Our research project is shaping up, and we presented our work in progress during the 52nd Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, organized by the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, at the University of Texas at Dallas, from 5-7 March 2022. Our talk was titled “A Lasting Image (work in progress): The Challenges of Documenting the Holocaust Through Animation.” The animation is produced at the experimenta.l. lab in partnership with the Ackerman Center. The story is based on the testimony of Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth, a Holocaust scholar and survivor who founded the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies.
The work in progress animation was showcased at the Conference on Sunday, March 6, 2022. The work was presented by Dr. Christine Veras and the undergraduate students Scott Huddleston, Kirstin Stevens Schmidt, and Ana Villarreal in a panel moderated by Dr. Nils Roemer.
During our research phase, Dr. Roemer introduced us to Dr. Ozsváth’s book “When the Danube Ran Red,” where she tells her personal story. Chapter 23, “Witches’ Shabbat,” was particularly visual when she recounted when she and her brother were separated from their parents and taken to the ghetto in Budapest in December 1944. Inspired by her story, I discovered Dr. Ozsváth’s testimony to the SHOAH Foundation. She was 64 years old when she gave this testimony. When listening to the four tapes of recordings, one particular segment stood out when she experienced a defining moment in her life.
Inspired by Dr. Ozsváth’s writing and testimony, Dr. Veras created the script used as a guide for the storyboard, and the visuals were created by the students working on the project. From the start, students had creative freedom to interpret and participate in different phases of the project, exchanging ideas, critiquing, and proposing visual and technical solutions for what the story needed.
See below a few images of the ongoing production.
“A Lasting Image” has been part of the official selection of four international animation festivals so far, including a festival in Ukraine, and it was awarded at a festival in Italy. The film is also part of the ASIFA International selection and has been screened in multiple places in Poland, India, and the United States. Full program available here: https://iadasifa.net/2022/10/11/times-and-showings-around-the-world/
In the news, the UTDallas Magazine published an article about the production of the short that can be accessed here: https://magazine.utdallas.edu/2022/10/24/labs-holocaust-film-moves-audiences-draws-upon-unique-collaboration/
Watch the full film here: