"At Second Glance" by Sheri Hagen: A Q&A with the Director and Ariana Cohen-Halberstam
In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Boston 
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020
12-1:30 p.m. Eastern Time (US) / 6-7:30 p.m. German time
Zoom Webinar
You can watch a recording of the complete event by clicking the button above.
About the Event
"Set in a snow-covered, unhospitable-looking Berlin, actress Sheri Hagen's directional debut, ' Auf den zweiten Blick' (English: 'At Second Glance' ), tells the story of three visually impaired couples as they learn to cope with their visual impairment, accept help from others and face reality. The film initially portrays the loneliness that the visually impaired can experience, but the more the characters open up to human contact and develop relationships with each other, the more the film brightens up: honest and heartwarming without falling back on stereotypes or glossing over the facts." — Hannah Klümper, EXBERLINER
Director Sheri Hagen talks with Ariana Cohen-Halberstam about a movie that advocates for love against all odds. Exploring "blindness" in a literal as well as metaphorical sense, the film shows how loneliness, prejudice, and physical limitations can be overcome — if we are able to open up and see the other person for who they are.
Watch the trailer of "Auf den Zweiten Blick/At Second Glance" on Youtube.
About the Speakers
Sheri Hagen was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised in Hamburg, Germany. She studied at the Stage School of Dance and Drama Hamburg, as well as the Studio Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Although the focus of her acting career has been in film and television, she performed in several productions on Berlin's theatre stages during 2010-12.
Hagen is a well-known presence in German film and television. She was part of several episodes of the long-standing popular German crime series "Crime Scene/Tatort" and " The Old Fox/Der Alte" as well as theatrically released films, such as "The Lives of Others/Das Leben der Anderen" (2006) and Branwen Okpako’s " The Curse of Medea" (2014), among others.
Sheri Hagen has worked on film projects as author, director, and producer. Her debut feature film as a director, "At Second Glance/Auf den Zweiten Blick" (2012), won awards at the Filmfest Emden-Norderney (2012) and the Kirchen Filmfestival Recklinghausen (2013).
Hagen has scripted all of her films and produced them through her own production company, Equality Film.
Ariana Cohen-Halberstam is artistic director of the Boston Jewish Film. She programs the annual Boston Jewish Film Festival, the Boston Israeli Film Festival, and the organization’s year-round film programs. Before joining Boston Jewish Film in 2015, Ariana was the Associate Director of Film Programs at the JCC Manhattan. She has also worked in post-production in TV and in production on several documentary films. Ariana has a BA in Cinema Studies from Oberlin College.
Photos: (1) film still from Auf den zweiten Blick, credit: Anita Back, (2) Sheri Hagen, credit: David Reisle, (3) Ariana Cohen-Halberstam (private)