John Tilley, a longtime distribution exec and advocate for independent film at companies including United Artists Classics, Cinevista and Strand, who was instrumental in introducing the films of Pedro Almodovar to U.S. audiences, died Sunday in New York City. He was 75.
“John was always a consummate encyclopedia of knowledge of the industry, and his pool of friends and colleagues from around the globe always created a sense of family in Cannes, Berlin and more. His work at Strand Releasing was invaluable,” said Marcus Hu, co-president of Strand Releasing.
Filmmaker Ira Sachs said, “John was one of the first people I met in the film business, and he remained one of the kindest. He was open, curious, passionate, opinionated, and wise, and he knew the history of American and queer independent cinema like few others. His loss represents the passing of a generation of pioneers that created the community and industry that we know today.
“John was always a consummate encyclopedia of knowledge of the industry, and his pool of friends and colleagues from around the globe always created a sense of family in Cannes, Berlin and more. His work at Strand Releasing was invaluable,” said Marcus Hu, co-president of Strand Releasing.
Filmmaker Ira Sachs said, “John was one of the first people I met in the film business, and he remained one of the kindest. He was open, curious, passionate, opinionated, and wise, and he knew the history of American and queer independent cinema like few others. His loss represents the passing of a generation of pioneers that created the community and industry that we know today.
- 10/11/2023
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: The second annual Nalip Latino Lens Narrative Short Film Incubator for Women of Color has selected its class of 2022: Holly M. Kaplan, Nicole Otero, Akilah ‘Ak’ Walker, Diana Gonzalez-Morett, Jhanvi Motla, and Frida Perez.
As part of this program, the filmmakers received a $25k grant to produce a new short film. Throughout that process, they were supported by executives at the Nalip and Netflix, who provided creative feedback during development as well as guidance through post-production. The films will showcase at a special screening at Nalip’s Diverse Women in Media Forum on March 30, 2023, in Los Angeles.
“We are grateful to Netflix and the mentorship support provided by individuals that hold a strong place in the industry and constantly elevate the filmmakers’ voices,” Diana Luna, Nalip Executive Director said in a statement. “Writers, Ligiah Villalobos and Stephanie Adams-Santos; Director, Carlos Lopez Estrada: Casting Director, Carla Hool; and fundraising expert,...
As part of this program, the filmmakers received a $25k grant to produce a new short film. Throughout that process, they were supported by executives at the Nalip and Netflix, who provided creative feedback during development as well as guidance through post-production. The films will showcase at a special screening at Nalip’s Diverse Women in Media Forum on March 30, 2023, in Los Angeles.
“We are grateful to Netflix and the mentorship support provided by individuals that hold a strong place in the industry and constantly elevate the filmmakers’ voices,” Diana Luna, Nalip Executive Director said in a statement. “Writers, Ligiah Villalobos and Stephanie Adams-Santos; Director, Carlos Lopez Estrada: Casting Director, Carla Hool; and fundraising expert,...
- 3/3/2023
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
For Sunday’s Oscars 2020 ceremony on ABC, producers had a difficult decision of which film industry people would make the cut and who would unfortunately be left out of the “In Memoriam.” For the segment, for the song “Yesterday” performed by Grammy champ Billie Eilish.
Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam gallery for the year of 2019 and the just launched gallery for 2020.
SEE2020 Oscars: Full list of winners (and losers) at the 92nd Academy Awards
Over 100 people in the film industry, many of them academy members, have passed away in the past 12 months. Here is a list of the some of the names included in the tribute:
Danny Aiello (actor)
Jim Alexander (sound)
Bibi Andersson (actor)
Ben Barenholtz (executive)
Kobe Bryant (producer)
Diahann Carroll (actor)
Seymour Cassel (actor)
William J. Creber (production designer)
Doris Day (actress)
Stanley Donen (director)
Kirk Douglas (actor/producer)
Robert Evans (executive)
Peter Fonda (actor)
Robert Forster (actor)
Harriet Frank,...
Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam gallery for the year of 2019 and the just launched gallery for 2020.
SEE2020 Oscars: Full list of winners (and losers) at the 92nd Academy Awards
Over 100 people in the film industry, many of them academy members, have passed away in the past 12 months. Here is a list of the some of the names included in the tribute:
Danny Aiello (actor)
Jim Alexander (sound)
Bibi Andersson (actor)
Ben Barenholtz (executive)
Kobe Bryant (producer)
Diahann Carroll (actor)
Seymour Cassel (actor)
William J. Creber (production designer)
Doris Day (actress)
Stanley Donen (director)
Kirk Douglas (actor/producer)
Robert Evans (executive)
Peter Fonda (actor)
Robert Forster (actor)
Harriet Frank,...
- 2/10/2020
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
One of the most significant additions to the Academy Awards ceremony around 30 years ago has been the In Memoriam segment. Producers find the perfect blend of music, photos and clips for the short annual presentation.
Which of the past Oscar winners and nominees from many different branches will be featured this Sunday, February 9, on the Oscars 2020 ceremony for ABC? Some of the most likely to be included will be acting nominees Danny Aiello, Diahann Carroll, Doris Day, Kirk Douglas, Peter Fonda, Robert Forster, Sylvia Miles, Michael J. Pollard and Rip Torn. How about major creatives such as Stanley Donen, Robert Evans, Buck Henry, Andre Previn and John Singleton?
Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam gallery for the year of 2019 and the just launched gallery for 2020.
SEEWho is Performing at the Oscars 2020?: Full List of Presenters and Performers
Over 100 people in the film industry, many of them academy members, have...
Which of the past Oscar winners and nominees from many different branches will be featured this Sunday, February 9, on the Oscars 2020 ceremony for ABC? Some of the most likely to be included will be acting nominees Danny Aiello, Diahann Carroll, Doris Day, Kirk Douglas, Peter Fonda, Robert Forster, Sylvia Miles, Michael J. Pollard and Rip Torn. How about major creatives such as Stanley Donen, Robert Evans, Buck Henry, Andre Previn and John Singleton?
Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam gallery for the year of 2019 and the just launched gallery for 2020.
SEEWho is Performing at the Oscars 2020?: Full List of Presenters and Performers
Over 100 people in the film industry, many of them academy members, have...
- 2/7/2020
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
First Cow director Kelly Reichardt with Orion Lee, John Magaro and Film at Lincoln Center Director of Programing Dennis Lim Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Two free events have been added to the 57th New York Film Festival - a tribute to producer Ben Barenholtz who died on June 26, 2019, with Eamonn Bowles, Ethan Coen, and John Turturro, moderated by Annette Insdorf; and a screening of Lynne Ramsay’s Brigitte, commissioned by Miu Miu, followed by a Q&a with Ramsay and Brigitte Lacombe.
The Irishman, Joker and The Wolf of Wall Street producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff with Jane Rosenthal, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Free conversations with Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne on Young Ahmed; Nadav Lapid on Synonyms; producers Emma Tillinger Koskoff and David Hinojosa; Ric Burns (Oliver Sacks: His Own Life), Tania Cypriano (Born To Be), Ivy Meeropol (Bully.
Two free events have been added to the 57th New York Film Festival - a tribute to producer Ben Barenholtz who died on June 26, 2019, with Eamonn Bowles, Ethan Coen, and John Turturro, moderated by Annette Insdorf; and a screening of Lynne Ramsay’s Brigitte, commissioned by Miu Miu, followed by a Q&a with Ramsay and Brigitte Lacombe.
The Irishman, Joker and The Wolf of Wall Street producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff with Jane Rosenthal, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Free conversations with Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne on Young Ahmed; Nadav Lapid on Synonyms; producers Emma Tillinger Koskoff and David Hinojosa; Ric Burns (Oliver Sacks: His Own Life), Tania Cypriano (Born To Be), Ivy Meeropol (Bully.
- 9/28/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
An epic pastoral horror pitting human savagery against the impossible calm of nature, Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul’s adaptation of Polish author Jerzy Kosiński’s rattling World War II novel “The Painted Bird” is as bold a play for visceral cinema mastery as we’ve seen of late.
Premiering at the Venice Film Festival to the kind of emotional reactions that can cement a troubling work’s need-to-see reputation, this black-and-white, nearly three-hour saga of a boy navigating the cruelties and caprices of ravaged rural Eastern Europe is not the wallowing miserablist parade you might fear, yet not quite the Holocaust-themed masterpiece it wishes to be. But it’s always starkly compelling as a reminder of why war survival stories are essential to our understanding of innocence and beastliness.
Kosiński’s 1965 book was a litmus test of sorts, first for the unvarnished brutality within its pages. Later it was discovered...
Premiering at the Venice Film Festival to the kind of emotional reactions that can cement a troubling work’s need-to-see reputation, this black-and-white, nearly three-hour saga of a boy navigating the cruelties and caprices of ravaged rural Eastern Europe is not the wallowing miserablist parade you might fear, yet not quite the Holocaust-themed masterpiece it wishes to be. But it’s always starkly compelling as a reminder of why war survival stories are essential to our understanding of innocence and beastliness.
Kosiński’s 1965 book was a litmus test of sorts, first for the unvarnished brutality within its pages. Later it was discovered...
- 9/7/2019
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
The last 30 minutes of David Lynch’s 2001 brain-bending masterpiece “Mulholland Drive” offer up a harrowing free-fall into a woman’s unraveling psyche — thanks to a mesmerizing performance by Naomi Watts, who subtly shifts from wide-eyed credulity to broken-down hysteria and back again, as the gravity of her character’s situation comes into shattering focus.
In a clip below that has recently surfaced on Twitter, watch as Watts gives a master class in wordless acting during a pivotal scene where her character, who is at this point Diane Selwyn, realizes she’s being dumped by not only her director (Justin Theroux), but also her would-be girlfriend (Laura Elena Harring). As it takes place in the film, the whole scene is excruciating to watch — and no doubt one of the most uncomfortably real depictions of a mind processing a breakup ever.
Naomi Watts gets applause from David Lynch and crew for her powerful non-verbal acting performance pic.
In a clip below that has recently surfaced on Twitter, watch as Watts gives a master class in wordless acting during a pivotal scene where her character, who is at this point Diane Selwyn, realizes she’s being dumped by not only her director (Justin Theroux), but also her would-be girlfriend (Laura Elena Harring). As it takes place in the film, the whole scene is excruciating to watch — and no doubt one of the most uncomfortably real depictions of a mind processing a breakup ever.
Naomi Watts gets applause from David Lynch and crew for her powerful non-verbal acting performance pic.
- 8/25/2019
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Hollywood Vampires: The Birth of Midnight Movies on L.A.'s Sunset Strip is a three-part series of essays by Tim Concannon.Targets: The Lost Midnight MOVIEIn revisiting Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets we’re invited to unearth an archaeology of cult cinema. Targets links the old Hollywood of Schwab's, Chateau Marmont and the Garden of Allah hotel to what, in 1968, was to be the new Hollywood of easy riders and raging bulls. "All the good movies have been made"—Peter Bogdanovich as Sammy Michaels, Targets1968's Targets, is the story of an aging film star played by expat Anglo Indian thespian, Boris Karloff. Karloff's Byron Orlok (named after Count Orlok in Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu) is clearly Karloff playing a grumpier version of himself. As two parallel stories converge in the film's Third Act, the Old Hollywood horror icon Orlok is confronted by a serial killer—gun nut and sniper Bobby Thompson,...
- 7/31/2019
- MUBI
Exhibitor, distributor, producer and director — one of the seminal figures of the modern American independent film movement, Ben Barenholtz, died last Wednesday in Prague. He was 83. In the late ’60s, Barenholtz programmed New York rep house the Elgin Cinema, where his scheduled mixed experimental films with mainstream movies. It was also where he popularized the concept of the “midnight movie,” playing Alejandro Jodoworsky’s El Topo for months on end. Another midnight movie — Eraserhead — was an early marquee title of Barenholtz’s first distribution company, Libra Films, and later, at Circle Films, he bought and distributed the classic […]...
