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Song of Life
Israel / Poland / 52 min / Dir: Ran Brenner / Documentary / 2006 / Australian Premiere
100 singers from the Israeli Philharmonic Singers Choir tour Poland to perform at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. At rehearsals in Tel Aviv they sing the famous requiem of Verdi which 76 years old Greta Klinsberg sang this 62 years earlier as a child just before being sent to Auschwitz with her sister who later was gassed by the Nazis. Greta was among the few who survived, she never stopped singing. In the film we learn about some of the choir more interesting singers, and their personal feelings towards the Holocaust. The dramatic scenes of the documentary are accompanied by beautiful songs sang by the choir. The film also shows rare black & white footage of the last opera sang by Greta as a kid, shoot by the Nazis in the ghetto before sending her and the other kids to Auschwitz. 'Song of Life' is about music and the power it gives to people.
Hebrew with subtitles.
The Cats of Mirikitani
USA / 74 min / Director: Linda Hattendorf / Documentary / 2007 / Byron Premiere
'Make art not war' is Jimmy Mirikitani's motto. This feisty 80-year-old artist was born in California and raised in Hiroshima, but by 2001 he is living on the streets of New York. How did he end up here? The answer is in his art. In wind rain and snow he can be found on a corner in Soho drawing bleak internment camps, whimsical cats and the angry red flames of the atomic bomb.
When a neighbouring filmmaker pauses to ask about Mirikitani's art, a friendship begins that will change both their lives. September 11 thrusts Mirikitani once again into a world at war and challenges the filmmaker to move from witness to advocate. Concerned about Jimmy's safety in the chaos that follows the collapse of the World Trade Center, she impulsively brings him home. In this uncharted landscape, filmmaker and subject embark on a tumultuous journey into Jimmy's painful past, navigate the maze of social welfare, and seek out family and friends. Jimmy's story comes full circle when he travels back to California to attend a healing reunion at the site of his internment camp, Tule Lake. Blending beauty and humour with tragedy and pain, THE CATS OF MIRIKITANI is an intimate exploration of the lasting trauma of war and the healing power of art.
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