{"id":33,"date":"2014-12-03T02:22:19","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T02:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balkan-jazz.com\/?page_id=33"},"modified":"2024-05-17T15:26:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T15:26:28","slug":"balkan-jazz","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/comforty.com\/balkan-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"A film by Jacky Comforty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/946751128?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1165\" height=\"655\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>This documentary tells the life story and music of Niko Nissimov and his Jewish friends from the Bulgarian Jazz band, The Optimists. The movie charts their rise to stardom as a band in late 1930s Bulgaria. The beginning of WWII changed everything for them as Bulgaria joined the Axis powers. Anti-Jewish laws and restrictions brought the band to a halt. All men\u00a0<span class=\"text_exposed_show\">were drafted to slave labor camps, and the entire community was on the verge of extinction. Niko was saved by his friends at the last minute from a transport destined for the death camp of Treblinka.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This testimony to friendship and the human spirit is told by Niko Nissimov, his brother Harry Nissimov, and his band mate, David Eskin.\u00a0 The film is narrated by Jacky Comforty who ptovides historical and personal context. The movie is layered with original music recordings of The Optimists. The private photo albums and archival footage help illustrate this amazing story of adventure, creativity, and endless optimism in the face of impossible odds.<\/p>\n<p>Internationally acclaimed director Jacky Comforty has hand-crafted this first part of a new trilogy The Reclaimed Narrative about Bulgarian Jewish life and the Holocaust in Bulgaria.<\/p>\n<p>Balkan Jazz is 84 minutes long. The film is planned for released in January 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This documentary tells the life story and music of Niko Nissimov and his Jewish friends from the Bulgarian Jazz band, The Optimists. The movie charts their rise to stardom as a band in late 1930s Bulgaria. The beginning of WWII changed everything for them as Bulgaria joined the Axis powers. Anti-Jewish laws and restrictions brought [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"content-type":"","__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-33","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.1 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A film by Jacky Comforty - Balkan Jazz<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/comforty.com\/balkan-jazz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A film by Jacky Comforty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This documentary tells the life story and music of Niko Nissimov and his Jewish friends from the Bulgarian Jazz band, The Optimists. The movie charts their rise to stardom as a band in late 1930s Bulgaria. The beginning of WWII changed everything for them as Bulgaria joined the Axis powers. 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