Re: [Cz-L] Re: czernowitz-l digest: May 03, 2008

Dear Andrew,
   Bravo for originality !
  Best idea I have heard lately.
    As you know Mr Lehaci is working to put up a bust of T. Popovici in
Fundu.
      This fits in with your scenario.
       Maybe Steven Spielberg would direct ?
Hardy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Halmay" <venivici_at_rogers.com>
To: <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 4:17 PM
Subject: [Cz-L] Re: czernowitz-l digest: May 03, 2008


> Dear Compatriots:
>
>
>
> Regarding Traian Popovici and the plaque, let us put it in perspective.
>
> 1. Plaques, regardless of the importance of the message they carry,
> often go unnoticed, particularly by the young. The whole effort is not
> that big a deal.
>
>
>
> 2. When it comes to languages to be used, the following must be
> taken into consideration.
>
>
>
> a. We must include Romanian since the man we honor is Romanian.
>
> b. We must include German since that was the official language spoken
> in Czernowitz for a longer period in history than any other.
>
> c. We must have English because that is today's Lingua Franca, and even
> in Romania it has replaced French.
>
> d. And we have to have Ukrainian since the plaque's host country is
> the Ukraine.
>
> e. It would be nice to include Yiddish. I suspect, however, that
> more people in the world can understand spoken Yiddish but get lost when
> trying to read it. It would be nice to add Hebrew out of respect but the
> relevance of Hebrew to Popovici is a bit thin and thus less important.
>
> f. The content of the text should provide some perspective on the
> numbers who died and the numbers Popovici saved.
>
>
>
> 3. Some time back, Miriam Taylor, perhaps the greatest Czernowitz
> champion, suggested to me that I make a film about Czernowitz. I
> explained that films need strong stories that will persuade funding
> sources that they will attract audiences so that the investment doesn't go
> down the drain. I knew of no such stories about Czernowitz.
>
>
>
> Now, having been introduced to Popovici and having done additional
> research, I feel we have a powerful story for a film. Compared to
> Schindler, Popovici is huge. Schindler saved 1,200 Jews off whom he made
> good profits, and his original motivation leading to contact with these
> victims was greed. Popovici saved 20,000 and he had nothing material to
> gain in saving them. At worst, he may have risked his own life. He was a
> man of great character, a super-mensch.
>
>
>
> While deeply moved by Spielberg's film on Schindler, from a story
> perspective I felt the script left much to be desired. He concentrated on
> the victims instead of on the man who was supposed to be the hero. I
> would have liked to have been given more perspective on the man and his
> character and the mental process that took him from exploiter to
> benefactor and savior.
>
>
> With Popovici, a similar and yet very different story, I would like to
> give audiences far greater perspective on the man while providing an
> historical progression that led to the Holocaust. Depending on what
> details I can find on the man, his childhood, his family and all the
> elements that formed his character, I want to start the story early,
> before WW I.
>
>
>
> Concurrently, there will be a parallel story of a Jewish family in
> Czernowitz who become the focal point representative of all Jews in
> Czernowitz. It is more effective to give audiences individuals with whom
> they can identify and who represent larger numbers than giving them crowds
> and statistics that are impersonal.
>
>
>
> At the same time, and to me this is one of the most important parts of the
> film, we show progressive historical events in Europe that led to the war;
> Hitler's progress, the apathy and ignorance of leaders of the other
> powers, the obsequiousness of Chamberlain, etc., etc.
>
>
>
> At this point the details of the story are still vague in my mind but I
> have decided on its structure which will include a relevant narrator which
> gives us economical leeway in covering events graphically. And I know
> exactly how the film will start - in the present - with the unveiling of a
> statue of Popovici at which we also find a small crowd of young students
> and their history teacher. He begins to tell them the story and then we
> dissolve to action, but whenever appropriate, we can use his voice-over
> narration to cover certain events or aspects with a sentence that would
> have incurred great costs with crews on location, etc.
>
>
>
> I have felt all along, while discussions continued on the plaque, that a
> statue would be far more appropriate. If we can get the film off the
> ground, we'll have a statue and the unveiling will be visible to the
> entire world through the film and with clips on the web.
>
>
>
> I started yesterday to gather relevant data for the screenplay. I call
> this the gathering of pollen period. Pollen from different plants and
> flowers gets churned up in the mind and hopefully turns to sweet honey in
> the screenplay.
>
>
>
> I have written to Mr. Lehaci asking for any detailed background he may
> have on Popovici and/or some direction where additional data may be found.
> Google is the greatest blessing in such efforts. In about seven hours
> yesterday, I gathered pages and pages of data, many stories from
> survivors, but so far nothing directly related to Popovici. I will
> contact the executive director of Shoa at USC who have some 52 thousand
> interviews with Holocaust survivors. Hopefully they will have some
> stories that relate to our situation. But ultimately, with that part of
> the story, we can take literary license and make the Jewish family an
> amalgam of stories with fictional bits to provide fully fleshed out
> characters who are relevant and credible.
>
>
>
> I hope that among you, the members of the Cz Group, there will be stories
> you can share of people who survived thanks to Traian Popovici and I thank
> you in advance for any information you may be able to supply.
>
>
>
> Alles gutes - cu noroc.
>
> Andy Halmay.
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This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
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Received on 2008-05-04 13:53:12