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synopsis The description of a father- figure relationship between a little Jewish boy and an elderly Jewish neighbor. The story also recounts the Post Holocaust years of the 1950's in Brooklyn, New York. Dramatized by God's narration, a moving original musical score , splendid visuals, the film creatively evokes the larger than life generational themes; good and evil, soul searching, prayer and religion, devotion and the loss of innocence. director Elliot Bassman: I received my Master of Fine Arts Degree from Columbia University , in painting and drawing, and my Bachelor of Arts Degree from City College of New York, also in drawing and painting. At Columbia I studied with the eminent print maker, Robert Blackburn. At City College I studied with several of the major painters involved in the WPA projects, such as Charles Alston and Joseph Solman. My professional career was tremendously accelerated by an art tutor, the WPA artist, Harry Shoulberg, as well as by my attendance at the Skowhegan school, in central Maine, where I studied with Brice Marden . I also attended, full time, for four years, the New York Studio School in Greenwich Village, New York City. There I had the great fortune to work along with Leland Bell, Grace Hartigan, Jack Tworkov. My mentor, Philip Guston provided me with enormous support and encouragement. After attending Columbia, I considered myself a professional painter, as my institutional learning came to an end. In the next decades, I worked as a painter and always had a studio. I worked part time as a substitute teacher for the Board of Education, and also, at times, part time as an art dealer; where I learned how to market works of art and where I learned the art of installations which earned me a fine reputation as an installer. I installed exhibitions for the photographer, Linda McCartney and the well known pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein. As a dealer, I was very lucky to see the works of many brilliant artists in private collections, not open to the public. My art work was bold, gestural, involved mostly with the application of thick heavy oil paint, capturing still life, landscape and city scenes, from on site painting, as well as from my imagination. In 1996 I gave up the part time jobs, and became a full time artist, as my life was changed, at that time, by the radical treatment I received for a very rare cancer. I continue to paint in Jackson Heights, Queens, in the Greystone complex. I exhibited frequently over these several decades. From Alaska to Germany. Often, I exhibited in alternative venues such as Bergdorf Goodman's fifth Avenue windows, to painting a fiberglass cow, in the notorious cow parade in New York City in 2000. I have had press in the New York Times, The Jewish Forward, the Jewsih Week, The Times ledger, Lincoln Center Playbill , Newsday, and all the Queens newspapers such as the Tribune and the Courier. My works are in public collections, including the Library of Congress, a wall of art at Elmhurst Hospital, dedicated to my partner, Clifford Roye, who died in 2003. I have large works in the City College of New York Robert Cohen Library as well as at the Bank Street College in upper Manhattan. I have experimented in many mediums and continue to do so. Spending a decade painting large murals in bold acrylics, recapturing the classical world by way of contemporary visions. I wrote a short story in 2004 that was published in a gay anthology. The story, "Sylvia" was the basis and inspiration, to create the film, "The Word Never Mentioned." I believe the story and the film, which projects a score of my own art works, along with the narration, marinated in me for decades- and by 2009, I grabbed fate, and finally created this film. Alumni Filmography filmmaker's note 'In the Wind' expands the series of films I have directed, based on several short essays The stories I have written, often document events of my childhood that continue to have a profound memory in my life today. related links
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