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