In New York City following our annual holocaust commemoration, I had met an elderly woman on subway train, who had survived the Lodz Ghetto, she was so thankful for what we are doing, commemorating their great sufferings, she was crying. “This tragedy has no heroes,” Rosenfeld wrote. Top Hollywood talent agency accused of tolerating sexual harassment, misconduct. The son of two Holocaust survivors – David Celler and Rosa Posalska – Paul finds meaning and grounding through kindness, his connection to his family and community, the study of history, and his spiritual practice. Still Life in Lodz” is a new documentary about the Polish city’s once-thriving Jewish-owned textile business and the interconnectedness of three families framed around a painting, titled “Still Life,” which hung in a Lodz apartment for 80 years. NY: 1989, pg. The rest either died of starvation or illness or were herded off to Auschwitz and other camps during the frenzied slaughter ordered by Heinrich Himmler in his Reich’s twilight. In two weeks, on Aug. 12, about 4,000 Jews who once lived in the wartime ghetto of the Polish city of Lodz will gather at the Concord Hotel in New York's Catskill Mountains. She likes to spend her free time writing; among others, she is the author of the book “Slawomir Grünberg – “A Man with a Camera.”. Sanctioned tent camps sprouted up in San Francisco at the beginning of the COVID pandemic and have become key to the city’s homelessness response. Pictures: USC Song Girls through the years. In 1968, she, together with thousands of Polish Jews, was forced to leave Poland and settled in Canada. It’s a bit too crisp, the shadings of hurt too expertly calculated. The film ‘Still Life in Lodz” is: In memory of Rosa and David Celler, who miraculously survived the Holocaust, and the six million men, women, and children who didn’t.Â. Slawomir Grünberg is an Emmy Award–winning documentary producer, director and cameraman. The painting is a serene still life. During this period 55,000 people were deported from Lodz Ghetto and murdered in Chelmno. Fat shaming, BMI and alienation: COVID-19 brought new stigma to large-sized people. And unlike Warsaw, Lodz didn’t rise up in futile but glorious revolt. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. This documentary allows to witness through film realize the incredible odds to survive the Lodz Ghetto. . The diary fragments, letters, notebook entries and poems that make up this searing documentary were hidden beneath floorboards or in walls in the sealed-off ghetto of Lodz, Poland. This innovative documentary about the Nazi occupation of a populous enclave of Jews in Eastern Europe weaves archival footage with material shot in the 1980s to evoke the spirit of the trapped inhabitants and their desperate struggle to survive. Lodz Ghetto: Inside a Community Under Siege. Theodore Bikel is one of the most versatile and respected actors and performers of his generation. A Jewish Heritage Society presentation. By the time Lodz was liberated in January, 1945, only about 800 survivors were left. An English edition of the book Sławomir Grünberg—A Man with the Camera by Barbara Grünberg, will be published in April of 2021.Â, Barbara Grünberg, LOGTV Films Polska Foundation, has a degree in Polish Studies and is also a culture manager and business coach. Could a San Francisco experiment be an answer to L.A.’s sprawling street encampments? Theodore Bikel, Actor: The Defiant Ones. Lodz was Poland’s first ghetto, established in early 1940. Directors Kathryn Taverna, Adelson. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Unlike the elder of the Warsaw Ghetto, he didn’t take poison rather than aid the deportations. Paul Celler grew up in New Jersey, where he lived and worked for most of his life. She now lives in the United States. Ten former USC Song Girls described to The Times a toxic culture within the famed collegiate dance team that included longtime former coach Lori Nelson rebuking women publicly for their eating habits, personal appearance and sex lives. But these memories also open the door I hope to new perspectives. But, from 1940 to 1945, Lodz and its ghetto changed, terrifyingly. Neither, unfortunately, can “Lodz Ghetto” (at the Beverly Center Cineplex), an often admirable documentary that falls into the trap of overdramatizing material that never needs it.  In addition to Still Life In Lodz, they include Karski & The Lords of Humanity, Castaways, The Peretzniks, Portraits of Emotion, Coming Out In Poland, The Legacy of Jedwabne and Saved By Deportation.Â. The script is developed from testimony preserved in journals and the speeches of the ghetto’s controversial “elder,” Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. ib@cavupictures.com, About Film The documentary raises some provocative questions about the power of roots, special objects, the … I hope this film leads to discussion and perhaps even a change in thinking. It became, successively, a prison, a wartime factory area and, finally, a way station for the charnel house. I hope the audience watching the film will experience some of the emotions I felt. .”. What always bothered my mother most was seeing her good friends stand there clapping while she was being intimidated by Nazis. The surest ways he knows how to do this are by playing music and spending time with his wife, his three children, and his three grandchildren. This is a story about memory, memories of a Jewish world in Europe that was destroyed, memories that need to be preserved now more than ever. Returning my grandfather's menorah to the windowsill where it once sat at Kilinskiego 41 in Lodz was a chance to honor the memory of my Jewish family in a meaningful way. