My Story 

"Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."       David Ogden Stiers

I am NYC schoolteacher, photographer, and filmmaker. Years back in 1972 I was sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table having a bowl of my grandmothers delicious soup. When she began to take out a photo album and started showing me photos. The same photos she would show my father when he was seven. One photo that would haunt me for the rest of my life was that of a man in a military uniform.

Some 40 years later that man. My grandfather a schoolteacher, who was killed in WW2 in 1942 in the outskirts of a tiny Russian village, defending Russia against Nazi Invaders, was about to be a memory. After my grandmothers death His photograph was all that was left of his existence. He would be forgotten from his family, shut out of their memory and never to be spoken of by his son or anyone. In 2011 some 40 years after viewing this photograph something in my present situation drove me to search for this missing man in my family and bring his memory back into the family. After a labor-intensive two-year search over the Internet I got to see where it all started and where it all ended .I would travel to find my grandfather's final resting place three hours west of Moscow and days later travel north to a remote village to meet my family of origin and his place of birth.

My Journey

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten? W. H. Auden

This story is important to never forget the people who came before us. Their struggles their journey, their lives, and their roles as fathers ,sons ,and husbands . In this case, due to war, Young men sacrificed their lives defending principles, their country,but also protecting their families from a foreign invader. Some honored, millions killed, and many more  forgotten. 

My Grandfather at a Teachers conference 1938 ..three years later in 1942 he would lose his life as a Political Officer and member of the 224th ski battalion .  

GRANDMOTHER'S  DIARY ENTRY March 16, 1942    

Grandmother receives Death Certificate. ..... April 1942

2 months after Grandfather is killed

DIARY ENTRY  May 1, 1942  in Russian Language and English

English translation- DIARY ENTRY

Soldiers unearthed for proper burial. My grandfathers body was recovered in 1952 in the same manner and buried in Karmanovo Memorial.

Karmanovo Smolensk..Mass Grave, Burial site of my grandfather

Tonja Meshenina, School Librarian in Mezhador ,Russia shows photo of the school at which my grandfather was a teacher from 1936-1940, before leaving for War. She assisted me with finding my grandfathers former student and many undiscovered documents.

My Grandmother and Grandfathers house before he left for war.

Lia , a former student of my Grandfather sharing memories from over  70 years ago.

This story also reminds us of our own mortality. And the fragility of our own legacy  as we get older and when we die.  I remember my grandmother asking me “ Will you remember me?” In spite of the love that  I shared with her,  she felt  that she could be  marginalized to a faded memory.  How not only she but all of us have the potential to  become  a photograph in a family album that no one knows or can identify!  How does this all happen, Why do we forget? My film, through my journey, brings to light how someone can  bring the past alive and honor those that would otherwise been  forgotten.Our ancestors are totally essential to our every waking moment, although most of us don't even have the faintest idea about their lives, their trials, their hardships or challenges.  It is very important to remember not only where we came from but also the people who came before us and created a foundation for our present situation. 

Family in Koigorodok, Russia ..birthplace of my grandfather .

GRANDSON OF KOMI SOLDIER  Koigorodok news article of my visit to the village of my grandfather.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/br...

http://www.gazeta-respublika.ru/article.php/43785

http://www.nhat-nam.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55...

Young students pay respect to my grandfather and fallen soldiers at war memorial in the village of Mezhador, Russia. The village where my grandfather lived as a school teacher before being sent to the front.

My grandfather represented by a student ,in middle ,at Memorial March in Mezhador. Photo I sent to village.. to represent him.

Global Appeal

My project is a universal tool to show that with perservance great journeys are possible and these journeys bridge the gap between cultures and countries. My trip to Russia brought me to a place, I believe that, no American had traveled to before.My journey  showed that nothing can stop the connection neither time nor space. My relationship with a school librarian and her students in my Grandfathers village fostered a better understanding of the human qualities of compassion, and mutual understanding that people share regardless of differences that governments or policies uphold. My story also makes a case of making younger generations more aware that we need to remember and respect our ancestors and they’re paving of the roads that we travel on. 

What I Need

I am in need of  of financial support to turn my trailer into a full-length documentary. This documentary once completed will allow me to tell my story in its completion.  With sufficient financial support and reaching by financial  goal I will then be able to expand , using reenactments, WW2 footage from war museums, interviews and a return to Russia to film scenes and interviews  which I was unable to do my first time around.  I will have to hire a production company that could assist me with further development .Your support will help with production costs and reaching   the next level of production. Your backing will bring this film in the company of a top notch production  team that will  bring this subject to the forefront . Please assist me in this very personal but universal project. I could only imagine the feeling of my grandfather and my grandmother knowing that i was able to tell their story ,a story that each one of us had discovered in our family or has yet to do so.

"The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten."

Cesare Pavese