Filmmaker Statement

NEW LIVES is Polish language period piece. It's both a continuation of my work, both an intense psychological portrait of Holocaust survivors in America, but also a way of unearthing my own family history. Unlike most kids growing up, I never knew my grandparents. They passed away in the 90s, long before I was born. What always struck was never my grandparents’ experiences in the camps. Painful, terrible, awful, but it’s something which has been documented in movies and books. What’s never really documented was the story that took place after liberation. I realized that the less explored perspective was that of a woman during these experiences. While my grandfather was able to be employed because he spoke English well, my grandmother stayed in the apartment, assisting the Super of the building. She was a house cleaner, a gloried janitor. My dad said that she’d never let anyone know her profession, out of a sense of shame and embarrassment. It was that detail that helped me realize tha