The Best Little (Dysfunctional Jewish) Strip Club in Toronto Filmmaker Shawney Cohen Turns His Camera on His Family By Sheerly Avni http://forward.com/articles/187606/the-best-little-dysfunctional-jewish-strip-club-in/
It’s one of the most instantly recognizable Jewish narratives of the 20th century: Two high schoolers – one an impoverished immigrant with an Old World accent that 50 years in the New World will be unable to fade, and the other the child of holocaust survivors — meet in the 1970s and fall in love. They marry, they struggle, and eventually they move forward, determined to give their children something bigger and better than what they knew. The Mother cooks and takes care of the house, the Father starts a successful business. One of their two sons seems destined to take it over, while the other seems destined to rebel. And sure enough, it is the rebellious, questioning son who confronts the dark histories that both bind his family together and threaten to tear them apart. Except in this case, the Father’s business is a strip club. And the Son’s bar mitzvah present was a lapdance. Toronto-based filmmaker Shawney Cohen, now 38, has made a sensitive, thoughtful