Portraits of Emotion: The Story of an Autistic Savant

   Portraits of Emotion is a feature documentary film that follows the life of 15-year-old Jonathan Lerman, an artistic prodigy who is diagnosed with autism, a lifelong developmental disability that affects learning, communication and social interaction. While capable of drawing astonishing portraits that capture the nuances of human emotion, Jonathan is unable to effectively verbally communicate his feelings. By giving the audience an in-depth look inside Jonathan's life, Portraits of Emotion builds awareness about the effects that autism has on a family over time. Sometimes heart-wrenching, at other times comedic, Jonathan's story encourages people to reevaluate their assumptions about intelligence, talent and disability.
79 or 56 minutes
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Saved by Deportation: An Unknown Odyssey of Polish Jews
Saved By Deportation is the first feature length documentary film to tell the dramatic story of Polish Jews who escaped the Holocaust through their deportation to the Soviet Union. The film recounts the 1940 deportations of Polish Jews from Soviet-occupied eastern Poland to Gulag labor settlementsin the Arctic north; life in Soviet Central Asia after release from the Gulag; and the deportees' experiences upon returning to Poland at the end of World War II and confronting the aftermath of the Holocaust. In recounting the epic saga of the deportations the film examines the essential constructs - family, culture, religion, personal relationships - upon which the deportees relied during their years of exile from 1940 to 1946. The film also addresses how inter-ethnic relations played out in the remote areas of the Soviet Union among the disparate nationalities of Jews, Poles, Russians, and Central Asians.
79 or 56 minutes
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Płonący Facet 'Burning Man'
On the 20th anniversary of Burning Man my camera followed several Polish artists, who became participants of this biggest festival of art in the open. The Polish camp with national flags and music brought many interesting people to its site. Because none of the Polish participants from our camp has ever been to such an event, their virgin reaction and fresh feelings created a dramatic narration for the film. Filmed with four HDV cameras this picturesque event, which brought to this Nevada desert as many as forty thousand participants, couldn't look any more interesting.
90 or 52 minutes
      Michael     & Svetlana
Michael and Svetlana

A fascinating transatlantic love affair journey and a documentary about an American who subscribed to matchmaking service to find himself a Russian bride. Michael ultimately chooses Svetlana, a young woman living in a small village in central Russia, who doesn't speak Russian and has never traveled outside of Russia.

93 or 56 minutes
The Legacy of Jedwabne

The Legacy of Jedwabne is a feature-length documentary that tells the story of a pogrom in 1941 in Jedwabne, Poland, a painful wound in the hearts and minds of both Polish Christians and Jews. This thought-provoking film hopes to increase tolerance and understanding, thereby forging new alliances between Jews and non-Jews.

Link TV, TV Kultura- Poland, Planete TV Poland;Al Jeezira TV, Russian Cable Channel; 2005

75 or 56 minutes
The Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto 1940-1943 documentary project features daily lives and deaths of those imprisoned in the ghetto, their hopes and efforts to survive, their armed resistance and struggle, and finally their total extermination. Unique Polish and German archival materials were used in the preparation of this film.
3 Part Series - 50 minut total
BORDERLINE

BORDERLINE tells the story of Eunice Baker, a borderline mentally retarded woman who was was sentenced to 15 years to life for murdering a young child, despite evidence that the death was accidental. After nearly 5 years in prison, The NY State Appellate Court recently reduced Eunice's sentence to criminally negligent homicide, and she was released on time served. This film follows Eunice's story from her initial trial to her ultimate release, focusing on her family's struggle to defend her despite their own hardships. BORDERLINE focuses attention on how mentally handicapped individuals are treated by the legal system across the nation, especially in rural communities and small towns. Ultimately, the film proves that the legal system, while seriously flawed, has the potential to right itself and correct injustice.

Link TV, Free Speech TV, PBS, Denmark TV 2, Planete TV Poland; 2005

77 or 56 minutes
ZIELONA KARTA [GREEN CARD GAMBLE]

In Polish

Jest to 31-odcinkowa filmowa telenowela opowiadajaca o losach Polakow, ktorzy wylosowali 'zielona karte' w loterii wizowej organizowanej przez rzad amerykanski. Kilka pierwszych odcinkow pokazuje zycie bohaterow filmu przed wyjazdem do USA - czym sie zajmuja, jakie motywy sklonily ich do wziecia udzialu w loterii i jakie nadzieje wiaza z emigracja. Nastepne odcinki zrealizowane sa juz za oceanem, gdzie 'Polonusi' staraja sie ulozyc nowe zycie.

In English

This series follows the lives of three Polish families who, as a result of winning a Diversity Program visa lottery, each received a green card, allowing them to become permanent residents of the United States. This 31 part series is divided into two chapters: Polish and American. In the first chapter, we meet the characters of our film in preparation as they get ready to leave Poland. The second chapter shows our immigrants during their first 12 months in United States. Our camera stayed in daily contact with them, filming every important event of their assimilation and capturing the critical moments of their first months in the USA.

