Faculty member’s film makes world premiere Jan. 18 in New York City | Penn State University

Actor Lynn Cohen, in her final role, stars as Malke, alongside the late poet Venus Thrash in “Castles in the Sky.” Cohen died in 2020 and Thrash in 2021.

The crew for the film included a number of Gluck’s students working alongside award-winning film professionals. Penn State graduates now working in the film industry who were involved with the film were associate producer Morgan Seiff (class of 2021), editor Allan Guerrero (class of 2017) and titles designer and animator Jessica Snyder (class of 2022).

The film was made possible in part by Gluck’s Bellisario Career Advancement Professorship and a grant from the Jewish Studies program at Penn State.

Gluck’s work has appeared at Sundance, Tribeca, the Cannes Film Festival, and on PBS. She recently returned from a Fulbright research and development sabbatical in Israel and Poland.

Her first documentary feature film, “Divan” (2004) opened theatrically at Film Forum in New York City, was broadcast on the Sundance Channel and played across the country and internationally at festivals. Her second feature, “The Turn Out” (2019), deals with sex trafficking at local truck stops and is a hybrid film.

Gluck’s fiction short films, “Where Is Joel Baum” (2012), “Junior” (2017), “Summer” (2018), and “Write Me” (2019), have won three Best Actress awards.