The OGT Daily #62 Night

 I had the extreme pleasure of attending the Boston premiere of the new documentary Soul on Fire about the life of writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. It was produced and directed by Oren Rudavsky who is a Judaic scholar in that most of his films are about Jewish people or Judaism is some way.  I was the editor of one of his first documentaries about what was left of Yiddish culture in Eastern Europe in the 1980s.  This film was called At the Crossroads and was co-produced by klezmer artist Yale Strom. It was the second of the three films I edited before retiring to be a mother.

A small klezmer band a wedding in the 1990 film At The Crossroads about Jewish life in Eastern Europe.

Before that I had assisted Oren and another sound editor making sound effects for the after school horror series Tales from the Darkside. We were both is a place of still developing our careers. It was totally ironic to me that I should see him all these years later after a random invitation to see this film at the Coolidge Corner Cinema, in Brookline, MA.

It could not be more timely. I have never read Night - which was Wiesel's first work, the testimony of his witnessing life at Auschwitz as a youth.  It is so dark and so real that I have been afraid. But the time has come. Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize for the courage to not be silent or indifferent to the pain and horror he witnessed as a young teen boy entering the camp with his parents and older sisters in the 1940s. His 10 year old younger sister, Tzipora, was immediately killed as useless to the work life of the camp.

This film addresses Wiesel's core message which is to not remain silent, but to always speak up in the face of inhumanity. What is important here is that Wiesel himself states in his address to the Nobel Committee that he includes both Jews and Palestinians in his call for remembrance of horrors done to them. Oren, as filmmaker, reiterated this message to the crowd at the Coolidge Corner Cinema last night, quite clearly. Perhaps this film will help spread this message, just like Dr. King's, that we must care about inhumanity to all members in our community of humans.  Some people (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) cannot seem to remember this simple idea.

Animation of Joel Orloff from the film.

My husband and his film partner, Lisa Gossels received an Emmy award for their documentary The Children of Chabannes about Jewish children rescued from the Nazis in France during WW II. On September 9, 2001 (two days before the World Trade Center attacks) Elie Wiesl was the one who presented the Emmy to them. 

The circumstances that brought us all back together, me, Lisa, Dean, and Oren to watch this new film about Wiesel's life seemed prescient and important given the current headlines and where our leadership is headed.

I am grateful for this visionary who was able to witness the darkest night of the soul and live to tell us about it and for Oren retelling his story.

What stirs you heart in this current climate?