Visiting Filmmakers and Special Guests

SUSAN D. BACHRACH
Special Guest, BERLIN '36 screening on Wednesday, April 7, 7:00pm

Susan Bachrach is Curator of Special Exhibitions at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where she oversees all phases of select special exhibitions at the Museum, including the historic research, identification of artifacts, design, and creation of accompanying publications. Her most recent exhibition is Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race. She is currently working on a new exhibition, Collaboration and Complicity during the Holocaust. Since joining the Museum in 1992, Dr. Bachrach has worked on many exhibitions, including Liberation 1945 and NAZI OLYMPICS Berlin 1936. She is the author of numerous publication, including Deadly Medicine, Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936, Nazi Propaganda and the award-winning book for younger readers Tell Them We Remember. Dr. Bachrach received her Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in Modern European History.

DETLEF GERICKE-SCHOENHAGEN
Special Guest, BERLIN '36 screening on Wednesday, April 7, 7:00pm

Detlef Gericke-Schönhagen became director of the Goethe-Institute Boston in February 2009, prior to which he was coordinating director of the Goethe-Instituts’ international film and television programs and deputy head of the Arts Department at the Goethe-Institut Head Office in Munich. From 1998 until 2003, Mr. Gericke-Schönhagen worked as regional coordinator and programer of Goethe-Institute’s cultural activities in Indonesia and South East Asia. From 1991 to 1997, he was executive director and programmer of the Goethe Institut in Gothenburg/Sweden. As a student he worked as assistant director and as dramatic advisor for many theatre productions and appeared in Louis Malle’s film Au revoir les Enfants. He has 4 children and speaks English, French and Swedish.

NADAV TAMIR
Special Guest, SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN screening at MFA Boston on Saturday, April 10, 7:10pm

Nadav Tamir, Consul General of Israel to New England, was born and raised in Kibbutz Manara in northern Israel. He began his career of public service in 1980 in the IDF, where he eventually served as a company commander and retired with the rank of Major. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993 and the following year began to serve as the Policy Assistant to the Foreign Minister, for whom he developed recommendations and policy programs. Mr. Tamir served under Foreign Ministers Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak and David Levy, and in 1997, he was promoted to the position of Political Officer at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C., where he worked closely with the State Department and the National Security Council. In 2001 he became Advisor to the Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, where he specialized in Israeli-U.S. relations. Mr. Tamir earned his Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2004.

ILAN TROEN
Special Guest, GEVALD!/ THE RABBI'S DAUGHTER & THE MIDWIFE screening on Sunday, April 11, 4:15pm

Ilan Troen is the director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and is the Stoll Family Professor in Israel Studies. Before joining Brandeis, he served as director of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute and Archives in Sede Boker, Israel, and dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences at Ben-Gurion University. He has authored or edited numerous books in American, Jewish and Israeli history. He is also the founding editor of Israel Studies (Indiana University Press), an international journal that publishes three issues annually on behalf of Brandeis and Ben-Gurion University. His book publications include Jewish Centers and Peripheries: European Jewry Between America and Israel 50 Years after World War II (1998); The Americanization of Israel (2001), with Glenda Abramson; Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel and America (2001), with Deborah Dash-Moore; Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement (2003); and, with Jacob Lassner, Jews and Muslims in the Arab World; Haunted by Pasts Real and Imagined (2007).

JOANNA MICHLIC
Special Guest, MY 100 CHILDREN screening on Tuesday, April 13, 4:30pm

Joanna Michlic, Director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Project on Families, Children and the Holocaust, received her MA and PHD in modern European and Jewish history from University of London, and her bachelor’s degree in Slavonic studies at the University of Lodz, Poland. Dr. Michlic has published extensively on topics relating to the Holocaust and Poland, including the books Neighbors Respond: The Controversy about Jedwabne (2004; co-edited with Antony Polonsky) and Poland’s Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present.

SLAWOMIR GRUNBERG
Filmmaker, THE PERETZNIKS screening on Wednesday, April 14, 4:45pm

Slawomir Grunberg is a documentary producer, director and cameraman born in Poland. He is a graduate of the Polish Film School in Lodz, immigrated to the US in 1981 and has since directed and produced over 40 documentaries. Grunberg’s 1999 film School Prayer: A Community At War screened on PBS and received an Emmy Award. He has directed numerous films, including Paint What You Remember, The Legacy of Jedwabne, Saved by Deportation, Coming Out in Poland, and Portraits of Emotion: The Story of an Autistic Savant. Grunberg was the director of photography on Shtetl, winner of the DuPont Silver Baton for Excellence. Slawomir's director of photography credits includes two Oscar nominations, for Legacy and Sister Rose's Passion. In 2010 Slawomir co-produced and photographed In the Name of Their Mothers: The Story of Irena Sendler.

KATKA RESZKE
Filmmaker, THE PERETZNIKS screening on Wednesday, April 14, 4:45pm

Katka Reszke, assistant director and editor of The Peretzniks, holds a PhD in Jewish Education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a researcher in Jewish history and identity. She is a consultant for the North American Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. She is currently working on a documentary about the third post-war generation of Polish Jews.

