The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to present the Northern Arizona premiere of “Among Neighbors” showing Oct. 17-23 at the Alice Gill-Sheldon Theatre.
Aaron Tartakovsky — one of the subjects in the film — will be here in Sedona to host the first two screenings of “Among Neighbors” on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 17 and 18, and will conduct a Q&A session after each screening.
Combining magical realism and evocative hand-drawn animation with revelatory interviews and verité footage, “Among Neighbors” examines the story of a small, rural town where Jews and Polish Catholics lived side by side for centuries before World War II.
The film brings the Polish response to the Holocaust to life through the last living eyewitnesses, revealing both love and betrayal as it zeroes in on one of the last living Holocaust survivors from the town, and an aging eyewitness who saw Jews murdered there — not by Nazis, but by her own Polish neighbors.
Ultimately, their collective, heartfelt account lays bare the manner in which ordinary Polish townsfolk made life and death choices about their Jewish neighbors, with decisions that reflect both the very best and the very worst of human nature.
“Among Neighbors” shows how true patriotism means embracing the truth, no matter how painful it may be.