Sandra Schulberg, who restored her father, Stuart Schul-berg’s 1948 film, “Nuremberg: It’s Lessons for Today,” with co-producer, Josh Waletzky, screened the film at the Strand Theatre in Old Forge, September 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Schulberg, who addressed the audiences before and after each screening, said she was thrilled by the number of people who came to see the film.
The film, about the Nuremberg Trial of Nazi war criminals, was originally commissioned by the U.S. War Department at the end of World War II.
It was shown to German audiences after the war to show post-war Germany the necessity for a trial on crimes against humanity, but it was banned in the United States for political reasons.
It has only recently been shown to American audiences following Sandra Schulberg’s recovery and restoration of her father’s historic film.
“There was a lot of discussion following the film, not just by me, but by people in the audience who shared their own comments. There were three or four veterans in attendance on Friday night who talked at length about their memories of the war. Another gentleman, a Dutchman from Rotter-dam, remembered the bombing of Rotterdam,” Schulberg said.
Among those at the Saturday screening was former Town of Webb School teacher Pat Ferrick, who is now teaching in the Syracuse area.
According to Schulberg, they are going to try to get the film into Syracuse area high schools, and also the Town of Webb School.
“It’s going to go out nationally (to schools) through an organization called Tracing History. They’re going to start on that next summer,” she said.
In the meantime Schulberg is eager to interface with specific high schools where she will have more direct involvement.
“Then I’ll have a pilot program to really see how teachers can use the film,” she said.
Schulberg is also producing a DVD about the Nuremberg Trial that will include a second disk of interviews with people, now deceased, who were involved in the trials.
“The second disk is a kind of an eye-witness encounter with people who were either at the trial or involved in creating the international Criminal Tribunal,” she said.
“On the second disk I will also have the evidentiary films that my father and his team put together for the courtroom and then you will see what they took from those films to put into Nuremberg.”
As president of Schulberg Productions, she has produced many films in the past.
Among them is the Oscar-nominated, “Quills,” an historical drama about the Marquis deSade, starring Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet and Michael Caine.
Other films include “Undis-puted,” with Wesley Snipes and Peter Falk.
“I also produced the first sort of Cajun Independent movie with Armand Assante and Robert Duvall that was filmed in Louisiana,” she added.
Schulberg also produced an historical-themed movie about the relationship between Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway that won first prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
She also won the Camera Door Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1977 for Alambrista, a film about Mexican illegals.
As senior vice-president of the CBS drama series American Playhouse for seven years, she produced movies that included, “I Shot Andy Warhol,” and Julie Taymor’s first film before she went on to do the “Lion King.”
“There were a lot of interesting movies—not exactly mass market, but very interesting movies. I’ve been at it a long time,” she laughed.
Due to the overwhelming interest in the film over Labor Day weekend, Bob Card and Helen Zyma, owners of the Strand Theatre, have held over the film through Tuesday, September 13. It can be seen on Saturday and Sunday, September 10 and 11 at 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.; and on Monday and Tuesday, September 12 and 13 at 7:10 p.m.
Unfortunately Schulberg will not be present at the showings as she is premiering the film in Honolulu.
