Re: [Cz-L] Call for Survivors thanks to Popovici!

Hi Andy!
Please don't mind, but... although I'm not a movie producer (nor an actor, etc.) it unfortunately happens that I know something about film production and their financing from a professional point of view ... Too long to explain - I just did my best to recover billions of dollars from Hollywood, NYC, Canada, Cannes, some European countries, etc.
Of course, you are right when you say that Holocaust/Shoah movies are not great commercial hits, except when there is good marketing, a big name (Spielberg..., but I'd be surprised if you get Dustin Hoffman plus a complete movie on a tiny budget), etc.
I therefore cannot but agree with Hardy: before committing to give out portions of profits from your movie to any organization, you better make sure it will earn some profits...
Also, what will happen to all stories sent to you by the Cz-List members you call on, telling you how they got a Popovici permit and how they survived?
Here is another idea: why not a movie about ca. two centuries of History of that unique experience of a multicultural place, where no group held majority and all were able to learn from others, of how Bukowina and Czernowitz developed... All this through the history of some families (history within History), till... (well you know), including the fact that Traian Popovici helped save some 15-20,000 from immediate death, and including what people from Czernowitz gave to the western world of the twentieth century...
A propos, my mother and I survived in Czernowitz as clandestine, without
a Popovici permit - Still, I nevertheless acknowledge the great courage he showed in those terrible times and the good deed he done.
Sorry for the comment, I simply remember how difficult and "shark-wise" (?) the entertainment industry is.
Best regards,
Charles

> Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Call for Survivors thanks to Popovici!
> From: "HARDY BREIER" <HARDY3_at_BEZEQINT.NET>
> Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:21:50 +0200
> X-Message-Number: 15
>
> Andy , you are already sharing  the bear's hide before
> you hunt the bear.
>
> Hardy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "veni vici" <venivici_at_inbox.com>
> To: "Czernowitz Genealogy and History" <czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 8:15 PM
> Subject: [Cz-L] Call for Survivors thanks to Popovici!
>
>
> This is a message to all Bukovina survivors of the
> Holocaust thanks to
> Traian Popovici!
>
> I need your stories for a film and a book about when and
> how your families
> got the permits from Popovici. The film and the book will
> have a powerful
> title:   TWENTY TWO THOUSAND SAINTS! 
> Out of the profits of the film and
> book we will contribute to the cemetery fund to keep it
> maintained for as
> many years as feasible.  I have also committed to the
> chairman of Yad Vashem
> to provide it with a percentage of the profits of the
> film.
>
> Having left Cz before the war, I first heard of Popovici
> only after I joined
> our group. That was when a plan developed to create a
> plaque for him.  My
> initial reaction was, “He deserves more than a
> plaque.  He deserves a
> statue.â€�  And then I added, “He deserves
> a film.�
>
> This was nearly two years ago.  I began to collect all
> the data available on
> Popovici and found a potential co-producer in
> Romania.  For me it is
> paramount to have an overseas co-producer because it is the
> only way I can
> access Canadian film funds and still be allowed to use
> non-Canadian talent
> and film in foreign lands.
>
> When I mentioned my planned project on Popovici to the head
> of
> co-productions at Telefilm Canada, the Canadian government
> agency that
> administers the funds, I received a most enthusiastic
> response.  As my
> would-be co-producer and I began talks, word came from
> Telefilm Canada, that
> there had been a problem in Romania’s counterpart to
> Telefilm and that we
> were not to initiate any co-productions with Romania. So I
> put the Popovici
> plans on the back burner and busied myself with other
> projects.
>
> For the sake of perspective, you need to know that
> Holocaust films are a
> greater risk than many other film genres.  Schindler
> did well because it had
> Spielberg directing and it got tons of publicity before it
> even got into
> development. But on average, Holocaust themes do poorly at
> the box office,
> perhaps for the simple and same reason that many Holocaust
> survivors cannot
> talk about the horrors they experienced.  Audiences
> prefer films that will
> make them laugh or become excited with fantasy which is
> impersonal. Films
> about the Holocaust are, of course, upsetting.
>
> Another problem to face in a film about Popovici is
> Popovici himself.  He
> was a decent man, an average man who rose to heroic deeds
> when confronted by
> great injustice. But he didn’t do exciting stuff
> that cameras and audiences
> love. He didn’t steal a tank to mow down Nazi troops
> and he didn’t blow up
> the Iron Guard’s headquarters. My worry in
> structuring a film about his life
> was how to avoid boring audiences until the end when he
> defies authorities
> by issuing so many extra permits.
>
> I have now found another potential co-producer; an
> Englishman headquartered
> in Vienna and I think I have figured out a way to develop
> an effective film
> on a minuscule budget, even with a star such as Dustin
> Hoffman.  For a
> project such as this one Dustin can be expected to forsake
> his normal fee
> for commercial films, which runs in the
> multi-millions.  If he is not
> available there are others of his stature in the industry
> who will be
> appropriate.
>
> The story will be that of an expatriate Czernowitzer in his
> eighties who
> comes back for the unveiling of a statue of Popovici. 
> He brings along a
> grandson and when the youngster asks questions, he tells
> him his own story
> and how Popovici saved the lives of his family.
>
> At the unveiling he meets other ex-Czernowitzers who also
> came for the
> unveiling and who are also survivors or offspring of
> survivors. They catch
> up with each other and tell each other their stories.
> Whenever I have read accounts of experiences of some of our
> members I found
> myself just as focused and interested as I might have been
> if these had been
> dramatized on a screen.  Hardy, Anny, Hedwig, and
> others have sent in brief
> accounts of their experiences that I found just as
> compelling as
> dramatizations and these will be even more arresting when
> told by great
> character actors in dramatic close-ups on a theatre
> screen.
>
> Their talk will explore the goodness in people like
> Popovici.  There have
> always been good guys around in the worst of times. 
> There were
> abolitionists in the days of slavery who risked their lives
> as much as
> non-Jews who hid Jewish families during the
> Holocaust.  There were people of
> character during the Inquisition and during various
> revolutions.  The
> “Righteous Among the Nations� as recorded by
> Yad Vashem were found in 44
> countries. There were even Muslims who saved Jewish lives.
>
> Our protagonist decides on the spur of the moment to take
> his grandson to
> Jerusalem to see Yad Vashem which has over 22,000 stories
> of good guys whom
> they honored as they did Popovici as Righteous Among the
> Nations.
>
> The film ends as our protagonist is overcome by these
> stories. He makes an
> impromptu speech to a group of visitors to Yad
> Vashem.  He ends his speech
> by concluding that as long as humanity will produce such
> heroic people of
> character and decency - “Menschen� -
> civilization will survive no matter how
> many Hitlers the world concurrently produces.
>
> Many of you may have been too young to remember how exactly
> your families
> got the permits that kept you from deportation to
> Transnistria but I would
> still like to hear from you with whatever general
> information you may
> recall.
>
> We must have members in the Cz group who live in all parts
> of the world,
> perhaps children of survivors thanks to Popovici. 
> Some of you might feel up
> to actually delivering your own stories on camera. 
> The overall feeling of
> the film will strive to have the look of a
> documentary.  After all, it will
> be based on truth.
>
> All our members don’t read these messages every day
> so if you know of other
> members who should be apprised, please contact them.
> Thanks in advance for your responses and efforts.
>
> Alles Gutes,
>
> Andy Halmay

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Received on 2011-01-13 20:49:25