US PREMIERE
Q&A 3/2 with Director Ronen Israelski
The second World War and the Holocaust in the eyes of children who met Hitler. How it changed their lives and ours. 75 years after the end of World War II The son of Holocaust survivor Embarks on a journey to find the last living people in the world Who Met Hitler. A lifetime of perspective.
“I did like Hitler, but it is forgotten.” The Day I Met Hitler is a documentary film made over five years (2015-2020) by Toronto-based Ronen Israelski. The film has simple narration and a personal homage and fact-finding for a director and artist whose life and course of his family still to the date is tied to the past and horror of WWII. The Award winner in Canadian Cinematography Awards and selected for other nominations recently, The Day I MET HITLER uses the medium of cinema and personal storytelling to uncover facts hidden in the weight of history.
The film is a series of interviews with still survivors who personally met Hitler. The director’s journey and film opening begin in Berlin and the site where his father met Hitler in 1934.
The camera’s bird’s view shows us Berlin, the city long recovered but still haunted by the memory of a man and a regime that shook the core of who we are. His search in Berlin leads the director to his father’s apartment and the Jewish cemetery that his grandmother is buried. The image is so revelatory, and the shifting of time-space smooth and not disconcerting. The film and camera then take the viewers back to Canada, back to Austria, and eventually to Berlin. In all episodes, a sense of tragic loss and unfathomable insights into how Nazism and Hitler swayed the hearts of those who met him, and the general public is frighteningly evident. The interviews with Richard Reiter, Gerhard Bartles, and the unsuccessful and fleeting one with Edda Goring all attempt to cover the gaps and make us not hate Hitler more but to understand how through cinema’s language, one can understand the horror and complexity of past historical trauma. By Hooman Razavi
Director Biography - Ronen Israelski
Ronen Israelski, Toronto, is a documentary filmmaker. Ronen has been involved in the media industry for over 20 years working in Israel and Canada. Graduated Film & Television from the "Kent Institute of Art and Design" in the U.K.
- Year2020
- Runtime89 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, German w/Subtitles
- CountryCanada
- PremiereUS
- DirectorRonen Israelski
US PREMIERE
Q&A 3/2 with Director Ronen Israelski
The second World War and the Holocaust in the eyes of children who met Hitler. How it changed their lives and ours. 75 years after the end of World War II The son of Holocaust survivor Embarks on a journey to find the last living people in the world Who Met Hitler. A lifetime of perspective.
“I did like Hitler, but it is forgotten.” The Day I Met Hitler is a documentary film made over five years (2015-2020) by Toronto-based Ronen Israelski. The film has simple narration and a personal homage and fact-finding for a director and artist whose life and course of his family still to the date is tied to the past and horror of WWII. The Award winner in Canadian Cinematography Awards and selected for other nominations recently, The Day I MET HITLER uses the medium of cinema and personal storytelling to uncover facts hidden in the weight of history.
The film is a series of interviews with still survivors who personally met Hitler. The director’s journey and film opening begin in Berlin and the site where his father met Hitler in 1934.
The camera’s bird’s view shows us Berlin, the city long recovered but still haunted by the memory of a man and a regime that shook the core of who we are. His search in Berlin leads the director to his father’s apartment and the Jewish cemetery that his grandmother is buried. The image is so revelatory, and the shifting of time-space smooth and not disconcerting. The film and camera then take the viewers back to Canada, back to Austria, and eventually to Berlin. In all episodes, a sense of tragic loss and unfathomable insights into how Nazism and Hitler swayed the hearts of those who met him, and the general public is frighteningly evident. The interviews with Richard Reiter, Gerhard Bartles, and the unsuccessful and fleeting one with Edda Goring all attempt to cover the gaps and make us not hate Hitler more but to understand how through cinema’s language, one can understand the horror and complexity of past historical trauma. By Hooman Razavi
Director Biography - Ronen Israelski
Ronen Israelski, Toronto, is a documentary filmmaker. Ronen has been involved in the media industry for over 20 years working in Israel and Canada. Graduated Film & Television from the "Kent Institute of Art and Design" in the U.K.
- Year2020
- Runtime89 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, German w/Subtitles
- CountryCanada
- PremiereUS
- DirectorRonen Israelski