LILKA ELBAUM
Special Guest, THE PERETZNIKS screening on Wednesday, April 14, 4:45pm

Lilka Elbaum was born Poland where she attended the Peretz School. In 1968, she immigrated to Canada, where she earned an BA and MF at McGill University. In Canada, she held various positions, including Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade in the Canadian Provincial Government and Senior Manger and Director at Ernst & Young. In 1996, Ms. Elbaum moved to Boston where was the Director of Meetings and Events and Strategic Initiatives at the Hillel House at Boston University and the Executive Director of the North American Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in New York City. She is currently developing strategic initiatives through her firm Igitur Advisers (lelbaum@igitur.net). Ms. Elbaum is a board member of the American Association of Polish Jewish Studies, a sponsor of Jewishfilm.2010 screening of The Peretzniks.

RONY YEDIDIA
Special Guest, EYES WIDE OPEN screening at Brandeis Saturday, April 17, 8:30pm

Rony Yedidia serves as Deputy Consul General of Israel to New England. Ms. Yedidia grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She returned to Israel in order to serve in the Israel Defense Force, where she served in the Artillery Force. She went on to study at Tel Aviv University, earning a BA in English Literature. She later earned her Masters in American Studies from the Hebrew University. Ms. Yedidia began her diplomatic career in 1994 as a member of the prestigious Cadets' course, specializing in administrative affairs. She has served as Consul in the Consulate General in Istanbul and as Director of Administration in the Israeli Embassy in Moscow. She most recently served as head of the Consular Liaison Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2004. Yedidia arrived in Boston to serve in the Consulate General in October 2006.

SHARON PUCKER RIVO
Special Guest, BAR MITZVAH screening on Sunday, April 18, 11:15am

Sharon Rivo, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The National Center for Jewish Film, is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University, where she teaches courses on Jewish film. Having begun her career in television as a film producer for WGBH-TV Boston, Rivo has now worked in film and media for over thirty years. Recognized nationally and internationally as an archivist, scholar and programmer, she has been an invited lecturer at hundreds of venues around the world. The recipient of numerous awards, she has curated a dozen retrospectives and film festivals (including 13 annual festivals at the Wasserman Cinematheque). In 1976 she co-founded NCJF which has grown to become the largest archive (and largest distributor) of Jewish film in the world, outside of Israel. She had directed the restoration of 38 Yiddish feature films and dozens of other films that document the diversity and vibrancy of Jewish life.

HANKUS NETSKY
Special Guest, BAR MITZVAH screening on Sunday, April 18, 11:15am

A multi-instrumentalist, composer, and scholar, Hankus Netsky teaches improvisation and Jewish music at the New England Conservatory. He is the founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble. Mr. Netsky has taught at Hebrew College and Wesleyan University, and has lectured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. His essays on klezmer music have been published by the University of California Press. Mr. Netsky has produced dozens of recordings, composed extensively for film and television, and collaborated with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robin Williams, Joel Grey, and Theodore Bikel. Mr. Netsky contributed to the restoration of several of NCJF’s Yiddish films, working with NCJF translators to translate the songs from Yiddish into English.

SCOTT GOLDSTEIN
Director, WHERE I STAND: THE HANKGREENSPUN STORY screening on Sunday, April 18, 1:45pm

Scott Goldstein is a two-time Emmy and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director. He has worked in network news, prime time drama and interactive museum media. His news credits include producing/writing: Today Show, KING-TV (Seattle), KNBC (Los Angeles), KGO-TV (San Francisco) and WMAQ-TV (Los Angeles; Viznews (London). In addition to winning an Emmy for LA. Law, His other prime-time credits include Doogie Howser, M.D., Endgame: Ethics and Values in America (PBS) and Science Fiction, A Journey Into the Unknown. Mr. Goldstein also created, produced and directed most of the interactive and film exhibits at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and the New York Tolerance Center (Simon Wiesenthal Center).

MARJORIE AGOSIN
Special Guest, CAMERA OBSCURA screening on Sunday, April 18, 4:30pm

Marjorie Agosín is an author, poet and professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at Wellesley College where she has been on the faculty since 1982. Professor Agosín has degrees from University of Georgia (BA) and Indiana University (MA, PhD). She is the recipient of the Letras de Oro prize for poetry awarded by Spain's Ministry of Culture and the North-South Center of the University of Miami and the Latino Literature Prize for Poetry for her book Toward the Splendid City, awarded by the Latin American Writers Institute. She is the author of numerous books, including Brujas y algo mas: Witches and Other Things (1984), A Cross and A Star (1995), Noche Estrellada (1996), Senda Nueva de Additions (1983). She has also published poems, and articles concerning Latin American women writers in many publications. Ms. Agosín is a well-known spokesperson for the plight of women in Third World countries. Her concern for women in Chile is the focus of her 1987 book Scraps of Life: Chilean Arpilleras and has also been the focus of feature articles in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor and Ms. Magazine.