Feb 12, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness
With Diane Estelle Vicari
In the fall of 1939, Hitler’s murderous wave was sweeping through Eastern Europe. In the face of the Nazi onslaught, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara set about saving thousands of lives. But his struggle was not fought on the battlefields or in war rooms. He used his power as a diplomat to rescue fleeing Jewish refugees.
Robert Kirk, an Emmy Award-winning producer/director with over 20 years of television, feature film and interactive experience, is the co-founder of Digital Ranch Productions in Los Angeles. Kirk is the executive producer of the popular History Channel series Mail Call. He is the co-creator and executive producer of Dangerous Missions, also for The History Channel, and co-created Weapons at War, a critically acclaimed 65-hour series for the A&E Network.He was nominated, along with his partner, Rob Lihani, for an Emmy for his three-hour special, The Last Days of World War II, and received an Emmy for his special, Remembering World War II: Pearl Harbor. He produced and directed both programs. Kirk is currently producing and directing a two-hour special on the Ottoman Empire for The History Channel. Kirk’s other work includes Angels: The Mysterious Messengers (NBC), Robert Redford and Sydney Pollack: The Men and Their Movies (NBC), Making of a Model (ABC), Sightings (FOX), Robots (A&E), Sink the Bismarck (A&E) and Russell Simmons Presents: Hip Hop Justice (Court TV).
Filmmaker Diane Estelle Vicari is an award-winning documentarian who produces international independent documentaries, highlighting and promoting the advancement of our individuality and global interdependence. Most notably, Vicari produced SUGIHARA: Conspiracy of Kindness, the historical documentary broadcast nationally on PBS. Presented at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, the film won Best Documentary at the Hollywood Film Festival and was honored with the International Documentary Association’s prestigious Pare Lorentz Award.
She directed ATMA DARSANA Reflection of the Soul, a tribute documentary to the internationally acclaimed yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar, one of Time magazine’s “100 most influential people of the 20th century.” She is currently directing a feature-length documentary entitled SHADOW MAN, on the life story of American master musical composer and arranger Sammy Nestico. Vicari is at work on an animation project based on the book Behind the Secret Window, the memoir of eight years old Nelly S. Toll, as she paints her imaginary world while hidden during World War II. In partnership with Scott Corburn, Destinato Productions LLC is leading the way in developing a multimedia series, hybrid project A LIGHTER SHADE OF GREEN (working title). Vicari’s prior credits include the Emmy Award-winning Titanic: Death of a Dream and Titanic: The Legend Lives On, the Emmy Award-nominee The Last Days of World War II and the network television special Angels II: Beyond The Light.