Presented at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust with Young Friends of the Museum on May 11.
A powerful and moving film will be making its highly anticipated New York premiere at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust with Young Friends of the Museum on May 11: “NANA” – a transgenerational documentary on tolerance. The film, directed by 24 year old Serena Dykman, documents her journey with her mother Alice retracing her grandmother’s Auschwitz survival story, and investigates how her lifelong fight against intolerance can continue to be taught to new generations, against the backdrop of current events.
Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant, Dykman’s grandmother, born in Poland, survived Ravensbruck, Malchow, and Auschwitz, where she was the forced translator of the “Angel of Death”, Dr. Mengele. She dedicated her post-war life to publicly speaking of her survival to the young generations, so that it would never be forgotten or repeated. Alice and Serena, her daughter and granddaughter, explore how Maryla’s activism and crucial message can continue today, in a world where survivors are disappearing, and intolerance, racism and anti-Semitism are on the rise.
Already the recipient of multiple prestigious awards on the festival circuit, including the Leon Award for Best Documentary at the St. Louis International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere this past November, the Bill Snyder Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Fargo Film Festival, and the Best Biography Award at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. In addition to these, “NANA” was recently part of a festival for Human Rights, organized by Amnesty International in France, where it received the Audience Choice Special Mention.
“I was inspired to make this documentary after reading my grandmother’s memoir a couple of years ago. I realized that she was more than a survivor, more than a Polish Jew. The reason she went back to Auschwitz and told her story publicly thousands of times was so that it would never be forgotten, and would never happen to anyone again,” said Serena Dykman. “Her activism and continuous fight against intolerance still lives today, 14 years after her death, through the thousands of people she touched, and now through NANA, she can continue her crucial work.”
NANA is a deeply moving and unsettling film, that makes people think about the concepts of tolerance and acceptance of the other, especially in the current political and social climate. A documentary to watch. Essential.
The score is composed by animated feature film Anne Frank’s Diary’s composer Carine Gutlerner, and the sound designer is two-time Grammy-award winner Charles de Montebello.
A panel discussion with filmmaker Serena Dykman, producer and subject Alice Michalowski, and directors of photography, Nick Walker and Julia Elaine Mills, and graphic designer Alex Noble will follow the screening.
About the Director
Serena Dykman, resides in New York, and is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her work, ranging from comedy to drama, has won over 25 awards, including at the Cannes Film Festival’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. She has been given the chance to screen her films in countless film festivals worldwide. “NANA” is the first feature of the young director.
Key Links
Tickets: http://www.mjhnyc.org/calendar_may17.html#nana
Film website: www.nanafilm.com
Company website: www.dyamantpictures.com
NANA trailer 1: https://vimeo.com/174019353
NANA trailer 2: https://vimeo.com/195393921
NANA facebook page: www.facebook.com/NanaADocumentary
NANA twitter: www.twitter.com/DocumentaryNana