A shtetl that’s no longer There (Yiddish vrennekes)
Heddy Honigmann
In A shtetl that’s no longer there, the director’s mother – Sonia Honigmann Pach – prepares »Yiddish vrennekes« just like her mother used to make them during the icy cold winters in Poland. The vrennekes bring back memories of her native village Grabowiec (which was destroyed in the war), of close relatives who were killed by the Germans, and her flight to Peru. The film also paints a disarming portrait of a mother and her daughter.
A shtetl that’s no longer there is part of a twelve-part documentary series, in which filmmaker Heddy Honigmann explores the truth of the notion that the way to the heart is through the stomach. She talks to twelve men and women as they prepare a special dish which evokes memories of someone they love.
Heddy Honigmann
Heddy Honigmann, a child of Holocaust survivors, was born in 1951 in Lima, Peru, where she studied biology and literature at the University of Lima. She left Peru in 1973, travelled throughout Mexico, Israel, Spain and France, and later studied film at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. Since 1978, she has been a Dutch citizen and presently lives in Amsterdam, although her filmmaking career has taken her around the world. As the child of exiles, it’s not surprising that the plight of exiles and outsiders is a recurrent theme in her documentaries, as is memory, music and love.
Films by Heddy Honigmann (Selection)
Herinneringen aan Vuur 2012 | In a Good Day 2012 | Droomboom 2012 | West Side Stories 2010/2011 | El Olvido 2008 | Forever 2006 | A shetl that’s no longer there and 11 Other Shorts of the Series ›Food for Love‹ 2004 | Dame la Mano 2003 | Private 2000 | Crazy 1999 | 2 Minutes of Silence, Please 1998 | The Underground Orchestra 1997 | O Amor Natural 1996 | Au Revoir 1995 | Metal and Melancholy 1992 | Mind Shadows 1987 | De Deur van het Huis 1985 | De Witte Paraplu 1983
Awards for Heddy Honigmann (Selection)
Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award 2007 | San Francisco Films Society’s Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award 2007 | J. Van Praag Award from the Netherlands Humanist Association 2005 | Jan Cassies Award for her whole oeuvre from the Dutch National Fund for Cultural Films for Television 2003
