UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – “To Kill a Nazi,” a Penn State professor’s critically acclaimed documentary, will screen as an official selection this fall at a dozen film festivals as far away as Australia and as close as New York.
Among other showings, this documentary feature about a French businessman named Michel Cojot who set out to kill his father’s Nazi executioner will have a theatrical run in Australia in October and November and screen at the Buffalo International Film Festival Oct. 15 and Manhattan’s Chelsea Film Festival Oct. 16.
“One of the exciting aspects of attending screenings in person is to hear the perspectives of a wide variety of audience members,” said Boaz Dvir, an associate professor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications who served as the documentary’s writer, director and producer. “They often bring unexpected insights into Michel’s actions.”
The Los Angeles Times called the documentary “stirring” and Forbes described it as “something ripped from the pages of a bestselling spy thriller.”
In addition to the documentary’s showings at Buffalo’s 106-year-old North Park Theatre and Lower Manhattan’s Regal Battery Park, Dvir plans to attend the Sept. 30 screening at the Haifa Film Festival, which will take place at the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art’s Raphael Angel Acoustic Auditorium.
One of Europe’s largest film studios, Italy’s Cinecittà, described the Haifa Film Festival as an “important international cinematic event.”
Dvir, founder and director of Penn State’s Hammel Family Human Rights Education Initiative, will also attend the “To Kill a Nazi” Oct. 6 screening at Jerusalem’s Begin Center.
Narrated by actor Jason Alexander, “To Kill a Nazi” recently won Honorable Mention at Dances With Films after screening in Hollywood’s historic Chinese Theatre and received a sales deal from international distributor Go2Films.
The other “To Kill a Nazi” producers include Matthew Einstein, CEO of Tradition Pictures, and Gayle Zachmann, associate director of the University of Florida Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies.