ruth morley
memoirs
My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports is the first documentary feature film made on the subject of the Kindertransports. This award winning film was directed by Hacker, a member of the second generation whose mother fled Vienna on a Kindertransport in January 1939. The film is narrated by Joanne Woodward and has been screened in film festivals, museums, community centers and Universities and on television throughout the world.
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and for rental at www.netflix.com.
intimate...heartfelt...The speakers remember how their parents
made the
decision, as wrenching as Sophie's choice, to part with their
children,
possibly forever, on the eve of war....And they read, heartbreakingly
at
times, from journals and letters describing that period.
Janet Maslin, the New York Times
***
A simple and eloquent documentary....While many may feel that
they
know all they need to about the Holocaust from movies like "Schindler's
List" and "Shoah," this quiet film makes the horror
vivid all over again. And it does so not by the use of gory images,
but by showing the faces behind the statistics.
Hannah Brown, the New York Post
***
The Kindertransports were a noble humanitarian effort. In the
months
leading up to the Second World War, thousands of Jewish children
were sent away from their families and out of harm's way, from
Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland to Great Britain.
Unquestionably, young lives were saved. But as Melissa Hacker's
emotionally affecting documentary points out, there were unfortunate
psychological and emotional consequences as well.
Ron Givens, the Daily News
***
Unashamedly emotional and sensitively narrated by Joanne Woodward.
It's a movie about haunted lives, as summed up by Hacker herself
- "My mother's memories became my own"- and by the
photo that serves as a kind of logo for the film: A grief stricken
Czech mother, her husband trying to smile, their departing daughter
only halfway out of the picture, which is where she'll stay for
all time.
John Anderson, Newsday
CRITICS PICKS: Time Out New York
Ms. Hacker has created a film of exceptional depth and resonance.
Robert Sklar, The Forward
Melissa Hacker
e mail address: mykneeswerejumping@yahoo.com
web address: http://home.earthlink.net/~kinderfilm