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EMMY WINNER MICHAEL KING TO DIRECT & PRODUCE FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY TITLED THE RESCUERS, “HEROES OF THE HOLOCAUST”

 Los Angeles: Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker Michael King is producing and directing a feature-length documentary with a unique perspective on the Holocaust. Titled: The Rescuers, “Heroes of the Holocaust,” King developed the project in collaboration with world-renowned British historian Sir Martin Gilbert. The film will document Sir Martin’s extensive research on non-Jewish diplomats who made astonishing efforts to save tens of thousands of Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust. Joyce D. Mandell will serve as executive producer. 

The film will be seen through the eyes of Stephanie Nyombayire, Sir Martin’s research assistant during the documentary, a young Rwandan woman who is an anti-genocide activist and lost one hundred members of her own family to genocide. Educated in the United States (Kent School and Swarthmore College) her personal story brings the historical perspective into a contemporary worldview on the horrors of genocide and the unwillingness of others to put themselves at risk to intervene. In 2007, Ms. Nyombayire was named one Glamour magazine's Top Ten College Women for her work on Darfur. 

“What moves this film from the category of a highly competent and valuable project to a brilliant concept is the proposal that the film will be seen through the eyes of Sir Martin’s graduate assistant, a young Rwandan woman, Stephanie Nyombayire, who lost one hundred family members to genocide,” said Deborah E. Lipstadt, Ph.D., Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Emory University.  “Stephanie’s experience helps give the Holocaust and the story of those who fought to help the victims a ‘broader’ meaning in the contemporary world of genocide studies.  This is not to suggest that the Holocaust does not have tremendous relevance on its own ‘merit.’  Obviously it does.  But when the Holocaust is linked to other subsequent tragedies, particularly those of such proportion as Rwanda, it helps give added educational relevance. Teachers and other educators will be drawn to using it in their classes.” 

The film will be shot throughout Europe and will re-trace the route of thousands of escapees from the Nazis as they fled to China, Portugal, Argentina, Japan, Britain, the United States and even the small Island of Curacao in the Caribbean.   

 “It was through the bravery and ingenuity of these diplomats against their own country’s policies, that these acts of heroism occurred,” said King. “Most of the names of these heroes are not part of the ordinary lexicon of the average American or American Jews familiar with the stories of the Holocaust.” 

Included among the people to be profiled in the film is Princess Alice of Greece, grandmother to Britain’s Prince Charles, who hid Jews in her palace in Athens during this period.  The Prince has given King his endorsement to use his image in the documentary and to help promote its distribution.  

Others to be featured in the film include:  Captain Foley of Britain, Jan Zwartendijk of Holland, Dr. Ho of China, Chiune Sugihara of Japan, Varian Fry and Hiram Bingham of the United States, Henryk Slawik of Poland, Selahattin Ulkumen of Turkey (Muslim), George Duckwitz of Germany (Nazi) and Aristide de Souza-Mendes of Portugal.  

An educational guide will be created and distributed to high schools in the United States and internationally. “It has been demonstrated that the understanding of heroism and the use of heroes is a major factor influencing the values of young men and women,” said King. 

King’s credits include a PBS documentary on youth violence in America titled “Bangin’,” for which he received an Emmy and International Television and Video Association Award for Best Documentary and Best Editing. He recently completed “Rapping with Shakespeare,” a feature documentary on Crenshaw High School in South Central Los Angeles, which was nominated for A&E Spotlight Indie Award; and an American Film Institute film, “Crenshaw Nights” starring Vondie Curtis-Hall and Judd Nelson. The production is scheduled to begin in March. Two of King’s previous documentaries, “Rapping with Shakespeare” and “The Dream is Still Alive,” will be shown at the Wadsworth Atheneum’s sixth annual Martin Luther King Community Day in Hartford, CT., on Monday, January 19, 2009. 

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