Filmmakers » Director, Director of Production

Vivienne Roumani-Denn

“There is always a story. I see it, you want to hear it, I want to tell it – we will make it happen.” Vivienne Roumani-Denn wrote, directed, and filmed the feature-length documentary "The Last Jews of Libya," narrated by Isabella Rossellini, which was shown at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival and other major international venues and received its broadcast premiere on the Sundance Channel in 2008.

Most recently she has collaborated with renowned musician Gerard Edery in creating musical events that capture the unique qualities of Sephardic music and culture. Their productions of "Flamenco Sepharad" and "Caravan" celebrate the melding of cultures, traditions, and music through many countries and centuries. Roumani-Denn believes that no culture stands alone; each is a fusion of many traditions over many epochs.

Before documentary films, Roumani-Denn saw the story in oral histories; the results of her research can be found in major archives. A recognized expert on Sephardic culture, she founded the Sephardi Library and the Sephardi Exhibition Gallery at the Center for Jewish History in New York while serving as Executive Director of the American Sephardi Federation.

Roumani-Denn studied philosophy and has Masters' degrees in Library Science and Administrative Science. She published and lectured extensively on library and information sciences and digital media while holding positions at major research libraries.

She is working on her next documentary film.

SYNOPSIS

The Last Jews of Libya documents the final decades of a centuries-old Sephardic Jewish community through the lives of the remarkable Roumani family. Thirty-six thousand Jews lived in Libya at the end of World War II, but not a single one remains today. A tale of war, cultural dislocation, and one family's ultimate perseverance, this fifty-minute film traces the story of the Roumanis of Benghazi, Libya from Turkish Ottoman rule through the age of Mussolini and Hitler to the final destruction and dispersal of Libya's Jews in the face of Arab nationalism.

Based on the recently discovered memoirs of the family's matriarch, Elise Roumani, as well as interviews in English, Hebrew, Italian, and Arabic with several generations of the Roumani family and a trove of rare archival film and photographs, it is an unforgettable tale.

The Last Jews of Libya is the story of an ancient community transformed by modern European culture, buffeted by Fascism and Arab nationalism, and ultimately saved through the strength of its Jewish tradition and faith.