STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME wins the Yad Vashem Chairman's Award
I received an email from Michele Ohayon in Jerusalem that STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME did indeed win the Yad Vashem Chairman's Award for a Holocaust-related film at the Jerusalem Film Festival. Yad Vashem is Isreal's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is the largest Holocaust Museum in the world. The museum has a great website. Visit it now.
Museum Grounds
Photo courtesy of Stahlkocher
I am very honored to be associated with this film and all those who worked on it.
STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME in the Jerusalem Film Festival
Ina and Jacob Pollack
A Great Week for Simple Music Productions
STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME, the true story of a love triangle set in a concentration camp during the holocaust, won the "Best of the Fest" Audience Award at the Sonoma Valley Film Festival in California.
and
ANGELS IN THE DUST, a documentary about the Bothshabelo orphanage in South Africa, won the Audience Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina.
Also, The documentary I scored, LALO GUERRERO: THE ORIGINAL CHICANO, was nominated for a 2007 Alma Award.
Photos from PENCIL at the UN
I finally met the stars of the documentary, Holocaust survivors Ina and Jack Polak, and handed them a CD of the score:
Here's a shot before the screening in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium with the legendary editor-diva Kate Amend:
With director Michele Ohayon, Kate Amend, and assistant editor Katie Flint and her brother:
STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME to screen at the United Nations
Yes, I finally made it to the UN. On April 16, 2007 the epic documentary I scored about the holocaust love story of Ina and Jack Polak will be screened at the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium at the United Nations. It is presented by Ina and Jack Polak, The Anne Frank Center USA and The United Nations Department of Public Information.
UPDATE: STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME will have it's West Coast Premier at the Sonoma Valley Film Festival April 14th and 15th, 2006. The director, Michele Ohayon, believe it or not, will be present at the screenings (and the screening the 16th at the UN).
A Spontaneous Review of STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME
"I started at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse at 11 a.m. with “Steal a Pencil for Me.” The description in the film guide mentioned the word “Holocaust,” which is one of the reasons I hadn’t been that keen on seeing it at what has otherwise been a fun, upbeat festival. But then I overheard two different strangers in two different places say it was one of the best documentaries they’d ever seen in their lives, and I became intrigued. You gotta follow the buzz at film festivals. It’s how you find the hidden gems.
“Steal a Pencil for Me” is a love story, really, about a Dutch couple who survived the war together and have now been married for 60 years. At the time, however, the man was married to a bitter shrew, even as he was falling in love with this other woman, thus creating a romantic triangle in the Nazi concentration camps.
I concur with the strangers: This is one of the most extraordinarily lovely documentaries I’ve ever seen. It has the Holocaust stuff that will make you cry, and then the sweet, gentle love story on top of that. Is there anything dearer than two 90-year-olds who are still as much in love now as they were 60 years ago? It almost makes you not hate old people anymore, just for a few minutes. On top of that, the film has gorgeous cinematography and a beautiful musical score. It makes you cry big, happy tears over and over again, or at least it did me."
UPDATE: More reviews of PENCIL
PopMatters (scroll down)
The Daily Grind (scroll down)
The Austin Chronicle
Steal A Pencil For Me Premieres at the SXSW Film Festival
STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME is a compelling documentary feature film by Academy Award® nominee Michèle Ohayon about the power of love and the ability of humankind to rise above unimaginable suffering. 1943; Holland is under total Nazi occupation. In Amsterdam, Jack, an unassuming accountant, first meets Ina at a birthday party – a 20 year old beauty from a wealthy diamond manufacturing family who instantly steals his heart. But Jack’s pursuit of love will be complicated; he is poor and married to Manja, a flirtatious and mercurial spouse. When the Jews are being deported, the husband, the wife and the lover find themselves at the same concentration camp; actually living in the same barracks. When Jack's wife objects to the "girlfriend" in spite of their unhappy marriage, Jack and Ina resort to writing secret love letters, which sustain them throughout the horrible circumstances of the war.
Checkout my myspace page to hear the "Love Theme".
This is brought to you by the same team that brought you COWBOY DEL AMOR:
Michele Ohayon, director
Theo Van de Sande, Director of Photography
Kate Amend, Editor
Joseph Julian Gonzalez, Composer
Michael Bard, Sound
This is a music production of SIMPLE MUSIC PRODUCTIONS and the great team of:
Keith Stark, score mixer
J. Marcus Oliver, orchestrator
Johnny Wilson, assistant engineer
Also, I want to thank the following musicians for lending their incredible talents:
Mitchell Newman, violin
John Rusnak, piano
Sussam Deyhim, voice