Award-Winning Feature Film DAVID to screen at SLIFF

Award-winning Feature Film DAVID To Screen at the St. Louis International Film Festival on Friday, November 11, 7:15 pm at The Tivoli Theater and Sunday, November 13, 2:30 pm at the Plaza Frontenac Cinemas

DAVID, a story about faith, friendship and the challenges of growing up in America, has been sparking discussion about tolerance as it screens in festivals across the country.

DAVID, a new feature film directed by Joel Fendelman and written by Fendelman and Patrick Daly with a cast led by the celebrated actor Maz Jobrani (The Interpreter, 13 Going on 30, Curb Your Enthusiasm and the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour) will screen at the upcoming Dallas VideoFest on Sunday, September 25 at noon. A story of faith, friendship, family and the challenges of growing up in America, DAVID is the winner of the Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2011 Brooklyn International Film Festival and the Ecumenical Award at the recent Montreal Film Festival.

Set in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bay Ridge and Borough Park, where Orthodox Jews and Muslims live side-by-side, DAVID is the story of Daud (Muatasem Mishal), an eleven-year old Muslim boy who is the dutiful and diligent son of the local Imam (Jobrani). When, through an act of generosity, Daud inadvertently befriends a group of Jewish Yeshiva students who mistake him for a classmate, life becomes complicated. Known to his Jewish classmates as “David,” Daud soon begins to live two lives: Yeshiva student by day and Imam’s son by night. While working together on a class project, a genuine friendship grows between Daud and Yoav (Binyomin Shtaynberger). Experiencing the joy of a camaraderie he has never felt before, David is drawn further and further into his complicated deception. Unable to admit his dilemma to his stern father, Daud soon finds himself caught between two worlds, stretched to the breaking point.

Joel Fendelman and Patrick Daly’s first feature film was the award-winning documentary Needle Through Brick, about the vanishing art of traditional Kung Fu. Many of Fendelman’s short films have been shown at some of the world’s most prestigious festivals, including Cannes, Woodstock, Chicago, Miami and IDFA. Fendelman teamed up with co-writer Patrick Daly, Producer Julian Schwartz and Executive Producer Stephanie Levy to bring DAVID to fruition. The film arises out of his own experiences as a Jewish-American growing up in Miami where he first became aware of “identity and differences” as one of only a few Jewish students in a largely Hispanic public high school.

DAVID was cast and filmed entirely in the Orthodox Jewish and Conservative Muslim communities of Borough Park and Bay Ridge, where Fendelman, interested in exploring the issue of identity through his films, has lived for the last seven years establishing strong relationships in both communities. In a microcosm of interfaith cooperation, locations were generously provided by residents and many of the roles were played by people from the community including the two leads, Muatasem Mishal (Daud) and Binyomin Shtaynberger (Yoav) who had never acted before.

DAVID is already being recognized as a film that offers a unique opportunity to promote cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue.

DAVID is directed by Joel Fendelman. Written by Joel Fendelman and Patrick Daly, the Executive Producer is Stephanie Levy. The Producer is Julian Schwartz. The Director of Photography is Robbie Renfrow. The Editor is Joel Fendelman and the Production Designer is Shruti Parekh.
Original Music by Gil Talmi. DAVID stars Maz Jobrani, Muatasem Mishal and Binyomin Shtaynberger.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
http://www.David-themovie.com

www.facebook.com/davidthemovie