The Kindness of Yoram Gross (of Blinky Bill Fame)

Post-Screening Note & Review:

At my recent presentation of the film at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center, it was clear that the audience was enthralled by watching the elder Yoram Gross, the noted Australian animator, passing the baton of history to his grandchildren with great patience and humor. What a vibrant family!
Viewing it one more time, I realized that behind the film’s simplicity lies a tightly orchestrated symphony of highs and lows meant to encourage us all, as it says in the Torah, to choose life – fully aware of history.

A survivor (YG) with his grandchildren in Krakow, Poland.

Yoram Gross, the creator of the iconic character of Blinky Bill, the “Australian Mickey Mouse,” was featured
(introduction/discussion by PM)
Sunday December 29
in the film
Blinky and Me by Tomasz Magierski
at
the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center.
It will play again a month later, on January 29, at
The 2014 UN Holocaust Remembrance Day!

Below is the trailer of Blinky and Me:

A few excerpts from a letter Mr. Yoram Gross recently sent me:

The film has 77 minutes, and my life has 87 years, it is impossible to cover all.
Nevertheless if anyone wants to know more, I suggest they read my book My Animated Life. [Ed.: Thomas Keneally “You will be engrossed by this book.”]
They may contact:  mimi.intal  @  yoramgrossfilms.com.au

In answer to your question, from the immediate family, only my mother and four of her kids survived.
My father and all the rest of my extended family all perished.

About my films, as I was taught by [Ed.: the famous] Joris Ivens:
“ If you have nothing to say, don’t make films.”

The things that I would like to say, adults already know.
Therefore I made films for kids, where I wish to convey something from my long experience,
with the hope that they will not make the same mistakes as the adults.

In one of my animated films “Sara” with Mia Farrow, I am showing the tragedy of the World War II, but stating that
such tragedies are happening still today.
(emphasis mine – PM)

Below you will find a sampling from the many films that Yoram Gross directed.
If you cannot view the Blinky Bill trailer below, please go to this link.

Autumn in Krakow by Yoram Gross, based on a poem by his late brother, Natan Gross (the director of the Yiddish films below).

Krakowska Jesien (in Polish):

Embedded clips of other short films by Yoram Gross will appear later in January.
For now these are the links for:
Don’t Forget

Kaddish

Forest Holocaust

And Hava Nagila:

+
Mir Lebn Geblibene/We Are Still Alive – a documentary by Natan Gross (Yoram Gross’s brother) – 1947

An excerpt from what was to be the last Yiddish (fiction) film in Poland, Undzere Kinder/Our Children also by Natan Gross (1948)

Appendix:
An assessment of many of Yoram Gross’s films – in Post Script by historian Lawrence Baron.