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Many times, objects survived where people did not. If a picture is worth a thousand words, it’s also worth a documentary inspired by one. That’s the core of this story’s terror. Only later did we learn how the pandemic created enduring family secrets and mysteries. Once, this painting was the constant companion to Lilka Elbaum, who grew up in Lodz and lived there until 1968, when at the age of 19, an antisemitic purge drove her and her entire family out of Poland. Voices Jerzy Kosinski, Nicholas Kepros, David Warrilow, Barbara Rosenblat, Gregory Gordon, Theodore Bikel. Song of the Lodz Ghetto " Klezmer super group Brave Old World's haunting musical program of songs from the Lodz ghetto is the framework on which producer/director David Kaufman has created his definitive new documentary on the Lodz ghetto. Like many ghettos, it was a center of intense religious, intellectual and artistic activity, as well as the myriad joys and tribulations of day-to-day life. Chaim Rumkowski was born on February 27, 1877, to Jewish parents in Ilyino, a shtetl in Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire. Film Poster What follows is a deeply personal detective story rich with twists and turns. New Yorker Paul Celler brings the perspective of a second-generation Holocaust survivor as he traces how his mother, against all odds, made it out of the Lodz Ghetto and Auschwitz. Screenings & Events, Press Kit In their excellent source book for the movie, published by Viking, Adelson and Robert Lapides arrange these segments chronologically, with the speakers identified. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. CAVU Pictures / CAVU PR The stirring mystery begins inside an ordinary-seeming tenement apartment where a painting has witnessed the most extraordinary of times. Under Nazi occupation, over 40,000 people died there. Kosinski plays Rumkowski with a strident, staccato Nazi-villain voice. Because the pain does not touch upon something human, on another’s heart, but rather is something incomprehensible, linked with the cosmos. Biebow was determined to retain control of the Lodz ghetto and in order to maintain the flow of profits from the ghetto factories he ensured the ghetto’s continued existence even after the mass deportations during 1942, until the summer of 1944. But, in the film, since no voice is identified until the closing credits, they merge into one universal, almost abstracted chorus--which distances us. A Zionist who devoted his later life to charity work for orphans, he wound up sending children off to be murdered. Not COVID — the 1918 flu. Or it can be simple and ingenuous, like most of the victims. The portrait might have been a simple likeness of lush flowers and ripe fruit, but for Lilka, it had been an indelible connection to her childhood and to Lodz itself. An atmosphere of funereal quiet pervades ''Lodz Ghetto,'' Kathryn Taverna and Alan Adelson's powerful documentary chronicling the history of the Polish ghetto … Rumkowski talked them down to 10,000. In New York City following our annual holocaust commemoration, I had met an elderly woman on subway train, who had survived the Lodz Ghetto, she was so thankful for what we are doing, commemorating their great sufferings, she was crying. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. That spirit can be pure and courageous, like the words that are its weapons here.  Born in Poland, he graduated from the Polish Film School in Lodz before emigrating to the United States in 1981. Check website for more details. Cinematography Eugene Squires, Jozef Piwkowski. Exploring the pre-War life of Lodz is Israeli artist Roni Ben-Ari who is drawn back to the spot of her family’s textile workshop once located in Lilka’s same building. His credits as director of photography include:Â, oc at Tribeca Film Festival in 2004 and received an Academy Award nomination forÂ, An English edition of the book Sławomir Grünberg, https://stilllifeinlodz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Trailer-StillLife3_smaller2.mp4, 3/12/21 Los Angeles, CA, Laemmle Virtual Cinema, 3/12/21 Sarasota, FL, Sarasota Film Society | Burns Court Cinemas. Grünberg‘s acclaimed documentary School Prayer: A Community At War aired on PBS stations and garnered an Emmy Award. Among his awards, Grünberg has received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and the Soros Justice Media Fellowship. 48 years later, by remarkable chance, Lilka has an emotional re-encounter with the painting in Lodz. The haunting musical program of songs from the Lodz Ghetto, as performed by Brave Old World, is the framework on which producer/director David Kaufman has created the definitive new documentary about the Lodz Ghetto. Neither, unfortunately, can “Lodz Ghetto” (at the Beverly Center Cineplex), an often admirable documentary that falls into the trap of overdramatizing material that never needs it. After Genewein's death, the slides were sold to a used bookstore, where they were recovered in 1987. These cookies do not store any personal information. “And why call it a tragedy? Originally from Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland, she worked as a teacher and Director of the Municipal Cultural Center. Whatever their failings here--and there are more than a few--in re-creating that ghetto, Adelson and Taverna help rekindle an indispensable flame. 