Announcing "Borscht is Dead” a fundraiser for Indie Ethos featuring a series of short films produced by the Miami film collective that helped make “Moonlight” happen.

Fort Lauderdale, FL -- Independent Ethos and Choose954 are excited to bring you "Borscht Is Dead," a series of short films produced by Miami-based filmmaking collective Borscht Corporation -- the guys telling Miami stories and redefining cinema in Miami for over a decade through the Borsht Film Festival. They are credited as the connective tissue for bringing the Oscar winning film “Moonlight” to life. The presentation will span the later years of their 13 years of existence as selected by Independent Ethos' co-founder and chief film critic Hans Morgenstern.

"Their last festival in Miami, Borscht Diez, featured a Viking funeral pyre to destroy hard drives that held old productions from across their history. There was little left to salvage," notes Morgenstern. "With their death (Borscht Diez being a play on “Borscht Dies”), comes a look backward. There’s nothing like death to take stock via a retrospective."

When Lucas Leyva, co-founder and Minister of the Interior at Borscht Corporation, is asked why he trusts Morgenstern with selecting the "Best of Borscht," he says, "I don't, but thoughtful film criticism should always be supported. As our nascent independent film community matures, the critical discourse around the work must also evolve. Blind boosterism and promotional blurbs alone won't cut it anymore. With the Miami Herald reassigning legendary film critic Rene Rodriguez to the Real Estate Section (really), other platforms like IE that take deep dives into films become more important than ever.”

The inaugural fundraising event held at Fort Lauderdale-based Savor Cinema Theatres on October 19th will benefit IndieEthos.com's Knight Foundation Arts Challenge to bolster an online blog/platform that gives the world an insider's peek into Miami's growing indie film and music scene.
"We are extremely excited and grateful that we have the opportunity to collaborate with Independent Ethos and bring some of Miami's best film-makers up to Fort Lauderdale for a well-curated evening showcasing some impressive films" says Evan Snow, Choose954's Co-Founder.

For the event, Morgenstern has selected some of the best films ever made in Miami by Ahol Sniffs Glue, Alexa Lim Haas, Amy Seimetz, Antonia Wright, Barry Jenkins, Bernardo Britto, Bleeding Palm, Julian Yuri Rodriguez, plus collaborations between Lucas Leyva and Jillian Mayer, and Otto and Egon von Schirach. The event also includes a silent auction featuring original works by Ahol Sniffs Glue, Farley Aguilar, Aramis Gutierrez, Bert Rodriguez, and Agustina Woodgate.

Morgenstern, who also serves as the vice-chair of the Florida Film Critics Circle and is an arts and culture journalist for the Miami New Times, is the recipient of a 2015 Knight Foundation Arts Challenge grant for $15,000. Per the program guidelines, once an applicant is named a winner of the Arts Challenge they must raise matching funds equal to the amount of the grant awarded in order to receive the Knight Foundation Funds. "Borscht Is Dead" will serve as a fundraiser for IndieEthos to obtain the funds in order to continue doing the meaningful work for the community.

In the ever-changing world of modern media and publications, platforms like Independent Ethos and Choose954 serve as valuable resources for their communities by dispersing curated content online while print media has scaled back considerably. Choose954 works diligently to keep the community connected via social media, visual storytelling, and their newsletter.

General Admission Tickets for Borscht is Dead: a series of short films produced by Borscht Corporation Curated by IndieEthos in collaboration with Choose954 are $13 with VIP Tickets, including reserved seating and cocktail, are $25 and can be purchased on-line through EventBrite. More information can be found upcoming on Independent Ethos’ website at https://indieethos.com.

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Who: Borscht is Dead: a series of short films produced by Borscht Corporation Curated by IndieEthos & Collab With Choose954, as selected by Independent Ethos' co-founder and chief film critic Hans Morgenstern to benefit indiethos.com’s Knight Foundation match.

Where: Savor Cinema Fort Lauderdale -- Formerly Cinema Paradiso, 503 SE 6th St., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301.

When: Thursday, October 19, 2017, 6 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

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Media contacts:

Hans Morgenstern | Independent Ethos | morgensternh@bellsouth.net | 305-978-0162
Evan Snow | Choose954 | evans@artftlauderdale.com | 954-361-4998
Andrew M | UniteUs Group | andrewm@uniteusgroup.com | 954-850-8581

About Independent Ethos
Co-founded in 2009 by Hans and Ana Morgenstern, Independent Ethos is a website established to celebrate the independent ethos of artists in music and film whose creations push against the grain of corporate-subsidized popular culture. The spirit of independent art is celebrated here as both critical and important. In 2012, the film criticism on the site earned Hans Morgenstern membership to the Florida Film Critics Circle. In 2015, the Knight Foundation bestowed the site with a Knight Arts Challenge grant for its coverage of local musicians and filmmakers in its section “Independent Ethos in the Subtropics.” For more information about Independent Ethos, please visit Indieethos.com, Twitter: @indieethos and Facebook.com/IndependentEthos.

About Choose954
Choose954 is a social movement aiming to cultivate culture and community throughout Greater Fort Lauderdale. After launching in 2016 by curating local culture via social media, visual storytelling, newsletters and other community outreach, Choose954 began creating culture in the form of events. This has lead to the creation of new event platforms including Art Fort Lauderdale and Seven Tastings amongst others. In addition to solely curating content, Choose954 also creates platforms to showcase artists and creatives in the community, including Art Fort Lauderdale -- "The Art Fair on the Water." For more information about Choose954, please visit www.choose954.com and @choose954.

501 SE 2ND ST
844
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

This release was published on openPR.