EL SEGUNDO HERALD June 25, 2020 Page 5
Entertainment
Aviva Breaks – No, Smashes – All
Conventions Through the Beauty of Dance
By Morgan Rojas for cinemacy.com
In a word: Groundbreaking. In two words:
Must Watch. Aviva is a surreal, dance-driven
fever dream set against a Jewish-Israeli
NYC backdrop of love, loneliness, and the
yearning for growth. Breaking the fourth
wall immediately and casually addressing
this loose and transparent structure with
confidence and ease, Aviva shouldn’t work.
But it does, and wonderfully.
What starts out as a promising long-distance
relationship becomes much more complex when
European-living Aviva – played by both Zina
Zinchenko (and at times by Or Schraiber) –
moves to New York City to be with the man
she loves, Eden (played by Tyler Phillips, and
at times Bobbie Jene Smith). The protagonists,
at times, are played by both a man and a
woman, interchangeably swapping genders
in the middle of scenes. The masculine and
feminine qualities within every person are given
a physical body here, showing how we all
are gender-fluid when it comes to expressing
emotions and navigating through life. The rest
of the film is just as poignant, including entire
scene-long monologues, naked contemporary
dance, and beautiful cinematography.
Aviva is a groundbreaking production from
Boaz Yakin, who is probably better known
as the director of the Denzel Washington
football drama Remember The Titians, or the
Brittany Murphy/Dakota Fanning comedy
Uptown Girls. Aviva is nothing – nothing
– like his previous work. In fact, I had to
do a double-take when I saw his name in
the credits. The choreography from former
Batsheva Dance Company member and costar
Bobbi Jene Smith is a visionary feat,
making the arthouse Aviva - available to
rent at www.outsiderpictures.us - one of my
favorite films of 2020. •
Aviva, courtesy of Outsider Pictures.
Morgan Rojas
Don Brann from front page
Superintendent of the Year by Pepperdine
University in 2014.
Brann has served as a school district superintendent
an incredible six times, a career
spanning 35 years. You might think that, at
74, Brann has had his fill of running school
districts. But you would be wrong. “I don’t
know if I will do another one (serve as a
superintendent),” he said, keeping the door
open to that, saying he wants to maintain
meaning in his life. “I don’t want to be bored.
I like the work; it is really challenging.”
Matt Wonder, chief executive officer of
the Da Vinci schools, knows why Brann
has been so sought after as a superintendent
by multiple school districts. “Don Brann
is a genius,” he said. “He can see a better
future, and he can then create a tactical
plan to execute it, then he can garner all
the resources to enact that plan. At every
moment, he cares deeply about people, and
he has a great sense of how people fit into
an organization. He is also crazy smart and
has darn close to a photographic memory.
He can use history to inform the future. He
also has a beautiful heart.”
Like many people today, Brann is slogging
through Zoom virtual meetings to fulfill his
DaVinci school board commitments. He
recently participated via Zoom in a search
committee to select a new superintendent for
the Hermosa Beach School District.
“Not my best world,” he said of holding
meetings on Zoom. “I like handshakes
and hugs, but we are persevering through
it,” though he did acknowledge that Zoom
meetings are time-savers because you don’t
have to get dressed for them,” he quipped.
But he admits that he misses the human
element of face-to-face meetings. “I want
to get back to the boardroom and to the
people,” he said.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still lurking
ominously, Brann knows we have entered a
brave-new-world. “I think the COVID-19
virus’s impact is going to change many facets
of American life,” he said, noting trends such
as online shopping, distance schooling, and
telecommuting, had already gained footholds
in society pre-pandemic. He expects
a ten-year acceleration in many social and
work-place trends. One positive: He sees an
easing of traffic, with more people working
from home, and therefore leaving their cars
in their driving, lessening freeway gridlock
and air pollution.
He notes that at Da Vinci, they were able
to seamlessly transition to distance learning
over that weekend in mid-March when the
schools were mandated to shut down. He
said that as technologically based schools,
DaVinci was “built for” distance learning,
with teachers and students well-equipped with
mobile devices and digital connectivity. “We
are thriving in this type of environment, “he
said, adding that schools that will initially
do the best are the ones that quickly have
adapted to the new educational realities and
offer relevant educational “products.”
Brann said the COVID-19 pandemic had
scuttled planned summer excursions to attend
a Texas Rangers baseball game and s
a European cruise. “Everything we planned
has been crossed-out on our calendar because
they have been canceled. We are rolling with
it pretty well,” he said.
Brann, who lives in El Segundo with wife
Sari, is a USC football fan, and devoted
walker, who at one point said he walked
for 1,500 straight days, his streak finally
being derailed because of a surgery. He has
competed in three half-marathons, calling
them “a really long walk.”
Brann said his life philosophy comes in
part from one of the lyrics that struck a chord
with him from a 1965 Bob Dylan song. Dylan
penned and sang, “He not busy being born is
busy dying.” Brann tries to follow that mantra
as he continues to face life’s challenges and
serve his community. “I try to live my life
being born,” he said while noting, “people
don’t care how much you know until they
find out how much you care.” After 74 years,
Brann is still “busy being born.” •
Don Brann
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