Film Premiere: “Sh’ma: A Story of Survival” by Suki John

An innovative and powerful narrative dance film that celebrates resilience, connection, and hope, “Sh’ma: A Story of Survival” tells the story of director/choreographer Suki John’s mother. Originally a live choreodrama performed in the former Yugoslavia and New York City, the story follows our heroine from her school days to the ghetto, to her deportation to a concentration camp, and finally her immigration to the U.S. “Sh’ma: A Story of Survival” film features 15 virtuoso performers and extraordinary original music and design.

The film screening will be followed by a conversation, moderated by Wendy Perron, former editor in chief of Dance Magazine, with Suki John, the film’s director and choreographer, and two performers, Keith Saunders and Kira Rae Daniel.

Doors open at 6:30 PM. The Museum is free and open to all on Thursdays from 4:00 to 8:00 PM with Jewish and Russian fare on offer from LOX Cafe. Currently on view: The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, Survivors: Faces of Life After the Holocaust, and Andy Goldsworthy’s Garden of Stones.

The Sh’ma Project is a three-part Holocaust and Human Rights arts and education initiative. It combines the film, Sh’ma: A Story of Survival, with free educational materials and Upstander Workshops designed to help young people contextualize history and create personal, empowering responses. Suitable for high schools, colleges, museums, places of worship, film festivals, artistic organizations, and distribution, The Sh’ma Project supports learning with pre- and post-screening workshops and The Enduring Resilience Project, a digital textbook by a team of renown international scholars. The film will soon be available in a 40-minute educational version appropriate for young adults, as well as the original 71-minute Director’s Cut. For more information, please visit The Sh’ma Project: Move Against Hate.