VISHNIAC

A Film by Laura Bialis

Produced by Nancy Spielberg & Roberta Grossman

(Reckonings, Who Will Write Our History, Above and Beyond)

Executive Produced by Ori & Mirit Eisen

(Who Will Write Our History, Picture Of His Life)

Roman Vishniac is best known for having traversed Eastern Europe from 1935 through 1938, on assignment for the American Joint Distribution Committee, to photograph Jewish life in Eastern Europe. The purpose of the photographs was to raise funds for impoverished Jewish communities. Few predicted that less than a decade later, these communities would be wiped out, and that Vishniac’s photographs would provide the last visual records of an entire world.

His photographs have great strength and look always contemporary so it makes the upcoming Holocaust stronger than ever.

After the war, Vishniac’s documentation continues with photographs of Berlin in ruins and children in displaced persons camps before he shifts his focus to groundbreaking scientific work. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Laura Bialis (Refusenik, Rock in the Red Zone), Vishniac goes behind the images and beyond the myths to portray a man who took those closest to him to the brink of rejection, yet gave the world a collection as diverse and beautiful as the eye can see.

US/ 2023/ Eng/ 93 mins