In conjunction with The Kanbar Institute of Film & Television in the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Nextbook is sponsoring a contest to find the best short films/videos to promote the forthcoming book The Jewish Body.
If you win the competition, you’ll get a cash prize as well as lots of public exposure.
Author Melvin Konner, a well-known doctor and anthropologist,
has written a history of the Jewish people from bris to burial,
from “muscle Jews” to nose jobs. From birth to death,
Konner takes the measure of the “Jewish body,” stopping
along the way to contemplate sex, circumcision, menstruation, and
Jewish genes. He looks as well at the views of Jewish physiology
held by non-Jews and the way those views seeped into Jewish
thought. He describes in detail the origins of the first nose job,
and he writes about the Nazi ideology that saw Jews literally as a
public health menace on par with rats or germs. A work of grand
historical and philosophical sweep, with deep insight and great
originality, The Jewish Body is nothing less than an
anatomical history of the Jewish people.
The book will not be published by Nextbook/Schocken until January 2009, but advance readers’ copies of the book will be available for contestants to pick up during regular business hours at NYU and Nextbook. Visit one of the following people to pick up your copy:
Wayne Hoffman at Nextbook
295 Lafayette Street (at Houston St.), Suite 501
Marcus Young at NYU
721 Broadway, 9th floor
The video should promote The Jewish Body—something that tells a bit about it, makes it clear that this is a Nextbook project, and motivates people to read it—but it does not have to be a straightforward “advertisement.” Get creative. You can be funny, irreverent, or offbeat if that’s your vision—or make it something more serious and slick. Either way, just keep it all PG-rated.
Videos should be 1–4 minutes long.
To download the book cover, which you can use in your video, right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac) the thumbnail image above and select “Save Image As . . .”
As for technical specs:
Email your video no later than December 30, 2008, to whoffman@nextbook.org. Please include your contact information, and a bio of less than 100 words. Your subject line should read “Video Contest.”
All submissions become property of Nextbook, and may be used in future promotional efforts by Nextbook without further consideration.
Winner will be announced by January 10, 2009.
Finalists will have their videos posted on Nextbook’s website, at Nextbook.org.
The winner will receive $1,000, and the winning entry will be used in Nextbook’s promotional campaign for The Jewish Body.
Nextbook is a nonprofit organization that promotes the discovery
and discussion of Jewish literature, culture and ideas nationwide.
Launched in 2003, Nextbook produces the critically acclaimed Jewish
Encounters book series in collaboration with Schocken/Random House.
The Jewish Body will be the 11th book in the series;
previously released titles include The Life of David
by Robert Pinsky, The Wicked Son by David Mamet,
Benjamin Disraeli by Adam Kirsch, and
Resurrecting Hebrew by Ilan Stavans. Nextbook also
organizes innovative festivals and public programs around the
country, and publishes an online magazine that features arts
criticism, cultural reporting, and weekly podcasts from
today’s most insightful thinkers. For more information, visit
Nextbook.org.
The Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television is one of the
world’s premier film programs, operating as part of New York
University’s Tisch School of the Arts. For more information,
visit filmtv.tisch.nyu.edu.
Email Wayne Hoffman at whoffman@nextbook.org.
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