Tribute to Holocaust Victims of Nazism and Fascism on Tao-Films VoD

Tao-Films VoD is an online distributor service based in France and specializes in previously undistributed independent and art-house cinema, Contemporary Contemplative Cinema (CCC) "Slow Cinema". All the films are curated by Nadin Mai PhD.

For independent avantgard filmmakers like myself Tao-Films VoD is a great opportunity to show their films. Avantgardel filmmakers are often marginalized and underrepresented. Not ease to find platforms where talented but unknown or lesser known filmmakers are able to showcase their mostly "low or no budget" art-house films. Critics are never heard about their films because no festivals, cinemas, museums, TV channels gave opportunity for the creators as individual artists. "Slow Cinema" is boring, ergo neither arouse so much interest nor makes any profit. Typical 22 catch.

Today I would like to inform my readers that Two of my Holocaust related experimental contemplative short films are available on Tao-Films VoD from this week for a limited time for free. Previously I wrote an article about the two films and If you are interested please click here.

"Fear" was entirely filmed in Auschwitz I. and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland and "Requiem for the Forgottens" in Budapest, Hungary. Both films pay tribute to the memory of the Holocaust Victims. Before you start to watch the films I suggest you to pump up the volume or use headphone and turn off the light, even close the shutter on the window. It takes only a few minutes from your life to watch these two films, but maybe can change your entire life.

If you think my films can arouse other people, critics, NGO, museum, festival, school, library, etc... interest, please let me know. I would appreciate if you can help to shout out and share my films on social media ( Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc... )

Please visit and watch great films from fellow filmmakers on Tao-Films VoD the only curated platform providing opportunity for underrepresented international avantgard filmmakers devoted to Contemporary Contemplative Cinema (CCC) "Slow Cinema".

Thank You!

Contemplative Holocaust short film

70 years after the Nazism far Right is rising and anti-Semitism is back in Europe. As a "Visual Artist" used my camera to make two Short Contemplative Holocaust Films to educate the younger generation and make them think. I try to reach as many people I can especially but not only Art film and Slow Cinema lovers. I decided to choose real historical locations because I wanted my audience not simple just watch my film, but deeply think about what the Holocaust was in Europe during the WWII. Though the murdered people "many of them were children" not appearing directly in the film but indirectly their spirits and memories are there. Their bodies were shot into the icy Danube River or gassed in the morgue beside the crematorium.

These two films paying tributes to the Victims using an unusual film language. I hope my film can reach different nations and generations and arouse the interest especially for the the younger generations and they start asking questions from their parents, grandparents, relatives, etc... where were they and what did they do during the WWII. There are still a lot of secrets and taboos families don't talk about. I believe if people creates taboos around everything that was linked to the Nazism, they cut themselves off from their own history. Keeping these taboos unrevealed, helps those who are trying to falsify history and dividing nations for their own political interest. On the other hand all the people have to understand what Jewish people went through and why most of the survivors don't want to talk about.

Nationalism, xenophobia and antisemitism are raising again and we are All responsible to Stop it.

My first film "Requiem for the Forgottens" was filmed at the Danube bank in Budapest nearby the Hungarian Parliament. The shoes on the river bank are important elements of the film while pointing toward the huge chunk of floating ice.

"The Shoes on the Danube Bank is a memorial in Budapest, Hungary honor the people (mainly Budapest Jews) who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. It represents their shoes left behind on the bank."

The second film "Fear" was entirely filmed in Auschwitz I. and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. It's a "Trilogy". I used "No camera movement" and long takes as in all of my previous films. It was minus six (-6) degrees Celsius outside and heavy wind. The film footage contains the outside view of two Crematoriums on both locations and also the view of the farther part of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, nearby the so called "Mexico section". I tried to shoot discreetly to connect the past to the present via my camera lens. The air was crisp and cool and strong wind was blowing across the snow covered Death Camp.

