Sunday Showcase

Finding Light
Directed by Paul Bloodgood

Sunday, January 26 CINEMA+

2 pm coffee and cookies in the Speed Cinema Lobby

3 pm screening in the Speed Cinema

Free, first come, first served

“It’s an experience that resonates with timely urgency.”—Loren King, Boston Spirit Magazine

Director Paul Michael Bloodgood’s Finding Light is a powerful film that uses dance to explore the need for human rights protections against bigotry and hate. The film delves into choreographer and Ballet Austin’s Artistic Director Stephen Mills’ Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project (Light), a ballet that received the Audrey & Raymond Maislin Humanitarian Award by the Anti-Defamation League in 2006 and has been licensed by dance companies around the world for the past 20 years. Light tells the story of Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren and her journey from a loving family to a place of unimaginable degradation and dehumanization. Bloodgood, a former dancer with Ballet Austin, was an original dancer in the ballet’s world premiere.

The screening is part of Louisville Ballet’s production, A Time Remembered, which features two works that highlight the stories of Holocaust survivors – Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project and Kentucky Opera’s Another Sunrise, also in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Louisville in honor of the late Minx Auerbach.

In reference to Light / The Holocaust and Humanity Project, Paul Bloodgood said, “It was the only work in my dance career that resonated in ways I could not fully grasp in my youth. The universal themes against bigotry and hatred were so much larger than mine that they were often overwhelming. But it also offered a sense of purpose and anchored my belief in why art matters.”

Finding Light was an official selection at sixteen film festivals around the globe, and received fourteen accolades, including “Best Documentary” awards in Berlin, Rome, and Madrid, as well as “Best Historical Film” at the Cannes World Film Festival. 2022, U.S., DCP, 60 minutes. The film contains adult content and graphic images, recommended for youth ages 12 and older.

CINEMA+ Post-screening discussion with creator and choreographer Stephen Mills and Finding Light director Paul Michael Bloodgood. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Ann Glazer Niren, Curator of Jewish Collections at the Filson Historical Society.

A Time Remembered will be presented at the Kentucky Performing Arts Center’s Whitney Theatre on February 1 and 2. Visit A Time Remembered for more information.

Made possible by generous gifts from the Jewish Heritage Fund and the Auerbach Family.