The Kickstarter fundraising campaign to match the $20,000 grant from the Claims Conference is going really well! So far we’ve raised 72% of the goal amount. Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing deal, so unless we get to $20,000, we don’t get any of the pledges made to date. There are 17 days left in the campaign, and all funds pledged help. That’s the great thing about crowdsourcing…If 100 people each give $10, then you’ve got $1,000.

Please consider making a pledge to our Kickstarter campaign. You can do so by clicking on this green, “Support us on Kickstarter” button.

Thank you!

Elizabeth Rynecki

Yesterday I went to see the Woman in Gold. The film about Maria Altmann’s battle with the Austrian government for the return of her family’s painting: Gustav Klimt’s, The Lady in Gold. I loved the movie because I am so deeply entrenched in the issue of Holocaust era art looting and restitution issues!

One moment that particularly stood out for me in the film is when Altmann (played by Helen Mirren) enters the room at the Belvedere museum to see the Lady in Gold hanging on the wall. It’s a moment of reunion, but also of sweet sorrow because of course she doesn’t leave with the painting. I had my own moment like that when I visited the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and saw 52 of my great-grandfather’s paintings in their possession.

The Chasing Portraits documentary film project recently received a $20,000 matching grant from the Claims Conference.

To access all the funds from the grant, I need to come up with matching funds. To match the funds, I have launched a campaign on Kickstarter to raise at least $20,000. Any funds raised beyond the $20,000 will go towards post-production (editing) costs.

Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing deal. As of this morning, Chasing Portraits is 50% funded with a total of $10,107 pledged to the documentary. But we will see none of this money if we don’t get to at least $20,000. Please help in anyway that you can. You can pledge $1, $10, $100, $1,000, $10,000…. the choice is yours! Please know that when you pledge funds to the Chasing Portraits campaign, your credit card is not charged until two things happen: (1) the goal is met and (2) the campaign closes.

If you cannot give, please simply share the project with friends and family who you think will find the project interesting. Perhaps someone you know can help fund it.

About the Trailer

This is a new trailer. The footage is from the trip taken to Poland in October 2014. It was shot by cinematographer Slawomir Grunberg. It was professionally edited by Veronica Duport Deliz. Matthias Zimmerman composed and produced the original score.

The first few minutes of the trailer is my direct appeal to those watching the campaign on Kickstarter. The last three minutes is the brand new 3 minute trailer.

To contribute, click on this big green “Back This Project” button. It will take you to the Chasing Portraits Kickstarter page.  Thank you!

Backers of the Chasing Portraits Kickstarter campaign have a variety of rewards available to them including getting their name in credits on the Chasing Portraits website, a Rynecki postcard sent in the mail to them, greeting cards, a poster, a digital download of the film, and more!

Check out the new 3 minute trailer on Kickstarter and learn about how you can back the project!

There are two poster designs up for consideration. Only one will be printed. Backers get a chance to express their preference for which one goes to press. Either Blue PORTRAIT or Golden LANDSCAPE.

Backers also get a chance to vote which of these 5 greeting card designs they’d like to see produced.

I am unbelievably excited to share this new three minute trailer, put together from footage shot in Poland last October!

My Kickstarter campaign goal is to raise $20,000.  In combination with the grant the film received from The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a successful campaign will allow Chasing Portraits to finish filming this year. Any funds raised over this amount will go towards post production expenses, such as editing, music, etc.

If you’ve ever participated in the funding of a Kickstarter campaign, you know there are always great rewards to go along with the various funding levels. Chasing Portraits carries on this tradition with some fabulous rewards – Postcards, digital download, greeting cards, a poster, and more! Please know that because Chasing Portraits has 501(c)3 status from the National Center for Jewish Film, your contribution, less the value of the reward you select, is a tax deductible donation.

I am pleased to announce that the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture has awarded a grant to help support post-production of the Chasing Portraits documentary film.

I’ve been hard at work on the behind-the-scenes components needed to launch the Chasing Portraits Kickstarter fundraising campaign. There’s a new 3 minute trailer based on the footage shot in Poland. I’ve been writing the project description and putting together the rewards. There’s also an original score being composed for the piece! And this afternoon I went into San Francisco to film a pre-trailer bit where I sit and talk to the camera about my project and why I’m fundraising on Kickstarter. Here’s a photo of what filming that bit looked like.

Chasing Portraits, the documentary film project, is pleased to announce it has been awarded a $20,000 grant from The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). The film will use this support to complete filming in Israel, New York, Warsaw, and Los Angeles before moving into 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 years, perished in the Holocaust. The film raises questions about legacy, history, provenance of art, loss, and forgiveness.

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) represents world Jewry in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs. Among its activities, the Claims Conference administers compensation funds, funds social welfare services, and allocates funds to preserve the memory and lessons from the Shoah. For more information, please visit www.claimscon.org

In early February you helped Chasing Portraits win Indiewire’s Project of the Week contest. Thank you for your support from around the world! Votes came in from the United States (California, Oregon, Minnesota, and New York, to just name a few!), the UK, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Finland, and more! Now the film is in the run off for Indiewire’s Project of the Month. Voting is today through Friday morning (it ends at 11 am EST).

PLEASE vote for Chasing Portraits. A win is a really big deal for the project – it helps give us more publicity, it gives us another milestone to share with potential funders, and the winner receives a consultation from the Tribeca Film Insitute!

To vote, follow this link. Select Chasing Portraits, provide your email address, and then Polldaddy will send you an email to confirm your vote.

Thank you! And please, spread the word!

An ENORMOUS “thank you,” to so many people who made the Chasing Portraits Project of the Week win on Indiewire possible! You not only voted for my docfilm, but you shared the story, asked friends, family, and co-workers to vote for the project. You voted from New York and Spain, Poland and California, Australia and Singapore, London and Toronto. The network of people who support this project is amazing. Thank you, and stay tuned, for news, travel, and press!

All the very best, Elizabeth