The first part of trilogy is about "Crematorium I. in Auschwitz". The second "middle" part was filmed in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. You can see the chimneys of the destroyed barracks through the electric barbed wires. The last part of the film is focusing on the Crematorium II. in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The sky is blue like probably at that time when the camp was operated under the German Nazi regime, but you can still feel the burnt smell of the bodies and hear the endless screaming of the people via the whistling wind.

Though in the previous years I visited the Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel and even the Killing Fields and S21 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, making the decision to film in Auschwitz was not an easy task. That was the first time I visited the death camp. I tried to light a candle but was very windy, so I mourned for the Six Millions of Jews and for All the victims of the Nazism.

Click here to watch Requiem for the Forgottens  

 and click here to watch"Fear" 

Csillagos Házak - Tom Lantos Intézet megemlékezése

As a result of an executive order issued by the mayor of Budapest on the 16th of June 1944, Jewish inhabitants of Budapest had to move to so-called ‘yellow-star houses’ by the 21st of June. This executive order affected 200 000 people. These Yellow-star houses were to be found all around Budapest. For half a year, until the Budapest ghetto was established, everyone could see where the banished Hungarian Jews were forced to stay and who they were.

As part of the commemoration-series of the Open Society Archives, the Tom Lantos Institute is organising an event tocommemorate the seventieth anniversary of this tragedy and to remember the legacy of Tom Lantos, who was forced to stay at Szent István Park 25 for more than half a year during the last months of World War II.

Katrina Lantos-Swett, daughter of the late Congressman, will welcome everyone to the event in a video message. There will also be a speech from Anna-Mária Bíró, President and CEO of the Tom Lantos Institute. Students of the Berzsenyi Dániel Gimnázium, Tom Lantos’s alma mater, will read out a selection of his personal memories of that period.

http://tomlantosinstitute.hu

Csillagos Házak - Yellow Star Houses

Ambassador of Portugal in Budapest Antonio Jorge Mendes gave a speech and remembered Carlos Sampaio Garrido, ambassador and Teixeira Branquinho chargé d'affaires in mission to Budapest in 1944 who managed to rescue more than a thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.

Protesters blocked WWII monument construction site

On Friday protesters have removed the fence around the construction site of controversial WW II monument. Take a look at the photos below what else happened and think about that why....

Protest continue against controversial WWII Monument in Budapest

Protest continue against the controversial monument dedicated to the victims of the German occupation of Hungary during WW II, in Freedom Square Budapest, Hungary. 

Photo 1. Fruzsina Magyar expresses her feeling against Nazism on construction fence, covered by plastic. 

Photo 2. Fruzsina Magyar and Andrea Zoltai organizers having conversation with a supporter right nearby the construction side. 

Photo 3. Construction workers started to build the fund of the monument

Photo 4. Zoltan Lovas journalist reading the report just a half an hour after he was released from the police department for vandalizing plastic covered construction fence. Being questioned for hours, his fingerprints and pics were taken 

Protest against Controversial WWII Monument in Budapest

A demonstration was held against the controversial monument dedicated to the victims of the German occupation of Hungary during WW II, held by the opposition Democratic Coalition party in Freedom Square Budapest, Hungary. Members of the Jewish community were among the demonstrators and argued that the memorial removes any responsibility from the Hungarian government of that time for the death of Hungarian Jews. The protesters blocked work on a controversial monument.

If you would like to publish any of the above photos, please click here or feel free to contact me by email at janoskisphotography@gmail.com

Further info: Video footage is coming soon, includes exclusive footage when protesters blocking the Hír TV crew to provide inadequate reporting during the live broadcast. Contact me by email if you would like to buy or broadcast the footage.

Picture 1.     Szabolcs Kerek-Barczy, member of the Democratic Coalition party (DK) 

Picture 4.     Csaba Horvath, member of the opposition Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP)

Picture 5.     Klara Dobrev, wife of previous PM of Hungary, Ferenc Gyurcsany

                         

Laszlo Ocskay aka the Hungarian Schindler

Laszlo Ocskay was a Hungarian army officer who saved thousands of Jewish life from the Nazi death during WWII. He was the commander of Jewish labor battalion and officially collecting and making uniforms for the SS. He saved the life of approx 2500 people. Many of them were children. After the war finished, Ocskay immigrated to the US with his family and died nearly forgotten in 1997, New York. He's monument was erected in the City Park of Budapest. A few years ago the State of Israel honored him.

