Help Me Complete Short Holocaust Doc On Baba Sally

I'm a Toronto born filmmaker, animator and artist living in Picton, Prince Edward County. I’m currently in post-production on a short hybrid holocaust documentary on my baba Sally called - Today Is A Gift. It’s the second last part of a saying she’d often repeat - Yesterday’s History, Tomorrow’s A Mystery, Today Is A Gift, that’s why they call it The Present.

Apt title for a film about many layers of time, made over many years, built with many layers of material. It’s about remembering, but it’s also about today. It's about history and survival, but it's also about the possibility to heal and mourn in the present. It’s about a grandmother’s story, but it’s equally about the way stories are passed through generations and translated into new meaning.

Filming began when my dad brought me along to film an interview in 2011 and then as Sally rebounded from declining health I filmed two more in 2016 and 2018 (she was 96) with my wife and my cousin before her passing in 2019.

With this footage of her recounting her story, as well as family photos, letters, historical research, footage and documents, and using my imagination to construct animations, I've been able to visually express to the best of my ability, what happened in the first 3 decades of her (and my Zeida's) life. A journey that spans from Romania to Montreal.

Filled with Sally's inimitable humour, fierce will, poignant empathy and astonishing grace, the result is a beautiful heart-warming (and - breaking) film. Sally's story is one of immense dignity, humanity and hope against a backdrop of tremendous and unimaginable loss. As old as this story is, it has never been more relevant than it is with present events, as it holds a message deeper than Jewish identity that reaches into our collective humanity.

It's been a long process, but the film is 85% complete with only 40% of the animation and all sound design and music scoring to go. It is already slated to screen at the Kingston Canadian film festival (KCFF) in March of 2026 and will be submitted to a handful of local and international film festivals!

The process has been difficult and time consuming to move through, more so than the initial budget covered. The story is very dense, complex and required a lot of research. Animating this has also required lots of time and has been pivotal in unifying a story with many missing pieces and unfathomable occurrences. The film was edited while I participated in a recent 6-month documentary lab in Kingston (KCFF).

I was able to secure a modest grant from the Ontario Arts Council at the outset, and modest contributions, mostly from relatives and a couple private donors that have helped keep it afloat but I am still struggling to bridge to the other shore and it's very close.

I am deeply grateful for any contribution and gesture of support. This has been a long journey, starting over 100 years ago, thank you for being part of it and helping support stories of commemoration, healing, peace and hope.