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Brave Old World's haunting musical program of street songs from the Lodz Ghetto serves as the backdrop of David Kaufman's definitive new film about the "first and last ghetto" in Poland. The film consists of chilling narrative, stirring concert performances, unforgettable photographs and extensive interviews with survivors of the Holocaust from Lodz.
The film focuses on the lives of two historical figures: the Ghetto's beloved and popular street-singer, Yankele Herszkowicz and the Nazi-appointed Jewish leader of the ghetto, Chaim Rumkowski. This documentary explores the uplifting role that music and culture played for ghetto dwellers who faced the constant fear of death. This history of the Lodz Ghetto is an extraordinary Holocaust narrative.
David Kaufman, a native of Montreal and resident of Toronto, is a documentary filmmaker and fine-art photographer. His first film, A. M. Klein: The Poet as Landscape, a biography and celebration of the esteemed Canadian writer, was broadcast by the C.B.C. in 1980. Subsequently he worked as a documentary director for two of C.B.C. TV’s leading programs, The Journal and The Fifth Estate. Since 1999 he has worked independently, producing and directing films which have appeared on the C.B.C., the History channel, Bravo!, and P.B.S. His latest project is Song of the Lodz Ghetto, a history of the ghetto which focuses on the life of the ghetto’s famous street-singer, Yankele Herszkowicz and contains performances of music from Lodz by the group, Brave Old World. He has made two other films about the Holocaust, one about Kristallnacht and another about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which were broadcast on the History channel. He also produced and directed The New Klezmorim, a music film which explores the Klezmer revival.
Mr. Kaufman also has a career as a photographer, specializing in large-format architectural images. Recent exhibitions include Makom: Seeking Sacred Space (with David Cowles), photos of historic synagogues in Montreal, Toronto: A City Becoming, photos of historic Toronto buildings, and Recurrent Memories (with Robert Burley and Wieslaw Michalak) which featured his photos of historic Jewish Lodz, including its Jewish cemetery, the largest in Europe.