Abonyi street Jewish school where Ocskay ran the Labour Service Company

Anti - Semitic vandalism hit Budapest

Last month Budapest hosted The World Jewish Congress (WJC) which represented Jewish communities around the world after a series of anti - Semite incidents.

On my photos: Anti - Semitic, racist texts, graffiti hits several part of Budapest. Some of the photos were taken just a few days ago, but even the oldest one (back to 2012) still remaining on the same spot, just a bit shabby.

The antisemitism became again a common attitude not only in the Hungarian Parliament and foothball stadiums, but on the streets and parks as well. The government, includes local district governments, just don't give a Damn even they're know the Holocaust (also known as the Shoah)was a systematic murder of over 6.000.000 million Jew's and over 600.000 was Hungarian mainly throught deportation to Nazi German run death camps like Auschwitz- Birkenau, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka or shot into the Danube by there own fellow citizens (fasist Arrow Cross Hungarian Gendarmes; "Nyilasok").

Maybe you heard about when Jozsef Scheweitzer, the former Chief Rabbi was insulted in the street or Ferenc Orosz The Head of Raul Wallenberg Association who was recently treatened and beaten up infront of his family at a football stadium in Budapest. ...

Did you know that streets and squares were named after Mikos Horthy (Hungary's pro-Nazi leader from 1920-1944) was a staunch ally of Hitler and passed several anti - Semitic laws? .... or the latest news that the city council erected a statue to Cecile Tormay antisemitic writer infront of a Hospital in the heart of downtown in Budapest. So therefore the local govenments won't care about ani - Semitic texts, graffities on walls, signs, etc....

Text on sign at playgrand: No Smoking "for Dirty Jews"

Text on bench: "We don't give a shit on Holocaust"

Text on wall: " Theft jew Gyurcsany shit Israel"

Explanation: Ferenc Gyurcsany was the 6th PM of Hungary from 2004 to 2009

March of the Living Wagon Exhibition

The March of the Living Foundation presented its traveling exhibition at the railway station of Rákospalota-Újpest, Budapest. The main goal is to help youth's education, help the fight against antisemitism and racism.

17.000  Jewish Újpest residence were victims of the holocaust. In just eight week 437.000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau death factory in May 1944.

Putin in Israel

Vladimir Putin has won the 2012 Russian presidential election in Moscow yesterday. So, time to upload two of my photos to my blog, I took in 2008 and 2009 in Israel.

Putin pub is a popular place among Israeli Russians in Jerusalem downtown.

At the christian quarter of Old city of Jerusalem, there are several Israeli Arab stores selling T-shirts with picture of Jesus, Bush or Putin who wearing Arab headscarf "keffiyeh".

Paratroopers at the Western Wall

I found this photo in my archives. I took it in 2009 at the Old City, nearby the Western Wall. Behind the man walking into the picture, David Rubinger famous photo (copy) of three Israeli paratroopers after the recapture of Western Wall in the Six Day War.

Jerusalem Bomb Explosion

A device went off at a bus stop near the central bus station and conference center in Jerusalem on Wednesday. The attack, which injured around 30 people and killed one, is believed to have been carried out by Palestinian militants. It was the first terrorist attack in four years that involved an explosion. Windows of a bus at the scene were shattered.

I took the first photo with the Israeli soldier girls in 2009 February at a very nearby location where the bomb was exploded on this Wednesday. The girl in the uniform was braiding her friend’s hair that holds her machine-gun nearby the bus stop.

The second photo I took inside the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. On the photo an orthodox Jewish boy help to repair the Tzitzit for a passenger before read from the Torah.

I remember, the security check was very strict and took for awhile to get inside the station.