Pencil Press Kit

RED ENVELOPE ENTERTAINMENT
Presents
A DIAMOND LANE FILMS Production
Distribution Contact:
Rebecca Lipman
Seventh Art Releasing
7551 Sunset Blvd. Suite 104
Los Angeles, CA 90046
Tel: (323) 845-1455
Fax: (323) 845-4717
[email protected]
Press Contact for NYC & LA:
Sasha Berman
Shotwell Media
2721 2nd St. #205
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Tel: 310-450-5571
Fax: 310-450-5577
[email protected]
Photos available at:
www.stealapencil.com
Running Time: 94 minutes
English and Dutch with English subtitles
SYNOPSIS
STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME is a compelling documentary feature film by Academy
Award® nominee Michèle Ohayon about the power of love and the ability of
humankind to rise above unimaginable suffering.
1943: Holland is under total Nazi occupation. In Amsterdam, Jack, an unassuming
accountant, first meets Ina at a birthday party – a 20-year-old beauty from a
wealthy diamond manufacturing family who instantly steals his heart. But Jack’s
pursuit of love will be complicated; he is poor and married to Manja, a flirtatious
and mercurial spouse.
When the Jews are being deported, the husband, the wife and the lover find
themselves at the same concentration camp, actually living in the same barracks.
When Jack's wife objects to the relationship in spite of their unhappy marriage,
Jack and Ina resort to writing secret love letters, which sustain them throughout the
horrible circumstances of the war.
Jack: “I’m a very special Holocaust survivor. I was in the camps with my wife and
my girlfriend; and believe me, it wasn’t easy.”
Jack and Ina’s Timeline
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1949
1951
1955
1992
2000
2003
2006
May
Feb
April
June
Sept
June
July
June
July
July
July
Sept
Feb
Feb
May
June
June
Jan
Apr
Apr
Apr
Apr
Apr
Apr
Apr
May
June
June
Aug
Oct
Jan
Nov
Mar
Jan
Nov
Dec
Dec
Mar
Jan
10
22
11
14
6
21
23
30
8
15
19
6
29
7
9
13
23
25
25
30
7
21
23
29
8
4
13
17
31
23
29
Germans invade and conquer Holland.
Deportations of Jews to concentration camps begin
All Dutch Jews must wear the yellow star.
Ina’s brother Benno arrested, dies later in Concentration Camp Mauthausen
Young Jews are excluded from Dutch schools and colleges.
Ina’s boyfriend Rudi deported, dies shortly after in Auschwitz extermination camp.
Jack picked up in a raid but is released 2 days later
Jack and Ina meet for the first time in Amsterdam
Jack and Manja deported to Westerbork Dutch transit camp
Jack’s parents are deported to an unknown destination
Jack’s parents die in Sobibor
Ina deported to Westerbork
Manja’s mother is deported, dies shortly after in Auschwitz
Jack is deported to Bergen Belsen
Ina deported to Bergen Belsen
D-Day. The Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied western Europe begins in Normandy
Jack’s sister Liesje leaves for Palestine
The Russian Allies liberate Auschwitz and free the remaining prisoners
Ina is put on a train heading west away from B.B.
Jack is put on a train heading east away from B.B.
Ina is liberated by the American Army
Jack is liberated by the Russian Army
Jack is hit by spotted typhus, spends 2 days in a coma, but survives
Jack’s sister Juul dies in Trobits after the liberation
Hitler commits suicide
Germany surrenders unconditionally. The war ends
Jack’s sister Betty finds Jack in a hospital in Holland
Jack and Ina reunite
Jack divorces Manja
Jack and Ina get engaged
Jack and Ina marry
Jack and Ina’s first son Fred is born
Jack and Ina’s second son Tony is born
Jack and Ina move to the USA
Jack and Ina’s first Daughter Margrit is born
Knighthood for Jack
Their book “Steal a Pencil for Me” published in USA
Honor Doctorate Hofstra University for Jack
60th anniversary of their wedding
Jack involvement with the Anne Frank Center,
USA Director, President, Chairman
and now Chairman-Emeritus for the last twenty years
THE FILMMAKERS
Director, Producer
Michèle Ohayon, WGA
Michèle Ohayon is an award winning director, writer, and producer. Born in
Casablanca and raised in Israel, Michèle graduated from Tel Aviv University (Film &
Television). In 1984, she received the Israeli Best Film Award for Pressure, one of
the first dramatic films on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1987, she moved to Los
Angeles, where she directed a succession of critically acclaimed dramatic and
documentary features. The award-winning feature length documentary It Was a
Wonderful Life explores the plight of upper middle-class women who live out of their
cars and become the "hidden homeless." Narrated by Jodie Foster with music by
Melissa Etheridge, the film aired nationally on PBS and OXYGEN. It Was a
Wonderful Life won the Gold Award at the Houston Film Festival and an IDA
nomination.
