Filmmaker Laura Bialis (Rock in the Red Zone) joins producer Roberta Grossman (Above and Beyond), writer Sophie Sartain, and Executive Producer Nancy Spielberg (Who Will Write Our History) to give Boston a special, behind-the-scenes look at their new film, Vishniac. Join the Vilna and Boston Jewish Film for a conversation that explores the making of this important film, learn intimate stories about Vishniac, and see never-see-before clips from the film, which is expected to debut in the 2021 Boston Jewish Film Festival. Stunning, iconic, heartbreaking and yet life-affirming at once, Roman Vishniac's photographs of Eastern European Jews in the 1930s are imprinted in our collective memory as the last visual records of a world wiped out in the Holocaust. The story of their creation, and of the fascinating man behind them, has never been told. Until now.
This event is a partnership with Boston Jewish Film.
Producer/Director: Laura Bialis
Laura Bialis is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose films include Rock in the Red Zone (2015), Refusenik (2007), and View From the Bridge: Stories From Kosovo (2008). Bialis holds a B.A. in History from Stanford University and an M.F.A. in Production from the University of Southern California School of Cinema Arts.
Producer: Roberta Grossman
Roberta Grossman has written, directed and produced more than 40 hours of film and television. Films she directed include Who Will Write Our History (2019), Seeing Allred (2018), and Above and Beyond (2014).
Executive Producer: Nancy Spielberg
Producer Nancy Spielberg is an accomplished businesswoman and philanthropist, who produces both documentary and feature films. One of her priorities is to help preserve stories and make them into educational tools for the benefit of younger generations. Spielberg produced Above and Beyond (2014), was executive producer of Sophie Sartain's documentary, Mimi and Dona (2015), Who Will Write Our History, and On the Map. She also served as consulting producer on GI JEWS: Jewish Americans in World War II (2018).
Writer: Sophie Sartain
Sophie Sartain is the co-director and producer of Seeing Allred. She wrote, directed, produced and shot the Mimi and Dona. Her other writing and producing credits include Above and Beyond, Hava Nagila (The Movie), and Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh (writer/co-producer). She has contributed as a writer and consultant on films including Who Will Write Our History and Rock in the Red Zone. Sartain is a member of New Day Films and has been a film envoy with the American Film Showcase, a diplomacy program run by State Department in partnership with the USC School of Cinematic Arts.