Filmmaker: Alison Chernick
Runtime: 82 min
From Schubert to Strauss, Bach to Brahms, Mozart to…Billy Joel, Itzhak Perlman’s violin playing transcends mere performance to evoke the celebrations and struggles of real life; “praying with the violin,” says renowned Tel Aviv violinmaker Amnon Weinstein. Alison Chernick’s enchanting documentary looks beyond the sublime musician, to see the polio survivor whose parents emigrated from Poland to Israel, the young man who struggled to be taken seriously as a music student when schools saw only his disability. As charming and entrancing as the famous violinist himself, ITZHAK is a portrait of musical virtuosity seamlessly enclosed in warmth, humor, and above all, love.
About the filmmaker
Alison Chernick is a New York based writer/director and filmmaker. Chernick’s first documentary was on contemporary artist Jeff Koons titled, The Jeff Koons Show. Her second feature-length documentary on artist Matthew Barney, titled Matthew Barney No Restraint, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006 and was acquired for theatrical distribution by The Weinstein Company. She founded the production company Voyeur Films in 2006.