173). Virtual Screening. The words of the Lodz inhabitants--the poetic journalists Rosenfeld and Josef Zelkowicz, both of whom died in Auschwitz (along with Rumkowski); the pragmatic survivor Jakub Poznanski; the idealistic student Dawid Sierakowiak, who died at 19 of tuberculosis, and the earthy Irena Liebman, who survives to this day--all are the most powerful demonstration possible of something we often characterize too glibly as the human spirit. Current and former employees of ICM Partners allege that the talent agency tolerated harassment and misconduct toward women and people of color. When you think about it, generations of people were wiped out from this planet leaving almost no trace. Directed by David Kaufman. This documentary allows to witness through film realize the incredible odds to survive the Lodz Ghetto. There was a horrible schism in Rumkowski. But, equally, the film is an ode to the lost generations of Jewish Lodz and a look at how fragile—but also how incredibly necessary—our relationship with the past is for creating the future. December 10, 1941, another announcement shocked the ghetto. Bios Roni (Halpern) Ben Ari, an internationally acclaimed photographer, and a multimedia artist was born and lives in Israel. In Adelson’s book, Oskar Rosenfeld (voiced here by several actors, including Bikel) describes Rumkowski’s demeanor as “well-mannered, clean, calm, benevolent.” Instead, Kosinski gives us the inner man--"cunning, spiteful, treacherous, predatory"--with no counterpoint between appearance and reality. Born in Lodz, Lilka (Rozenbaum) Elbaum graduated from the Jewish Peretz School. Column One: The pandemic shaped my family for generations. . Film Credits USC’s Song Girls project a glamorous ideal; 10 women describe a different, toxic reality. That would be director Slawomir Grünberg’s moving and evocative “Still Life in Lodz,” which centers around a painting that hung in the same tenement apartment in Lodz, Poland, for 75 years. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. America & the Cold War (Documentary) 1984 Los Sures (Documentary) (as Kathryn Taverna) 1982 Creativity with Bill Moyers (TV Series documentary) 1981 El Salvador: Another Vietnam (Documentary) Her grandfather, Moshe Halpern, was a weaver of jacquard in pre-war Lodz and her father, Abraham Halpern, continued the family tradition in Israel. LogTV Films. this is another World War Two project i did for class in memory of all those who survived Lodz, and those who did not. She brings two important companions on her trek, each with roots in Lodz from different eras, each searching for their own answers. Faced with nearly unimaginable horror--hospitals emptied of the sick by ghetto police, children shot before their parents’ eyes--only the simplest, purest eloquence is needed. He has since directed and produced over 45 documentary films spanning a broad range of topic and issues. Roni sees herself as a weaver of memories from the looms’ DNA. moderator: Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. His credits as director of photography include: Legacy, an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary feature in 2001, and Sister Rose’s Passion, which won Best Short Doc at Tribeca Film Festival in 2004 and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Short in 2005. She is currently residing in Mexico.  She is involved in film production and distribution and the organization of film screenings around the world. Through her work and out of sentiment for the city and country where she was born, she maintains close ties to Poland. News & Reviews Words can’t do justice to tragedy and suffering on this scale. Still-photo cinematography Gary Becker, Taverna. There the Nazis forced over 200,000 Jews into slave labor before sending them to extermination camps. But it has clung to the wall through incredible personal and global turmoil— through both war and peace, through moments of joyous communion and shocking chaos, through everyday scenes of family love and the shattering terror of hate, displacement, the Holocaust and totalitarian rule. Editor Taverna. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into stark focus the long battle between the medical establishment and the fat acceptance movement. To the extent that this flawed but compassionate documentary reveals that terror, it remains valuable. By Liam Trump | April 24, 2021 As the title implies, Still Life in Lodz is set almost entirely in present-day Lodz, Poland, which in the 1940s housed the Lodz Ghetto. A chance reencounter with a painting that hung in the same Łódź apartment for 75 years and propelled a Jewish woman onto a journey of discovery into the Holocaust, has resulted in a fascinating new documentary film. The daughter of Holocaust survivors Maria Koper and Benjamin Rozenbaum, for many years, she has researched the history of Polish Jewry, focusing on the Holocaust. Least convincing is novelist Jerzy Kosinski--an irony, since he was born in Lodz and lost his parents there. It can be foul and murderous, like the Nazi tyrants. Sunday, March 14 at 11 am PDT/2 pm EDT, featuring Daniel Libeskind Previously a photojournalist for the Polish press, Ross was confined