEN SHAPIRO AND PREDRO CUPERMAN

Experimental Narrative - 22 Minutes

Winner: Best Independent Movie, Verona Video Festival, Verona, Italy

ONE BLOCK AT A TIME is an exploration of a tableau narrative structure. A lonely woman contemplates suicide. A middle age psychiatrist consoles her middle age friend who is contemplating suicide. Two middle age men walk the streets of their city reminiscing about their history. A restaurant that used to be a bordello, and other seemingly disconnected moments all ask the audience to create connections of story and theme.

BY OWEN SHAPIRO AND PREDRO CUPERMAN

22 Minutes

At the San Gio festival Ferruccio Gard (Italian painter, writer/filmmaker) praised the work, saying “this is the best film on the art of Tango that I have seen in all my years of working as an artist…it’s a masterpiece.”

Ugo Brusoporcha, the director of the San Gio Festival presented Shapiro with the first annual Mario Dall’Argine Award in honor of Shapiro’s efforts to promote culture through the art of cinema.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - Athens International Film Festival

  - San Gio Video Festival, Verona, Italy

with OWEN SHAPIRO

Interview - 25 Minutes

Heart to Heart, a 25 minute interview on Korean Television from 2008 discussing the character and international state of the Independent Cinema. This occurred when Owen was in Seoul, South Korea as a judge for the Seoul Independent Film Festival.

BY OWEN SHAPIRO

Documentary - 22 Minutes

A poetic portrait of 85 year-old Robert Schmitt whose hobby of racing homing  pigeons keeps him youthful and competitive.

BY OWEN SHAPIRO

Experimental Video - 10 Minutes

A metaphoric journey into the sensuality of image and evocativeness of sound as a world of abstraction envelopes the image of women in domestic and public spaces.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

   - Biannual, Santiago, Chile

BY OWEN SHAPIRO AND PEDRO CUPERMAN

Documentary - 28 Minutes

An exploration of the paintings and sculpture of the famed Argentine artist, Perez Celis, including his painting of Jim Boeheim and Carmelo Anthony from the 2003 NCAA Mens National Basketball Championship team.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - In the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and of numerous artists and critics

BY OWEN SHAPIRO // Written by: Tom Friedmann and Owen Shapiro

Experimental Enacted Documentary - 89 Minutes

A dramatized documentary that combines eyewitness testimony, recreated events, authentic documentation, and interviews with the offspring of people who were among the 930 Holocaust refugees allowed into the USA from WW11. These refugees were placed in an army barracks in Oswego, New York until freed by Harry Truman in 1946.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - Silver Award, Philadelphia International Film Festival

  - Grand Geyser, Yellowstone Film Festival

  - Best of Fest, Dahlonega International Film and Video Festival

  - Honorable Mention, Black Maria Film Festival, New Jersey

  - Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film and Video Festival

  - Official Selection, New York International Independent Film and Video Festival

  - Official Selection, Rhode Island International Film Festival

  - Arizona International Film Festival

  - Salt Lake City Film Festival

  - Block Museum, Northwestern University

  - St. Louis Holocaust Museum

  - Hoyt’s Carousel Cinemas, Syracuse, New York

  - Cazanovia College Theater, Cazanovia, New York

  - Time Warner Cable broadcast, Central New York

  - WCNY TV broadcast, Central New York

BY OWEN SHAPIRO AND ARI SHAPIRO

Experimental Documentary - 60 Minutes

An experimental ethnographic documentary about property restitution after the fall of communism in the Czech Republic.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - Screening at FAMU, Prague, Czech Republic

  - Conference on the Study of Nations, Columbia University, NY

  - Mount Holyoke College, Amherst, Mass

  - Dallas International Video Festival, Dallas, Texas

  - Anthropology Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

BY OWEN SHAPIRO

Experimental Documentary - 60 Minutes

An experimental drama/documentary about old age. Filmed on site at two Summer camps for senior citizens. The film incorporates reenactments, jokes told by seniors, and interview materials, all presented in a good-natured, often humorous manner constructed, in part, by the seniors themselves.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - Free Speech TV cable broadcast on 60 stations nationwide

