FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, August 20, 2014
Haydenfilms Institute is proud to announce its fiscal sponsorship with local filmmaker Jaccii Farris, President of Julian Farris Films. With a mission of empowering, educating and funding global independent and student filmmakers, Haydenfilms Institute continues to support local film projects happening in Eastern Pennsylvania.
“Working on our first documentary film project with such historic impact provides Haydenfilms an opportunity to prove why filmmaking is so important,” Hayden Craddolph, Executive Director of Haydenfilms Institute, says. “The preservation of first hand accounts of the Holocaust will allow for new dialogue and become a legacy for our current generation.”
Farris, an Emmy Award winning journalist, came across the story of Michele Willner Levy through her work as a News Reporter and Docujournalist at WFMZ TV in Allentown. Levy’s story connects a family torn apart through the Holocaust and her viewpoint is one of the last living survivors of that generation.
“The generations living now will be the last to hear first-hand accounts of Holocaust survivors,” Farris explains. “We need to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s so important to get these people recorded, that these people’s stories get told.”
Letters to Frieda is currently being filmed with a premiere date set for January 27, 2015 - the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. But completion of the film will take collaborative efforts from Julian Farris Films, HFI, WFMZ and community support.
To learn more about the fiscal sponsorship program and becoming involved, please email Melissa LaRosa at mlarosa@haydenfilmsinstitute.org
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