to the ghetto in 1940 with his wife, Stefania. Yet is it likely that this self-conscious leader would have revealed himself so unequivocally in public oratory? A master of languages, dialects and accents, he has played every sort of film villain and semi-bad guy imaginable, and … If a picture is worth a thousand words, it’s also worth a documentary inspired by one. Though Chelmno had only been in operation for two days, the Nazis wanted 20,000 Jews deported out of the ghetto. Though not really a Holocaust documentary, it spends the bulk of its time tracing Lodz life leading up to the war, including substantial footage about the notorious Lodz ghetto. When the Roma arrived, they were housed in a separate area of the ghetto. Still Life in Lodz - One Painting, a Century of Jewish Life. “My father died in the 1918 flu,” my dad told me. The lure of family mysteries lies at the heart of “Still Life in Lodz”, an emotionally riveting documentary that journeys to the historically tumultuous city of Lodz, Poland. Photographs of Lilka Elbaum, Roni Ben Ari and Slawomir Grünberg by Jerzy Maciej Koba. Yet co-directors Alan Adelson and Kathryn Taverna push so hard for tragedy, trying to elaborate these cries of grief into a filmic Bach chorale, that they lose some force and anguish. Her exhibition Loom|Father|Requiem was shown at the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz and the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. So does the diction of the narrators, who include actors David Warrilow and Theodore Bikel. Music Wendy Blackstone. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Sometimes, it sounds as incongruous as Orson Welles or William Conrad, in sonorous tones of pear-shaped passion, lamenting about their imminent starvation. Before the Nazi occupation, Lodz had a thriving Jewish populace that was forced into the Holocaust, with very few surviving. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. In 1940, 200,000 of the city’s Jews were forced into the 4 1/2-square-mile ghetto. winning documentary producer, director and cameraman, since directed and produced over 45 documentary filmsÂ, spanning a broad range of topic and issues. Together, the trio maps their own labyrinthine stories onto Lodz’s current landscape. Here, a surprise reunion with a painting that hung in the same apartment for 75 world-altering years becomes a probing investigation into the power of memory, art, time and resilience. A documentary about life in the Polish Jewish ghetto Łódź (aka Litzmannstadt Ghetto) from 1939 to 1945. Producer/script Alan Adelson. The textile center of Lodz in Poland once housed the second largest concentration of Jewry in Europe. Photographer Henryk Ross (1910–1991) recorded the daily struggles of the Jewish community in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland during the Nazi regime (1940–45). The lure of family mysteries lies at the heart of “Still Life in Lodz”, an emotionally riveting documentary that journeys to the historically tumultuous city of Lodz, … Photograph of Paul Celler by Henry Lewkowicz. View of Lodz (Litzmannstadt) during WWII; source: Fotopolska, Lodz Ghetto, 1943-1944; source Ryszard Bonislawski, Director/Co-Producer/Cinematography: Slawomir Grünberg, Written by: Lilka Elbaum, Slawomir Grünberg, Director of Animation: Marcin Podolec, Yellow Tapir Films, Producer: Barbara Grünberg, Logtv Films Polska, Co-Producers: EC1 Łódź – City of Culture, LOGTV, Ltd. and National Center for Jewish Film, Isil Bagdadi-Sergio Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. . This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. The Lodz Ghetto was the longest-existing and second-largest, after Warsaw, of at least 1,000 ghettos established by the Nazis to isolate Jews within the Eastern European cities that the regime occupied between 1939 and 1945. In 1892, Rumkowski moved to Congress Poland.He became a Polish citizen after the establishment of the Second Polish Republic in 1918.. Before the German invasion of Poland, Rumkowski was an insurance agent in Łódź, a member of Qahal, and the head of a Jewish … It uses the same basic approach as the films by brilliant documentarians Nicole Rittenmeyer and Seth Skundrick, completely chronological, no third person narrator (but diary entries that were written at the time, serving as narration), and archive footage, not to say found footage. Notes: This documentary is based on 400 Agfa color slides of the Lodz ghetto by Austrian born Nazi Walter Genewein, chief accountant and top Nazi administrator of the ghetto.  In addition toÂ, Guggenheim Fellowship, the New York Foundation for the ArtsÂ, Soros Justice Media Fellowship. Yet Ms. Elbaum, born in … and Slawomir Grünberg, Paul Celler and Lilka Elbaum Among them are Lilka Elbaum, who lived in Lodz until 1968 in the apartment with the film’s titular still-life painting, and Paul Celler, whose mother survived the Lodz ghetto. Gallery The result is largely unfocused, more Picasso than Dutch master. Objects, whether they might be cufflinks or a sugar bowl, are proof that this extinguished world existed. Watch Trailer The Story of Chaim Rumkowski and the Jews of Łódź is a 1982 documentary film that uses archival film footage and photographs to narrate the story of one of the Holocaust's most controversial figures, Chaim Rumkowski, a Polish Jew put in charge of the Łódź ghetto by the German occupation authorities during World War II.