Michèle completed Colors Straight Up, a second feature length documentary, in
1997. This film received a 1997 Academy Award® nomination for Best
Documentary Feature, the DGA’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement and the IFP
Spirit Award. The documentary received the Golden Spire Award for the Arts at the
San Francisco International Film Festival, as well as 11 other national awards. Colors
Straight Up aired on PBS and all over the world.
In 2005 Michèle completed the documentary-comedy Cowboy del Amor, which
garnered a WGA and IDA nomination. It won both the Jury Award and Audience
Awards at the SXSW festival, as well as Best Documentary at Santa Fe, Durango, and
Cinefest. It has aired many times on Showtime network television.
Michèle has also produced and directed commercials, episodic television, and music
videos. For her body of work, Michèle received the 1996 and the 1998 Artist’s Grant
from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and was recognized for her fiction
writing in the Chesterfield Writing Competition of 2000.
Michèle is a founding board member of Cinewomen. Her goal as a filmmaker is to
tell good, truthful stories about real people and to make films that open hearts and
minds.
Cinematographer, Producer
Theo Van de Sande, ASC
Theo Van de Sande graduated from the Dutch Film Academy and had been working
as a Director of Photography in the Netherlands until The Assault won the first Dutch
Academy Award® for Best Foreign film in 1987. He then moved to the United States
where he works today. Over the course of his career, Theo has shot 50 feature films,
9 feature documentaries and over 40 shorts, television episodes, music videos and
commercials.
In Holland Theo received the Golden Calf for Best Cinematography twice, in 1972
and in 1978. It is the highest award bestowed upon a DP in The Netherlands.
Theo Van de Sande’s work includes The Assault, which received the Academy
Award® (1987) and Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film; Colors Straight Up,
a feature length documentary, nominated in 1997 for the Academy Award®, DGA
Award, and Spirit Award; and The Pointsman, which won the prize for Best
Cinematography at the Madrid Film Festival.
Theo Van de Sande has collaborated with many distinguished directors, including
Robert Wise, Gary Marshall, Lasse Hallstrom, Mick Jackson, Gary Fleder and Carl
Franklin. His credits include Crossing Delancey, Miracle Mile, Wayne’s World,
Blade, High Crimes, Out of Time, Cruel Intentions and many more.
Editor
Kate Amend, A.C.E
Kate Amend was honored by the IDA in 2006 for her career as a documentary editor.
She is the editor of the 2001 Academy Award-winning documentary feature, Into the
Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport and the 2001 Oscar-nominated
documentary short On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom. Amend also received the
2001 American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Award for Into the Arms of Strangers, and
she edited the 1998 Oscar Winner The Long Way Home. One of her latest films,
Beah: a Black Woman Speaks, about the late actress Beah Richards, directed by
Lisa-Gay Hamilton and produced by Jonathan Demme, received the Grand Jury
award at the AFI Film Festival, 2003, and it aired on HBO in February 2004. Other
credits include Peace by Peace: Women on the Frontline (PBS,2004); Pandemic:
Facing Aids (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and HBO, 2003); Bataan Rescue
(PBS’ American Experience, 2003); The Girl Next Door (Slamdance ’99); Free a
Man to Fight (History Channel , March 1999); Tobacco Blues (P.O.V,1998); and
Some Nudity Required (Sundance Film Festival 1998.) Her work has appeared in
film festivals throughout the world as well as on PBS, NBC, HBO, Lifetime, the
History Channel, and the Sundance Channel. In addition to her film work, Amend
worked as an administrator and historian for Judy Chicago's monumental art exhibit
The Dinner Party. She has produced several videos about Chicago’s art including
From Darkness into Light and Atmospheres. Amend is on the faculty of the Cinema
Department at the University of Southern California, and she holds degrees from UC
Berkeley and San Francisco State University. She collaborated with Michèle Ohayon
on the award winning Cowboy del Amor.