- 7/3/2019
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Exhibitor, distributor, producer and director — one of the seminal figures of the modern American independent film movement, Ben Barenholtz, died last Wednesday in Prague. He was 83. In the late ’60s, Barenholtz programmed New York rep house the Elgin Cinema, where his scheduled mixed experimental films with mainstream movies. It was also where he popularized the concept of the “midnight movie,” playing Alejandro Jodoworsky’s El Topo for months on end. Another midnight movie — Eraserhead — was an early marquee title of Barenholtz’s first distribution company, Libra Films, and later, at Circle Films, he bought and distributed the classic […]...
- 7/3/2019
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
“Twin Peaks: The Return” ended nearly two years ago, but David Lynch fans remain just as obsessed with figuring out the endless mysteries put forth by the writer-director. Lynch is incredibly tight lipped when it comes to explaining himself, which makes a recent interview with The Guardian all the more surprising. The director straight up calls “bullshit” when presented with a popular fan theory that the last two “Twin Peaks” episodes are meant to be watched in sync.
Fans have alleged since the final installments of “Twin Peaks: The Return” aired in September 2017 that watching Part 17 and Part 18 at the same time helps to explain the confusing timeline of the show. Numerous theories have come out of fans watching the episodes together, including the moment Naido turns into Diane (Laura Dern) in Part 17 signifying the return of Diane and Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) from the Richard/Linda dimension as seen in Part 18.
Lynch being Lynch,...
Fans have alleged since the final installments of “Twin Peaks: The Return” aired in September 2017 that watching Part 17 and Part 18 at the same time helps to explain the confusing timeline of the show. Numerous theories have come out of fans watching the episodes together, including the moment Naido turns into Diane (Laura Dern) in Part 17 signifying the return of Diane and Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) from the Richard/Linda dimension as seen in Part 18.
Lynch being Lynch,...
- 6/30/2019
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
When Ben Barenholtz, 83, died Wednesday at his new home in Prague, we lost one of the giants of American independent cinema. This vital and genial man has left a legacy behind few can equal. Many in the film community remember him as an entrepreneur, champion of new talent, mentor, cinephile and filmmaker. (Check out his many Facebook tributes here.) Others shared their thoughts in emails to IndieWire throughout the day.
“Ben’s passing is the end of an era,” said John Turturro. “I knew Ben first as a theater owner of the Elgin, which I used to frequent as a young man. Then I worked with him as a producer of ‘Miller’s Crossing’ and ‘Barton Fink.’ He introduced me to so many talented people. His great eye, his sense of humor and mischievous rebellious outlook masked a complicated and difficult early life. He was one of a kind and...
“Ben’s passing is the end of an era,” said John Turturro. “I knew Ben first as a theater owner of the Elgin, which I used to frequent as a young man. Then I worked with him as a producer of ‘Miller’s Crossing’ and ‘Barton Fink.’ He introduced me to so many talented people. His great eye, his sense of humor and mischievous rebellious outlook masked a complicated and difficult early life. He was one of a kind and...
- 6/28/2019
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Ben Barenholtz, the producer-distributor who helped launch the careers of David Lynch and the Coen Brothers, died on Wednesday in Prague at the age of 83.
Barenholtz is credited with pioneering the concept of the “midnight movie” by screening subversive, future cult classics like John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos” and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “El Topo,” the latter of which Barenholtz decided to screen at the (now defunct) Elgin Theater in New York City after attending the private screening of it at the Museum of Modern Art. That screening is seen as essential by film historians to helping the film find a wider audience and gain a legacy as one of Jodorowsky’s most famous works.
During World War II, Barenholtz escaped the Nazi concentration camps at the age of eight by living in the woods of Poland with 11 other escapees, losing his father during the war. Barenholtz kept his past a secret...
Barenholtz is credited with pioneering the concept of the “midnight movie” by screening subversive, future cult classics like John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos” and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “El Topo,” the latter of which Barenholtz decided to screen at the (now defunct) Elgin Theater in New York City after attending the private screening of it at the Museum of Modern Art. That screening is seen as essential by film historians to helping the film find a wider audience and gain a legacy as one of Jodorowsky’s most famous works.
During World War II, Barenholtz escaped the Nazi concentration camps at the age of eight by living in the woods of Poland with 11 other escapees, losing his father during the war. Barenholtz kept his past a secret...
- 6/27/2019
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
Independent film stalwart Ben Barenholtz, longtime supporter of David Lynch and the Coen brothers, died Wednesday in Prague after a brief illness. He was 83.
Barenholtz had been living in Prague at the time of his death, according to his friend Sony Pictures Classics executive Tom Prassis. He died in his sleep surrounded by friends, Prassis added.
Barenholtz was also a Holocaust survivor and blogged in 2010 about his experiences of escaping into the Polish countryside with 11 other people at the age of eight. He lived in the woods for two years before the war came to an end.
Barenholtz began his career in the 1960s in New York City running the now-defunct Village Theater and the Elgin Cinema. He’s credited with pioneering the concept of midnight-movie showings, including Alejandro Jodoworsky’s “El Topo,” John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos,” the six-hour Russian production of “War and Peace” and Ken Russell’s “The Devils.
Barenholtz had been living in Prague at the time of his death, according to his friend Sony Pictures Classics executive Tom Prassis. He died in his sleep surrounded by friends, Prassis added.
Barenholtz was also a Holocaust survivor and blogged in 2010 about his experiences of escaping into the Polish countryside with 11 other people at the age of eight. He lived in the woods for two years before the war came to an end.
Barenholtz began his career in the 1960s in New York City running the now-defunct Village Theater and the Elgin Cinema. He’s credited with pioneering the concept of midnight-movie showings, including Alejandro Jodoworsky’s “El Topo,” John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos,” the six-hour Russian production of “War and Peace” and Ken Russell’s “The Devils.
- 6/27/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Ben Barenholtz, a veteran of the distribution and exhibition world who plucked David Lynch from obscurity and invented the concept of the midnight movie, died last night in Prague after a brief illness. He was 83.
Over the course of more than 50 years, Barenholtz was a major figure in the independent film community who wore a lot of hats. He began his career in the late sixties running the now-defunct Village Theater (later the Filmore East) followed by a successful stint launching the Elgin Cinema. It was there that he pioneered the concept of buzzy midnight-movie sensations, including a six-month stint for Alejandro Jodoworsky’s “El Topo” and John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos.” He also took big gambles on daring cinematic achievements, such as the six-hour Russian production of “War and Peace” and Ken Russell’s “The Devils.”
Barenholtz then ventured into distribution with Libra Films, which boasted an adventurous slate throughout...
Over the course of more than 50 years, Barenholtz was a major figure in the independent film community who wore a lot of hats. He began his career in the late sixties running the now-defunct Village Theater (later the Filmore East) followed by a successful stint launching the Elgin Cinema. It was there that he pioneered the concept of buzzy midnight-movie sensations, including a six-month stint for Alejandro Jodoworsky’s “El Topo” and John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos.” He also took big gambles on daring cinematic achievements, such as the six-hour Russian production of “War and Peace” and Ken Russell’s “The Devils.”
Barenholtz then ventured into distribution with Libra Films, which boasted an adventurous slate throughout...
- 6/27/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The unsettling trailer for the new thriller Beach House has been released. Starring Willa Fitzgerald (MTV's Scream TV series), Murray Bartlett, Orlagh Cassidy, and Tom Hammond, the film follows Emma, a young adult whose beach vacation is interrupted by someone from her mother's past. Beach House has also secured worldwide distribution with Archstone Distribution, who plans to release the film in the Us on June 22nd:
Press Release: Los Angeles, CA (May 22, 2018) – Archstone Distribution has acquired worldwide rights to the new thriller film Beach House, which was directed and co-written by Jason Saltiel. Co-written and produced by Matt Simon, and executive produced by Ben Barenholtz, Beach House stars Willa Fitzgerald, Murray Bartlett, Orlagh Cassidy, and Tom Hammond. Andrew van den Houten of 79th & Broadway Entertainment is also executive producing and handling sales. The film is set to be released in theaters nationwide on June 22nd.
The film follows...
Press Release: Los Angeles, CA (May 22, 2018) – Archstone Distribution has acquired worldwide rights to the new thriller film Beach House, which was directed and co-written by Jason Saltiel. Co-written and produced by Matt Simon, and executive produced by Ben Barenholtz, Beach House stars Willa Fitzgerald, Murray Bartlett, Orlagh Cassidy, and Tom Hammond. Andrew van den Houten of 79th & Broadway Entertainment is also executive producing and handling sales. The film is set to be released in theaters nationwide on June 22nd.
The film follows...
- 6/4/2018
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
Exclusive: Archstone Distribution has picked up the worldwide distribution rights to Beach House, with plans to release the thriller in theaters June 22. Jason Saltiel co-wrote and directed the pic, which stars Willa Fitzgerald Murray Bartlett, Orlagh Cassidy, and Tom Hammond.
It follows Emma (Fitzgerald), whose quiet beach retreat takes an unsettling turn with the arrival of an enigmatic artist from her mother’s past, Paul (Bartlett). Paul challenges, enthralls, and frightens her, as she comes to suspect him of a terrible crime.
Matt Simon co-wrote and produced the pic with exec producers Andrew van den Houten of 79th & Broadway Entertainment and Ben Barenholtz.
The deal was brokered by Archstone’s Brady Bowen with van den Houten on behalf of the filmmakers.
It follows Emma (Fitzgerald), whose quiet beach retreat takes an unsettling turn with the arrival of an enigmatic artist from her mother’s past, Paul (Bartlett). Paul challenges, enthralls, and frightens her, as she comes to suspect him of a terrible crime.
Matt Simon co-wrote and produced the pic with exec producers Andrew van den Houten of 79th & Broadway Entertainment and Ben Barenholtz.
The deal was brokered by Archstone’s Brady Bowen with van den Houten on behalf of the filmmakers.
- 5/22/2018
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Legendary film exhibitor/producer Ben Barenholtz is widely credited with popularizing the midnight movie concept with his screenings of such cult films as El Topo and Eraserhead at his long-gone Elgin Theater. He’s also produced such films as the Coen brothers’ Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink. Now, at the age of 82, Barenholt makes his feature film directorial debut with Alina, the sort of micro-budgeted independent feature he might have programmed decades ago. Unfortunately, that same dated feel permeates this earnest effort about a young Russian woman trying to find her father in New York City.
The title character, played by...
The title character, played by...
- 9/15/2017
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On July 15, 1996, IndieWire launched as an e-mail newsletter providing “the daily news service for independent film.” (See the first newsletter here.) The original iteration of the site was the brainchild of Cheri Barner, Eugene Hernandez and Mark Rabinowitz, three recent college students obsessed with the movies. In the ensuing years, IndieWire grew and changed hands many times over. Barner now works as a talent manager in Los Angeles, Hernandez is the deputy director of the Film Society Lincoln Center, and Rabinowitz is a freelance publicist, consultant and programmer.
But they have remained a part of our close-knit community. As IndieWire arrives at its 20th anniversary, the trio gathered together for their first joint interview to recall the early days of IndieWire — as well as the thriving American independent film scene that inspired the publication.
Eugene Hernandez: IndieWire was an outgrowth of something that Mark, Cheri and I had started in 1995. At the time,...
But they have remained a part of our close-knit community. As IndieWire arrives at its 20th anniversary, the trio gathered together for their first joint interview to recall the early days of IndieWire — as well as the thriving American independent film scene that inspired the publication.
Eugene Hernandez: IndieWire was an outgrowth of something that Mark, Cheri and I had started in 1995. At the time,...
- 7/14/2016
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Back in April, producer Ben Barenholtz announced that he would be making his feature film directorial debut with “Alina.” Now, the 80-year-old legend has completed principal photography on the movie and has created a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the project’s post-production.
“Alina,” also written by Barenholtz, stars award-winning actress Darya Ekamasova as a Russian woman who goes to New York in search of the father she never met.
“Principal photography has been completed with a fantastic cast and crew,” says the helmer on the Kickstarter page. “I am now in the editing process and I think I have a good film but I won’t know how good it is until we finish post-production. And I need your help to do that.”
