Film Screening: Milk and Honey
Saturday, February 28, 2026 | 6:00 PM
Niva Dorell presents her critically acclaimed 24-minute short film Milk and Honey, produced for Showtime Networks. The film is set in Texas in 1953 and tells the poignant story of an Israeli woman and a Black man who meet and spend a single day together.
A brief welcoming program and discussion led by Dorell and Marya Warshaw will accompany the screening.
Niva Dorell:
Niva Dorell is a mixed-race, American-Israeli filmmaker and writer whose work explores themes of identity, loss, and connection across cultures. Her first short film KINGS received Showtime’s Black Filmmaker Grant and became one of seven films featured on the first AFROCENTRICITY (available on Amazon). Her subsequent film MILK AND HONEY premiered on Showtime and made its international premiere at the Jerusalem International Film Festival. Her films have aired on Showtime, UPN, PBS, and BET-Jazz, and screened at festivals worldwide. Her latest directorial effort is TRAVELING MERCIES, a short film produced by Social Cinema Foundation and still on the festival circuit. Upcoming projects that Niva wrote and will direct include: short film THE LOTTO LINE, adapted from Christola Phoenix’s upcoming memoir; feature film LIVING, LIVING based on a personal love story; and television series BYE BYE BABY, adapted from Caroline Sullivan’s memoir Bye Bye Baby: My Tragic Love Affair with the Bay City Rollers. In addition to her narrative work, Niva co-directed the feature documentary SKID ROW (featuring Pras Michel of The Fugees) and has developed multiple scripted and non-scripted concepts. Her creative writing has been supported by residencies at Hedgebrook, Millay Arts, Cill Rialaig, and Vermont Studio Center. After two decades in Los Angeles, Niva moved to New York’s Hudson Valley, where she continues to be active in its artistic community. She served as the Visual Arts Director at CREATE council on the arts, Marketing and Box Office Manager for LUMBERYARD, and, most recently, curated Goddess: Origins of Wonder for the Athens Cultural Center. Niva is a member of New York Women in Film and Television, holds an M.F.A. from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and a B.A. from Temple University. She publishes a monthly newsletter about the creative process on her Substack, The Think Tank.
Marya Warshaw:
Marya Warshaw is the Founding Executive/Artistic Director of BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, where she led the organization and its wide slate of programming, strategy and development for nearly thirty years. Warshaw was recognized by Bard College in 2019 with their John Dewey public service award and has received two NY Dance & Performance Awards (the “Bessies”) both in 2018 for outstanding service to the field of dance and 1998 for “building a house and a home for the arts in Brooklyn”. From April 2020- December 2022 she was Director of the Petronio Residency Center in Round Top, N.Y. where she was responsible for providing residencies and retreats for performing artists and companies as developing the capacity of the center. Warshaw serves as the President of the CREATE council on the arts Board of Directors and is currently a consultant and a strategic advisor to non profit Artistic/Executive Directors as well as independent dance, theater and performance artists and not for profit Boards. www.maryawarshaw.com