Jethro Rothe-Kushel
Jethro Rothe-Kushel is Los Angeles native. Growing up in and around Hollywood movie sets, Jethro wanted to make films as a young child. At age nine he made his first documentary and at ten his first music video. At fourteen he created his first award-winning festival film. Since, he has created hundreds of narrative, documentary, experimental, and commercial films. In 2001, Rothe-Kushel was awarded the Breaking Out Award for best up-and-coming director by the Silver Lake Film Festival in Los Angeles. A Chicano with mixed Mexican and Jewish heritage, he has a unique vision and a special eye towards the voice of the oppressed. His work (which includes work in 16mm, 35mm, and digital video) explores issues of identity, race, class, culture, and religion. Pharaohs Streets focuses on the Habiru wandering nomadic homeless through a critical look at the various veils of Los Angeles. Walls, fences, gates, borders, and even the veil of the silver screen compose very fibers of Los Angeles and become as much a subject of the film as the startling homeless informants themselves. His work has screened both nationally and internationally at venues such as the Liverpool Biennial, Jurusalem International Film Festival, Big Bear International Film Festival, KCBS Television News, WebTV, University of Copenhagen, National Media Convention, Northeast Summit on Hunger and Homelessness, Ivy Film Festival, etc. He has worked with Mexican performance artist Guillermo G