Read More: Producer Ben Barenholtz to Make Directing Debut at Age 80 (Exclusive)
At the time of this publication, Barenholtz’s campaign has raised over $24,000 of its $80,000 goal.
“Alina,” also written by Barenholtz, stars award-winning actress Darya Ekamasova as a Russian woman who goes to New York in search of the father she never met.
“Principal photography has been completed with a fantastic cast and crew,” says the helmer on the Kickstarter page. “I am now in the editing process and I think I have a good film but I won’t know how good it is until we finish post-production. And I need your help to do that.”
Read More: Producer Ben Barenholtz to Make Directing Debut at Age 80 (Exclusive)
At the time of this publication, Barenholtz’s campaign has raised over $24,000 of its $80,000 goal.
- 7/5/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
Awards: My Fearless Early Oscar Predictions 2017 'The Martian' Is Not a Comedy: Awards Groups Respond to Controversy with New Rules 'The Night Manager' is Thrilling and Boasts One Director: Susanne Bier (Emmy Video) News: Producer Ben Barenholtz Makes his Directing Debut at Age 80 Check out: Matt Brennan's TV columns, Bill Desowitz's below-the-line interviews and Tom Brueggemann's Friday and Sunday box office analysis: Weekend Preview, Arthouse Audit and Top 10 Takeaways. To stay on top of the latest news from Anne Thompson, sign up for the Thompson on Hollywood email newsletter.
- 4/23/2016
- by TOH!
- Thompson on Hollywood
Never underestimate Ben Barenholtz. It's normal for accomplished people towards the end of their careers to accept achievement awards, and New York exhibitor-turned-distributor-turned-producer Barenholtz is no exception. He took home recent tribute awards from the Hamptons International Film festival as well as Berlin, where his old friends the Coen Brothers presented him with the Berlinale Kamera Award. But it is rare indeed for anyone to make their debut as a film director at the age of 80. After his Berlin moment, Barenholtz wanted to celebrate that birthday by making a radical move. "I decided that I was going to do the one thing that I never did in film," he told me. "Direct a fiction feature." On April 25, the producer-writer-director will start principal photography on drama "Alina," based on his original script. The ultra-low-budget New York film will be financed by Barenholtz, with help from friends he has helped in the past,...
- 4/19/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Coen brothers, who recently participated in a Berlin Film Festival tribute to their old friend Ben Barenholtz, who helped them start their long careers, will show on April 30 at the Castro Theatre a recent restoration of their first feature "Blood Simple" (1984) at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21-May 5). They will celebrate sibling international art-house cinema pioneers Janus Films and the Criterion Collection with an onstage conversation with partners Peter Becker and Jonathan Turell of Janus Films and the Criterion Collection. Every self-respecting cinephile knows the Janus and Criterion logos. Founded in 1956 as a theatrical distribution company that brought the best of international art-house cinema to American audiences, Janus has presented seminal works by Antonioni, Eisenstein, Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, Truffaut and Ozu. Janus's sister company the Criterion Collection also stands for outstanding quality and curatorial...
- 3/2/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Actor and filmmaker Tim Robbins ("Dead Man Walking," "Mystic River"), producer and distributor Ben Barenholtz ("Eraserhead," "Blood Simple," "Requiem for a Dream"), and German exhibitor Marlies Kirchner will each receive the 2016 Berlinale Camera, awarded since 1986 to film personalities or institutions to which the festival feels a particular debt of gratitude. In addition, this year's Berlinale will pay tribute to late film icons David Bowie, Alan Rickman, and Italian director Ettore Scola ("A Special Day") with three special screenings: for Bowie, "The Man Who Fell to Earth"; for Rickman, "Sense and Sensibility," which won the Golden Bear in 1996; and for Scola, "Le bal," winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director in 1984. Read More: "David Bowie Rocked the Moves, Too." The festival has also completed this year's jury, to be presided over by Meryl Streep. Joining her are...
- 2/2/2016
- by Matt Brennan
- Thompson on Hollywood
Ben Barenholtz' birthday is this week.
This is the second part of a 2 part blog about his career in film and his early life when, as a child, he barely escaped murder by the Fascists.
Ben recently published the following which needs no description except to say it is a very moving and evocative piece. Quite unbelievable actually except that Ben bears witness, his amazing life, to the truth of his words. I have always liked Ben so very much in the years I have known him but now he appears to me as an heroic figure as well.
Wow.
Nekiya Journey by Ben Barenholtz
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The following is not intended to provoke or to elicit any kind of response or argument. It is not intended to offend. If it does, I hope, as a Human being you can forgive me.
What I am attempting to do is to share with the people I loved; those who have endured my moods and silences, my Friends who thought they knew me and my acquaintances, a dialogue that I realized I’ve been carrying on with my father and with my contemporaries who died over sixty five years ago. This dialogue consists of my personal observations, opinions, and mainly the questions that I have been unable to answer in trying to make some sense of what has happened since they all, “got out of here.”
This may also be my way of trying to leave a mark in the sand before the next wave comes to wash it away.
I am what is commonly called a, “holocaust survivor.” If I live long enough I will probably be part of the last generation with direct memory of that history.
I was born in 1935 in the small city of Kovel in Eastern Poland, now part of Western Ukraine. We lived in the nearby village of Kupichev. Being in a “border area” it was populated by Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, some Germans, and about nine hundred Jews. The area became part of Russia in 1939 and in 1941 the Germans came. When the “final solution” took shape about two-dozen Jews escaped to the forest. Hunted like animals by Ukrainian Nationalists but helped by simple Ukrainian, Czech, and Polish peasants; twelve of us including my mother, my older brother, and myself, the youngest - managed to survive in the forest for 22 months until we were liberated by the Russians.
The Ukrainian Nationalists, who at that time collaborated with the Germans, killed my father on one of their raids. He taught us all how to Survive and how to Live.
I am not a writer, historian, philosopher, or any kind of academic. I had four years of formal schooling, but even those years were spent in movie theaters whenever I could earn or steal the money. I have lived in New York City since 1947 and mostly, like some other survivors, I’ve been silent.
There are survivors who bear witness and others who write books, plays, or make films. However most, even with each other, remained silent. Even the ones who talked got tired of the tears, or that glazed look in the listener’s eyes, “God, another Holocaust story…”
Everyone had their own horror stories but mainly they kept them to themselves. To try to make sense of it was too painful, only survival and whatever could be conjured up about the future is what mattered. They did not understand explanations. For some, God was the least helpful. He was, “The Unmentionable,” and therefore was not mentioned. As long as he was silent, they would remain silent. All excuses from whatever source were irrelevant. They had to hide from their own shadows.
Whole industries have been created trying to explain what happened through: books, films, plays, lectures, philosophical excuses, and banal explanations by intellectual giants making their reputations with their theories and analysis.
Of course museums, memorials, and monuments abound.
They have fixated on a precocious girl in Amsterdam, representing the lost children. Of course my contemporaries with whom I could not grow old with, did not have the time to write or paint like her or the children of Terezin and some other places. They were liquidated in two days.
I’ve stopped believing in a grand plan that let me survive for some greater purpose- delusions of grandeur- contrary to some of my religious brethren and other believers, I am truly convinced that my survival or anyone else’s survival was arbitrary and had no purpose whatsoever. In one way or another we are all survivors, and my survival is not more important than any other.
But, the guilt can linger.
The above photo was taken in 1939 or 1940 at a Purim party. I am the sullen one in the front row on the right with my friends, my contemporaries. My brother is in the second row, third from the right. As far as can be determined we are the only survivors. It looks like I am not sure about what is going on, trying to make sense of it all. I still have not succeeded.
The above photo was taken in 1992 across the road from a thriving farm in the lush Ukrainian countryside. A simple stone carved with the date and the number of Jews (seven hundred and fifty-two) shot and buried on that spot. Among them were my aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and my contemporaries.
Near the slight mound that is still discernible, a young boy and girl were chasing one another and laughing, as if they were dancing on the grave. At first it was upsetting but than I realized how fitting that was. I hope that someday children will dance on my grave, and everyone else’s as well.
In the meantime their father, the farmer from across the road, recounted the grisly details of those two days in the summer of 1942 methodically. Obviously he had done this many times before and expected the $20 dollars he was given.
My friends, I am compelled to continue on my quest to ask questions that will not get answered. The river of blood that divides us cannot be breached; but I will still ask and share my observations and opinions with you my lost friends, who are in the front row with me in the photo and share that grave with all the others.
___________________________________
I can imagine talking to you and you are as old as I am, but have been away…
There is so much to tell you, to discuss with you. So many wondrous things have happened, many discoveries, scientific and technological advances that boggle the mind. But, essentially Humans haven’t changed very much. I want to tell you that there is less hatred, there is kindness, and compassion. That you did not die in vain. I am sorry, it seems that very little has been learned. Many “isms” have been added to be used as excuses for intolerance and barbarism. Stupidity and hatred has not abated, only changed forms.
They have gone to the moon with the help of Nazis but cannot manage to feed a hungry child.
There was a time right after the war when Jews created their own country and became strong. Maybe had it existed earlier we would not have had to go through the nightmare. No one wanted to take us in and in that way they all participated in the “final solution” including the Jews in powerful positions who were afraid to make waves.
There was a moment, after the war, when there was hope. “Never again,” became a rallying cry. Never again will Jews be led to the slaughter like sheep. “Never again,” also became the world’s rallying cry.
The original meaning has been long forgotten. It has become over and over again in: Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, the Congo, and numerous other places. Power seekers rise all the time steeped in old hatreds, traditions and prejudice, and it is all repeated again and again.
_____________________________________
The sound of the machine gun that was killing you still echoes.
My father, mother, brother, and I sat in silence under a large tree hidden in the forest listening to the Rat-tet-tet of the machine gun every fifteen minutes or so. It lasted all morning. Into the afternoon. A lifetime…
What sins did you commit my friends, to die that way? Where you being punished for the sins of your parents? Your ancestors? Did you pray before the bullets cut you down? Did you say the, “shema?” Was God working in his mysterious ways?
Was God’s answer to your prayer, Rat-tet-tet? The same as in Babi Yar and hundreds of other places? Was his voice in the hiss of gas in the showers before the crematorium in the concentration camps?
“Got mitt unz,” was etched on the belt buckles of the German soldiers. Is that where God was?
Thankfully you only went through one day and night of hell. Standing in that building, nude and shivering, packed in like sardines. At least you were spared the indignity of the concentration camp.
Did you see my uncle charge the machine gun with the shovel they gave him to dig his families grave? At least he made them use some extra bullets.
Mainly you went silently. There was no one listening anywhere. Your parents couldn’t even comfort you in those last moments.
There are still debates about what happened to you, some are even denying that you ever existed. Sometimes I wonder myself, maybe it was all a dream.
I’ve learned to understand every kind of evil mankind can inflict, but I can’t get my mind to comprehend the ability to kill a child. How is that rationalized?
Was that what made it so difficult for you to continue, Paul, Jerzy, Carlo, and the thousands of others?
_______________________________
Great Chasidic sages, some of them survivors, said that, “You were punished because the Jews did not keep the commandments.” Doesn’t that mean that you can’t blame the perpetrators? They were only God’s Instrument. The same Sages and many of their followers maintained that it was God that saved them. I guess you were not worthy, no divine intervention for you.
He and other “sages” just like them must have been true descendents of, The Wise Men of Chelm, the clever residents who thought that they captured the moon in a barrel of water. I am sure you heard those stories from your parents. Their descendents captured God in the their own barrel. They now have the answers, but if you question them it is always, “Who are you to question God’s work? His mystery is forever, beyond our ability to comprehend.”
They maintain nostalgia for a time, place, and traditions that could have only flourished under oppressive conditions.
A Nobel laureate, a renowned witness bearer, tried to instruct me on the correct way to sit shiva. He should have been sitting shiva for his God.
Some pious Jews are now fusing their fundamentalism with the same people who began their persecution a long time ago; who are only waiting for the “The Rapture,” the second coming, so that the Jews can be “perfected.” In the old country in the “stetel” they didn’t want to wait for “The Rapture” so they sped things up a bit. Of course the great sages think they are smarter and the Messiah will come before the next inquisition.
