“Monument to Love,” Best documentary at over fifty international film festivals.The film features a journey with my mother, Ika Comforty Ovadia, for over 25 years to research, document, and uncover the narrative of the Jewish people during the Holocaust in Bulgaria. As our journey progressed, Ika’s personal story unfolded. She shared memories and read passages […]
A series of videos about best practices in Early childhood education Filmed between 2009-2010 in the Children’s School at Tufts University, In Reggio Emilia in Italy, The American School in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the Henry Frost school in Cambridge, MA, And at the Velma Thomas school in Chicago.
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 […]
This documentary begins when Heather, a little girl with Down syndrome, is eight years old and in “special ed.” It follows her into the fourth grade in “regular school,” i.e., the general education classroom attended by the typical children of her age in her neighborhood. Step by Step: Heather’s Story is unique because it enables […]
The dramatic story of how 50,000 Bulgarian Jews survived the Holocaust despite the intense efforts of their government to deport them. The Optimists tells how people of all ethnic backgrounds stood by their Jewish neighbors, in times of persecution. Experience that offers valuable insight into how people can mobilize to defend human rights. “A rare documentary […]
Excerpt: This program about “outsider art” profiles three, self-taught Chicagoans. Each is a seeker–and discoverer–of hidden possibilities: in things thrown away, abandoned places, anonymous people, their younger selves. SYNOPSIS: Through a Glass, Lightly follows Mr. Imagination, David Philpot, and Kevin Orth as they search Chicago’s streets and alleys for the raw materials of their art. […]
Trailer: A one-hour documentary film about on-going struggles of children and grandchildren to come to grips with Nazi horrors suffered by their elders. The film focuses on Jerri Zbiral, the daughter of a survivor of the Nazi destruction of the Catholic village of Lidice, Czechoslovakia. Even though Jerri was born after the war, her mother’s […]
