Lucille Carra
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Lucille Carra (born New York City) is an American documentary film director, producer, and writer. She is of Sicilian descent. All of her films have been seen on PBS and international television. Carra has a BFA in Film Production and an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University's
Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...
. At New York University, she was cited Outstanding Woman Student of the Year (School of the Arts) by the New York University Alumni Association. She formed Travelfilm Company for the production and distribution of documentary films after working in international film distribution.


Films

Carra's films are classified as arts documentaries, noted for new research and scholarship, use of newly found music, and classically filmed landscapes. They are independently produced, and are funded through cultural agencies, government foundations and television and distribution companies. Carra works in 16mm film and restored archival film and video. Carra's films focus on artists and the specific cultural and social contexts in which they worked. '' The Inland Sea'' (1992) is based on the travel memoir by
Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also dir ...
and retraces the author's journey while documenting the fading regional culture of rural islands of the
Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka ...
. The isolated region was researched for a three-year period before filming began. The film won the Best Documentary Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival and the Earthwatch Film Award. It screened at over forty film festivals, including the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
. It is in the permanent film collections at the Museum of Modern Art and the UCLA/Sundance Collection. In 2019, the restored version was produced and distributed by the Criterion Collection. Carra's 1991 interview with Donald Richie is presented in the edition. ''Dvořák and America'' (2000) was the first U.S./Czech Television documentary co-production. It is the first film about the years the composer
Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...
spent in the United States and his relationships with his African-American students, including his informal student,
Harry T. Burleigh Henry Thacker ("Harry") Burleigh (December 2, 1866 – September 12, 1949) was an American Classical music, classical composer, arranger, and professional singer known for his baritone voice. The first black composer who was instrumental i ...
. It features new orchestrations by Maurice Peress. It premiered at Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank Centre, London. '' The Last Wright: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Park Inn Hotel'' (2008), produced and written with Garry McGee, is the only project in any media about the last standing hotel designed by
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
, The Park Inn, located in Iowa. The film won the Grand Prize as Best Documentary at the Iowa Motion Picture Association and was nominated for a Midwest EMMY Award for Best Writing for Documentary. The film compares the degraded condition of the Park Inn Hotel with many of Wright's important works, and travels to Japan to offer contrast Wright's
Imperial Hotel, Tokyo The is a hotel in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda ward, Tokyo. It was created in the late 1880s at the request of the Japanese aristocracy to cater to the increasing number of Western visitors to Japan. The hotel site is located just south of the Impe ...
, now partially restored at Meiji-Mura, Japan. In 2007, researching material for a film on pianist
Glenn Gould Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...
, ''Glenn Gould, Recording Artist,'' Carra found the long-thought lost U.S. television program written and performed by the performer, ''The Return of the Wizard'' (1968). She presented screenings the Gasteig Cultural Center in Munich, the Paley Center for Media and the Montreal Festival of Film on Art and was awarded a Media grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
and an award from the New York State Council on the Arts to restore the program and to continue the film's research.


External links


Official Website
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Review of ''The Inland Sea''
''New York Times''
Associated Press article on ''Dvořák and America''

''Criterion Collection The Inland Sea''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carra, Lucille Living people American documentary film directors Tisch School of the Arts alumni Queens College, City University of New York alumni Year of birth missing (living people)