28.06 Friday

Jews! Jews! Jews! is a Berlin-based minori-tease cabaret that was started in 2018 by Jewish-American artists Lolita Va Voom and Nana Schewitz. In their quest to “re-Jew” Germany, these two cabaret artists book shows featuring exclusively Jewish and minority artists; the show celebrates Jewish holidays and traditions in new and old ways, while informing non-Jewish audience members about fun and unique aspects of the Jewish experience. On its first journey outside Berlin, Jews! Jews! Jews! joins FestivALT for a night of drag, burlesque, and a special charity raffle. With Lolita Va Voom, Nana Schewitz, and host Betty Q.

Fifteen years ago, a young Polish-Canadian filmmaker Eric Bednarski obtained an amateur 8mm film, 10 minutes’ footage of the life inside the Warsaw Ghetto, under the German occupation of the city during World War II. This gem is the only existing footage of the Warsaw ghetto that was not shot for Nazi propaganda purposes. Inspired by this footage, Eric created a movie that combines the 10 minutes from the Warsaw Ghetto with survivor testimony, interviews with architects and urban historians about the reconstruction of Warsaw, and research into the Nazis’ unrealized plans for post-war Warsaw. The movie premiered at this year’s Docs Against Gravity Film Festival in Warsaw; this will be its first showing in Kraków, with a Q&A with director Eric Bednarski after the film.

Two of FestivALT’s co-directors, Adam Schorin and Jason Francisco, lead tours of the site of the Nazi concentration camp Płaszów. Once an Austrian military encampment, the site has been used as a Jewish cemetery, a concentration camp, and, today, a public park. Learn about the history of Płaszów, engage in a debate about how it should be remembered, and see what of its past remains visible in the ground today.

2019 FestivALT artists, Stephania Freda Leigh (Their Breasts, My Breasts), Betty Q (Madame Q’s) and Zofia Noworól (What Does Kazimierz Dream About?) come together for a public discussion about their three different FestivALT projects and their uniquely individual approaches to the investigation of the female body through art practice.

Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau are the two most famous and most visited genocidal sites in the world, but they do not encompass the whole of the Auschwitz complex. Jason Francisco's photo-text-installation work examines a part of the Auschwitz story all but erased from public memory, through a deliberate misuse of the historical practice of stereoscopy.