Author Archives: basiltsiokos

Coming to NYC’s JCC Manhattan tomorrow, Tuesday, February 7:
BOGDAN’S JOURNEY

Directors:
Michal Jaskulski and Lawrence Loewinger

Premiere:
Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw (June 2016)

Select Festivals:
St Louis, Camerimage, Docs Against Gravity, Watch Docs, Jewish fests in Warsaw, Copenhagen

About:
A Polish man works towards reconciliation by acknowledging the truth behind a 1946 pogrom against his community’s Jewish population.

On July 4, 1946, approximately 40 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust then living in a shelter at 7 Planty St in the Polish city of Kielce were attacked by townspeople and murdered. More than 80 others were injured in the attack, noted in Jaskulski and Loewinger’s film as the last European pogrom against the Jewish people. In response to this horrific episode, Jews throughout Poland fled the country, cementing the idea that the nation was unwelcome to the Jewish people. After Poland fell to Communism, the story of the pogrom was suppressed, but its impact, and feelings of mistrust and prejudice persisted. When Bogdan Bialek, a Catholic psychologist, learned of the incident, he felt compelled to confront the past openly and acknowledge Kielce’s collective responsibility for the crime. After decades of living in separation from Jewish people, his fellow Poles expressed deep-seated resistance and denial, as demonstrated in this affecting film which follows his continued efforts at truth and reconciliation, drawing on the testimony of survivors to illuminate the contested memories of this disturbing history.

Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction series tomorrow, Tuesday, February 7:
THE WAR SHOW

Directors:
Obaidah Zytoon and Andreas Dalsgaard

Premiere:
Venice 2016

Select Festivals:
Toronto, IDFA, Bergen, Reykjavik, London, Dubai, Goteborg

About:
A group of friends capture the de-evolution of Syria’s revolution into civil war.

One of a growing number of chronicles of Syria’s devastating conflict, this frank, personal project originated with Obaidah Zytoon, a host for an alternative radio station, and the film’s narrator. Swept up in the possibilities of the Arab Spring that saw freedom come to other nations in the region, Zytoon and her friends take to the streets – part of the mass of ordinary, previously apolitical populace who threatened the Assad regime. Understanding the power of the camera – as well as the target it places on the cameraperson – they film demonstrations and upload footage online, and, in some cases, suffer retribution at the hands of the regime. Through the course of Zytoon’s film, she and other shooters film the deteriorating conditions in the country between 2011 and 2013 as Syria descends into civil war, but the focus is less on the violence and destruction, and more on the impact on the people as they face a complex, shifting battleground – not just physically, but ideologically as new factions enter the conflict. Working with Danish filmmaker Andreas Dalsgaard to shape her material, Zytoon explicitly acknowledges the almost surreal aspect of filming the war, as signaled by the project’s title, with various participants exploiting the propagandistic potential of media for their own ends. At its core, however, the film presents a bracing study of the personal costs of the Syrian conflict, as Zaytoon and her friends struggle to survive as their homeland goes up in flames.