Aren’t they helping to perpetuate the same kind of tribalism and racism that started this entire problem to begin with? It seems they have not learned a thing. Power seekers will arise and repeat the horrors. And God will be with whom?
My friends, don’t you think that as long as children are being slaughtered, starved, and maimed anywhere in the world, that no one is safe anywhere? As long as intolerance exists no one is safe. Will they ever learn what, “never again,” really means? Don’t you agree that steeped in old hatreds, traditions and prejudices, we are doomed to repeat history? That instead of, “never again,” it will happen over and over again?
There are still arguments particularly by the great scholars of the Torah, about who is considered a Jew. I had always assumed that it was defined by them putting a bullet in you and then dumping you into the pit they had your parents dig, my friends.
I am sure they didn’t ask you if you were a Hasid, a Socialist, a Zionist, what class or group your family belonged to, assimilated, name changed, or if your mother was Jewish. Do we need other definitions? Maybe any innocent child who is shot, starved, or maimed should be considered a Jew.
It seems that all religions, spiritual movements, and other “isms” have captured their Gods in their own barrel of water. Some will even kill you if you don’t believe that their barrel contains the, “True God.” And the assimilated, with their name changes, nose jobs and political correctness, are they not also descendents of The Wise Men of Chelm?
_____________________________
I have taken many trips to Germany and other parts of Europe. I’ve seen many memorials, monuments, and museums to the six million dead (some say five, but what’s a million between friends?)
On a recent trip to Munich, I happened upon a Jewish Museum in the final stages of construction. Of course it was being made bomb proof, to be guarded day and night. A monument to the Jews of Munich, not too far from where the Fuhrer made his plans, close to where, “the good soldiers,” gather every year to assure themselves of their righteousness.
Normally I don’t visit those places. What can they really show me that I don’t already know?
It did, however, cause me to start thinking about the purpose of all those monuments, museums, and other forms of remembrance. What are they for? What purpose do they serve? Who goes to them? Are they survivors? Are they relatives who have a good cry and then go on their way? School children who are forced to go and are only happy when they escape to daylight? Are they people who go to salve their conscience because they acquiesced by doing nothing?
I realized that quite a few of those visitors were the innocent children and grandchildren of the perpetrators. They were there trying to make sense of their elder’s silence. You see, the people who committed the atrocities were silent and never spoke about what happened or they just rationalized it away, leaving the next generation to shoulder the guilt. What will another museum, another monument, another sermon really do?
But of course, “the good soldiers,” and the Germans at home didn’t know anything about what was happening to you.
The ones who came to watch the executions for entertainment forgot about it. The brave Germans who killed innocent people in order to relieve the tension of battle, became heroes. Ironically, mostly, German soldiers who refused to participate in the killings were not punished.
Resistance was suddenly remembered, collaboration and acquiescence was conveniently forgotten. “But what could we have done?” Echoed across a continent, “Look what was done to us.”
They died peacefully in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and in their own countries complaining that they too were just as victimized as the Jews were.
There was some sort of de-nazification process, which in reality was used by the conquering powers to absorb and control the people who were useful to them.
Do the museums, the monuments, or the restitution money exonerate them and make them feel better about their deeds?
They denied their Humanity to follow orders and indulge in their hatreds and prejudices.
Instead of monuments to make them feel less guilty for their participation, or for just standing by. What about a tent, or a well, or a shelter for lost children? Wouldn’t that be a more fitting monument to you, my friends?
At Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, “the righteous gentiles,” who helped people survive, risking their lives are honored. But, in their own communities particularly in Eastern Europe these brave souls are ostracized. They can’t even talk about their deeds since they are considered traitors.
When asked why they risked their lives to help, invariably the answer was, “I am a Human being just helping another Human being.” Some were religious, some agnostics some communists, they never thought of themselves as being heroic only, “Human.”
And you, my father, lying in an unmarked grave in Litin Forest; we, your two sons, are alive today because you never forgot your Humanity. Whenever someone needed help- a farmer, a peasant, anyone- you always did what you could. Never did you ask of their religion, nationality, or political belief. They remembered; they only had to hear, “I am Aaron’s son,” whispered at a door or window on those dark nights and whatever food they had was shared.
___________________________________
My friends, there was another part of Chelm that even your parents did not hear about; and that was ruled by the hidden society of seeker, mystics, and hole diggers. This society still exists worldwide. They dig holes since the water barrels are now full to: Tibet, India, China, Japan, Egypt, South America, and Atlantis. They seek the lost knowledge and magic formulas of the ancients and the remarkable men that they are sure exited in a past golden age. They continue digging embracing all kinds of mantras, magic potions, crystals, aromas, astrology, numerology, and many sacred traditions that they fight to preserve.
Traditions, which with all their beauty perpetuate an inordinate amount of evil, racism, and hatreds that probably, kill more women and children than any disease. Embraced by the “enlightened” and their “Panglossian” brethren with their well-meaning blindness and new age pieties, they romanticize a past that never existed.
They rationalize female circumcisions, honor killings, and numerous other traditions. How do they serve Humanity? The ancient mysteries they now crave and believe in are blinding them: gurus, shamans, mystics, holy men are the same in their hunger for power- pretenders to knowledge that never existed.
There was never a golden age.
There were, and still are good Humans and in a few places where tolerance and learning are respected. There were once and still are lawgivers who try to civilize, but the power seekers quickly corrupts their teachings. The visionaries are buried or sacrificed to appease unknown forces, Gods, and traditions.
Belief in God, afterlife, the supernatural, reincarnation, Karma, Satan, gurus, new age mantras, magic, and of course drugs. A pill, a shot, a toke will make you free and enlightened. Does all of that lead to more ethical behavior or only to the destruction of the innocent and the extension of power by the self-promoters and so called leaders.
Anything but reality. Even the brave are afraid of the abyss.
The nothingness they fear exists in their own lives, it gets filled with the most simplistic, fundamental nonsense increasing the fear of reality. Which you, my friends, know cannot be avoided and in the end will catch up with all of us.
__________________________________
The memory of the children dancing on your grave, my friends, fills me with hope.
The priests, the imams, the rabbis, the gurus, the mystics, and the assimilated. The children will dance on their graves too.
The children will dance on all the graves: victims, perpetrators, moguls, and leaders.
Their innocence, their joy and laughter echoing.
Wouldn’t you rather see them laugh, cavort, and dance while you’re still able to see and feel their joy?
What can I say to you my friends? Will you be remembered as victims, martyrs? You will probably be forgotten. But forgetting you is not an option for me.
You never got the chance to grow old. Who knows what you would have accomplished?
And you my little best friend, there are much more pleasant things do to girls than to throw stones at them. You never got a chance to wake up next to one of those little girls now a grown woman, looking at you lovingly with mischievous laughter. You never got a chance to greet the sunrise on the ocean, or to have cigarette with your morning coffee.
But we did feel the warm mud oozing between our toes and we did share that joy and how we laughed…
You shared the last moments with my little cousin who was handed over to the killers by our neighbors. They did take in my dog and cared for him, which would please certain groups now.
There was a moment when I was facing the guns as a curious eight year old. I wasn’t afraid, but was looking forward to joining you, my friends, and my father.
And, father, your last word to me was, “run.” I have been a dutiful runner ever since and when I come to rest, when my ashes are spread over Litin Forest, they will find your grave and join you. Maybe they will help a flower to grow for a child to pluck, and that child will dance and cavort over us. That will be your - our monument.
I still have hope that one day the grandchildren of the survivors, the perpetrators, and the enablers will join together, in memory of the millions of forsaken children worldwide. Together they will inspire everyone to say, “never again,” as Humans not bound by their race, tribe, religion, or tradition. One day all will listen- and finally commit to real change.
As Paul Celan wrote, “There are still songs to be sung on the other side of mankind.”
5/27/10
Footnotes:
1)- Nekyia: the evocation of the dead in order to know the future. Described in Book 11 of the Odyssey.
2)- The Ukraine Nationalists: Refers to a political movement that was designed to protect the Ukrainian population. They frequently used violence as a tool and their actions were mostly directed towards the Poles, Jews and communists.
3)- Purim: a Jewish holiday celebrated on the 14th of Adar in commemoration of the deliverance of the Jews from the massacre plotted by Haman.
4)- Shema: an affirmation or a declaration of faith in one God. Some considerate it to be the most important prayer of the Jewish faith.
5)- Paul Celan.
6)- Jerzy Kosinski
7)- Carol Levi
8)- The Wise Men of Chelm: Jewish folklore and tales about good-natured but misguided that date back to the 1500s. The “Moon and Barrel” tale refers to a story when the men thought that they could cover the moon’s reflection and keep it locked inside of a barrel filled with water.
9)- “The Rapture”: A belief that Christ will return to gather all of the “true
Christians”.
10)- “Perfected”: Refers to the belief that 144,000 Jews will be chosen by Christ at
“The Rapture”.
11)- “The Good Soldiers”: reference to the book Those Were the Daysby Ernst Klee.
12)- Yad Vashem: Israel’s monument to the Jewish victim’s of the Holocaust.
13)- Panglossian: marked by the view that all is for the best in this best of possible worlds or excessively optimistic. Voltaire.
This is the second part of a 2 part blog about his career in film and his early life when, as a child, he barely escaped murder by the Fascists.
Ben recently published the following which needs no description except to say it is a very moving and evocative piece. Quite unbelievable actually except that Ben bears witness, his amazing life, to the truth of his words. I have always liked Ben so very much in the years I have known him but now he appears to me as an heroic figure as well.
Wow.
Nekiya Journey by Ben Barenholtz
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The following is not intended to provoke or to elicit any kind of response or argument. It is not intended to offend. If it does, I hope, as a Human being you can forgive me.
What I am attempting to do is to share with the people I loved; those who have endured my moods and silences, my Friends who thought they knew me and my acquaintances, a dialogue that I realized I’ve been carrying on with my father and with my contemporaries who died over sixty five years ago. This dialogue consists of my personal observations, opinions, and mainly the questions that I have been unable to answer in trying to make some sense of what has happened since they all, “got out of here.”
This may also be my way of trying to leave a mark in the sand before the next wave comes to wash it away.
I am what is commonly called a, “holocaust survivor.” If I live long enough I will probably be part of the last generation with direct memory of that history.
I was born in 1935 in the small city of Kovel in Eastern Poland, now part of Western Ukraine. We lived in the nearby village of Kupichev. Being in a “border area” it was populated by Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, some Germans, and about nine hundred Jews. The area became part of Russia in 1939 and in 1941 the Germans came. When the “final solution” took shape about two-dozen Jews escaped to the forest. Hunted like animals by Ukrainian Nationalists but helped by simple Ukrainian, Czech, and Polish peasants; twelve of us including my mother, my older brother, and myself, the youngest - managed to survive in the forest for 22 months until we were liberated by the Russians.
The Ukrainian Nationalists, who at that time collaborated with the Germans, killed my father on one of their raids. He taught us all how to Survive and how to Live.
I am not a writer, historian, philosopher, or any kind of academic. I had four years of formal schooling, but even those years were spent in movie theaters whenever I could earn or steal the money. I have lived in New York City since 1947 and mostly, like some other survivors, I’ve been silent.
There are survivors who bear witness and others who write books, plays, or make films. However most, even with each other, remained silent. Even the ones who talked got tired of the tears, or that glazed look in the listener’s eyes, “God, another Holocaust story…”
Everyone had their own horror stories but mainly they kept them to themselves. To try to make sense of it was too painful, only survival and whatever could be conjured up about the future is what mattered. They did not understand explanations. For some, God was the least helpful. He was, “The Unmentionable,” and therefore was not mentioned. As long as he was silent, they would remain silent. All excuses from whatever source were irrelevant. They had to hide from their own shadows.
Whole industries have been created trying to explain what happened through: books, films, plays, lectures, philosophical excuses, and banal explanations by intellectual giants making their reputations with their theories and analysis.
Of course museums, memorials, and monuments abound.
