A Thousand and One

MT RUSH - is the present as a near-future science fiction, chronicling the day-to-day activities of a lesbian Mt. Rushmore Park Ranger as she navigates an onslaught of interactive fundraising emails that appear on a transparent interface, leading up to the 2016 Presidential election. The narrative arc of the movie is based on the urgent, alarmist, and oddly personalized campaign and fundraising emails from the Democrats and Republicans (i.e. Hillary Has Been Emailing You… or WE QUIT: but we don’t want to quit). Serving as both narrator and foil to the ranger, the emails perform the pervasive political rhetoric in today’s systems of governance; while acting as a meditation on the National Park Service and politics.

The film tells the story of Russian emigree and the only survivor from ship crash Yanko Goorall and servant Amy Foster in the end of 19th century. When Yanko enters a farm sick and hungry after the shipwreck, everyone is afraid of him, except for Amy, who is very kind and helps him. Soon he becomes like a son for Dr. James Kennedy and romance between Yanko and Amy follows.

In 1980, the black Falashas in Ethiopia are recognised as genuine Jews and are secretly carried to Israel. The day before the transport the son of a Jewish mother dies. In his place and with his name (Schlomo) she takes a Christian 9-year-old boy.

A 14-year-old video enthusiast obsessed with violent films decides to make one of his own and show it to his parents, with tragic results.

The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century in Sicily. Salvatore, a very poor farmer, and a widower, decides to emigrate to the US with all his family, including his old mother. Before they embark, they meet Lucy. She is supposed to be a British lady and wants to come back to the States. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, for unknown reasons wants to marry someone before to arrive to Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts the proposal. Once they arrive in Ellis Island they spend the quarantine period trying to pass the examinations to be admitted to the States. Tests are not so simple for poor farmers coming from Sicily. Their destiny is in the hands of the custom officers.