NARROWSBURG, NY — The Big Eddy Film Festival welcomed film-lovers of all kinds to watch films celebrating those with unique perspectives during its 15th anniversary from September 24 through 27. 

“In this day and age, where we have endless options of streaming platforms and content available 24/7, the communal gathering of the festival is what makes it so important,” Ariel Shanberg, executive director of the DVAA told the River Reporter.

Shanberg said that during the ten years he’s been involved with the festival, he has seen it expand from just having showings at the Tusten Theatre, to also partnering with the Narrowsburg Union, 108 Main and the Blue Fox Motel.

The community pitching in to expand the festival and watch the films is why the 15th anniversary is so important, Shanberg explained.

“I think one of the key moments for me was in 2019 when our first festival director Tina Spangler programmed the documentary 'Narrowsburg' by Martha Shane, and we had such a huge response for attendance,” he said. “We had I think over 300 people in attendance.”

This year's theme was "Stories from the Other Side: Magic, Delight, Outsiders, and The Unseen.” Films screened during the festival included “Health/Care” “Black LP” "Sala” and “Murderous”

The River Reporter watched the Black LP & Sala back-to-back screening, which featured a Q&A panel from the filmmakers afterwards.

Black LP

"Black LP" is a documentary about the Black Legacy Project (BLP), which is a nonprofit organization created by band Music In Common. The project aims to achieve racial harmony.

The documentary works towards that aim, detailing how the BLP gathered people of different races to discuss experiences they’ve had facing racism or racist ideologies they grew up around. The roundtable discussion served as a safe space for all participants to be open; then, afterwards, the group as a whole created an original song inspired by members' talks together.

Some participants in the documentary described the experience as a whole as healing, while some said they were nervous at first to produce songs with strangers.

“We believe that it is hard for people to hate up close, and that music can change the world,” filmmaker Trey Carlisle said, talking about the experience during the Q&A discussion.

The BLP chose seven regions to visit that they felt would “provide the best snapshot of America,” Todd Mack, the other filmmaker, said about the experience in the documentary.

Those regions included Western Massachusetts, Atlanta, Los Angeles, the Mississippi Delta, Denver, the Arkansas Ozarks and Boise.

Carlisle said that two albums were born out of a result of the project, which can be listened to on Spotify, Apple Music and most other music platforms. 

Sala

Ariel Shanberg, right, teared up on Friday as he told filmmakers Tim Messler (left) and Eddie Marritz (center) the impact he felt after watching "Sala"

After the screening of "Black LP", "Sala" made its debut at the festival. "Sala" is a film about a Jewish woman who had survived Nazi concentration camps as a teenager 

The tear-jerking, inspiring documentary followed a modern-day Sala Kirschner talking about her experience in the camps, from meeting a woman who was like a mother to her, to finding a small love story.

Kirschner, who thought at the beginning that she was going to the camps to get paid for several weeks of work, moved to seven different camps before ending up at a women’s-only one in a five year period. Times were difficult, Kirschner said, so difficult that she had seen a mother and daughter fighting over bread.

Regardless of this, Kirschner pushed through, sending letters regularly to her family and friends outside the camps. Letters from family and friends to Sala were donated to the New York Public Library in 2005, and are now part of an online exhibition.

In one scene, Kirschner’s husband, Sidney, asks her if she’s ever thought about revenge on the Germans before. 

“There are a lot of good people and bad people,” Kirschner responds. “Can’t condemn them all.”

After Kirschner is released from the concentration camps, she moves to New York City, where she starts a family with Sidney.

Kirschner did not tell her children for fifty years that she spent time in concentration camps, because she said she did not want to burden them.

“I didn’t want them to hate other people because of what I went through,” she said.

Towards the end of the film, Kirschner meets with actors from “Letters to Sala”, a play by Arlene Hutton, inspired by the book “Sala's Gift,” written by Sala's daughter Ann Kirschner. 

“My family is watching over you,” she tells an actor.

Kirschner passed away in 2018 at the age of 94, but she is survived by her daughter Ann, her son David and various grandchildren.

After the film, producers Eddie Marritz and Tim Messler spoke about their experiences creating the documentary and what’s next for them.

“My job is to be present and not to impose at all so that she has this space to be herself,” Marritz said.

Messler said that most of the film was shot in the 2000s, so most of the footage was Kirschner in her 80s.

Marritz said they encountered the idea to create a documentary about Kirschner from theater director Larry Sapporo, who got the idea from Peter Brooke. Brooke was himself inspired by Kirschner’s letters. 

“I think we sometimes would sort of ask ourselves: WWSD? What would Sala do? And that was sort of the guiding principle.” Messler said. “She was so generous and candid,”

As for what’s next for the film, Marritz said that they would be looking into showing it at various festivals and pursue membership groups with either libraries, synagogues or something of the sort.

More about “Sala” can be found here.