48 | AUGUST 4 • 2022 

T

wo years after the Holocaust film 
My Name Is Sara was ready for 
general distribution, it is being 
shown Aug. 5 at the Maple Theater in 
Bloomfield Township, where a talkback 
segment will be conducted by Sara’s son, 
Michigan resident Mickey 
Shapiro, and the film direc-
tor, Steven Oritt (American 
Native, Accidental Climber).
COVID got in the way of 
the docudrama’s theater dis-
tribution, but it has been a 
prizewinner at film festivals 
around the world and has been shown to 
religious groups in the United States with 
remote audiences. 
Recently seen in New York and 
California with its general release, the film 
is expected to be on view in some 35 sites 
throughout August. 
The docudrama displays how Sara 
Shapiro, living in Poland at age 11, 
escaped the Nazis by taking on a Christian 
identity and toiled through grueling 

domestic work during the war before 
establishing a family in the United States. 
“I want people to know how hard it 
was in what she went through and how 
she handled it,” said Shapiro, a real estate 
investor and developer who remotely 
conducted a similar session last summer 
at the Zekelman Holocaust Center in 
Farmington Hills.
“It was amazing how she survived. She 
was a kid who lost her mother, father and 
relatives. All she had was a pair of shoes 
and a dress, and she was all by herself. She 
lived for weeks with her brother, and then 
they split up. She spent years as a kid who 
had no life [of her own].” 
The idea for the film was made at the 
suggestion of hedge fund owner Andrew 
Intrater, who met Shapiro in Florida. 
They talked about the backgrounds of 
their families during the Holocaust, and 
ultimately, the two shared production and 
funding commitments. 
The distribution was decided by Strand 
Releasing, which has handled independent 

films for some 35 years.
“Strand has relationships with all of the 
theater owners across the country, and 
they had to wait for screen availability,” 
said Oritt, whose Jewish identity has 
caused him to share the emotional ele-
ments of the film. 

MORE TIMELY THAN EVER
“We could not have anticipated there 
would be a war happening in Ukraine, 
making the movie even more relevant 
and timely. I think the film has gotten a 
fair amount of attention because Sara was 
hiding as Ukrainian Orthodox for 90% of 
the film.”
Shapiro, who has been a member of 
Congregation Beth Ahm and a 19-year 
executive board member of Steven 
Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, visited 
Ukraine before the movie was made and 
found the people friendly. He remains 
shocked that Russia invaded Ukraine. 
“The Maple was picked to present the 
movie because the location was within 

Survivor’s Story Told on Film

ARTS&LIFE
FILM

Mickey Shapiro’s My Name Is Sara premieres at the Maple Theater Aug. 5.

Mickey 
Shapiro

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Zuzanna Surowy 
and Eryk Lubos 
in a scene from 
the film