They have fixated on a precocious girl in Amsterdam, representing the lost children. Of course my contemporaries with whom I could not grow old with, did not have the time to write or paint like her or the children of Terezin and some other places. They were liquidated in two days.
I’ve stopped believing in a grand plan that let me survive for some greater purpose- delusions of grandeur- contrary to some of my religious brethren and other believers, I am truly convinced that my survival or anyone else’s survival was arbitrary and had no purpose whatsoever. In one way or another we are all survivors, and my survival is not more important than any other.
But, the guilt can linger.
The above photo was taken in 1939 or 1940 at a Purim party. I am the sullen one in the front row on the right with my friends, my contemporaries. My brother is in the second row, third from the right. As far as can be determined we are the only survivors. It looks like I am not sure about what is going on, trying to make sense of it all. I still have not succeeded.
The above photo was taken in 1992 across the road from a thriving farm in the lush Ukrainian countryside. A simple stone carved with the date and the number of Jews (seven hundred and fifty-two) shot and buried on that spot. Among them were my aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and my contemporaries.
Near the slight mound that is still discernible, a young boy and girl were chasing one another and laughing, as if they were dancing on the grave. At first it was upsetting but than I realized how fitting that was. I hope that someday children will dance on my grave, and everyone else’s as well.
In the meantime their father, the farmer from across the road, recounted the grisly details of those two days in the summer of 1942 methodically. Obviously he had done this many times before and expected the $20 dollars he was given.
My friends, I am compelled to continue on my quest to ask questions that will not get answered. The river of blood that divides us cannot be breached; but I will still ask and share my observations and opinions with you my lost friends, who are in the front row with me in the photo and share that grave with all the others.
___________________________________
I can imagine talking to you and you are as old as I am, but have been away…
There is so much to tell you, to discuss with you. So many wondrous things have happened, many discoveries, scientific and technological advances that boggle the mind. But, essentially Humans haven’t changed very much. I want to tell you that there is less hatred, there is kindness, and compassion. That you did not die in vain. I am sorry, it seems that very little has been learned. Many “isms” have been added to be used as excuses for intolerance and barbarism. Stupidity and hatred has not abated, only changed forms.
They have gone to the moon with the help of Nazis but cannot manage to feed a hungry child.
There was a time right after the war when Jews created their own country and became strong. Maybe had it existed earlier we would not have had to go through the nightmare. No one wanted to take us in and in that way they all participated in the “final solution” including the Jews in powerful positions who were afraid to make waves.
There was a moment, after the war, when there was hope. “Never again,” became a rallying cry. Never again will Jews be led to the slaughter like sheep. “Never again,” also became the world’s rallying cry.
The original meaning has been long forgotten. It has become over and over again in: Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, the Congo, and numerous other places. Power seekers rise all the time steeped in old hatreds, traditions and prejudice, and it is all repeated again and again.
_____________________________________
The sound of the machine gun that was killing you still echoes.
My father, mother, brother, and I sat in silence under a large tree hidden in the forest listening to the Rat-tet-tet of the machine gun every fifteen minutes or so. It lasted all morning. Into the afternoon. A lifetime…
What sins did you commit my friends, to die that way? Where you being punished for the sins of your parents? Your ancestors? Did you pray before the bullets cut you down? Did you say the, “shema?” Was God working in his mysterious ways?
Was God’s answer to your prayer, Rat-tet-tet? The same as in Babi Yar and hundreds of other places? Was his voice in the hiss of gas in the showers before the crematorium in the concentration camps?
“Got mitt unz,” was etched on the belt buckles of the German soldiers. Is that where God was?
Thankfully you only went through one day and night of hell. Standing in that building, nude and shivering, packed in like sardines. At least you were spared the indignity of the concentration camp.
Did you see my uncle charge the machine gun with the shovel they gave him to dig his families grave? At least he made them use some extra bullets.
Mainly you went silently. There was no one listening anywhere. Your parents couldn’t even comfort you in those last moments.
There are still debates about what happened to you, some are even denying that you ever existed. Sometimes I wonder myself, maybe it was all a dream.
I’ve learned to understand every kind of evil mankind can inflict, but I can’t get my mind to comprehend the ability to kill a child. How is that rationalized?
Was that what made it so difficult for you to continue, Paul, Jerzy, Carlo, and the thousands of others?
_______________________________
Great Chasidic sages, some of them survivors, said that, “You were punished because the Jews did not keep the commandments.” Doesn’t that mean that you can’t blame the perpetrators? They were only God’s Instrument. The same Sages and many of their followers maintained that it was God that saved them. I guess you were not worthy, no divine intervention for you.
He and other “sages” just like them must have been true descendents of, The Wise Men of Chelm, the clever residents who thought that they captured the moon in a barrel of water. I am sure you heard those stories from your parents. Their descendents captured God in the their own barrel. They now have the answers, but if you question them it is always, “Who are you to question God’s work? His mystery is forever, beyond our ability to comprehend.”
They maintain nostalgia for a time, place, and traditions that could have only flourished under oppressive conditions.
A Nobel laureate, a renowned witness bearer, tried to instruct me on the correct way to sit shiva. He should have been sitting shiva for his God.
Some pious Jews are now fusing their fundamentalism with the same people who began their persecution a long time ago; who are only waiting for the “The Rapture,” the second coming, so that the Jews can be “perfected.” In the old country in the “stetel” they didn’t want to wait for “The Rapture” so they sped things up a bit. Of course the great sages think they are smarter and the Messiah will come before the next inquisition.
Aren’t they helping to perpetuate the same kind of tribalism and racism that started this entire problem to begin with? It seems they have not learned a thing. Power seekers will arise and repeat the horrors. And God will be with whom?
My friends, don’t you think that as long as children are being slaughtered, starved, and maimed anywhere in the world, that no one is safe anywhere? As long as intolerance exists no one is safe. Will they ever learn what, “never again,” really means? Don’t you agree that steeped in old hatreds, traditions and prejudices, we are doomed to repeat history? That instead of, “never again,” it will happen over and over again?
There are still arguments particularly by the great scholars of the Torah, about who is considered a Jew. I had always assumed that it was defined by them putting a bullet in you and then dumping you into the pit they had your parents dig, my friends.
I am sure they didn’t ask you if you were a Hasid, a Socialist, a Zionist, what class or group your family belonged to, assimilated, name changed, or if your mother was Jewish. Do we need other definitions? Maybe any innocent child who is shot, starved, or maimed should be considered a Jew.
It seems that all religions, spiritual movements, and other “isms” have captured their Gods in their own barrel of water. Some will even kill you if you don’t believe that their barrel contains the, “True God.” And the assimilated, with their name changes, nose jobs and political correctness, are they not also descendents of The Wise Men of Chelm?
_____________________________
I have taken many trips to Germany and other parts of Europe. I’ve seen many memorials, monuments, and museums to the six million dead (some say five, but what’s a million between friends?)
On a recent trip to Munich, I happened upon a Jewish Museum in the final stages of construction. Of course it was being made bomb proof, to be guarded day and night. A monument to the Jews of Munich, not too far from where the Fuhrer made his plans, close to where, “the good soldiers,” gather every year to assure themselves of their righteousness.
Normally I don’t visit those places. What can they really show me that I don’t already know?
It did, however, cause me to start thinking about the purpose of all those monuments, museums, and other forms of remembrance. What are they for? What purpose do they serve? Who goes to them? Are they survivors? Are they relatives who have a good cry and then go on their way? School children who are forced to go and are only happy when they escape to daylight? Are they people who go to salve their conscience because they acquiesced by doing nothing?
I realized that quite a few of those visitors were the innocent children and grandchildren of the perpetrators. They were there trying to make sense of their elder’s silence. You see, the people who committed the atrocities were silent and never spoke about what happened or they just rationalized it away, leaving the next generation to shoulder the guilt. What will another museum, another monument, another sermon really do?
But of course, “the good soldiers,” and the Germans at home didn’t know anything about what was happening to you.
The ones who came to watch the executions for entertainment forgot about it. The brave Germans who killed innocent people in order to relieve the tension of battle, became heroes. Ironically, mostly, German soldiers who refused to participate in the killings were not punished.
Resistance was suddenly remembered, collaboration and acquiescence was conveniently forgotten. “But what could we have done?” Echoed across a continent, “Look what was done to us.”
They died peacefully in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and in their own countries complaining that they too were just as victimized as the Jews were.
There was some sort of de-nazification process, which in reality was used by the conquering powers to absorb and control the people who were useful to them.
Do the museums, the monuments, or the restitution money exonerate them and make them feel better about their deeds?
They denied their Humanity to follow orders and indulge in their hatreds and prejudices.
Instead of monuments to make them feel less guilty for their participation, or for just standing by. What about a tent, or a well, or a shelter for lost children? Wouldn’t that be a more fitting monument to you, my friends?
At Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, “the righteous gentiles,” who helped people survive, risking their lives are honored. But, in their own communities particularly in Eastern Europe these brave souls are ostracized. They can’t even talk about their deeds since they are considered traitors.
When asked why they risked their lives to help, invariably the answer was, “I am a Human being just helping another Human being.” Some were religious, some agnostics some communists, they never thought of themselves as being heroic only, “Human.”
And you, my father, lying in an unmarked grave in Litin Forest; we, your two sons, are alive today because you never forgot your Humanity. Whenever someone needed help- a farmer, a peasant, anyone- you always did what you could. Never did you ask of their religion, nationality, or political belief. They remembered; they only had to hear, “I am Aaron’s son,” whispered at a door or window on those dark nights and whatever food they had was shared.
___________________________________
My friends, there was another part of Chelm that even your parents did not hear about; and that was ruled by the hidden society of seeker, mystics, and hole diggers. This society still exists worldwide. They dig holes since the water barrels are now full to: Tibet, India, China, Japan, Egypt, South America, and Atlantis. They seek the lost knowledge and magic formulas of the ancients and the remarkable men that they are sure exited in a past golden age. They continue digging embracing all kinds of mantras, magic potions, crystals, aromas, astrology, numerology, and many sacred traditions that they fight to preserve.
Traditions, which with all their beauty perpetuate an inordinate amount of evil, racism, and hatreds that probably, kill more women and children than any disease. Embraced by the “enlightened” and their “Panglossian” brethren with their well-meaning blindness and new age pieties, they romanticize a past that never existed.
They rationalize female circumcisions, honor killings, and numerous other traditions. How do they serve Humanity? The ancient mysteries they now crave and believe in are blinding them: gurus, shamans, mystics, holy men are the same in their hunger for power- pretenders to knowledge that never existed.
There was never a golden age.
There were, and still are good Humans and in a few places where tolerance and learning are respected. There were once and still are lawgivers who try to civilize, but the power seekers quickly corrupts their teachings. The visionaries are buried or sacrificed to appease unknown forces, Gods, and traditions.
Belief in God, afterlife, the supernatural, reincarnation, Karma, Satan, gurus, new age mantras, magic, and of course drugs. A pill, a shot, a toke will make you free and enlightened. Does all of that lead to more ethical behavior or only to the destruction of the innocent and the extension of power by the self-promoters and so called leaders.
Anything but reality. Even the brave are afraid of the abyss.
The nothingness they fear exists in their own lives, it gets filled with the most simplistic, fundamental nonsense increasing the fear of reality. Which you, my friends, know cannot be avoided and in the end will catch up with all of us.
__________________________________
The memory of the children dancing on your grave, my friends, fills me with hope.
The priests, the imams, the rabbis, the gurus, the mystics, and the assimilated. The children will dance on their graves too.
The children will dance on all the graves: victims, perpetrators, moguls, and leaders.
Their innocence, their joy and laughter echoing.
Wouldn’t you rather see them laugh, cavort, and dance while you’re still able to see and feel their joy?
What can I say to you my friends? Will you be remembered as victims, martyrs? You will probably be forgotten. But forgetting you is not an option for me.
You never got the chance to grow old. Who knows what you would have accomplished?
And you my little best friend, there are much more pleasant things do to girls than to throw stones at them. You never got a chance to wake up next to one of those little girls now a grown woman, looking at you lovingly with mischievous laughter. You never got a chance to greet the sunrise on the ocean, or to have cigarette with your morning coffee.
