Instructions on Parting

Instructions on Parting weaves breathtaking artistic footage with cinema verite to tell an elegiac story about transformation, grief, and the essential nature of the collective human journey. Told in an unconventional visual style, the story evolves from the viewpoint of Director Amy Jenkins, whose first child is born while she negotiates the cancer diagnoses and transits toward death of three of her closest family members. By chronicling with her camera to interrogate loss, the filmmaker leads us to a bold and daring acceptance of our inevitable end.

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/EDITOR Amy Jenkins is an American artist whose installations, films, and photography have been exhibited, screened and collected internationally. Her works, which focus on themes such as familial relationships, desire, and gender identity, have been exhibited at museums including The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Haifa Museum, Haifa, Israel; Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Linz, Austria; the Akron Art Museum, Ohio; and Palm Beach ICA, FL. Her solo exhibitions include Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, GA; Brattleboro Museum, VT; Kustera Tilton Gallery, NYC, Sioux City Art Center, IA, and John Michael Kohler Art Center, WI. Jenkins’ has been a LEF Foundation Robert Flaherty Film Seminar Fellow, and a two- time nominee for the CalArts Alpert Award in Film/Video. Jenkins’ first film, the short experimental documentary Audrey Superhero, was reviewed in the NY Times, and her artwork has been reviewed in many publications, including The NY Times, ARTnews, Bomb, Performing Arts Journal, and The Village Voice. Visit her website at: www.amyjenkins.net.

PRODUCER Mary Kerr is a seasoned film professional with over 20 years experience in programming, arts administration and documentary filmmaking. She is currently consulting on several documentaries in various stages of production and most recently produced One Cut, One Life, by Lucia Small and Ed Pincus. She has programmed for the Sundance, Los Angeles, and SilverDocs film festivals and worked for the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, Creative Capital, and Scandinavia House. She served on funding panels for the NEA, NYSCA, ITVS, POV and Tribeca Gucci Fund, and juries for the Ashland, Full Frame, Sarasota, and Nordisk Panorama film festivals, amongst others. She holds a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Maryland and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

EDITOR Bara Jichova Tyson is a filmmaker and editor who often collaborates with artists including Hal Hartley, Michael Almereyda and Narcissister. She is finishing her first feature documentary film Consuming Others. Her short documentary film, The Hatch House, won the best short experimental documentary at the 2016 FAFF in California, and was the official selection of the 2016 Architecture and Design Film Festival in NYC and 2016 AMDOCS. In 2015 she co-produced and edited Built On Narrow Land, a feature-length documentary directed by Malachi Connolly. She is a 2016 recipient of a MacDowell Colony fellowship. Originally from the Czech Republic, she now lives and works in New York City.

CONSULTING EDITOR Laure Sullivan is a Film Editor, Story Consultant and Filmmaker living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked on feature docs, narrative features, television programs and series. Her debut film was Listen Up! The Lives of Quincy Jones. Since then she has worked with directors Michael Moore, Josh Fox, Mira Nair, Gaylen Ross and others. Her personal work has shown at various venues and has received support from Sundance, IDFA, ITVS, and NYSCA. Awards include: Cine Golden Eagle, Emmy, and Best Editing WIFF. Films edited by her have premiered at Sundance Film Festival, TIFF, NYFF, Cork Film Festival, and Galway Film Fleadh.

COMPOSER Noah Hoffeld, a cellist, composer and producer, is equally at home across many genres, including solo cello performance, film scores and rock song vocals. A graduate of Juilliard, he’s been featured with artists like Natalie Merchant, Philip Glass, and Renee Fleming, and his cello solos are heard in A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford. His cello opens the recent album by Krishna Das, Trust in the Heart.

SOUND DESIGNER Jim Dawson has collaborated with The Wooster Group, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Jay Scheib, Cynthia Hopkins, The Collapsible Giraffe, Findlay/Sandsmark, Door 10 and Jim Findlay. He has made soundscapes for Jean Butler, Deganit Shemy, Rebecca Warner, Diane Madden and Jon Kinzel. His film credits include Brian Rogers’ Screamers, Amy Jenkins’ Instructions on Parting, Jacque Menasche’s Cathy at War, F8 and Be There, the PBS documentary The Narcotic Farm, Ian Olds’ Occupation: Dreamland, and The Fixer.