  - 1st Prize, Athens International Film Festival, Ohio

  - 1st Prize Jewish Video Festival, Berkeley, CA

  - Director’s Citation, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, NJ

  - Melbourne International Film Festival, Australia

  - World Wide Film and Video Festival, Berlin, Germany

  - Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, Israel

  - Jerusalem Cinematheque, Israel

BY OWEN SHAPIRO AND LESTER FRIEDMANN

Experimental Documentary - 55 Minutes

Thomas Szasz and the Myth of Mental Illness explores the biography and the philosophy of controversial psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, in particular paying attention to the legal implications and social consequences of his theories. The film centres around a spirited debate between Szasz and Dr. Herbert Pardes (President, American Psychiatric Association) concerning a dramatic, fictionalised case history, and also incorporates provocative questioning by such luminaries as William F. Buckley, Jr. (editor, The National Review), Alan M. Dershowitz (Harvard Law School), and Karen DeCrow (Past President, National Organisation of Women). Yet this film is more than a traditional documentary. By using cinematic and narrative strategies that raise questions about the factual and/or fictive film material, the movie’s techniques mirror the philosophical issues at the centre of Szasz’s thought: the audience must continually think, and repeatedly re-evaluate, their socially-conditioned attitudes toward those labelled ‘mentally ill’. The result is a complex, entertaining, and even-handed portrait of Dr. Thomas Szasz and his philosophy.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - 8th Biennial John Muir Medical Center Film Festival, Walnut Creek, CA

  - Athens International Film Festival, Ohio

  - Jerusalem Cinematheque, Israel

  - Haifa Cinematheque, Israel

  - Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, Israel

  - WCNY, a PBS affiliate, broadcast, Syracuse, NY

  - American Psychoanalytic Association Conference, Boston, Mass.

  - Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

BY OWEN SHAPIRO // Written by: Thomas Friedmann

Experimental Documentary - 30 Minutes

An experimental narrative about a woman’s dependency on a man and her struggle for independence. With Tarot cards as her guide she finds her personal strength and freedom.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - Athens International Film Festival, Ohio

  - Orion Theater, Tel-Aviv, Israel

  - Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, Israel

  - Jerusalem Cinematheque, Israel

  - Camera Obscura, Tel-Aviv, Israel

  - University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

  - Media Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY

  - London Filmmakers Cooperative Showcase, England

  - Haifa Cinematheque, Israel

  - Utica College, Utica, NY

BY OWEN SHAPIRO // Written by: Thomas Friedmann

Narrative - 30 Minutes

A drama about a ten year old boy who has just discovered that his parents were survivors of Hitler’s concentration camps.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, Israel

  - Jerusalem Cinematheque, Israel

  - Haifa Cinematheque, Israel

  - Tel-Aviv University, Israel

  - Holocaust Remembrance Day, Elmira, NY

  - Colgate University Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hamilton, NY

BY OWEN SHAPIRO // Written by: Thomas Friedmann

Experimental - 18 Minutes

An experimental narrative of a group therapy session of four children of Holocaust survivors as they deal with the legacy of their parents’ horrors.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - Haifa Cinematheque, Israel

  - National Symposium of Psychiatrists, Psychologists, and Social Workers, Tel-Aviv, Israel

  - London Jewish Film Festival, England

  - National Film Theater, London, England

  - Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, Israel

  - Jerusalem Cinematheque, Israel

  - Haifa Cinematheque, Israel

  - Camera Obscura, Tel-Aviv, Israel

  - Fastlich Seminars, Tel-Aviv University, Israel

  - Generation of Continuance, Tel-Aviv, Israel

  - University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

  - San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, San Francisco, CA

  - C.E.P.E. Gallery, Buffalo, NY

BY OWEN SHAPIRO

Narrative - 76 Minutes

An experimental narrative about an actress who after failing an audition to play the role of Camille in a theatrical production, becomes the center of interest for two filmmakers looking for a star for their new film.

AWARDS / SHOWINGS

  - Frames of Mind Exposition, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY

  - London Filmmakers Cooperative Showcase, England

  - Edinburgh International Film Festival, Scotland

  - Athens International Film Festival, Ohio

  - Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY