About - The Film
Children of the Inquisition: Their stories can now be told challenges our long-held ideas of history as it reveals the family secrets of the people who were forced to convert or flee during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions (1478-1834). The stories are told by their descendants, many of whom are just discovering the ancient Jewish roots of their families threatened by the fires of the Inquisition.
The film spotlights the surprising diversity of the Jewish diaspora. As today’s political dialogues increasingly center on differing understandings of where people come from and where they “belong,” Children of the Inquisition offers a new way of looking at and challenging these centuries-old ideas. For instance, it is estimated that over 25% of the Latin American population today carries Jewish DNA from colonists escaping the Inquisition.
Filmmaker Joseph Lovett has said that Children of the Inquisition represents 20 years of research and 10 years of production in North and South America, the Caribbean, and across Europe and that he hopes that this film “will inspire others to discover and embrace the nuances and secrets of their heritage and embrace unknown aspects of their own identity.”
About - Joseph Lovett
Writer, Director, Producer Joseph Lovett is an award-winning filmmaker who has worked with multiple major networks and produced the first television investigations on AIDS for ABC’s 20/20. As an independent producer and director, he created various feature documentaries, including Going Blind: Coming Out of the Dark About Vision Loss and Something Terrible Happened to Joey, and over 35 hours of prime-time specials. Lovett has been honored with the Peabody Award, AIDS Leadership Award, Christopher Award, Kitty Carlisle Hart Award, numerous other awards from advocacy organizations and an Emmy nomination. Now he serves as the president of A Closer Look, Inc., where he creates new trauma-informed films and distributes them — as well as his old ones — for educational purposes.
About - Hilary Klotz Steinman
Producer Hilary Klotz Steinman is an Emmy award-winning independent documentary film producer and director. Her work has been featured in theaters, on PBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and at the New York Historical Society. Hilary recently produced and directed the independent documentary, Loud Enough. In addition to producing Children of the Inquisition and Going Blind for Lovett Stories + Strategies, she also produced Death By Design and 3 feature documentaries for the PBS history series, American Experience: The Codebreaker, Test Tube Babies and the Emmy award-winning film The Pill. Hilary received a Christopher Award and an Emmy nomination for her work on the PBS series Slavery and the Making of America, and an Emmy nomination for her research on the Bill Moyers PBS series Becoming American: The Chinese Experience.
About - A Closer Look, Inc.
Children of the Inquisition: Their stories can now be told was produced by Lovett Stories + Strategies (Lovett Productions) in association with A Closer Look, Inc.
A Closer Look is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 2014 by veteran documentarian Joseph Lovett. The ACL mission is to use a trauma-informed focus to minimize suffering, maximize empathy and inspire action on health and social justice issues through the use of film and other creative media for intergenerational and interdisciplinary discussion and outreach. Current areas of focus include identity, intolerance, disability, childhood trauma, resilience and race.
For more information go to acloserlook.org
