Virtual Theatrical Screenings

Screenings start March 12, 2021 — check theater website for details and to purchase tickets

California

3/12/21 Los Angeles, CA, Laemmle Virtual Cinema

3/12/21 San Rafael, CA, Smith Rafael Film Center

3/19/21 Larkspur, CA, Lark Theater

Delaware

3/12/21 Wilmington, DE, Del Art Cinema

Florida

3/12/21 Sarasota, FL, Sarasota Film Society | Burns Court Cinemas

Georgia

3/12/21 Athens, GA, Ciné

Illinois

3/19/21 Chicago, IL, Music Box Theatre

Kentucky

3/12/21 Louisville, KY, Baxter Avenue Theaters

Maine

3/12/21 Waterville, ME, Maine Film Center

Massachusetts

3/12/21 Brookline, MA, Coolidge Corner Theatre

3/12/21 Amherst, MA, Amherst Cinema

3/12/21 Martha’s Vineyard, MA, Martha’s Vineyard Film Society

3/12/21 Dennis, MA, Cape Cinema

Missouri

3/12/21 Kansas City, MO, Tivoli at the Nelson-Atkins

New Jersey

3/12/21 Summit, NJ, The Film Society of Summit

New York

3/12/21 New York, NY, New Plaza Cinema

3/12/21 Ithaca, NY, Cinemapolis

3/12/21 Newburgh NY, Downing Film Center

3/12/21 Patchogue, NY, Plaza Cinema and Media Arts Center

3/12/21 Huntington, NY, Cinema Arts Centre

North Carolina

3/12/21 Winston-Salem, NC, Aperture Cinema

3/12/21 Chapel Hill, NC, Chelsea Theater

Oregon

3/12/21 Florence, OR, City Lights Cinemas

Pennsylvania

3/12/21 Gettysburg, PA, Gettysburg College’s Majestic

3/16/21 Bryn Mawr, PA, Bryn Mawr Film Institute

Utah

3/12/21 Salt Lake City, UT, Salt Lake Film Society

Washington, DC

3/12/21 Washington, DC, JxJ

Virginia

3/12/21 Fairfax, VA, Cinema Arts Theatre

3/12/21 Richmond, VA, The Byrd Theatre

March 14

“Lodz: Family Stories” on Sunday, March 14 at 11 am PDT/2 pm EDT

featuring Daniel Libeskind
and Slawomir Grunberg, Paul Celler and Lilka Elbaum
moderator: Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Please click on title to register.

March 15

Q & A with Slawek Grunberg, Paul Celler and Lilka Elbaum sponsored by the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Monday March 15, 2021 at 8:00 PM EST

Please click on title to join the Q & A on March 15th at 8pm EST. The event will stream automatically. You can watch the film prior to the Q & A, starting on March 12th by going to coolidge.org/films/still-life-lodz.

March 17

Virtual Discussion About New Documentary: “Still Life in Lodz” hosted by Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County on Wednesday March 17, 2021 6:30 PM EST,

Post-Screening Discussion about “Still Life in Lodz”
with Slawomir Grunberg, Lilka Elbaum, Roni Ben-Ari and Paul Celler
Please click on title to register.

March 21

Virtual Discussion About “Still Life in Lodz” hosted by Summit Film Society on Sunday March 21, 2021 11:00 AM EST,

with Slawomir Grunberg, Lilka Elbaum, Roni Ben-Ari and Paul Celler
moderator: Dr. Joanna Sliwa.
Please click on title to register.

Reviews

“Grünberg has made a poignant documentary suffused with both tragedy and hope.”

Sheldon Kirshner, The Times of Israel

“The evocative title refers not only to a painting, but the stilled lives of Jews in the Holocaust. And a third meaning emerges when we see that there is still life going on in Lodz – even though its remaining post-war Jewish population was forced to emigrate in 1968. Slawomir Grunberg has made an engrossing documentary about a return to Poland that excavates memories.”

Annette Insdorf, Columbia University Film Professor and author of “Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust”

Artistic and Educational Values of the Film – English

Slawomir Grünberg’s film makes use of animated reconstructions of the film main characters’ memories and research. They are complemented by original re-photographs taken by Stefan Brajter. The film also features postwar artwork by David Friedmann (1893-1980) depicting the harrowing daily life in the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and death march scenes.

