When: 08/02/2012
Where: The Spiro Ark’s Centre, 25-26 Enford Street W1H
Time: 19:30
Contact: 0207 723 9991
Price: £10 + £1 Internet booking fee (the price includes light refreshments)
Book now >>  WEBSITE WWW.KAZIKFILM.COM

FILM PREVIEW -
On June 20th 1942, Kazimierz ‘Kazik’ Piechowski, a Polish boy scout, and three other political prisoners, disguised themselves as SS officers and drove out of Auschwitz, the German Nazi concentration camp. The car they took was a Steyr 220 car which belonged to the then death camp SS Kommandant, Rudolf Höss.

Upon learning about Kazik’s remarkable escape story, British songwriter, Katy Carr, who herself has Polish roots, wrote a song called “Kommander’s Car”. In her song she highlights how vital the last 80 metres were in this escape. For it is when Kazik has to ‘Do Something!’ that the drama becomes really pronounced. How will the starving prisoners in SS uniforms manage to persuade the Nazi guards to lift the final barrier and drive at last to their freedom?

In August 2009 Katy Carr went to Gdansk in Poland with the sole purpose of meeting and honouring the very man who inspired her musical composition. This DVD is the result of that legendary meeting and is comprised of three cinematic responses: – a documentary, a music video and a series of film extras.

In the short documentary, ‘Kazik and the Kommander’ Car’, we witness the songwriter’s first moments with Kazik, then 90, and see her play him her song “Kommander’s Car”, a tribute song to his do-or-die escape. Through Kazik’s strong and moving response to Katy’s song, we have a direct window into his memory and experience of the last 80 metres of his escape, where he and the other prisoners have driven to the outside checkpoint of Auschwitz, and all their lives depend upon five seconds of daring and inspiration.

The music video to the song Kommander’s Car is a visual response to this final and yet most dramatic moment. Here we witness Katy Carr dressed in the same disguise of the Kommander that Piechowski himself had to wear seventy years ago in 1942. When Kazik watched the music video for the first time he quoted, ‘So many people have tried to document Auschwitz, but this song and video are different. They play on the symbols of Auschwitz and the feelings of the escape. This is something new for the world.’

With over ninety minutes of film extras featuring interviews with Kazimierz Piechowski, viewers can further explore aspects of Kazimierz Piechowski’s inspirational character and story, his life as a boy scout, and what happened after his escape from Auschwitz.

All content directed by Hannah Lovell and produced by Katy Carr.

The short documentary ‘Kazik and the Kommander’s Car’ has been screened at:

The London Short Film Festival (2012), Holocaust Memorial Day, ‘Untold Stories’ London (2011), Kinoteka 9th Polish Film Festival (2011), The East End Film Festival (2011), Branchage Film Festival (2011), Open City London Documentary Film Festival 2011, Baden Powell House London 2011, Katy Carr’s Escapologist Tour 2011, Portobello Film Festival 2010 , Holocaust Memorial Day at The History Meeting House Warsaw 2010, Imperial War Museum Short Film Festival 2009.

WEBSITE WWW.KAZIKFILM.COM
FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/KazikandtheKommandersCar
WEBSITE WWW.KATYCARR.COM

http://www.facebook.com/KazikandtheKommandersCar

An artist called Moshe Galili came up to me at the end of the screening. He gave me his card and his website details. I think his artwork is fantastic so i urge you to check it out WWW. MOSHE GALILI.COM Below is one of my favourite Moshe Paintings….

Concordat

Concordat
Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pius XII) as the Papal foreign secretary to Pius XI negotiated and signed a Concordat with Austria in June 1933 and a Concordat with the Nazi regime of Germany in July 1933, effectively silencing any Catholic opposition to the racist and aggressive policies of the German chancellor, Adolf Hitler.

1985

Oil on Board 88 X 81 cms

DETAILS ABOUT OUR EVENING ARE BELOW—-

Holocaust Memorial Day Thursday 26th January 2012 Dugdale Centre, Thomas Hardy House Programme

6.00 – Arrivals – teas and coffees

6.30 – Welcome and introduction – Councillor Christine Hamilton

6.35 – Short Film from Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

6.45 – Councillor Doug Taylor, Leader of Enfield Council

6.50 – Councillor Jon Kaye, Opposition Group, Enfield Council

6.55 – Keys Meadow School – “Imagine”

7.10 – Trevor Adams – Nazi Persecution of Gay People

7.15 – Jean Louis Mazimpaka, Hope Survivors Association – the Rwandan Tutsis Genocide

7.25 – Ginnie Landon – How Women Spoke Up and Spoke Out

7.30 – Katy Carr – Screening of ‘Kazik and the Kommander’s Car’ Film Premiere

8.05 – Rabbi Colin Eimer

8.15 – Rabbi Emanuel Levy

8.25 – Closing remarks – Councillor Christine Hamilton

8.30 – Refreshments

I am so happy to share with you our website for Kazik and the Kommander’s Car – www.kazikfilm.com – so please help us share Kazik’s escape story with everyone you know. Our DVD is coming out on 27th Jan Holocaust memorial day and i will let you now about the press we receive in the forthcoming weeks. i am also preparing my new project ‘Heart Poland’ to coincide with the release of my new album. I will you all know how that is all progressing. I can announce that the editor of the Polish newspaper Nowy Czas Teresa Bazarnik has given me the opportunity to direct an Art exhibition entitled ‘Heart Poland’ at ARTeria her yearly Art exhibition – date should be 2nd/ 3rd week of Sept 2012— so I am very excited – more news on this to follow and confirmed artists from both British and Polish backgrounds

more news coming !  - have a fun weekend and enjoy the sun! x x x katy