But we did feel the warm mud oozing between our toes and we did share that joy and how we laughed…
You shared the last moments with my little cousin who was handed over to the killers by our neighbors. They did take in my dog and cared for him, which would please certain groups now.
There was a moment when I was facing the guns as a curious eight year old. I wasn’t afraid, but was looking forward to joining you, my friends, and my father.
And, father, your last word to me was, “run.” I have been a dutiful runner ever since and when I come to rest, when my ashes are spread over Litin Forest, they will find your grave and join you. Maybe they will help a flower to grow for a child to pluck, and that child will dance and cavort over us. That will be your - our monument.
I still have hope that one day the grandchildren of the survivors, the perpetrators, and the enablers will join together, in memory of the millions of forsaken children worldwide. Together they will inspire everyone to say, “never again,” as Humans not bound by their race, tribe, religion, or tradition. One day all will listen- and finally commit to real change.
As Paul Celan wrote, “There are still songs to be sung on the other side of mankind.”
5/27/10
Footnotes:
1)- Nekyia: the evocation of the dead in order to know the future. Described in Book 11 of the Odyssey.
2)- The Ukraine Nationalists: Refers to a political movement that was designed to protect the Ukrainian population. They frequently used violence as a tool and their actions were mostly directed towards the Poles, Jews and communists.
3)- Purim: a Jewish holiday celebrated on the 14th of Adar in commemoration of the deliverance of the Jews from the massacre plotted by Haman.
4)- Shema: an affirmation or a declaration of faith in one God. Some considerate it to be the most important prayer of the Jewish faith.
5)- Paul Celan.
6)- Jerzy Kosinski
7)- Carol Levi
8)- The Wise Men of Chelm: Jewish folklore and tales about good-natured but misguided that date back to the 1500s. The “Moon and Barrel” tale refers to a story when the men thought that they could cover the moon’s reflection and keep it locked inside of a barrel filled with water.
9)- “The Rapture”: A belief that Christ will return to gather all of the “true
Christians”.
10)- “Perfected”: Refers to the belief that 144,000 Jews will be chosen by Christ at
“The Rapture”.
11)- “The Good Soldiers”: reference to the book Those Were the Daysby Ernst Klee.
12)- Yad Vashem: Israel’s monument to the Jewish victim’s of the Holocaust.
13)- Panglossian: marked by the view that all is for the best in this best of possible worlds or excessively optimistic. Voltaire.
- 10/9/2013
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
This week is Ben Barenholtz' birthday.
We'd like to celebrate by running 2 pieces on his amazing wonderful life.
This is his public bio, which in itself, tells of a rich wonderful career in film.
In the next days we'll publish his amazing memoir of his European childhood when he narrowly escaped from the hands of Jew killers during the War.
I personally owe Ben a lot. When I was producing some years back Ben was working for Almi and bought an indie film I produced 'Home Free All' by Director Stewart Bird for that company. The money from that deal paid our investors and took us out of a deep financial hole. I am always grateful to Ben for his vision and belief in us then.
Now for his professional bio -
Biography for Ben Barenholtz
Birth Name Benjamin Barenholtz
Mini Biography
As an exhibitor, distributor, and producer, Ben Barenholtz has been a key presence in the independent film scene since the late 1960s, when he opened the Elgin Cinema in New York City.
Barenholtz secured his first job in the film business when he became assistant manager of the Rko Bushwick Theater in Brooklyn in 1958. From 1966-68 he managed and lived in the Village Theater, which ultimately became the Filmore East. At the Village Theater Barenholtz provided a home for the counterculture, with appearances by Timothy Leary, Stokley Carmichael, Rap Brown, and Paul Krasner. Some of the first meetings of the anti-Vietnam War movement, including the Poets Against Vietnam, were held at the Village Theater. It was also a major music venue, with performances by The Who, Cream, Leonard Cohen, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Nina Simone and many others.
In 1968 he opened the Elgin Cinema. The theater became the world's most innovative specialty and revival house, relaunching the films of Buster Keaton and D.W. Griffith, running a variety of independent films by young American directors, and screening cult, underground, and experimental films for the emerging countercultural audience. The films of Stan Brakhage, Jack Smith, Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, Jonas Mekas, and Andy Warhol, as well as early works by Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese, all played at the Elgin.
Barenholtz also developed new ways of screening movies. He started screening dance and opera films on Saturday and Sunday mornings. He created the "All Night Show" - movies started at midnight and ended at dawn. Most notably, Barenholtz originated the "Midnight Movie" in 1970 with Alexander Jodorowsky's El Topo, which ran for 6 months, 7 days a week, to sold out audiences.
The film was eventually bought by John Lennon. El Topo was followed at midnight by John Waters' Pink Flamingoes and Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come. Barenholtz formed the specialty distributor Libra Films in 1972.
The first film Libra distributed was a revival of Jean-Pierre Melville's Les Enfants Terrible, followed by Claude Chabrol's Just Before Nightfall, and Jean-Charles Tacchella's Cousin, Cousine, which became one of the largest grossing foreign films in the Us and was nominated for 3 Academy Awards.
Libra also launched and distributed, among others, George Romero's Martin, John Sayles' first feature Return of the Secaucus Seven, David Lynch's first feature Eraserhead, Karen Arthur's first feature Legacy, Earl Mack's first feature Children of Theater Street, and Peter Gothar's first feature Time Stands Still.
Barenholtz sold Libra Films to the Almi Group in 1982, but stayed with the company to become the President of Libra-Cinema 5 Films. In 1984 he left Almi and joined with Ted and Jim Pedas to form Circle Releasing. Among the films released by Circle were Yoshimitsu Morita's The Family Game, Guy Maddin's first feature Tales From the Gimli Hospital, Vincent Ward's The Navigator, John Woo's The Killer, Catherine Breillat's 36 Fillette, DeWitt Sage's first feature Pavarotti In China, Alain Cavalier's Therese, and Blood Simple, the first film by Joel and Ethan Coen.
His involvement in film production began with Wynn Chamberlain's Brand X and George Romero's Martin. He continued working with the Coens on the production of Raising Arizona, and as executive producer of Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink, which won the Palme d'Or at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, as well as awards for Best Director and Best Actor. This was the first and last time the three top honors have all gone to the same film at Cannes.
Barenholtz went on to produce George Romero's Bruiser, J Todd Anderson's The Naked Man, Adek Drabinski's Cheat, executive-produced Gregory Hines' directorial debut Bleeding Hearts and Ulu Grossbard's Georgia, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Mare Winningham. He served as co-executive producer of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, which earned Ellen Burstyn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 2000.
Barenholtz appeared in the documentary The Hicks in Hollywood, had a bit role in Liquid Sky, and appeared as a zombie in Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead. He was the main subject of Stuart Samuels' 2005 documentary Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream.
Barenholtz directed his first feature, Music Inn, a documentary about the famed jazz venue.
Barenholtz was the producer of Jamie Greenberg's feature film Stags.
In 2012, Barenholtz produced Suzuya Bobo's first feature Family Games.
Barenholtz has recently completed directing and post production on Wakaliwood the Documentary, which was shot entirely in Kampala, Uganda. The film will be released in 2013.
He is now developing two feature fiction films which begin production in 2013.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Ben Barenholtz...
We'd like to celebrate by running 2 pieces on his amazing wonderful life.
This is his public bio, which in itself, tells of a rich wonderful career in film.
In the next days we'll publish his amazing memoir of his European childhood when he narrowly escaped from the hands of Jew killers during the War.
I personally owe Ben a lot. When I was producing some years back Ben was working for Almi and bought an indie film I produced 'Home Free All' by Director Stewart Bird for that company. The money from that deal paid our investors and took us out of a deep financial hole. I am always grateful to Ben for his vision and belief in us then.
Now for his professional bio -
Biography for Ben Barenholtz
Birth Name Benjamin Barenholtz
Mini Biography
As an exhibitor, distributor, and producer, Ben Barenholtz has been a key presence in the independent film scene since the late 1960s, when he opened the Elgin Cinema in New York City.
Barenholtz secured his first job in the film business when he became assistant manager of the Rko Bushwick Theater in Brooklyn in 1958. From 1966-68 he managed and lived in the Village Theater, which ultimately became the Filmore East. At the Village Theater Barenholtz provided a home for the counterculture, with appearances by Timothy Leary, Stokley Carmichael, Rap Brown, and Paul Krasner. Some of the first meetings of the anti-Vietnam War movement, including the Poets Against Vietnam, were held at the Village Theater. It was also a major music venue, with performances by The Who, Cream, Leonard Cohen, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Nina Simone and many others.
In 1968 he opened the Elgin Cinema. The theater became the world's most innovative specialty and revival house, relaunching the films of Buster Keaton and D.W. Griffith, running a variety of independent films by young American directors, and screening cult, underground, and experimental films for the emerging countercultural audience. The films of Stan Brakhage, Jack Smith, Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, Jonas Mekas, and Andy Warhol, as well as early works by Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese, all played at the Elgin.
Barenholtz also developed new ways of screening movies. He started screening dance and opera films on Saturday and Sunday mornings. He created the "All Night Show" - movies started at midnight and ended at dawn. Most notably, Barenholtz originated the "Midnight Movie" in 1970 with Alexander Jodorowsky's El Topo, which ran for 6 months, 7 days a week, to sold out audiences.
The film was eventually bought by John Lennon. El Topo was followed at midnight by John Waters' Pink Flamingoes and Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come. Barenholtz formed the specialty distributor Libra Films in 1972.
The first film Libra distributed was a revival of Jean-Pierre Melville's Les Enfants Terrible, followed by Claude Chabrol's Just Before Nightfall, and Jean-Charles Tacchella's Cousin, Cousine, which became one of the largest grossing foreign films in the Us and was nominated for 3 Academy Awards.
Libra also launched and distributed, among others, George Romero's Martin, John Sayles' first feature Return of the Secaucus Seven, David Lynch's first feature Eraserhead, Karen Arthur's first feature Legacy, Earl Mack's first feature Children of Theater Street, and Peter Gothar's first feature Time Stands Still.
Barenholtz sold Libra Films to the Almi Group in 1982, but stayed with the company to become the President of Libra-Cinema 5 Films. In 1984 he left Almi and joined with Ted and Jim Pedas to form Circle Releasing. Among the films released by Circle were Yoshimitsu Morita's The Family Game, Guy Maddin's first feature Tales From the Gimli Hospital, Vincent Ward's The Navigator, John Woo's The Killer, Catherine Breillat's 36 Fillette, DeWitt Sage's first feature Pavarotti In China, Alain Cavalier's Therese, and Blood Simple, the first film by Joel and Ethan Coen.
His involvement in film production began with Wynn Chamberlain's Brand X and George Romero's Martin. He continued working with the Coens on the production of Raising Arizona, and as executive producer of Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink, which won the Palme d'Or at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, as well as awards for Best Director and Best Actor. This was the first and last time the three top honors have all gone to the same film at Cannes.
Barenholtz went on to produce George Romero's Bruiser, J Todd Anderson's The Naked Man, Adek Drabinski's Cheat, executive-produced Gregory Hines' directorial debut Bleeding Hearts and Ulu Grossbard's Georgia, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Mare Winningham. He served as co-executive producer of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, which earned Ellen Burstyn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 2000.
Barenholtz appeared in the documentary The Hicks in Hollywood, had a bit role in Liquid Sky, and appeared as a zombie in Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead. He was the main subject of Stuart Samuels' 2005 documentary Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream.
Barenholtz directed his first feature, Music Inn, a documentary about the famed jazz venue.
Barenholtz was the producer of Jamie Greenberg's feature film Stags.
In 2012, Barenholtz produced Suzuya Bobo's first feature Family Games.
Barenholtz has recently completed directing and post production on Wakaliwood the Documentary, which was shot entirely in Kampala, Uganda. The film will be released in 2013.
He is now developing two feature fiction films which begin production in 2013.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Ben Barenholtz...
