BOGDAN’S JOURNEY: a new documentary film about murder and mayhem–and 70 years later—about memory, reconciliation and healing.
Kielce, Poland was the site of Europe’s last pogrom. In 1946, a year after WWII ended, townspeople killed 40 holocaust survivors seeking shelter in a downtown building, and injured 80 more around the city. After the pogrom, as news spread across Poland and around the world, a newly installed communist regime forbade discussion of the massacre, but it was never forgotten.
The pogrom poisoned Polish/Jewish relations for a generation. BOGDAN’s JOURNEY tells the story of a contemporary Catholic Pole, Bogdan Bialek, who embarks on a journey to heal the wounds and bridge the divide between the international Jewish community and the townspeople of Kielce. He cuts through the fog of repression and denial, and confronts the deepest prejudices in his fellow citizens. The effort cost him dearly.
SCREENING:
Sunday, March 3, 2019 • 26 Adar I 5779
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Coslov Auditorium
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The film opened to great acclaim in 2017 at Warsaw’s Polin Museum. There were further screenings in Krakow and in Kielce, the site of the pogrom. BOGDAN’S JOURNEY has had successful festival runs in Poland and the United States, winning awards in both countries. It was the 2017 opening night selection at the Sarasota Jewish Film Festival with the filmmakers and the subject present. The film is distributed by LogTV in the USA and Go2 Films in Israel.
In 2018-2019, BODGAN’s JOURNEY was shown in 100 Polish high schools as part of a national debate about how history intersects with the present and about who controls the historical narrative. BOGDAN’S JOURNEY convinces us that a fraught national dialogue in Poland has great relevance and urgency elsewhere
With the rise of the far right and increasing anti-Semitic attacks across Europe and the United States, Bogdan Białek’s story, by offering the hope that change is possible and that enemies can be reconciled, becomes ever more urgent. It’s a unique story about one man and how he redeems 70 years of bitter, contested memories—by telling the truth with love.
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