Navigating history: Filmmaker Genie Milgrom to present 'Between the Stone and the Flower' at JCC
May 15—Genie Milgrom was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Miami as a practicing Catholic.
Despite her upbringing, she always felt like something was missing.
She was always burdened with a deep-rooted feeling of not belonging in her Spanish Catholic environment.
Milgrom became more and more convinced that her family was Jewish in the Iberian Peninsula centuries before. Her story follows many twists and turns as she makes the difficult decision to convert to Judaism.
Milgrom took a year break to film "Between the Stone and the Flower: The Duality of the Conversos." The film will screen at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 19. It is free to attend.
"The movie was an incredible experience," Milgrom says. "Crypto Judaism is a niche that many people don't know about. People have been asking me to make a film since I wrote my book in 2010. I finally realized that this would be part of my legacy. It wasn't enough to do it with books or speak around the world. This medium had to be available to the masses."
Milgrom filmed in Spain and Portugal.
Her chase for the breadcrumbs that were dropped by her ancestors led her to Medieval Archives and several countries in Europe to untangle the web of secrecy that her ancestors had created to protect themselves during very dark times in Europe.
Together with her husband Michael, an Ashkenaz of Romanian origins, she finally reaches the truth of her family.
"We did go three weeks in Spain and Portugal and followed in the steps of the grandmothers," she says. "My biggest challenge was in creating this film and explaining that it was about a period in history that nobody wanted to talk about."
Five years ago, Milgrom was in Evora, Portugal.
She was visiting an Inquisition palace that was chock-full of historical items.
"When I returned with the crew, there was literally a crew whitewashing everything out," she says. "It was being renamed as a Museum of Modern Art. It made me realize that if it's still happening today, how much more will it continue if we don't address the issues."
After the film screens in Albuquerque, Milgrom is traveling to Israel to screen the film.
"What this film does is showcase the resiliency of the Jewish people," she says. "I've learned so much about my history and what has happened for me to be where I'm at. I'm able to explain history to others and provide context to others."
While in production on the film, Milgrom did have some profound moments.
"My most emotional moment was when I found out the language my grandparents used to speak," she says. "I was walking in Portugal and I heard this man speaking and it sounded like my grandfather. I found out that the language is called Mirandés and it's from Miranda, Portugal, which is a village right across where my grandparents grew up. I then looked for (and found) someone to sing the lullaby, 'La Pastorica,' which was sung to me as a child."
