Vishniac: Live music, screening + Q&A

When Roman Vishniac began to photograph Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, he did not know he was documenting their final moments.

A veritable Renaissance man with interests in biology, physics, and art history, he was one of the first to use photography as an instrument of documentation and pioneer in photomicroscopy and time-lapse photography. With the rise of anti-Semitism in Russia, his homeland, he fled to Berlin, only to flee again to New York when the Nazis came to power. In all that time, he never put down his camera.

Director Laura Bialis and producers Nancy Spielberg and Roberta Grossman (Reckonings, Who Will Write Our History), interview Vishniac’s daughter, who grew up in her father’s shadow, to explore the complex life of a man who rose to become one of the world’s best-known nature photographers. The film features his stunning photographs for Life magazine, alongside tragically heartwarming stills of life in Jewish towns just before the Holocaust, as famously depicted in his book ‘A Vanished World.’

About the post-screening Q&A: Head On Conversation – Memory and Witness

How do you ensure that the story you tell represents the character of its subjects and their experiences? How do you gather the past experiences that help you define your work?  

This Head On Conversation In conjunction with the Jewish Film Festival screening of Vishniac will discuss how to engage with stories of the past and ensure their message projects to the present. 

With Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos, Andrew Quilty, Dr Amin Palangi, and Moshe Rosenzveig OAM.

Image: courtesy of JIFF