As Seen Through These Eyes Screening is First USC Shoah Foundation Event of the Year

USC Shoah Foundation’s academic year programming kicks off next Monday with a screening of the documentary As Seen Through These Eyes, which tells the stories of Holocaust survivors who made art during and after World War II.

Director, writer and producer Hilary Helstein will participate in a Q&A after the screening, which begins at 5 p.m. Oct. 20 in USC University Church’s Trueblood Fellowship Hall.

As Seen Through These Eyes tells the stories of Holocaust survivors, including Jews and Sinti/Roma, who created artwork while they were imprisoned in ghettos and concentration camps and going through other life-threatening circumstances. Their work is remarkably evocative of the horrifying situations they endured and the memories they cannot forget, and is done in a range of mediums, such as charcoal, pencil and paintings, or music.

The film is narrated by Maya Angelou and features over 400 artworks by Simon Wiesenthal, Samuel Bak, Karl Stojka, Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, and dozens more. It has been screened all over the world.

Helstein interviewed over 250 Holocaust survivors, witnesses and liberators and led interviewer trainings for the USC Shoah Foundation in the 1990s. She also helped found the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival and serves as its executive producer.