Adrian Wong

Filmmaker and professor Pearl Gluck’s provocative latest dramatic short film centers on Malke, a Holocaust survivor and sex-ed teacher who has been leading a secret life for decades: performing slam poetry on the Lower East Side. Castles in the Sky features commanding performances from actor Lynn Cohen, who died in 2020, and poet Venus Thrash, who died in 2021.

In the aftermath of the world's greatest financial shams, a Malaysian child finds solace and guidance from an unlikely figurehead. The docu-fiction uses the juxtaposition of its namesake as a jumping-off point to create a highly evocative odyssey through the Malaysian youth consciousness.