Film on Butterfly Project well received

A passerby examines exhibit of ceramic butterflies at Yom HaShoah observance held at the Lawrene Family Jewish Community Center in La Jolla, Californai (Photo: Shor M. Masori)
A passerby examines exhibit of ceramic butterflies at Yom HaShoah observance held at the Lawrene Family Jewish Community Center in La Jolla, California (Photo: Shor M. Masori)

LOS ANGELES (Press Release)– Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker Joe Fab screened his latest effort, Not the Last Butterfly, in a sneak preview at the  Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles on May 3. Fab co-directed and co-produced the story of a global project to memorialize the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust with first-time filmmaker Cheryl Rattner Price, the San Diego-based ceramic artist behind The Butterfly Project. Following the film’s first public viewing, a standing ovation greeted Fab, Rattner Price and Museum of Tolerance director Liebe Geft when they took the stage for what proved to be an extended and occasionally tearful discussion.

“All my hopes for a positive response were met, and I was overtaken by surprise and joy as audience members wept and laughed in all the right places,” Fab reported.

Geft was thrilled at the response, saying “The excitement was palpable as the film took us on an uplifting journey with Cheryl Rattner Price and co-producer/director Joe Fab to see how far The Butterfly Project has spread its joyful wings. Weaving messages of hope and healing with the courageous stories of Holocaust survivors, the film captures how The Butterfly Project evokes memory to inspire a global community to create a more compassionate and peaceful world.”

In addition to chronicling The Butterfly Project,  Not the Last Butterfly features Holocaust survivor Ela Weissberger who endured imprisonment in the unusual and lesser-known Terezin concentration camp in the Czech Republic. Fab and Rattner Price took Weissberger back to Terezin to dramatize how artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis used early art therapy to help Ela and other children maintain their emotional and psychological sanity while surrounded by the horrors of the Holocaust.

“The essence of The Butterfly Project is to teach and connect us all while creating something of lasting beauty and dignity,” said Rattner Price. “It has been a dream come true to see how the magic of film can create an even bigger ripple effect of remembrance and hope.”

Not the Last Butterfly was filmed on location in the U.S., Czech Republic, Poland, and Israel and features an original score by composer Charlie Barnett.

Mainstream and Jewish festival screenings are planned beginning in the fall, following several more test screenings. For information about the documentary Not the Last Butterfly and The Butterfly Project contact the organization’s Executive Director Cheryl Rattner Price at Cherylprice@mac.com