Composer
Joseph Julian Gonzalez
Hailing from the rural town of Bakersfield in California’s San Joaquin Valley,
Gonzalez studied classical guitar from Theodore Norman and composition for motion
picture and television from famed film composer David Raksin (Laura, Forever
Amber) at UCLA. After touring with several groups including The New Christy
Minstrels, Gonzalez became music director of Luis Valdez’s (La Bamba, Zoot Suit)
much heralded theater company El Teatro Campesino. There he composed the music
score for La Pastorela, a PBS Great Performance Christmas special and worked with
such artists as Linda Rondstadt, Freddy Fender, and Los Lobos.
Since then he has composed a multitude of music scores for film, television shows
and documentaries including the academy award nominated feature documentary
Colors Straight Up, the New Line Cinema feature film Price of Glory, and
Miramax’s Curdled. He even composed the underscore for Britney Spear’s music
video “Oops, I Did It Again.” Gonzalez most recently completed scoring three
seasons of Showtime’s award winning Resurrection Blvd.
In 1995 Gonzalez embarked on a path that stretched the bounds of creativity in music
and art. The Grammy award winning group, Kronos Quartet, performed a
composition by Gonzalez, entitled Tormenta Cantata, for string quartet, soprano and
amplified paint brush. Collaborating with visual artist, Gronk, this multi-movement
piece incorporated an onstage wall that had the artist “interpreting” brushstrokes
written into the score. At times the brush strokes acted as a conductor’s baton, other
times Gronk painted in tempo to the music performed by Kronos and the soprano.
The success of this piece led to more collaborations with the Kronos Quartet, and in
1997, Gonzales became a composer in residency with Meet the Composer in the San
Diego/Tijuana area. During this residency Gonzalez composed, amongst others, Misa
Azteca for orchestra, soloists and pre-Columbian percussion ensemble. This piece has
since been performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2000, and most recently,
the American Cathedral and Sorbonne University in Paris in May, 2003.
Gonzalez is presently working on a three part miniseries for PBS, Visiones, about
Latino Art and Culture, and he reunited with Michèle Ohayon on Cowboy del Amor
and Steal A Pencil For Me.
Character Narrator (Jack)
Jeroen Krabbe
Jeroen Krabbé is a prominent Dutch actor and film director. Born in Amsterdam in
1944, he first came to prominence in fellow Dutch countryman Paul Verhoeven's
films Soldier of Orange (opposite Rutger Hauer) and The Fourth Man with Renée
Soutendijk.
His first big American film was the Whoopi Goldberg comedy Jumpin' Jack Flash.
However, it is as the 'bad guy' in a string of international films from the late 1980s
which brought him international stardom, with notable films being No Mercy, the
James Bond film The Living Daylights, Crossing Delancey, The Punisher, and The
Fugitive. He has also appeared in numerous TV productions including the last
episode of Dynasty and as Satan'in the TV production Jesus.
He also directed and produced the poignant film Left Luggage, about Jews in
Antwerp in the 1970s, co-starring Isabella Rossellini, and Maximilian Schell.
Apart from acting and directing Jeroen is an accomplished artist. In November 2004
he released the book “Schilder,” which is an overview of his paintings.
Character Narrator (Ina)
Ellen Ten Damme
Ellen ten Damme is a Dutch actress and singer. Born in Warnsveld, she was raised in
the Drentse village Roden. She made her film debut in 1991 in Paul Ruven’s Waters
of Maria Machita. She also starred in the drama Pleading. Further movie roles
included All Rigid and No Trains, No Planes. She released her first album, "Save
Me," in 2001, and she contributed to movie soundtracks before this such as Casper:
A Spirited Beginning and Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.
Dutch Production Associate
Jos Van der Linden
Jos van der Linden is a prominent Dutch film producer who has worked on such
films as 1986’s Best Foreign Film Academy Award winner De Aanslag, 1981’s The
Girl with the Red Hair and 1993’s Naarden Vesting. Most recently he has worked on
The Girl with the Pearl Earring and 2006’s Black Book.
Main Title Design
Alex Swart
Alex Swart is an award-winning creative director and principal of the marketing
design agency SwartAd. As a graphic designer, he created the official posters of the
73rd and 75th Academy Awards. In addition to the main title design, he also
developed the key art for Steal A Pencil For Me. He first worked with Michèle
Ohayon designing the advertising campaign for her Oscar®-nominated film Colors
Straight Up.
