Re: [Cz-L] Popovici film

Miriam (Mimi) Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>

Dear Andy,

My admiration for your good ideas, persistence in the face of adversity
and cheerful optimism! I wish you success. Considering all the books being
published and sold about Czernowitz, someone ought to realize that a movie
on the background of Czernowitz is likely to be a financial success as well=
.

If all else fails, do you think it might be worth contacting Voelker Koepp,
the producer of "Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckermann"?

All the best,

Mimi

> Buna Ziua, liebe
> Czernowitzers:
>
> Here is a progress report on
> the Popovici film. The title will be
> simply: ³POPOVICI.² I have been
> digesting data and filling fat files with notes on possible structure tha=
t
> should lead to avoiding yet another Holocaust film which many audiences s=
tay
> away from because too many film makers have practiced film exploitation o=
f the
> victims that leaves audiences angry and depressed.
>
> Making films, even very low
> budget films, is an expensive undertaking and in order to raise funds for
> production, the filmmaker needs to structure his projects to have every c=
hance
> to allow investors to recoup their investment and to earn some profits.
>
> Film audiences generally seek
> a ³lift² from a movie and, while we are dealing with one of the great=
est
> horrors of history, there are positive items on which one can focus in a =
film.
>
> In reviewing all the material
> at hand I found myself emotionally overcome by the decency of Popovici an=
d his
> parallels recorded by Yad Vashem, designated as Righteous Among Nations. =
 I
> found a positive theme evolving from this: ³As long
> as the world will produce people like Popovici and Schindler and the thou=
sands
> recorded by Yad Vashem, the world will heal itself and move forward no ma=
tter
> how many Hitlers or Stalins crop up in our midst.² Our protagonist voic=
es
> such a line at the end in an emotional summary.
>
> The structure of the film is
> simple. In effect it becomes a docudrama. An elderly man, a Czernowitz
> survivor, thanks
> to Popovici, brings his grandchildren to Romania as a tourist and also ta=
kes
> them to the unveiling of a formidable statue of Popovici.
>
> While there he tells the
> children his story and that of Popovici. Our storyteller¹s family is b=
ased on
> a composite of real stories of
> survivors, many of them your stories, list members. His father was a
> contemporary of Popovici and as he goes over the history of the two famil=
ies,
> we
> get a brief perspective of the events leading to WW II.
>
> Most young people, certainly
> in North America, are totally ignorant of this history and very few, even=
 in
> Romania,
> have ever heard of Popovici or Transnistria, etc. Thus this becomes an
> important film in terms
> of providing the young and future generations with a perspective they¹v=
e
> lacked. Also, for Romania, the film will
> work as an image builder since the only thing people around the world hav=
e
> known about Romania is that it provided a home for Prince Dracula.
>
> Our story teller functions as
> voice-over narrator to tie together the various events that we dramatize =
with
> live action photography mixed with archival newsreel footage. This devic=
e of
> having a story teller, often
> in voice-over, becomes a great cost saver in dubbing the film into differ=
ent
> languages. Also this is enjoyed by audiences.
>
> I found a progressive Romanian producer,
> Razvan Sabie of Carter Films, to function as co-producer in an Official T=
reaty
> Co-Production. What impressed me about
> Razvan was that he runs the first Romanian film company that imported hig=
h
> definition film equipment. He is intelligent and technically far more au
> courante
> than I. (I am a technological dinosaur having used a wire recorder in my =
first
> audio assignment, one step removed from Edison¹s original cylinder) I
> introduced
> this Bucuresti-based producer to Mr. Florentin Lehaci while Lehaci visite=
d
> Bucuresti
> to interview a relative of Popovici. This was a productive move since Raz=
van
> is
> fluent in English and Mr. Lehaci struggles with it.
>
> International Co-production Treaties
> are negotiated by a Canadian Ministry named Heritage Canada which has sig=
ned
> such Treaties for Canada with over 50 countries. Canadian participation =
in
> international
> co-production runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The bulk of =
this
> co-production is between Canada and France and the U.K., of course, but C=
anada
> has a treaty with Romania signed some time ago.
>
> The administration of these
> co-productions is handled by an agency named Telefilm Canada which also
> administers the Canadian Feature Film Fund which invests roughly fifty pe=
rcent
