Program areas at Katahdin Productions
Vishniac (on going project) is a new feature length film in development about the life, work, and legacy of roman vishniac. A passionate photographer and scientist, vishniac is best known for having traversed eastern europe from 1935 through 1938, on assignment for the joint distribution committee, to photograph jewish life in eastern europe. These photographs are one of the last remaining visual records of a world and culture that had been almost entirely destroyed by the end of world war ii. Through his work, we see jewish life - not just in eastern european shtetls, but also in cosmopolitan berlin; the nazi rise to power; jews in visa offices attempting to leave europe; zionist training camps; jewish immigrants in america.
Heschel, directed by roberta grossman, is a feature length documentary about abraham joshua heschel, one of the leading theologians and philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel authored a number of widely read books on jewish philosophy and was active in the civil rights movement, marching with martin luther king, jr. at selma. He also was vehemently opposed to the vietnam war and started an anti-war organization called laity and clergy concerned about vietnam.
Who will write our history is a documentary about emanuel ringelblum and the secret archive of the warsaw ghetto. Ringelblum's oyneg shabes archive is regarded among historians as an extraordinary achievement of scholarly self-study in the very depths of hell. The 30,000 pages of documents hidden in the archive including diaries, essays, poems, paintings, photographs, letters, underground newspapers, stolen judenrat records, official nazi pronouncements and much more are considered the most important cache of in-the-moment, eyewitness accounts to survive the holocaust and yet, the oyneg shabes archive remains unknown outside academic circles. Who will write our history changes that, in the way that only a film can, by making the story accessible to millions of people around the world.