Behind the camera

Gerardo Stawsky (Master at the University of Texas, Austin; BA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem), the film's Director and Executive Producer, teaches at ORT Uruguay University's Film Department. The grandson of late Alexander Stawsky, a Hebrew teacher in Kobryn, Poland, who brought his parents, brothers and sisters to Uruguay during the '30s, before the outbreak of World War II. These were the only Stawskys that ever left Poland.

Charlotte de Grünberg, ORT Uruguay University's Director General "Despite Treblinka's" Institutional Coordinator. She was a child hidden in France during Second World War. She felt making such a film was a way of preventing the repetition of the indignities and atrocities she and others went through, and that a university was a sound environment for such a realization.

Fernando Epstein, responsible for the film's montage, teaches at the ORT Uruguay University's Film Department. He was the Executive Producer and Editor of the Uruguayan production "25 Watts", which won the VRPO Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Festival and was among five nominated to the Sundance NHK Latin American contest. While editing "Despite Treblinka", he found out that his great-uncle had lost a daughter in Treblinka.

Renen Schorr and Pony Brzezinsky (Director and Vice-Director of the Sam Spiegel Film School of Jerusalem), saw a few rushes of the documentary back in year 2000 at the onset of the film. They were very helpful during the period the documentary was being shot in Israel.

Screening information

"Despite Treblinka" was finished in mid' 2002. The film was screened without full sound postproduction, at the XXth International Cinema Festival of Uruguay, where it won a Special Jury Award and attracted a very huge audience at one of the largest existing theathers in the city. The screening at the XXth International Cinema Festival of Uruguay gave survivors of the Holocaust in the country (many of which appear in the movie) a chance to see the film.

The film was premiered in Uruguay, at the Hoyts General Cinema theaters, starting July 26th. It was exhibited for four consecutive weeks, a quite unusual success for a documentary film.

International distribution has just started. The film was officially selected for presentation at the upcoming 24th International Film Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Habana, Cuba, due in December 2002.

Credits

Director & Executive Producer - Gerardo Stawsky
Institutional Coordination - Charlotte S. De Grünberg
Montage - Fernando Epstein

Music - John Zorn Sound
Postproduction - Daniel Yafalián
Line Producer (Uruguay) - Leo Cachón
Director of Photography - Eyal Selah (Israel); D. Cheico, R. Etcheverry & D. Rodríguez M. (Uruguay) Director Assistants - E. G. Cardona & Ronny Kripper
Sound - Oded Lotán (Israel); P. Benedetto & M. Angelieri (Uruguay);

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