Among the archival materials are unique scenes from the Lodz ghetto, photographs and film footage from Litzmannstadt, as the Germans called Lodz during the war. It includes the entry of German troops in 1939, and Soviet troops in 1945, and post-war archives of Lodz. This multi-media technique allows viewers a unique entry point to understanding Lodz, the Holocaust, and family stories we follow in the film.

The original film score, composed by Wojciech Lemański and recorded with the String Orchestra PRIMUZ under the baton of conductor Łukasz Błaszczyk, is also an exceptional value in this artistic film.

Director’s Explication

For me, making movies is not only seeking answers to difficult questions, but also trying to capture life as it is. I take viewers on a journey to reveal a new, unknown reality to them. The camera is an ideal tool for such discoveries. I don’t treat documentary as entertainment. If the film does not bring knowledge about the world, does not educate, does not broaden the horizons of the viewer or does not suggest the need to change the order of the world – it is not worth the effort to make it.

I am an independent filmmaker living and working in the United States for the past 38 years. I am exclusively committed to the documentary form, and have directed and produced over 45 films. The themes I explore in my films are often difficult, sensitive and ambiguous. I want to evoke emotions and force people to reflect. I like challenges. “Still Life in Lodz”, with its multiple layers of narrative and storytelling technique, was a special challenge. I believe that this is a film that leads to discussion, which broadens knowledge, perhaps even brings about a change in thinking. I live and work to leave a valuable legacy of questions. “Still Life in Lodz “is my latest contribution.

Director

Photo by Jerzy Maciej Koba, Studio Portretu

Sławomir Grünberg is an award-winning director, producer and cinematographer of documentary films. As a graduate of the Directing Department of the Lodz Film School, he emigrated to the USA in 1981 and has since directed and produced over 45 documentaries concerning social, environmental and disability issues. Winner of numerous international awards, including Emmy Award for “School Prayer: A Community at War”. Winner of Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and the New York Foundation for the Arts and Soros Justice Media Fellowship.

Slawomir Grünberg also won the Jan Karski competition for documentaries with “moral courage”, as well as DreamCatcher Award for dedication and commitment to documentary filmmaking and is a winner of the prestigious Golden Glan Award. His 2015 movie “Karski & The Lords of Humanity” won many prestigious international awards and had theatrical distribution on many continents.

In June 2019, Slawomir Grünberg defended his PhD in the Film Arts at the Lodz Film School on ” Non-fiction animation – an effective means for breaking the rules of the documentary film”.

Sławomir Grünberg is also a subject of two documentary films made by the Polish television TVP: “Film Tales by Slawek Grünberg” directed by Krzysztof Tusiewicz and “At the Beginning it was Hillside Avenue” directed by Krzysztof Piotrowski and the biographical book “Slawomir Grünberg – a Man with a Camera” by Barbara Grünberg.

Producer

Barbara Grünberg, LOGTV Films Polska Foundation –the Polish Studies graduate, culture manager and business coach. Originally from Tomaszow Mazowiecki, where she worked as a teacher and Director of the Municipal Culture Center. She has lived in New York since January 2017 and is involved in film production, film distribution and organization of film screenings around the world. She likes to spend free time writing; among others she is the author of the book “Slawomir Grünberg – a Man with a Camera”.

LOGTV FILMS POLSKA

LOGTV Films Polska Foundation can be easily called a younger Polish sister of the American foundation: LOGTV, Ltd., an American foundation established in 1999. LOGTV Films Polska Foundation specializes in film production and documentary film distribution, and is also involved in international co-productions. LOGTV Films Polska obtains grants for the promotion of Polish films abroad, grants from the Regional Film Commissions in Poland, e.g. from the Silesian Film Fund for the production of the documentary film “Me, Kaya – a Girl from Silesia”, which will premiere in September 2020. Currently, two other films are also in production: “Maybe we would come to Tomaszow for the day” and “Hidden Heritage: A Jewish Awakening in Krakow”.

An important goal of the Foundation is also broadly understood activity in the field of film education, implemented through the organization of lectures and workshops.
More at: www.logtv.com/polska

LOGTV Ltd

LOGTV Ltd was founded in 1999 by the acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Slawomir Grünberg, for the production and distribution of documentary films. The films produced by LOGTV Ltd were not only shown and awarded at festivals, but also distributed in cinemas and shown on TV around the world.

