FJC Hosts a Free, Virtual Film Screening of Award-winning Documentary "I Am Here" for Yom HaShoah
Film accessible from April 27-29
FJC members will receive the link. Members of the community are invited and need to request a link by writing, by April 27, to pbrothstein@comcast.net
Falmouth Jewish Congregation welcomes the community to commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins the evening of Wednesday, April 27 this year, by participating in a free, virtual screening of the documentary I Am Here. How do we tell the next generation about the Holocaust? It’s a question of keen and timely interest. With the recent commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the aging of the last survivors, a new phase of memory is beginning. In the life-affirming documentary I Am Here, a Holocaust survivor living in Cape Town is trying to do just that. This 2021 South African film, directed by Jordy Sank, won five major awards at film festivals, including Audience Choice Award at the Durban International Film Festival, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and the Africa Human Rights Film Festival. In a fast-moving hour and a quarter, Sank captures on film – through a combination of direct testimony and evocative animation, the life the not-your-average 98 year-old Ella Blumenthal. To stream the film for free at home between April 27-29, contact Pamela Rothstein, the congregation’s Director of Lifelong Learning, at pbrothstein@comcast.net, by April 27.
About the film: Ella Blumenthal is not your average 98-year-old. Her feisty and magnetic personality makes her past even more surprising. At her 98th birthday celebration, Ella opens up to close friends and family about her story of survival in a way she has never done before. Her recollections, depicted through dynamic 2D animation, include tales of three concentration camps and of narrowly escaping death in a gas chamber. The animation is juxtaposed with present day footage of the exuberant yet thoughtful Ella performing her weekly spiritual rituals, being active in the swimming pool and walking on the promenade in Cape Town. Follow this spirited South African Holocaust survivor as she reveals to her family her astonishing life journey and her unwavering appreciation of life. I Am Here shares a universal message of resilience, compassion, and tolerance at this most urgent time when the world still defines itself by what is “other.” View the trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJffwoQ4y84