SOLD OUT: Screening For Members: Persona Non Grata (Sugihara Chiune)
VIEW EVENT DETAILSSynopsis
Chiune Sugihara is a Japanese diplomat posted in Lithuania. He is also a world-class spy. In Lithuania he and his partner, Pesh, gather intelligence on European affairs. As WWII begins and Germany invades Poland, hordes of Jewish refugees flee to Lithuania. In search of transit visas, they turn to Sugihara who is torn between his loyalty to his country and his loyalty to mankind.
Biography
Born and spending his ‘formative years’ in Japan and Iran, Cellin Gluck graduated from the Canadian Academy in Kobe before attending the Claremont Colleges, graduating from Pitzer College with honors from the Pomona College Theatre Department. Convinced early by his father that archaeology was a hobby best followed by those with time and money, Cellin decided to follow a much more responsible and certain path to success. Using his bicultural heritage to its fullest, he has spent the past 28+ years in film production with a particular emphasis on Japan. First advertising agency producer, to commercial director, then moving to films as an assistant director to Ridley Scott, Roger Spottiswoode,-Mike Figgis, Sean Cunnigham and Robert Zemeckis among others. Cellin believes his multi-cultural upbringing and his own diverse 'composition’ gives him an innate sensibility for things both Eastern and Western. Allowing him to bridge cultures visually, viscerally and artistically as well as emotionally.
Debby Graudenz is the daughter of Sugihara survivor Rabbi Samuel (“Isi”) Graudenz. Rabbi Graudenz was in the group of four young men from the Mir Yeshiva in Poland who were instrumental in helping Sugihara-San with deciding to disobey responses from Tokyo and produce Transit Visas, saving more than 2,000 Jews clamoring to escape the Nazis. Debby remembers stories her father told of sitting on the floor of the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania, playing with Hiroki, one of the Sugihara children, and his trains while Sugihara-san was writing visas. During the last 10 years of Rabbi Graudenz life, Debby came to learn more and more about the incredible, selfless gift that Sugihara-san gave to so many Jews, at great cost to himself and his family. She has appeared as the daughter of a Sugihara Survivor (Rabbi Graudenz died in 2006) at gatherings such as this one, and was honored to meet Hiroki’s daughter, Madoka, and her son, Keisege when Persona Non Grata premiered in San Francisco.
Agenda
5:30 - 6:00 PM Registration
6:00 - 6:10 PM Opening remarks by Consul General Tomochika Uyama
6:10 - 8:30 PM Screening of Persona Non Grata
8:30 - 9:00 PM Discussion with Cellin Gluck and Debby Graudenz, in conversation with Asia Society Northern California Executive Director Margaret Conley
This screening is offered to our members. Seating is available on a first come, first served basis. Members, please use the passcode to register.
A Collaboration With:
Event Details
Landmark Embarcadero Theater
1 Embarcadero Center
Promenade Level
San Francisco, CA 94111