Educational activities are of key importance for LOGTV Ltd – the films are screened not only in cinemas and on TV, but also in educational institutions. The company acts as a participant and organizer of seminars and lectures accompanying the screenings of its films.

The short list of awards received by LOGTV Ltd and Slawomir Grünberg includes: EMMY Award, Grand Prix Zahav (Gold) Award, CINE Golden Eagle Award, Gold Award: WorldFest, Houston, Regional EMMY Award, Lavr Award – the Russian “Oscar”; Grand Prix at the International Historical Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland; Nomination for The Eagles Awards – the Polish “Oscar”, Best Polish documentary – “Jewish Motives” at International Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland, Grand Prix at “EKRAN” Toronto Polish Film Festival, Special Award for the Best Polish Film at the Jewish Motifs International Film Festival, Warsaw, Grand Prix: I Belgrade International Film Festival, Grand Prix:  V European Film Festival, Koszalin, An Expression Award: Brazil’s Disability International Film Festival, The Audience Award: Best Documentary, Washington Jewish Film Festival, Special Prize: Crossroads of Europe Film Festival, Lublin, Best Documentary on Disability: International Film Festival, Calgary, Canada, Best Documentary in Environment: San Francisco Film Festival, Best Documentary: Vermont International Film Festival, Best of the Festival: Hope and Dreams Film Festival Grand Prix: International Environmental Film Festival, Prague, Czech Republic Coup de Coeur, International Environmental Film Festival, Grenoble.  Add to this two Academy Award nominations and five EMMY Award nominations for Slawomir Grünberg as a cinematographer.

The documentaries produced by LOGTV Ltd were shown, among others, in Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museo Memoria y Tolerancia in Mexico City, Johannesburg and Cape Town Holocaust Centers, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, as well as at many festivals in USA, Canada, Israel, Iran, Basil, Argentina, Mexico, France, UK, Germany, Uruguay, Korea, Australia, Russia, Poland and other countries. Some of them made their way to permanent collections of film societies, festivals or libraries, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Contact: grunbergfilms@gmail.com, basiagrunberg@gmail.com

EC1 Łódź – City of Culture

EC1 Łódź – City of Culture is a venue open to various cultural and scientific activities. It is home of the EC1 Center for Science and Technology, the National Center for Film Culture, the Łódź Film Commission and the Center for Interactive Comics and Narration (under construction). The EC1 Łódź complex is located on the premises and in the revitalized buildings of the first commercial power plant in Łódź, which was established in 1907 and operated until 2000.

Since 2015 the EC1 Łódź has also been an operator of the Łódź Film Fund, the oldest regional film fund in Poland. The Fund, founded within City of Łódź Office’s structure, runs on co-production terms. Since 2007 90 movies have received co-financing within it. The films co-produced by the EC1 Łódź under Łódź Film Fund include the Academy Award triple-nominee “Cold War” directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, the last film by Andrzej Wajda “Powidoki” or Roberta Grossman’s documentary “Who Will Write Our History”.

The Łódź Film Fund is administered by Łódź Film Commission department, which ensures comprehensive assistance to producers of feature, documentary and animated films, television programs, commercials, video clips or any other form of audiovisual content. This assistance covers services ranging from searching for locations, to the obtainment of permits and separation of municipal space for the needs of film crews, to support in contacts with city services and local media.

Director/Co-Producer/Cinematography:
Slawomir Grünberg

Written by:
Lilka Elbaum, Slawomir Grünberg

Director of Animation:
Marcin Podolec, Yellow Tapir Films

Editor:
Cezary Kowalczuk

Original Score:
Wojciech Lemański

Rephotography:
Stefan Brajter

Producer:
Barbara Grünberg, Logtv Films Polska

Co-Producers:
EC1 Łódź – City of Culture, LOGTV, Ltd. and National Center for Jewish Film

Distributed by:
LOGTV, LTD

In order of appearance:
Roni Ben Ari
Elżbieta & Bogusław Biskupscy
Ryszard Bonisławski
Stefan Brajter
Paul Celler
Felicja Chorążkiewicz
Lilka Elbaum
Krystyna Górecka
Lilianna & Jankiel Mitelman
Patrycja Ulańska
Jan Zieliński
Joanna Zielińska-Ulevič
Lilka Ulevič
Teresa Zielińska

