IndieGoGo.com: The Lilliput

The Lilliput

Jewish dwarf hides in garbage cans to survive the Holocaust

Lodz,
Poland

RATINGS (13)

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Tags: jewishdwarf poland pastmeetsfuture survival holocaust reconciliation

Synopsis: An American filmmaker travels to Poland to make a film about Gombin, the town her father was born in, as a memorial to him and to the Holocaust. Poland 2008 is a country of contradictions where the invisible torture of the past meets the hope of the future.

On location she befriends Marya, a local resident. They discover that Marya is the grand daughter of Esther Lonsky who married a non-Jew and converted to Christianity. While a shock to her mother Lucja, the pregnant Marya presses the filmmaker for more of her family's history exposing difficult memories and reminding us that we cannot escape our past.

The film, a parallel narrative, cuts between the present and the past as the stories of the Gombiner Jews are told intertwined with the filmmaker's quest to reconnect with her history. Esther Lonsky is ostracized by her family – her only friend is Abraham Kerber, a Jewish dwarf with whom she takes refuge after her husband leaves for the front. When the Nazi’s march into Poland rounding up its Jews, Abraham escapes into the woods and survives hiding in garbage cans at train stations from where he witnesses SS atrocities. His friends from Gombin meet their own fates; denounced, shot or sent to concentration camps. Esther has a child and remains in Gombin with her husband after he returns from war.

In the final scene, a little girl makes a presentation to her elementary school class telling stories of her great-grandparents and their friend Abraham, the dwarf. The mysterious similarity between her dwarfism and Abraham's poses unanswered questions. While her mother Marya sits in the back of the room, we are left to wonder about this child's lineage and her own future in Poland. And we are left asking what future generations can do to stop such atrocities and how to strive for reconciliation while vigilant to signs that old hatreds still lurk. In the words of a survivor’s grandchild, “We’ve already seen what hatred can do. We need to do something better than that”.

IndieGoGo URL: http://www.indiegogo.com/thelilliput

FUNDING

Goal
$3,500

How will these funds be used?
Film transfer and editing

VIP PERKS

$36	Postcards	Sets of vintage postcards from old Jewish Poland. An unusual but beautiful document of a time and place that no longer exists.
$72	Wrap party	You'll be invited to attend a party in a fabulous loft in downtown New York City with cast, crew, musicians and friends of the film.
$180	Framed photograph	The Gombin synagogue was an ancient and beautiful wooden building, built in the 1700's with rare architectural design especially for that place and time. We have a limited edition of photographs taken of the synagogue shortly before it was destroyed.
$270	Singing lesson	You will receive a singing lesson from one of the members of the Hoboken, NJ chorale, all of whom are conservatory trained singers who give private lessons to a broad clientele.
$360	Piano lessons	A set of 3 piano lessons by a conservatory trained pianist, performer and teacher. This is being provided in NYC but if you're in another city we will arrange for the same thing to be provided there - unless you live in a very small town.
$360	Rare books	A set of 3 rare books on the history of Polish Jews and the community of Lodz, Poland.
$360	Documentary on DVD	The director will sign copies of her documentary Back to Gombin which chronicles the history of the Jews in the small ancestral town where the renowned Magen Avraham, interpreter of the Shulchan Aruch, was born in the 1600's
$1,000	Signed platinum photograph	John Brill is a contemporary photographer represented by KENT gallery in New York City. His work is in numerous museums and private collections and has been reviewed widely. For a $1,000+ donation you will receive a signed platinum photograph.

HISTORY

May 03, 2008	Fundraising Expired ($197 of $3,500)	Funds use: Film transfer and editing
February 28, 2008	Fundraising Completed ($10,000 of $10,000)	Funds use: To create a sneak peek to be shot in Poland in late February

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

What makes The Lilliput different?
The difference between this film and others about the Holocaust, is significant and lies in the structure of the film. In this parallel narrative, the past links to the present and the future, over generations and in mysterious and unpredictable ways. The setting is Poland today, in the past and in the future. Visible in the scenes from the present in Poland, are traces of the Holocaust and Communism which lurk invisibly in their shared histories of the characters. Everyone wishes to move forward with their lives into a brighter future. However, the past can not be so easily erased, and permeates in their current lives. The past affects the futures of the characters, as well. The way in which the individual characters reflect upon and incorporate the lessons of the past, and the legacy of the Nazi destruction of the Jewish people, links to other characters across the hands of time. Ultimately, their lives and the future is created from the way in which each of them learn from the wrongs of the past. An unsentimental story that is personal and inspired by one Jewish dwarf who really lived and who hid in a garbage can, to escape the Holocaust, ends up being a beautiful film about peace, mutual understanding and the ways in which we must each do our part to heal the world, and insure a better place for future generations.

What is the name of the legal entity behind this project, if any?
Lilliput, LLC

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