> of the Canadian¹s share of the budget in such
> co-productions.
>
> Telefilm¹s counterpart in
> Romania is called CNC. When I first
> approached Telefilm Canada about this project I received a very enthusias=
tic
> response. They felt that this would be
> an excellent and worth while project for a Canada-Romania co-production.
> Razvan approached CNC in Bucuresti and
> received an equally positive response, though they suggested that a
> documentary
> on this subject should be made first and if that were successful it could=
 be
> followed by a film. That makes little sense
> since the film as outlined above is a docudrama which is a documentary wi=
th
> dramatized segments that couldn¹t be captured on film in an honest docu=
mentary
> ­
> which in this case would end up to simply be a series of interviews or ta=
lking
> heads.
>
> Lo and behold, as we¹ve
> learned with the ups and downs of the Popovici plaque project, good inten=
tions
> inevitably run up against blocks. I
> received from my contact at Telefilm Canada a notice that they had receiv=
ed
> from Heritage Canada that there is a problem with the Romanian treaty and=
 that
> no co-productions may be undertaken until this is straightened out. I
> contacted Heritage Canada to ask what the problem was and if I could help=
.
> They are restricted to dealing with only their counterparts but as an NGO=
 I
> can go over heads. They very politely told me that they know what they're
> doing and they'll advise me when the problem has been sorted out.
>
> At my age I no longer buy
> green bananas and experience has taught me that waiting for Heritage Cana=
da
> might involve another generation. Some
> five years ago or more, the Honourable Sheila Copps, Minister of Heritage
> Canada, signed a Letter of Intent with India to negotiate a co-production
> treaty. She was subsequently squeezed
> out of government by Prime Minister Martin and now, going on six years la=
ter,
> Canada still has no treaty with India.
>
> In the interim, India signed
> co-production treaties with England and Italy, so it might me safe to ass=
ume
> that the problem lies within Heritage Canada. Since it is impossible to =
learn
> anything from that ministry, I
> approached the Indians through the Indian High Commission in Ottawa askin=
g
> simply, what is the problem? Their
> response was succinct, witty and very clear, ³It takes two to tango,²=
 they
> replied.
>
> My contact at Telefilm once
> explained that it would be possible in a roundabout way to do a co-produc=
tion
> with India by bringing in another country such as England and doing it as=
 a
> ³tripartite²
> as they refer to a 3-way co-production. In
> other words, we would do a coproduction with a producer in England and th=
ey,
> in
> turn, sign a coproduction with India and the three of us are in the same =
bed
> but legally assumed to be in different rooms.
>
> In the Popovici film, I
> intended to have our narrator¹s grandchildren asking questions, which p=
rompts
> him to take them to Israel to see Yad Vashem and there take in whatever t=
hey
> have on Popovici while getting snippets of several other stories on Right=
eous
> Among Nations. This could justify an
> Israeli co-production and Canada has a treaty with Israel. I heard of se=
veral
> co-productions that have
> taken place between Israel and Romania so I assumed that they had a treat=
y,
> too. I now recall an account exec on
> Madison Avenue many years ago wagging a finger at me, saying, ³Never as=
sume
> because
> that makes an ³ass² out of ³u² and ³me.²
>
> After I contacted several
> Israeli producers to query them about co-production and getting enthusias=
tic
> responses, I learned that Israel has no treaty with Romania. This is lik=
e
> boxing. You get knocked down, you get up, you get knocked down, you get =
up.
>
> I have now e-mailed the
> administrator at Romania¹s CNC to find out what the problem is in the t=
reaty
> and also to learn of what treaties exist between Romania and other countr=
ies.
> I am told that they're not very good about responding to queries.
>
> If they, like Heritage Canada,
> do not respond, I will take the matter to Canada¹s Prime Minister Harpe=
r¹s
> officeand to President Traian Basescu of Romania, a
> namesake of Popovici. I once got nowhere
> with Cuba¹s film unit and then wrote to El Presidente Fidel Castro. Th=
at
> really woke up their film people.
>
> As Walter Cronkite used say
> at the end his newscasts, ³And that¹s the way it is.²
>
> I¹m off to Los Angeles next
> week for a month and will talk to whoever will listen about Popovici but =
I¹m
> going primarily to audition a group of actors on another project, to see =
my
> kids, and to pitch a couple of less
> complex projects. Showbiz has never been
> easy.
>
> All the best to all,
> Andy

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Received on 2009-01-08 06:25:15