LA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 2016
Dir.: Pawel Siczek, Germany, 2015, 88 min, Polish with English subtitles, Digital. Screenplay: Pawel Siczek, Producers: Nicole Leykauf and Grit Wißkirchen, Camera: Daniel Samer, Editing: Ulrike Tortora, Composer: Roman Bunka, Production Design Animation: Agnieszka Kruczek und Dorota Gorski.
Discussion with Producer Nicole Leykauf, and reception following the screening.
Siczek’s film tells the story of Jewish photographer and municipal politician Chaim Berman, who, prior to the outbreak of the Second World War was actively engaged in promoting a peaceful coexistence between Poles, Jews, and Germans in his hometown Kozienice, Poland. Berman’s legacy of approximately 10,000 glass negatives, portraits capturing unidentified people from his everyday life: Poles, Jews, and Germans, remained undiscovered for decades. Images developed from Bergman’s negatives, augmented by elaborate animation, form the basis of Siczek’s reconstruction of Berman’s life. Half the Town takes the viewers on a journey through the tides of a turbulent European century to tell the story of a man whose beliefs were more advanced than the world in which he lived.
Sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Los Angeles and the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the German-Polish Friendship Treaty.
$1 validated parking (for events only) on weekdays after 6:00 pm and all day on weekends in the Wilshire Courtyard West underground garage-P1.
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