Sound Editor/Re-recording Mixer
Michael Bard, C.A.S
Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Michael Bard has spent the last 20 years as a
composer, professional musician and audio post-production engineer. Educated at the
University of Illinois (Urbana) and Lawrence University (Appleton, WI) he now owns
Studio Bard, LLC, which is a full service music and audio post-production company
in Portland, Oregon. Recently he has completed work on Hammertime, a feature
length movie for MTV Network (sound design, sound supervision), "HDTV"30, a
documentary and very first HDTV broadcast for PBS, Colors Straight Up, a 1997
Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary (sound design, sound supervision,
mix), Nerds 2.0-History of the Internet, a 3 hour documentary for PBS/CBS (score,
sound design and mix) and The Ticket, a feature length movie for the USA Network
(sound design, sound supervision). Studio Bard (previously Newton Bard), was the
first all-digital recording facility in the Northwest, and is currently part owner of
WaveFrame Software Group, which designs and manufactures audio products
specifically targeted to the film and television industry. Michael works closely with
software and hardware designers to guide the development of digital audio production
tools into the future.
Before finding himself on the other side of the console, Michael Bard released four
jazz albums. The first, on the RCA label, with the band he co-led called "Matrix."
The next three records were with the "Simon and Bard Group" and included guest
appearances by guitarists Larry Coryell and Ralph Towner. Bard's professional music
career includes multiple tours of the U.S. and Canada with an appearance at the
Monterey Jazz Festival. From 1977 to 1978, he toured North America as Stan
Kenton's lead saxophonist.
RED ENVELOPE ENTERTAINMENT
presents
a DIAMOND LANE FILMS production
STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME
A Film by
Michèle Ohayon
with
Jack Polak and Ina Soep
Produced and Directed by
Cinematographer/Producer
Editor
Composer
Executive Producer
Sound Mixer
Sound Supervisor/Re-Recording Mixer
MICHÈLE OHAYON
THEO VAN DE SANDE, ASC
KATE AMEND, A.C.E.
JOSEPH JULIAN GONZALEZ
TED SARANDOS
LARRY SCHARF (USA)
GEORGES BOSSAERS (HOLLAND)
MICHAEL BARD, C.A.S.
Main Title Design
Associate Editor
Ina Soep’s voice
Jack Polak’s voice
ALEX SWART
KATIE FLINT
ELLEN TEN DAMME
JEROEN KRABBE
Written by
Editorial co-writer
Line Producer (Holland)
Line Producer (New York)
Motion Graphics/Visual Effects
MICHELE OHAYON W.G.A.
KATE AMEND A.C.E.
JOS VAN DER LINDEN
BRIEN O'BRIEN
KARL SHIELDS
Sound Editor/Re-Recording Mixer
Additional Music Editing
ADR (Germany)
Foley
Sound Mixing
MATT MEYER
MICHAEL BARD
DOMINIK BOLLEN
BRAD SPRATLIN
STUDIOBARD, PORTLAND
Ina's hands
Jack's hands
MARIEKE OUDEJANS
JEAN PIERRE GILLAIN
Translations
LOUISE "WIESJE" VAN SANTEN
On-line
Assistant on-line
THOM WHITEHEAD, PAIR OF HANDS
MATT DEVINO
Digital Services
Color Timing
FOTOKEM
GREG KAUTZ
Additional Photography
Camera Assistant (Holland)
Additional Sound
SAM AMEEN, MICHAEL PINKY
REMCO VAN DE KANT
JIM ZIEGLER
Legal Services
TODD STERN, WEISSMANN, WOLFF
BERGMAN, GRODIN & EVALL, LLP
MARIA ELENA CORTINAS
MARLENE MAGINOT
JEFF KOWALCHUK
PATRICIA DE QUAKER
SASHA LOUZA, MERYL GINSBERG /
ASAP MUSIC
MICHELE OHAYON
Diamond Lane Films staff
Research and Clearances
Solo Violin
Solo Piano
Vocalist
Score Music Mixer
MITCHELL NEWMAN
JOHN RUSNAK
SUSSAN DEYHIM
KEITH STARK
Copyright 2007 Diamond Lane Films / Red Envelope Entertainment