This blog is devoted to my artistic, personal, and spiritual journey through the process of creating a biopic during my attendance at UCLA. I hope to breathe life and share the story of Jewish heroine Rosa Robota, who has inspired me to not only make a film about her heroic acts, but led me seek a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Jewish woman.

Monday, November 21, 2011

November & 21

I remember the day clearly, or the moment, rather. I was sitting at my friend Renee's house in the summer of 2010. We were going through her mother's library, browsing her collection of Jewish legends about golems, and both fictional and historical accounts of Judaism--all the while discussing the what have you's of Jdate pro's and con's.

I began leafing through a massive volume her mother had, an encyclopedia of the Holocaust-- and somehow my eyes ended up falling on a small article. It must have only been an inch by an inch, but it mentioned that a young woman, when the war was just about to come to a close, had worked tactfully for months to bomb Crematorium IV in Auschwitz.

The article was brief, but it found a voice inside my head and never left. At the time I was the president of the Hillel at my university and that fall found myself working with our faculty advisor (who is a gifted scholar and librarian) to learn more about this story. I asked my rabbi and a few rabbi's I knew about her. They didn't know about this woman or what she had done.

We looked for weeks, but without a name, finding historical documents was tough. Finally one day she sent me an email with a link to an article about the life and heroic acts of Rosa Robota. From then on, I kept my eyes peeled for more information about her story, and would google occasionally when I found the time. My life took off quickly and I applied for graduate school and left for Ghana, where I lived for the next six months, doing a study abroad, and with my remaining electives studied Hebrew.

While in Africa, I interviewed and was accepted to the UCLA film school. I went through a boomerang summer, with three jobs, and prepared to pick my life up and move to Los Angeles. During the first week of film school our advisor told us the layout of the program and the total films we would make while in graduate residence at UCLA. I realized there were only four major films (other than class projects), and my thoughts somehow quickly returned to Rosa Robota. I'd continued mentioning her story to people whenever I could, no one seemed to know what she had done. I decided then I had to find a way to tell her story through film. I had originally envisioned writing a feature about Rosa and directing it much later in my life, feeling that I might not be mature enough or have the technical skillset to confidently make the film. And it was important to me that it be done right.

However, a few years previous, I had attended the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium, and I remember both Kathleen Kennedy and Ken Burns mentioning one thing repeatedly--that if you feel the need to tell a story, that story, you should do it then, and write it now. Don't talk yourself out of it, because at that time you can give that film the passion from within you that gave it life.

This got me thinking, once again at UCLA, that this should be the film I make, as soon as I have the creative freedom to do it. The program is designed for us to make a two minute film, and a six minute film before we go on to create our advanced film, where we have more freedom in terms of runtime, crew, production locations etc. I decided to make this film the topic of my advanced work while at UCLA.

I mentioned it to people within the film school and received a variety of reactions, as it is only my first year within the program. Most people were shocked that I knew what I wanted to do for a film I wouldn't get to make for a year (I still receive this reaction). People tell me things change, in a year I might want to make a different film. But I know myself, and I make decisions with conviction. I decided to go to film school as a sophomore in undergrad, I decided to go Africa when I was five years old, I've always been someone who thinks years in advance. People who know me well, know I'm wiling to figure out how to get there.

So while people think I'm crazy, I've continued to do research on Rosa and begin pre-production for the film. I feel as though it is going to be a monumental task to produce, I'm both nervous and excited. I've begun working with friends and family to produce fundraisers for the project, and I've started outlining the scrips (as I'm going to write a short version that I will shoot and a feature that I will sit with until given on the opportunity to move forward).

The articles I've been reading talk about one thing which gives the film's journey even more of a personal connection for me. At night, thoughts about the production of this film, ways to give it a skeleton within a script, and thoughts about the criticism and support I've received from fellow filmmakers, friends and colleagues keeps me up at night. It brings me back to my computer searching until early hours of the morning. I find the story spilling from my lips whenever dreams or ideas come up in a conversation. A part of me needs people to know what Rosa Robota, Estusia Wajcblum, Regina Safirsztain, and Alina Gartner did. I can't explain it. It comes from inside.

There's often a discussion about women in film, and how difficult it is for us to get remembered in history books. I think this can go for a lot of women's stories. And I as read Rosa's I discovered one thing. In November of 1941, at 21 years of age Rosa's journey to Auschwitz began. And in November of 2011, at 21 years of age, I too will begin a journey.

This blog will be a place where I can share that journey with my friends, family, fellow filmmakers, and the Jewish community.