The Men’s RoomAnimated Satire about the Academy Awards

(PRLEAP.COM) — The Men’s Room is director Gladys Bensimon’s new animated film satirizing Hollywood’s history of male domination. "In it’s 76 years the Academy Awards have essentially disregarded women as film directors" said Ms. Bensimon. Exploring the history of the Academy Awards with brutal satire, the animated characters of The Men’s Room say things that living actors simply can’t get away with. As seen in the pilot episode, the characters inhabiting The Men’s Room are commonly named “Dick”, their look is not grotesque, but rather comical. "They point out the absurdity of our world, and the even more absurd opinions we have about it", said Ms. Bensimon.

The Men’s Room which was originally developed as a pilot for a cable series, has been selected in numerous festivals, including the 2005 New York IFP Market in the short narrative category, The NY Big Apple Film Festival, The Golden Lion Film Festival, and the 2006 Tiburon Film Festival. Also, Canal Plus screened a clip of The Men’s Room at the opening of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Ms. Bensimon is currently looking for a cable deal for her series.

Gladys Bensimon is a script writer/director, President of HBR Production Company. Working in a wide range of genres, from feature to animation, she wrote and directed Man in Red, a wacky comedy about love, loss and lingerie on a shoe-string budget which was shot in various locales in New York and New Jersey. The filmmaker raised the money privately; approaching family and friends, because she knew the provocative subject matter would make traditional routes more difficult. "Man In Red" blurs the line between heterosexuality and homosexuality, an ambiguity that some people find quite uncomfortable.

Compared to the exuberant Spanish director Pedro Almodovar ("Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!", "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown") the often irreverent Bensimon has a surprisingly serious side and has won several awards for her documentary work dealing with some very crucial social issues. "The Legal Process" won the 1993 Television Documentary from the National Commission on Child Abuse and Missing and Exploited Children. In 1997, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Johnson & Johnson awarded Ms. Bensimon a grant to co-produce and direct "The Silent Victims Speak", a three-part series on domestic violence from a child’s perspective, which went on to win the National Media Award Competition and has been featured in PBS., and won several awards for her bold documentaries “Domestic Violence: The Legal Process”, “Roll Call”, and “Silent Victims Speak” also in distribution. The Men’s Room is also a pilot for a television series comedy presently in discussion for an existing late night sketch comedy show.

In addition to The Men’s Room, and Man in Red, Gladys Bensimon’s newest adventure is the recently released book Paha Saha: Black Hills. Geared for a young audience, the book is based on Gladys Bensimon’s original film script, and adapted by herself and novelist Sheila Marin-Berry. The Paha Sapa: Black Hills book is available at Amazon.com, Borders, Barnes and Nobel.com, New York Museums, and other books stores. The book is also available in some public schools and libraries in New York, and New Jersey.