Lilka Elbaum

Born in Lodz, Lilka (Rozenbaum) Elbaum graduated from the Jewish Peretz School. In 1968, she, together with thousands of Polish Jews, was forced to leave Poland and settled in Canada. She now lives in the United States. The daughter of Holocaust survivors Maria Koper and Benjamin Rozenbaum, for many years, she has researched the history of Polish Jewry, focusing on the Holocaust. Through her work and out of sentiment for the city and country where she was born, she maintains close ties to Poland.

Polish: Urodzona w Łodzi Lilka (Rozenbaum) Elbaum, po ukończeniu żydowskiej szkoły im. Pereca i pierwszego roku studiów na Uniwersytecie Łódzkim, w 1968 roku, wraz z tysiącami polskich Żydów została zmuszona do opuszczenia Polski i osiedliła się w Kanadzie. Obecnie mieszka w Stanach Zjednoczonych. Córka ocalonych z Zagłady, Marii Koper i Benjamina Rozenbauma, od wielu lat zajmuje się badaniami nad historią Zagłady polskich Żydów. Blisko związana z Polską poprzez długoletnią pracę zawodową i sentyment to miasta i kraju, gdzie kiedyś mieszkała.

Paul Celler

Paul Celler grew up in New Jersey, where he lived and worked for most of his life. The son of two Holocaust survivors – David Celler and Rosa Posalska – Paul finds meaning and grounding through kindness, his connection to his family and community, the study of history, and his spiritual practice. He places a high value on Tikkun Olam, a Jewish concept defined by acts of kindness performed to repair the world. The surest ways he knows how to do this are by playing music and spending time with his wife, his three children, and his three grandchildren.

The film ‘Still Life in Lodz” is: In memory of Rosa and David Celler, who miraculously survived the Holocaust, and the six million men, women, and children who didn’t.

The film ‘Still Life in Lodz” is: In memory of Rosa and David Celler, who miraculously survived the Holocaust, and the six million men, women and children who didn’t.

Polish: Choć obecnie mieszka na Manhattanie, Paul Celler dorastał w New Jersey, gdzie mieszkał i pracował przez większość swojego życia. Jako syn dwojga rodziców ocalałych z Holokaustu – Davida Cellera i Rosy Posalskiej – Paul znajduje sens i wartości w życzliwości, w swojej relacji z rodziną i społecznością, studiowaniu historii i duchowej praktyce. Przywiązuje dużą wagę do tikkun olam, żydowskiej koncepcji sprawiedliwości społecznej w celu udoskonalenia świata. Jego pasją jest muzyka, która daje mu ogromne zadowolenie, a także czas spędzony z żoną, trojgiem dzieci, i trojgiem wnucząt.

Film „Martwa natura” dedykowany jest: Pamięci Rosy i Davida Celler, którym cudem udało się przeżyć Holokaust, oraz sześciu milionów mężczyzn, kobiet i dzieci, którym się to nie udało…

Roni Ben Ari

Roni (Halpern) Ben Ari, an internationally acclaimed photographer, and a multimedia artist was born and lives in Israel. Her exhibition Loom|Father|Requiem was shown at the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz and the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. Her grandfather, Moshe Halpern, was a weaver of jacquard in pre-war Lodz and her father, Abraham Halpern, continued the family tradition in Israel. Roni sees herself as a weaver of memories from the looms’ DNA.

Polish: Roni Ben Ari, światowej sławy fotograficzka i artystka multimedialna urodziła się w Izraelu, gdzie mieszka. Jej wystawa Loom|Father|Requiem była pokazywana w Muzeum Włókiennictwa w Łodzi i w Muzeum Eretz Israel w Tel Avivie. Jej dziadek, Moshe Halpern, produkował tkaniny żakardowe w przedwojennej Łodzi, a jej ojciec, Abraham Halpern, kontynuował tę tradycję rodzinną w Izraelu. Roni, poprzez swoją twórczość, przywołuje wspomnienia zawarte w „kodzie genetycznym” warsztatów włókienniczych.