After Auschwitz

After Auschwitz is a “Post-Holocaust” documentary that follows six extraordinary women, capturing what it means to move from tragedy and trauma towards life.


Background

After Auschwitz is a “Post-Holocaust” documentary that follows six extraordinary women, capturing what it means to move from tragedy and trauma towards life. These women all moved to Los Angeles, married, raised children and became “Americans” but they never truly found a place to call home. What makes the story so much more fascinating is how these women saw, interpreted and interacted with the changing face of America in the second half of the 20th century. They serve as our guides on an unbelievable journey, sometimes celebratory, sometimes heart breaking but always inspiring.

Director Statement 

In 2003, I was researching the concept of laughter as a survival tool in the Holocaust. That theme of spiritual resistance became the heart of my film, Swimming in Auschwitz, released in 2007. Working on that film taught me two very important things: when you tell people you are studying laughter in the Holocaust you get very odd reactions, and for the first time I realized that liberation was not a happy day. This seemingly simple concept had eluded me for years, and I had been involved in Holocaust studies for decades prior to this film. I knew that the next documentary film I made had to be about what happened after liberation. While I had no idea that the process to finish After Auschwitz would last nearly ten years, the journey has been illuminating and has accomplished something unique in presenting a side of Holocaust history that audiences have never heard.  

Year
2017

Film Type
Documentary

Film Length
1 hour 27 minutes

Director
Jon Kean

Screenplay
Deborah Blum and Jon Kean

Producers
Michael Berenbaum. Marilyn Harran, Jon Kean, David Charles, Anne Stein

Cinematography
Mark Mervis

Editing
Anne Stein

Sound Department
Kai McLaughlin and Woody Woodhall

Music By
Laura Hall

Visual Effects by
Bobby Maruvada


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