2012-2013 Filmmaker In Residence
MY FAVORITE NEOCONSERVATIVE offers a rare glimpse of intimate Washington politics through a unique father-daughter relationship. The main character is the filmmaker’s father, Edward Luttwak, who makes a living as a military strategist. He devised the air campaign of the first Iraq War; his life was threatened on the nightly news by the notorious terrorist, Abu Nidal. The film tells a father-daughter story with a massive military and political twist.
Yael Luttwak is a filmmaker. She is the founder of Slim Peace Groups, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization that emerged from her documentary film, A SLIM PEACE, portraying the drama of Israeli and Palestinian women in a weight-loss cohort involving Jews, Muslims, and Christian Arabs. Yael directed and co-produced A SLIM PEACE, which premiered at the Tribeca Film festival in 2007. Her film was broadcast worldwide and on the Sundance Channel in the US. At the end of 2012, the 20th Slim Peace cohort launched in Jerusalem and in January, 2013, the first cohort launched in Boston followed by Washington, D.C., Portland, Maine, and Chicago. Each cohort is expertly lead by a Jewish and Muslim dietitian and group facilitator. It involves women who cross the divides of society to foster a healthy lifestyle in a nutrition program designed to build bridges. Slim Peace was recently profiled in the New York Times and on NBC's TODAY Show and women and men have requested to bring Slim Peace to over 30 US cities and internationally, as well. Yael graduated from the London Film School, where she specialized in directing. She assisted the Oscar-nominated Mike Leigh's production, "Two-thousand Years," a play at London's National Theatre. Her short films have been widely distributed, among them HANS RAUSING and YITZHAK RABIN: 1922-1995, a New Regency production. Yael's next documentary film, MY FAVORITE NEOCONSERVATIVE recently premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and she is currently in post-production on ALEX. She lives in Washington, DC with her son.
Project description and bios courtesy of the Resident