- 10/8/2013
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
Filmmaker has a curated page on Kickstarter, where we point you towards projects that we think are worthy of your attention. Here are our recent additions, and to read more about them visit them via Filmmaker Magazine on Kickstarter.
Love Spasm: New York underground film icon Nick Zedd has just launched a campaign for what sounds like an ambitious feature set to shoot in Berlin. “The themes of this movie are love, sexual freedom, loyalty, human insecurity and the strategies people employ to survive and maintain relationships within the unnatural constraints imposed upon them by the economic pressures of capitalism, landlordism and a shrinking work force,” Zedd writes on the page. Perks include an Executive Producer credit, original paintings by Zedd, and phone calls from the director.
Wakaliwood: The Documentary: Legendary producer Ben Barenholtz and film festival programmer Alan Hofmanis are teaming to make this doc about the Ugandan...
Love Spasm: New York underground film icon Nick Zedd has just launched a campaign for what sounds like an ambitious feature set to shoot in Berlin. “The themes of this movie are love, sexual freedom, loyalty, human insecurity and the strategies people employ to survive and maintain relationships within the unnatural constraints imposed upon them by the economic pressures of capitalism, landlordism and a shrinking work force,” Zedd writes on the page. Perks include an Executive Producer credit, original paintings by Zedd, and phone calls from the director.
Wakaliwood: The Documentary: Legendary producer Ben Barenholtz and film festival programmer Alan Hofmanis are teaming to make this doc about the Ugandan...
- 9/23/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The Hamptons International Film Festival has announced that Focus Features CEO James Schamus will be honored at the festival's annual industry toast. The event will come during the 20th anniversary edition of the fest, taking place October 5th at East Hampton Point. The festival itself runs October 4-8, 2012. Past recipients of the honor have included Marcie Bloom, Bob Berney, Ted Hope, Wouter Barendrecht, and Ben Barenholtz. Full press release below. East Hampton, NY (June 18, 2012) – The 20th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival is honored to present Focus Features CEO James Schamus with this year’s Industry Toast. Mr. Schamus will be fêted by his peers on Friday, October 5th at East Hampton Point. The 20th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival will take place this year over Columbus Day Weekend, from October 4th – 8th. As a screenwriter, producer, and academic, Mr. Schamus has enjoyed a prolific career in...
- 6/19/2012
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
ShowEast has created the Bingham Ray Memorial Award to honor the memory of the late Bingham Ray. Its first recipients will be Eamonn Bowles, president of Magnolia Pictures; producer Ben Barenholtz; Arnie Sawyer, who heads advertising agency Sawyer Studios; and Tom Prassis, senior vp sales ay Sony Pictures Classics. The award, which recognizes individuals who have “shown exemplary leadership and foresight in the world of independent cinema,” will be presented Nov. 8 at the Final Night Banquet and Awards Ceremony of ShowEast. The exhibitors convention runs Nov. 5-8 at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood, Fla.
read more...
read more...
- 3/21/2012
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Here's the Bingham Ray Sundance Eulogy, which was read at the Sundance Closing Night Awards by choked-up Fest Director John Cooper, from his poker partners Ben Barenholtz, Eamonn Bowles, Tom Prassis and Arnie Sawyer. Good job guys, it made me cry yet again. We are here to mourn, and honor, an icon of the film industry. And as we begin we can hear his voice whispering in our ears, "Don't fuck it up, Kitty Kats!" Followed by a huge roar of sarcastic laughter. This was Bingham Ray to a tee. It sounds strange to talk about Bingham in the past tense. Even stranger to admit to ourselves that our dear friend is no longer with us. We who...
- 1/29/2012
- Thompson on Hollywood
Sundance Film Festival Director John Cooper broke down a bit as he read a eulogy for indie film executive Bingham Ray at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony tonight. The eulogy, written by Ray's poker buddies Ben Barenholtz, Eamonn Bowles, Tom Prassis, and Arnie Sawyer is printed in its entirety below. We are here to mourn, and honor, an icon of the film industry. And as we begin we can hear his voice whispering in our ears, "Don't fuck it up, Kitty Kats!" Followed by a huge roar of sarcastic laughter. This was Bingham Ray to a tee. It sounds strange to talk about Bingham in the past tense. Even stranger to admit to ourselves that our dear friend is no longer with us. We who knew him through the good and the bad years mourn the loss of a true friend, a bad poker player, a fierce competitor and...
- 1/29/2012
- Indiewire
Holly Hunter, Marcia Gay Harden, Stanley Tucci, Frances McDormand, the Coen Brothers and a host of film industry insiders raised glasses to salute, in the words of David Lynch Saturday night, "the grandfather of midnight films." Ben Barenholtz, who effectively invented the midnight movie when he began showing late night films--like Lynch's "Eraserhead"--at his Elgin Theater in Manhattan forty years ago, was toasted and roasted by a host of famous faces ...
- 10/11/2010
- Indiewire
Actress Marcia Gay Harden with Ben Barenholtz and Hamptons International Film Festival Director of Programming David Nugent at a party in East Hampton Saturday afternoon. Barenholtz, who's been credited with 'discovering' the Coen Brothers, executive produced the filmmaking duo's "Miller's Crossing," back in 1990, which starred Harden. Barenholtz received the Industry Toast, co-hosted by Hiff and indieWIRE Saturday night in Montauk, NY on the East End of Long Island. Guests included ...
- 10/10/2010
- Indiewire
An acclaimed crop of artists, including Marcia Gay Harden, Frances McDormand, Joe and Ethan Coen and John Turturro will gather at this year's Hamptons International Film Festival to pay homage to Ben Barenholtz. The event, co-sponsored by indieWIRE, will take place on Saturday, October 9th, during the run of the festival. "Ben has been and remains a dynamic, key figure in the American indie scene," said indieWIRE Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder Eugene ...
- 8/24/2010
- Indiewire
Kurt Busiek has made a big name for himself in superhero comics with runs on A-list titles like "Avengers" and "Superman." "Astro City" showed what he could do in his own, independently created world, though, and Working Title Films wants to take that vision into theaters.
"I'm thrilled to be doing 'Astro City' with Working Title Films," Busiek said, according to a report on SuperHeroHype. "For years, we turned down all offers for the book, but Working Title's track record on great movies like 'Love Actually, 'Oh Brother, Where Are Thou?' and 'Shaun of the Dead,' and their commitment to high-quality, character-driven storytelling, make me confident that this is the perfect place to make an 'Astro City' film a reality."
The series, which premiered in 1995 and has been published by Image Comics, Homage Comics and WildStorm, follows life in a city populated by Busiek's own heroes,...
"I'm thrilled to be doing 'Astro City' with Working Title Films," Busiek said, according to a report on SuperHeroHype. "For years, we turned down all offers for the book, but Working Title's track record on great movies like 'Love Actually, 'Oh Brother, Where Are Thou?' and 'Shaun of the Dead,' and their commitment to high-quality, character-driven storytelling, make me confident that this is the perfect place to make an 'Astro City' film a reality."
The series, which premiered in 1995 and has been published by Image Comics, Homage Comics and WildStorm, follows life in a city populated by Busiek's own heroes,...
- 7/23/2010
- by Brian Warmoth
- MTV Splash Page
Kurt Busiek's Astro City comic series will be turned into a movie by Working Title, it has been announced. Created in 1995 by Busiek and artists Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, Astro City tracks superheroes Samaritan, Winged Victory, the Hanged Man and Jack-in-the-Box and their interactions with the people of the eponymous city. The critically acclaimed graphic novels have picked up a total of 20 Eisner and Harvey Awards. Busiek will write the treatment for the movie and executive produce alongside Ben Barenholtz (more)...
- 7/22/2010
- by By Simon Reynolds
- Digital Spy
Based on Kurt Busiek's graphic novel series
Working Title Films have snapped up rights to Kurt Busiek's multiple award winning graphic novel series "Astro City."
"Astro City," created by Busiek with artists Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, tells the story of life among the superheroes. While Samaritan, Winged Victory, the Hanged Man and Jack-in-the-Box patrol the skies, protect a city and uphold justice, the 'normal' people have to cope with a life surrounded by danger and wonder, their lives interacting with those of the heroes above.
Winner of twenty Eisner and Harvey Awards since its debut in 1995, the series has long been considered one of the standouts of the comics field, praised for its compelling, nuanced perspective on the superhero genre, illuminating the humanity and inner lives of both the superheroes and the people they protect.
Busiek has worked on a wide variety of comics in his career, including Iron Man,...
Working Title Films have snapped up rights to Kurt Busiek's multiple award winning graphic novel series "Astro City."
"Astro City," created by Busiek with artists Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, tells the story of life among the superheroes. While Samaritan, Winged Victory, the Hanged Man and Jack-in-the-Box patrol the skies, protect a city and uphold justice, the 'normal' people have to cope with a life surrounded by danger and wonder, their lives interacting with those of the heroes above.
Winner of twenty Eisner and Harvey Awards since its debut in 1995, the series has long been considered one of the standouts of the comics field, praised for its compelling, nuanced perspective on the superhero genre, illuminating the humanity and inner lives of both the superheroes and the people they protect.
Busiek has worked on a wide variety of comics in his career, including Iron Man,...
- 7/21/2010
- by editor@comingsoon.net (SuperHeroHype)
- Superherohype
Exclusive: Working Title Films partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner have made a deal to turn Kurt Busiek's graphic novel series Astro City into a live action feature. The deal gives the prolific comic book writer Busiek his first chance to write the script. Launched in 1995, the series has a Sin City anthology vibe, set in a world crammed with superheros and super-villains. Stories are told from the vantage point of those heroes and villains, as well as the humans who get caught between them. Heroes range from Samaritan, The Hanged Man, The Apollo Eleven--a group of astronauts mutated during a moon landing--to Winged Beauty, a feisty feminist who always saves women first. The series has won multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards for Busiek, who created the series with artists Brent Anderson and Alex Ross. Aside from his own comic creations, Busiek has written for Marvel Comics staples like Iron Man,...
- 7/21/2010
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Indie exhibitor, distributor and producer Ben Barenholtz will be honored this fall as the recipient of the Hiff / indieWIRE Industry Toast at the 18th Hamptons International Film Festival. Originally the owner and operator of Manhattan's Elgin Theater, Barenholtz has been a key figure in New York City's independent film scene since the late 1960s. You cannot tell the story of independent film without talking about Ben Barenholtz. He's not only ...
- 7/9/2010
- Indiewire
Alejandro Jordorowsky certainly is a strange and amazing fellow. It's extremely sad though that only a small amount of people have had the chance to find out just how strange and amazing the artist's works actually are. He has heavily influenced everyone from The Beatles to David Lynch to Sam Fuller and Bob Dylan. Despite his popularity, it has been his own film's content which has in many cases helped put his own head in the stocks and his films on the shelf. Their confronting, bizarre, often overtly religious, and always graphic imagery puts viewers through the ringer and his disregard for convention is almost seizure inducing. In the man's own words; "I ask of film what most people ask of psychedelic drugs" and anyone who has seen any of his amazingly surreal work will know for sure that he doesn't lie. But it isn't all just weird for werid's sake.
- 9/10/2009
- by Neil Innes
- t5m.com
By Matt Singer
The trailer for this week's "Repo! The Genetic Opera" announces itself, via a quote from Fearnet editor Joseph McCabe, as "an instant cult classic!" With that idea in mind, distributor Lionsgate is forgoing the industry standard 3,000-screen release and taking "Repo!" on tour as a roadshow ("It's not just a film," the official website boasts, "it's an event!"). Some cultists have already bought in; at "Repo!"'s U.S. premiere at September's Fantastic Fest, at least a dozen people showed up dressed as characters to the movie, even though they hadn't even seen it yet. Terrance Zdunich, one of the stars and co-writers of the film said, "It's already becoming a "Rocky Horror" experience and we hope it continues in that vein."
The phrase "instant cult classic," though, is something of an oxymoron. By definition, a cult film has to first be passed over by the mainstream...
