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40

Friday, February 6, 1987

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

AROUND TOWN

1•■■ 111111111111111111111111111

Partisans of Vilna

Continued from preceding page

whose last project was the film,

Image Before My Eyes, decided

that it was necessary to do a
film about what it meant to re-
sist the Nazis.
"I wanted to get into the
topic deeply. I wanted to get
into the hearts and minds of
people—to get the feeling of
what it was like to resist, day to
day, month after month."
She and Waletzky began
working on the film in 1980,
doing research for the first two
years. She traveled to Israel,
where she met Abba Kovner, a
partisan leader in the Vilna
Ghetto, who today is a leading
poet in Israel. Through
Kovner, she was able to locate
about 100 more of the surviv-
ing partisans. Seventy were
interviewed for the film, and
the testimonies of about 40
were used. Many were found in
Israel, as well as in the U.S.
and Canada.
As the film's producer, she
was responsible for getting
funding. Having had experi-
ence as a fund raiser for other
filmmakers, Kempner ap-
proached family, friends, busi-
ness people, Hollywood celeb-
rities, and other filmmakers.
Among them, she wrote to
Woody Allen, who, she said
sent a nice refusal letter. From
Mel Brooks, she got no re-
sponse at all.
Detroiters who contributed
included shopping center
magnate A. Alfred Taubman,
Dick and Sheila Sloan, Bill and
Madge Berman, Mr. and Mrs.
David Mondry, Judge Avern
and Joyce Cohn, David and Do-
reen Hermelin and Benjamin
Frank and Lois Pincus-Frank.
Since Waletzky had worked
on Barbra Streisand's Yentl,
the duo had a connection with
the singer-actress, and she be-
came a contributor. Actor Ed
Asner, whose family comes
from Vilna, helped out and di-
rector Martin Brest and fash-
ion designer Diane von
Furstenberg were among her
"angels."
With the condition that she
obtain matching funds, the na-
tional endowment for the
Humanities gave her a grant of
$400,000.
The film made its debut last
year at the Berlin Film Festi-
val, which Kempner said is
second only in importance to
that of Cannes. It has since
won a Cine Golden Eagle
award from a national
educator's association. In addi-
tion to Detroit, the film is cur-
rently being shown in theaters
in New York, Washington, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Seat-
tle, Salt Lake City and
Chicago. Kempner added there
are plans for non-theatrical re-
lease as well, in Holocaust
memorial centers, Jewish
community centers and col-
leges.
A graduate of Detroit's Cass
Tech and the University of
Michigan, the Antioch Law
School graduate said her inter-

est in films can be traced to her
youth. "My mother says I was
always a meshugeneh about
films," and at the time of her
interview with The Jewish
News, she had planned to see
four films that week. She took
an active role as a film fund
raiser, but was bitten by the
bug.
"I could've written a book
(about the resistance move-
ment), but there's nothing like
seeing people on screen."
Without formal film training,
Kempner says her six years of

"If I had passed the
bar exam I would
never have made
the film."

working on the film "were like
going to film school."
She said failing the bar exam
was a blessing in disguise. "If I
had passed the bar exam, I
would never have made the
film."
Kempner said she chose
documentaries rather than
feature films because there
were "topics that needed to be
addressed." Jewish subjects
are her particular interest. She
also plans to do a film about
women in the 1980s.
Her next project will be a
film about Hank Greenberg,
but she is still trying to get
permission from his family.
That film, she says, will be a
tribute to her father, a die-hard
baseball fan. She is looking
for"good" Greenberg stories to
highlight the film. (Stories
may be sent to her at 1707
Lanier Place, N.W., Washing-
ton, D.C. 20009.)
She has since been called
upon to direct other Holocaust
films, but has declined. "It's
draining." Kempner said dur-
ing the development of Parti-
sans of Vilna she often would
be depressed. "I still look at the
film and cry in parts."
A bit embarrassed, she said
the film has received good re-
sponse, and has gotten a nod
from Elie Wiesel. Survivors,
she said, are "struck by the au-
thenticity" projected in the
documentary. One filmmaker
complimented her by calling
the film, "honest."
Partisans of Vilna was
Kempner's "ideal" film project,
but she said she would like to
produce dramatic films and do
some scriptwriting. As far as
topics, she is pretty much open
to suggestion. "I would like to
do anything that can answer
my own questions in life."
And if she had been in Vilna
in the early 1940s would she
have joined the partisans?
She's unsure. "I spent six years
trying to find the answer to
that. I think I still don't know. I
would hope I would've."

❑

