Julianna Margulies, Sarah Silverman Board Oscar-Contending Doc ‘Jack And Sam’: “What This Film Gives In 20 Minutes Is Inspiring For A Lifetime”
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EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winners Julianna Margulies and Sarah Silverman are lending their star power to support the Oscar-contending short documentary Jack and Sam, the extraordinary story of two Holocaust survivors reunited nearly 80 years after they escaped death in a Nazi labor camp.
Margulies, Silverman and Amy Zvi (Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles) have signed on as executive producers of the film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jordan Matthew Horowitz. Jack and Sam premiered in June at the Provincetown International Film Festival, going on to win the Jury and Audience Awards for Best Documentary Short at the Port Townsend Film Festival in Washington state and the Audience Award at the Calgary International Film Festival.
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Nonagenarians Jack Waksal and Sam Ron first met as teenagers in 1943 when they were both sent to the Pionki work camp in Poland. They became friends as, day in and day out, they toiled shoveling coal into boilers, powering a factory that produced munitions for the Nazi war machine. Jack escaped the camp in 1944, managing to survive with a handful of others in a forest, while Sam was liberated by American troops in 1945 while being transferred from Pionki to the Sachenhausen concentration camp in Germany.
Unbeknownst to each other, both men settled in Ohio in the post-war years. They were not reunited until last year in a chance encounter at an event in South Florida put on by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In the film, Sam says of their chance reunion, “It’s like a miracle.”
The men, both 98, “are now spending the precious time they have left rekindling their friendship and educating others about the dangers of hatred,” according to a release about the film.
“We’re honored and so excited to join the team of Jack and Sam,” Margulies, Silverman and Zvi said in a statement. “What this film gives in just twenty minutes is inspiring for a lifetime.”
Distribution plans for the documentary are pending. Jack and Sam is produced by Andrew Carlberg, whose credits include the Oscar-winning live action short Skin, and Jordan Matthew Horowitz (Painless, Angel of Nanjing). Executive Producers include Julianna Margulies, Sarah Silverman and Amy Zvi. The film’s cinematographer is Liam Le Guillou; animation for the film was created by Lukas Schrank. Matt Thiesen is the editor; the film features original music by David Majzlin.
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