The trailer for this week's "Repo! The Genetic Opera" announces itself, via a quote from Fearnet editor Joseph McCabe, as "an instant cult classic!" With that idea in mind, distributor Lionsgate is forgoing the industry standard 3,000-screen release and taking "Repo!" on tour as a roadshow ("It's not just a film," the official website boasts, "it's an event!"). Some cultists have already bought in; at "Repo!"'s U.S. premiere at September's Fantastic Fest, at least a dozen people showed up dressed as characters to the movie, even though they hadn't even seen it yet. Terrance Zdunich, one of the stars and co-writers of the film said, "It's already becoming a "Rocky Horror" experience and we hope it continues in that vein."
The phrase "instant cult classic," though, is something of an oxymoron. By definition, a cult film has to first be passed over by the mainstream...
- 11/6/2008
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
CANNES -- Barton Fink is one weird guy. Equally quirky is the movie ''Barton Fink,'' something that'll come as no shock to those who've followed the zany movie output to date of filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (''Blood Simple,'' ''Raising Arizona,'' al.). The bizarre nature of both the dude and the film, however, does make it an extremely iffy item in the commercial market place.
''Barton'' is not easy to categorize; some will also find it hard to like.
On one hand, like ''Raising Arizona, '' the film is laced with an enormous amount of wit, and begins as if the Coens are about to deliver another satirical comedy, this time on the subject of Hollywood's treatment of serious writers.
But, almost in the middle of a laugh, ''Fink'' turns as serious as the Coens' ''Miller's Crossing, '' ultimately evolving into a bloody chiller with overtones of Emlyn Williams' classic thriller ''Night Must Fall.''
There are also reminders here of David Lynch at work, the Lynch of ''Blue Velvet'' and ''Wild in Heart.'' Certainly ''Barton Fink'' is the most offbeat thing the Cannes festival crowd has seen since ''Wild'' grabbed last year's top prize. Unlike the Lynch films, however, sex is not at the heart of ''Fink.''
For the Coens, it's that Hollywood angle that gets the treatment here. They especially zero in on writers who pontificate about being interested in the world (while never shutting up about themselves long enough to learn anything) but also leave plenty of space to throw darts at tacky studio bosses, insensitive producers and all the rest of the baggage that supposedly accompanies the Hollywood Experince.
John Turturro plays Barton Fink, a fictional wunderkind playwright on Broadway, circa 1941, who becomes an overnight sensation because of a gritty legiter he's penned. Hollywood immediately calls, and Fink goes West to continue his serious writing, but ends up assigned to churn out a screenplay about wrestling for Wallace Beery.
Initially, Fink is coddled by the studio boss (Michael Lerner, in a very funny send-up of Louis B. Mayer), who even goes so far as to get down on his knees to kiss Fink's shoes. But as Fink struggles with writer's block, his film's producer (Tony Shalhoub) treats him like a hunk of salami (''It's only a B-picture, '' snaps Shalhoub); a booze-addicted writer at the same studio (John Mahoney, terrific as a Scott Fitzgerald type) is pleasant but condesending; Mahoney's ''assistant'' (Judy Davis) is pleasant but preoccupied.
Fink's one good friend seems to be John Goodman, a bulky but exuberant salesman who rooms next door to Barton at the Hotel Earle (''Stay a day or a lifetime''). They meet when, through the thin walls, Fink hears Goodman sobbing -- or is he laughing? -- and alerts the hotel management, an action that begins a friendship and, at the same time, begins Barton Fink's undoing.
Soon the wunderkind is implicated in a grizzly murder he didn't commit, plus two decapitations. (A missing head may also be in that box he's carrying.) In one swoop, there's also the probability his career has been ruined and, worse yet, the chance his parents back in Brooklyn may be dead, due to an inadvertent action of his own.
Such a gear shift makes for strange bedfellows, and the transition between the comedic thrusts and the serious twists in ''Fink'' is often jarring. The Coens, however, consistently keep interest from ever lagging, also injecting enough eerie elements -- wallpaper that begins to come unglued during a heat wave, ever-present mosquitos biting and drawing blood, hotel hallways that look like unending tunnels minus any living beings -- to help lay the foundation for those shocker moments that eventually come. The finale is both blazing and macabre.
Turturro, who also has a high profile in Cannes this year via ''Jungle Fever, '' helps give ''Fink'' much of the off-beat demeanor the Coens were obviously aiming for. Looking like something between a nerd and Eraserhead, he makes a definitive picture of a super-serious, self-involved soul, clumping through the world minus the necessary spark plugs to adequately fit in, especially in any Hollywood scene. If he is sometimes less interesting than he should be, that has more to do with the Coens' script than with the actor's resources.
Goodman is terrific as the hotel neighbor, giving heft well beyond the physical aspect and making his moments among the most memorable in the film. It's also to the Coens credit that they have Davis as Mahoney's lady friend; it's an unusual piece of casting for the ''Passage to India''-''Impromptu'' star and she adds enormous stature to her brief but key role.
Lerner is hilarious as the studio boss, a caricature to be sure but never cartoonish. Shalhoub also makes a strong impression as the strictly Tinsel Town type.
Production designer Dennis Gassner has created a mesmerizing structure in the Hotel Earle set where much of the action transpires; interestingly, this is one film about Hollywood without a single scene taking place in or around traditional, glamourized landmarks. Once ''Fink'' hits the film capital, the entire script plays out at the somewhat sinister-looking hotel, or in a pair of studio offices, at a park site, by a pool, on a beach and, briefly, at a USO.
The dark look created by cinematographer Roger Deakins helps immeasurably in creating the somber mood that eventually dominates the film, editing by Roderick Jaynes is grade A and the costume designs by Richard Hornung are an excellent help in identifying the period and the personalities at large.
''Barton Fink, '' because of it's split personality, will pull a raft of devoted fans among those seeking the unusual, but the film's too skitzo to clock in wide popular acceptance. Word of mouth is also unlikely to be a help.
BARTON FINK
(United States)
Directed, produced, written byJoel and Ethal Coen
Co-producer Graham Place
Cinematographer Roger Deakins
Production desiger Dennis Gassner
Costumes Richard Hornung
EditorRoderick Jaynes
Music Carter Burwell
Executive producers Ben Barenholtz, Ted and Jim Pedas, Bill Durkin
Color
Cast:
Barton Fink John Turturro
Charlie Meadows John Goodman
Audrey Taylor Judy Davis
Jack Lipnick Michael Lerner
W.P. Mayhew John Mahoney
Lou Breeze Jon Polito Ben GeislerTony Shalhoub
Chet Steve Buscemi
Garland Stanford David Warrilow
Beauty Isabelle Townsend
Running time -- 116 minutes
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
''Barton'' is not easy to categorize; some will also find it hard to like.
On one hand, like ''Raising Arizona, '' the film is laced with an enormous amount of wit, and begins as if the Coens are about to deliver another satirical comedy, this time on the subject of Hollywood's treatment of serious writers.
But, almost in the middle of a laugh, ''Fink'' turns as serious as the Coens' ''Miller's Crossing, '' ultimately evolving into a bloody chiller with overtones of Emlyn Williams' classic thriller ''Night Must Fall.''
There are also reminders here of David Lynch at work, the Lynch of ''Blue Velvet'' and ''Wild in Heart.'' Certainly ''Barton Fink'' is the most offbeat thing the Cannes festival crowd has seen since ''Wild'' grabbed last year's top prize. Unlike the Lynch films, however, sex is not at the heart of ''Fink.''
For the Coens, it's that Hollywood angle that gets the treatment here. They especially zero in on writers who pontificate about being interested in the world (while never shutting up about themselves long enough to learn anything) but also leave plenty of space to throw darts at tacky studio bosses, insensitive producers and all the rest of the baggage that supposedly accompanies the Hollywood Experince.
John Turturro plays Barton Fink, a fictional wunderkind playwright on Broadway, circa 1941, who becomes an overnight sensation because of a gritty legiter he's penned. Hollywood immediately calls, and Fink goes West to continue his serious writing, but ends up assigned to churn out a screenplay about wrestling for Wallace Beery.
Initially, Fink is coddled by the studio boss (Michael Lerner, in a very funny send-up of Louis B. Mayer), who even goes so far as to get down on his knees to kiss Fink's shoes. But as Fink struggles with writer's block, his film's producer (Tony Shalhoub) treats him like a hunk of salami (''It's only a B-picture, '' snaps Shalhoub); a booze-addicted writer at the same studio (John Mahoney, terrific as a Scott Fitzgerald type) is pleasant but condesending; Mahoney's ''assistant'' (Judy Davis) is pleasant but preoccupied.
Fink's one good friend seems to be John Goodman, a bulky but exuberant salesman who rooms next door to Barton at the Hotel Earle (''Stay a day or a lifetime''). They meet when, through the thin walls, Fink hears Goodman sobbing -- or is he laughing? -- and alerts the hotel management, an action that begins a friendship and, at the same time, begins Barton Fink's undoing.
Soon the wunderkind is implicated in a grizzly murder he didn't commit, plus two decapitations. (A missing head may also be in that box he's carrying.) In one swoop, there's also the probability his career has been ruined and, worse yet, the chance his parents back in Brooklyn may be dead, due to an inadvertent action of his own.
Such a gear shift makes for strange bedfellows, and the transition between the comedic thrusts and the serious twists in ''Fink'' is often jarring. The Coens, however, consistently keep interest from ever lagging, also injecting enough eerie elements -- wallpaper that begins to come unglued during a heat wave, ever-present mosquitos biting and drawing blood, hotel hallways that look like unending tunnels minus any living beings -- to help lay the foundation for those shocker moments that eventually come. The finale is both blazing and macabre.
Turturro, who also has a high profile in Cannes this year via ''Jungle Fever, '' helps give ''Fink'' much of the off-beat demeanor the Coens were obviously aiming for. Looking like something between a nerd and Eraserhead, he makes a definitive picture of a super-serious, self-involved soul, clumping through the world minus the necessary spark plugs to adequately fit in, especially in any Hollywood scene. If he is sometimes less interesting than he should be, that has more to do with the Coens' script than with the actor's resources.
Goodman is terrific as the hotel neighbor, giving heft well beyond the physical aspect and making his moments among the most memorable in the film. It's also to the Coens credit that they have Davis as Mahoney's lady friend; it's an unusual piece of casting for the ''Passage to India''-''Impromptu'' star and she adds enormous stature to her brief but key role.
Lerner is hilarious as the studio boss, a caricature to be sure but never cartoonish. Shalhoub also makes a strong impression as the strictly Tinsel Town type.
Production designer Dennis Gassner has created a mesmerizing structure in the Hotel Earle set where much of the action transpires; interestingly, this is one film about Hollywood without a single scene taking place in or around traditional, glamourized landmarks. Once ''Fink'' hits the film capital, the entire script plays out at the somewhat sinister-looking hotel, or in a pair of studio offices, at a park site, by a pool, on a beach and, briefly, at a USO.
The dark look created by cinematographer Roger Deakins helps immeasurably in creating the somber mood that eventually dominates the film, editing by Roderick Jaynes is grade A and the costume designs by Richard Hornung are an excellent help in identifying the period and the personalities at large.
''Barton Fink, '' because of it's split personality, will pull a raft of devoted fans among those seeking the unusual, but the film's too skitzo to clock in wide popular acceptance. Word of mouth is also unlikely to be a help.
BARTON FINK
(United States)
Directed, produced, written byJoel and Ethal Coen
Co-producer Graham Place
Cinematographer Roger Deakins
Production desiger Dennis Gassner
Costumes Richard Hornung
EditorRoderick Jaynes
Music Carter Burwell
Executive producers Ben Barenholtz, Ted and Jim Pedas, Bill Durkin
Color
Cast:
Barton Fink John Turturro
Charlie Meadows John Goodman
Audrey Taylor Judy Davis
Jack Lipnick Michael Lerner
W.P. Mayhew John Mahoney
Lou Breeze Jon Polito Ben GeislerTony Shalhoub
Chet Steve Buscemi
Garland Stanford David Warrilow
Beauty Isabelle Townsend
Running time -- 116 minutes
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 5/20/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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