DI Production Awarded Yavitz Foundation Grant
When Col. Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut, climbed aboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, he carried a moonscape drawing by Petr Ginz, an artist and writer who perished as a teenager at Auschwitz.
To help the Documentary Institute produce a film about Ginz, whose diary surfaced after the Columbia explosion, the Miami-based Jerome A. Yavitz Charitable Foundation has pledged $200,000.
“We hope the story of Petr Ginz will inspire children around the world,” said Sandra Dickson, co-director of the Institute. “In the midst of the Holocaust, Petr showed how the human spirit can prevail. His writings and drawings are his legacy and his gift to the world.”
Foundation trustee Stephen Cypen, a 1965 UF graduate, will become executive producer of The Last Flight of Petr Ginz, which the institute plans to complete in two years.
“Steve Cypen is a great friend of UF,” said Churchill Roberts, co-director of the institute. “He’s given to the Jewish Studies program, to the restoration of Newell Hall, to Hillel of Gainesville. We couldn’t ask for a better fit.”
The Doc Institute
Producers of award-winning films and
award-winning filmmakers.
Shooting Begins on Ginz Film
DI Co-Director Sandra Dickson interviews Chava Pressburger, the sister of Petr Ginz.
After months of rights negotiations and research, a group of DI faculty recently traveled to Israel to begin principal shooting on the latest Institute film, The Last Flight of Petr Ginz. The film will tell the story of artistic and literary prodigy, Petr Ginz. By 14 he had written five novels and penned a diary about the Nazi occupation of Prague. By 16 he had produced 120 drawings and paintings, edited an underground magazine in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, written numerous short stories and had walked to the gas chamber at Auschwitz.
The crew went to Israel to interview Chava Pressburger, the sister of Petr Ginz, and Jehuda Bacon, one of the last people to see Petr before he died at Auschwitz.
Quick Links
A Cool Summer
Lindsey Clark shows off her new Nat Geo accessories.
Not every DI student decides to do a summer internship, but those who decided to do so this summer landed some pretty cool stints. DI students interned for esteemed filmmakers such as Errol Morris and Barbara Koppel as well as with independent producers and National Geographic. Here’s what the students had to say in their “letters home.”
Lindsey Clark
I’m interning at National Geographic in Washington, D.C. in the editorial development department for television. My main task is research. Anything from finding fast facts on sharks to finding experts on Hainan gibbons. I am also participating, with a group of interns, in a talent search to find a new host for a new series.
DI NEWS
“…a well-paced, even snappy, documentary”
A review of the DI film, Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power is featured in the recent edition of Film and History.
DI Teams Reach Angelus Semi-Finals
Two DI student productions recently made it into the semi-final round of the Angelus Awards Student Film Festival. Jessie’s Dad, produced by Boaz Dvir and Rebecca Goldman and A Sh’mal World, produced by Michelle Friedline and Laureen Ricks, were selected from over 450 entries submitted from 23 countries.
DI Grad in Philadelphia Film Festival
Justice For Her a film on which 2002 DI grad Bianca White served as associate producer, was recently accepted into the 31st Annual Philadelphia International Film Festival & Market.
