Each of us wants to return to the place we came from. A place where the journey to understand who we are begins and ends. In Yiddish this place is called shtetl.
Shtetl is a very unusual film about the Holocaust, says David Fanning, the executive producer ofPBS' Frontline. The story unfolds almost as a detective story, where the viewer is in the center of the action -- empowered to be a private eye through the process of the main character's discovery.
With a grant from the Spielberg Foundation, we were able to transfer the film to 16 mm film and are presently arranging screenings in select theaters around the country. There have been a few public screenings in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Sacramento, Providence RI and Chicago, and at each of them the audience was stunned by the power of the piece. Shtetl has already been accepted by the San Francisco Film Festival and the Cinema Du Reel in Paris. Screenings for Shtetl are scheduled at The Wiesenthal Center in LA, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Chicago Public Library and The Museum of Broadcasting in New York. The premier festival screening at the Miami Film Festival was a great success, with the filmmaker receiving a standing ovation. This film will undoubtedly be one of the most critically acclaimed documentaries of 1996.
Marian Marzynski, an internationally acclaimed filmmaker has contributed to public television series such as The American Experience, NOVA, and Frontline. He survived World War II in Poland as a Jewish child smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto. Shtetl, photographed by Ithaca filmmaker Slawomir Grunberg, was produced over the course of four years and became Marzynski's labor of love. It will have its television premiere on the PBS series Frontline. It is a rare case for PBS to air a film of this length (2 hours, 52 minutes) during prime time.
Credits in the order as they appear on the screen:
Photographed by: Slawomir Grunberg, Executive Producer: David Fanning
Directed and Produced by: Marian Marzynski, 2nd Unit Producer: Slawomir Grunberg
Associate Producer: David E. Simpson, Edited by: Millie Cave, David Simpson
Music by: Mason Daring, A production of Marz Associates with WGBH in Boston.
Length:2 hours 53 minutes; format: 16 mm film and Beta SP video, color
Distributed by: Log In Productions in Spencer, NY
ITHACA PREMIERE:
CORNELL CINEMA:April 2, 1996, 7 PM
Slawomir Grunberg, a local filmmaker will present the film and will able to answer any questions after the screening.
For more information and a preview VHS copy of the film please call Log In Productions.
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