Feature Documentary About Unlikely Philanthropists Whose $500 Million Gift Seeks Peace and Climate Action Through Water Makes World Premiere at Newport Beach Film Festival
Who Are the Marcuses?, Matthew Mishory’s feature documentary about a mysterious couple whose more than half a billion-dollar gift to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev both tells the story of a nice Jewish couple—and savvy investors—from Long Island, and re-imagines conflict resolution in the Middle East and peace through water, will make its world premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival next month.
The film will have its world premiere Tuesday, October 18th at THE LOT #3, 999 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660 at 7:30 PM. The film will play an encore screening Wednesday, October 19h at the same cinema at the same time. Ticketing options available here.
Matthew Mishory (Fioretta; Artur Schnabel; No Place of Exile) directed the film. Producers are Rubber Ring’s and Stone Canyon’s Bradford Schlei (Swingers, Spun) and Alvaro Fernandez of Monolithic Films along with executive producers Rob Levine, Marc Bennett (The Tattooed Torah, Shared Legacies) and Rhino Films’ Stephen Nemeth (Dogtown and the Z Boys, Climate Refugees, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). Who are the Marcuses? features Warren Buffett; Israeli President Isaac Herzog; historian Daniel Gordis; best-selling philosopher Micah Goodman; E. Randol Schoenberg; author and activist Seth M. Siegel, and many others. The film was shot on location in Israel; Austin, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; and other locales throughout 2021.
“Our film has a message—about climate change, water technology, and philanthropy—that can change our world,” Mishory says. “But films are also about storytelling, and this one tells a story so unbelievable and inspiring, it can only be true. We can’t wait to share it.”
He adds, “I’m so grateful we’ll be making our world premiere at Newport Beach, a festival with a long track record of dedication to conservation and the environment. It’s an honor to bring our story of water technology, climate action, and philanthropy to the NBFF audience. This is the film the world needs now.”
The film’s trailer is both a revealing and hopeful look at the film but protects its most surprising secrets. See it here.
Who Are the Marcuses? pieces together the lives of Holocaust refugees Lottie and Howard Marcus, an unassuming couple from Great Neck, New York, who retired to a modest two-bedroom apartment in San Diego, California. Howard, formerly a dentist, died in 2014 at age 104. Lottie died less than two years later at age 99. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed the Marcuses had given over half a billion dollars to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev—the largest single charitable donation to the State of Israel since its founding in 1948.
Who were these virtually unknown philanthropists who had never publicly revealed their wealth or intentions? How did they accumulate millions by getting in on the early days of the greatest financial services empire ever built? What compelled them and their daughter, Ellen, to give it all away? And why were the Marcuses so captivated by the issue of water scarcity and a little-known but innovative university in the Israeli desert?
Professor Daniel Chamovitz, president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, says, “By investing their nest egg, this generous family has enabled [first Israeli Prime Minister] David Ben-Gurion’s vision for the future of Israel, which he declared will ‘emerge from the Negev.’”
Who Are the Marcuses? is Matthew Mishory’s sixth imaginative exploration of notable lives of the 20th century. It follows films about artist/filmmaker Derek Jarman, actor James Dean, musician Artur Schnabel, and purged Ukrainian composer Alexander Mosolov. The sixth breaks the mold: He’s recently finished shooting Fioretta in Central Europe and Italy. That film is about the obsessive, multi-decade quest of Randol Schoenberg—genealogist, Jewish activist and grandson of the composer—to find the centuries-old gravestone of his oldest known ancestor, a woman who died in the 1500’s in the Jewish ghetto of Venice.
Who Are the Marcuses? was photographed by Mishory’s longtime collaborator Michael Marius Pessah (Joshua Tree, 1951; Smiley Face Killers), was co-written by Golan Friedman, and features an original score by legendary Israeli guitarist/singer David Broza. Mishory is delivering Who Are the Marcuses? in Dolby Vision HDR for theatrical and streaming release. Graef Allen of Dolby is producing the DolbyVision DCP.
“This film is the blueprint for existing and future technological solutions to climate crises that set the stage for lasting peace in the Middle East and beyond,” adds Schlei.
“The Marcuses were humble visionaries who saw the importance of water research not only as vital to Israel’s self-sufficiency but as a strategy to achieve peace through shared natural resources,” says Doug Seserman, chief executive officer of Americans for Ben-Gurion University. “Their transformative generosity will be felt for generations to come.”
Rubber Ring Films is a production company and creative agency based in Santa Monica, CA, making documentary, brand, and narrative content. Who Are the Marcuses? is their first release of a slate of six projects in active production or post.
Stone Canyon Entertainment is a development, production, and financing company based in Santa Monica, CA, whose most recent feature was The Trust, starring Elijah Wood.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) was inspired by the vision of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, who believed that the future of Israel lay in the Negev region, a desert area comprising more than 60 percent of the country. With some 20,000 students and campuses in Beer-Sheva, Sede Boqer and Eilat, BGU is an oasis of innovation, leading research in cyber security, desert studies, climate change, medicine, Israeli studies, and more.
Americans For Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world by supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.
WHO ARE THE MARCUSES? Feature Documentary
Running Time: 99 Minutes; Audio: Stereo; Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Shooting format 4k and Super 8
Link to press materials and photos here.
