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FILM REVIEWS

FILMS BY REMEMBER THE WOMEN INSTITUTE ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

OUT FROM THE SHADOWS: THE STORY OF IRENE AND FRÉDÉRIC JOLIOT CURIE BY ROSEMARIE REED

DEFIANCE, A FILM ABOUT THE BIELSKI BROTHERS, BY PROF. NECHAMA TEC

CAN YOU HEAR ME? ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN WOMEN FIGHT FOR PEACE BY LILLY RIVLIN

OTHER RELATED FILMS

A REVOLUTIONARY IN RIO BY RUTH ALMOG, REVIEWED BY ROCHELLE G. SAIDEL

TWO RECENT FILMS THAT PORTRAY TRAFFICKING
The Holy Land - a film about trafficking in Israel today
Lost Zweig - a film that depicts the Polacas in Rio de Janeiro

THE JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL, JULY 10-19, 2003
Brief Reviews by Rochelle G. Saidel on films related to the theme of women and the Holocaust, the Holocaust in general, and women’s lives.

AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER ROSEMARIE REED, A REMEMBER THE WOMEN ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, AGAIN PUTS WOMEN INTO HISTORY WITH HER NEW FILM, OUT FROM THE SHADOWS: THE STORY OF IRENE AND FRÉDÉRIC JOLIOT CURIE. AIRS ON PBS JUNE 11, 2009.

“Science is the foundation of all progress that improves human life and diminishes suffering.” (Irène Curie)

Out from the Shadows: The Story of Irene and Frédéric Joliot Curie
Premieres June 11, 2009, 10 pm on PBS

Producer: Rosemarie Reed
Narrator:  Julianne Moore

KQED is proud to present Out from the Shadows: The Story of Irène and Frédéric Joliot Curie, featuring the life and times of Irène Joliot-Curie, the eldest daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie. Although less well known than her legendary parents, Irène and her husband, Frédéric, were extraordinary scientists in their own right, having made a contribution of equally ground-breaking significance to nuclear physics. Like her parents, they, too, were awarded a Nobel Prize. And since Rosemarie Reed—who always finds the intriguing stories of remarkable women scientists—is the producer, we know there is much more to the documentary than the clear and excellent science it contains.  Coming of age in the early 20th Century, Irène’s life is filled with wartime incidents, absent parents, emotional and political turmoil and her brilliance—all of which must be told.     

Making use of Curie family photos and home movies, as well as interviews, letters, stock footage, and dramatizations, Out from the Shadows reveals Irène’s genius as a scientist and mathematician.  It shows, for example, the Joliot-Curie's creation of the first radioactive atom that did not exist in nature, marking the beginning of a new era in out relationship to matter. Artificial radioactivity, we all know, has enabled crucial beneficent advances. such as in cancer therapy.  But, we also know all-too-well about the threats to our existence from the weapons it has produced.

Out from the Shadows captures Irène’s pluckiness and fortitude.  Viewers see an 18-year-old Irène telling a surgeon on the battlefield how to position the X-ray in order to locate shrapnel in an injured soldier’s leg.  When Irène travels to Amiens to install another X-ray unit, military authorities announce that her equipment can not be unpacked for at least fifteen days. Coolly requisitioning a sergeant and a medical student, she unpacks the railroad car and, in less than an hour, installs the units.  Irène would say later, “I surmounted the little difficulties of the moment.”

Irène’s childhood and youth are marked by extremes at opposite ends.  She has access to opportunities which other children, even talented ones, could only dream of.  But she and her younger sister grow up deprived of their parents’ presence. Sometimes the two girls do not see their parents for weeks, even months. Her father dies in an accident when Irène is nine. Irène manages a complicated and intense scientific and personal relationship with her mother, Marie Curie, over the years, while her sister Ève, who was always less diplomatic and discreet, speaks openly of an unhappy childhood as an adult.

After the war, viewers of Out from the Shadows learn about Irène and Frédéric’s efforts at peace and Irène’s health issues.  They attend many conferences for peace, atomic weapons bans, and women’s rights that result in political repercussions.  Like her mother, Irène has health problems.  She paid a high price for ignoring the dangers of radiation because when she was a young researcher on the road to sensational discoveries, there was an obsessiveness in her that overruled all self-protective impulses. 

Out from the Shadowsis produced Rosemarie Reed. It is presented by KQED and distributed by PBS.  The underwriter is The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Defiance
Coming to theaters beginning December 31, 2008: Defiance, a film about the Bielski brothers, who led a group of Jewish partisans in Belarus during the Holocaust. The film is based on the book by the same name by Prof. Nechama Tec, a member of the Advisory Board of Remember the Women Institute.

Daniel Craig stars as Tuvia Bielski, one of four Jewish brothers who escape from Poland into the forests of Belarus during World War II to lead a band of resistance fighters and create a safe haven for Jewish refugees. The real-life sanctuary established by the Bielski brothers saved more than 1,000 Jews from persecution and death. Edward Zwick directs this historical drama.