TVP 2, Poland; 2003.
31 episodes / 25 minutes ea.
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B&B GUESTBOOK 9.11

(Producer/Director)This half-hour documentary, shot at a bed and breakfast four hours Northwest of New York City, captures the reactions of guests to the September 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath. Regular people, many of whom witnessed the World Trade Center attacks in New York City, describe where they were, what they felt and the actions they took on that day. They speak at the breakfast table, outdoors against a backdrop of fall trees with decaying leaves, and at other locations around a rural log cabin inn. The documentary, entirely shot on digital Betacam and edited digitally, captures the strikingly personal stories of regular people forced to consider fearful realities of humanity in the blink of an eye.                                                                                                                                                                         PBS;  2004.
26 minutes
FENCELINE: A Company Town Divided
(Co-Producer/Director) "One woman reacts with fear when the alarm at the local Shell chemical plant goes off, and the smokestacks "flare" to burn off escaping chemical gasses. Another woman thinks the flares are beautiful, and represent both the safety and economic benefit of the plant. The first woman is African-American, lives next door to the plant, and has never worked there. The second woman is white, works at the plant and is also related to a long line of plant employees. The social divisions in Norco, Louisiana, a company town in the middle of the Mississippi River's notorious "cancer alley," are as plain as that. But as the new film, "Fenceline: A Company Town Divided," shows, plain is never simple when race, economics and toxic pollution mix in the American heartland." - PBS/POV; 2002.
56 minutes
 
GUS VAN SANT: HOLLYWOOD INDEPENDENT

(Co-Producer/Director) Camera followsone of the most independent American film directors.

TVP 2; 2002.
45 minutes
SCHOOL PRAYER : A Community at War

(Co-Producer/Director)Lisa Herdahl, is one woman who objects, and her case epitomizes the conflict. In her public school district, teachers have been leading children in Christian prayers and using the Bible as a history text. While Mrs. Herdahl accepts these practices in Sunday schools, she has sued to remove them from the taxpayer-supported school district of Pontotoc County. She is represented by attorneys from national civil liberties groups, while her opposition is supported by grassroots community donations and conservative Christian organizations.

ITVS; PBS; POV; 1999.
56 minutes
From Chechnya to Chernobyl

(Producer/Director) In recent years, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled wars and political turmoil in Chechnya, Tajikistan, Georgia and Azerbaijan in order to find peace in the radioactive pastures surrounding Chernobyl, scene of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986.

"Provides a unique perspective on both the post-Soviet conflicts and the problems of refugees."
Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution

RVU, Holland; 1997.
30 minutes
SHTETL

(Second Unit Producer) Filmmaker Marian Marzynski looks at history through the eyes of the present in the three hour Shtetl. Produced over the course of four years, Shtetl takes a bold and illuminating look at Jewish/Polish relationships in both the past and the present. Shot in Poland, Israel, and the United States, Shtetl- like Claude Lanzman's Shoah- is a universal tale about Jews and those who live around them.

PBS; Frontline; 1996.
90 minutes or 2hrs 53min
Stan Borys: A Diary of an Artist

(Producer/Director) Story of a Polish rock and roll star who tries to make it big in America.

TVP 2; 1995.

45 minutes
JERZY SOLTAN - The Man Who Didn't Build Poland
(Producer/Director) A Documentary portrait of Jerzy Soltan, Polish architect, urban planner and industrial designer. While still a student, he began his career auspiciously by winning a state-sponsored competition for the Social Security Centre in Vilna (now Vilnius; erected 1937–9). His practice and education were interrupted when, as a soldier in 1939, he was imprisoned by the Nazis. Following his emancipation in 1945, he moved to Paris to the studio of Le Corbusier. Between 1945 and 1949 Soltan worked on several projects, including the Unité d’Habitation, Marseille, and the development of the ‘Modulor’, the proportioning system that Le Corbusier used frequently in his later work. He received his diploma from the Polytechnic in Warsaw in 1948.                                                                                                                                           TVP; 1995.
45 minutes
CHELYABINSK: The Most Contaminated Spot On The Planet

(Producer/Director) In the late 1940's, about 80 kilometers north of the city of Chelyabinsk, an atomic weapons complex called "Mayak" was built. Its existence has only recently been acknowledged by Russian officials. Mayak, bordered to the west by the Ural Mountains, and to the north by Siberia, was the goal of Gary Powers's surveillance flight in May of 1960. For forty-five years, the Chelyabinsk province of Russia was closed to all foreigners. In January of 1992 did President Boris Yeltsin sign a decree changing that. As a result, western scientists who studied the region, declared Chelyabinsk to be the most polluted spot on earth.

NHK; SWF; TVP 2; Holland TV; Filmmakers Library; 1994.
60 minutes
ADOPTING OLYA
(Co-Producer/Director) Russian law allows foreign nationals to adopt Russian orphans. But there is a catch: in 1994, only children with birth defects and incurable medical conditions could be adopted. In some cases, the problems were minor and readily treatable, but some children are diagnosed with vague ailments, developmental delays” that are hard to quantify, though they do make the children available for adoption. Does the child truly have a problem, or are such developmental delays usual for a child raised in an orphanage? Perhaps the diagnosis a well-intentioned lie, in hopes that the child will have a far better life in the US than an orphan’s fate in today’s Russia. Or maybe it is a callous device used by local officials to keep the lucrative adoption business going.             Discovery Channel - Europe; Denmark TV; TVP 2; 1994.
30 minutes