Chasing Portraits, the documentary film project, is pleased to announce it has been awarded a grant from the Koret Foundation. The film will use this support to begin post-production in 2016. The funds will be directed to Chasing Portraits’ fiscal sponsor, the National Center for Jewish Film.

Elizabeth Rynecki, the film’s producer, is both the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.  Chasing Portraits is the story of her search for the art of her great-grandfather, Moshe Rynecki. Moshe, a Warsaw based artist who painted scenes of the Polish-Jewish community in the interwar period, perished in the Holocaust. The film raises questions about legacy, history, provenance of art, loss, and forgiveness.

Based in San Francisco, the Koret Foundation supports organizations that promote a vibrant and distinctive Bay Area. Koret focuses its giving in two major areas: strengthening the Jewish community in the Bay Area, Israel and Poland, and supporting Bay Area anchor institutions. Since its founding in 1979, Koret has invested nearly $500 million to contribute to a higher quality of civic and Jewish community life.

For further donation information, please visit our donation page.

Today I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Carla Shapreau for the Chasing Portraits documentary film. Carla has spent a significant number of years researching Holocaust era music related losses and she’s very articulate about provenance research, legal questions at hand, and understanding what heirs face when addressing these difficult issues.

Carla’s brief bio is that she is a Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she teaches art and cultural property law. She is also a Senior Fellow in the Institute of European Studies where she is conducting research regarding music-related losses during the Nazi era and their 21st century ramifications. You can read more about Carla on both the Institute of European Studies website and Berkeley’s Boalt Law School Faculty pages.

And be sure to check out this fabulous and interesting article, A Violin Once Owned by Goebbels Keeps Its Secrets, a 2012 New York Times article Carla authored.

Chasing Portraits was in New York City all last week. It was an amazing and fabulous trip! A bit of a photo montage from the trip.

The Chasing Portraits book will be published by Penguin Random House in 2016. I went to have lunch with my editor. He’s delightful, it was fabulous, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I filmed several interviews while in the city. I spoke to Nick O’Donnell (Sullivan and Worcester, LLP), Anna Rubin (Holocaust Claims Processing Office), and Pierre Ciric (The Ciric Law Firm, PLLC). Each of them delightful, engaged, and so very informative. We talked about the Washington Principles, the Terezin Declaration, and issues regarding Holocaust era looted art. Slawomir Grunberg shot some great footage, there were lots of fabulous quotes, and I hope a little bit from each interview ends up in the film!

In addition to filming these three interviews, on Saturday I met with a woman who is related to my family on my great-grandmother’s side. After the Holocaust my great-grandmother, Perla, gifted a Rynecki painting and a wood carving to this woman’s father in Israel. Many years ago she brought both with her to the United States. I knew from grandpa George’s memoir that my great-grandfather had worked in wood, clay, and in the late thirties, the first plastics, but I had never seen these pieces. This lovely photograph was taken by photojournalist, Chuck Fishman. The carving is exquisite in its details. Each segment a unique piece, assembled together in a puzzle to create this man, a tailor, we think. His right arm stretched outwards, as if pulling an imaginary thread taut as he works on a piece of fabric draped over his left leg.

Always a joy to work with Slawomir Grunberg and Catherine Greenblatt. These two have filmed with me in Poland (twice), Israel, and now New York.

Did you back the Chasing Portraits Kickstarter campaign at  a level with rewards? If you backed the project with $50, or more, you get a set of 5 Moshe Rynecki greeting cards! Yesterday I worked on packaging them up for shipping. Here’s part of the assembly line. 

We have reached our Kickstarter campaign goal of $20,000! This is fantastic news as it means we will now receive all the funds that have been pledged to date and that we can match the Claims Conference grant!

There are still 7 days left in the Kickstarter campaign. Any funds raised between now and the time the campaign closes next week will go towards post-production (editor, original score, sound engineering, etc) expenses.

Thank you all who have pledged and shared the project with others.

So far the Chasing Portraits Kickstarter campaign has raised $17,747 from 151 backers. In 7 days the campaign is over. We need to reach $20,000 to be fully funded. Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing deal. All amounts really do help! If 10 people give $10, then that’s $100. It definitely all adds up.

Recently I’ve received some really nice comments about the project on different social media platforms. I thought it would be fun to share the two latest and greatest here.

Do you get Hadassah magazine? Turn to page 10 in the April/May 2015 issue [Leonard Cohen is on the cover] to read “Lost and Found: Elizabeth Rynecki has dedicated her life to tracking down her great-grandfather’s scattered works of art,” by Cathryn J. Prince. The article is not yet available online. When it is, I’ll add a link!

Kickstarter update! We are now 82% funded with 129 backers pledging $16,512. There are 13 days left for us to reach the $20,000 campaign goal. Check out the new trailer and please consider supporting the film.

Chasing Portraits on Kickstarter has almost reached its $20,000 goal! We’re at $16,266 which means we are just short by $3,734. All pledge amounts help us to reach our goal. $5 puts your name in the credits, $25 gets you a digital download of the film… check it out and help us out by pledging and/or spreading the word!

Thank you!

Check out our new 3 minute trailer and Kickstarter campaign to raise $20,000! We’re close, but we definitely need your help. There are all sorts of funding levels and rewards if you give: a Moshe Rynecki postcard thank you note, blank greeting cards, a poster and more!