Movie Monday Film Discussion: The Pianist

Join the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum for a discussion on the Holocaust and human rights films moderated by museum historians, film professionals and other experts.

The conversation will take place on the online platform Zoom. A link to join will be sent to registered guests via email one hour before the start of the program.

Participants are encouraged to watch the film on their own before engaging in the discussion. The Pianist is available to rent on YouTube, iTunes, Vudu, and Google Play and to watch with subscription to Amazon Prime. Please register for one ticket per device used.

About The Pianist
In this adaptation of the autobiography The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945, Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a Polish Jewish radio station pianist, sees Warsaw change gradually as World War II begins. Szpilman is forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, but is later separated from his family. From this time until liberation, Szpilman hides in various locations among the ruins of Warsaw, witnessing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising. Rated R.

This month's discussion on The Pianist will be moderated by:
Dr. Sara Abosch-Jacobson is the Chief Education, Programs, and Exhibitions Officer for the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. An experienced educator, she has researched, taught and written on Jewish culture and history. She holds a PhD in modern European and Jewish history, an MA in modern British and Jewish history, and an MA in Political Science with a concentration in Civil/Military Relations.

Dr. Galit Gertsenzon is an internationally recognized pianist, piano instructor, music historian, and educator, teaching at Ball State University Honors College while also maintaining a private piano studio in Yorktown, Indiana. For the past two decades, she has performed music by composers who were murdered in the Holocaust, including such composers as Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Viktor Ullmann, Erwin Schulhoff, James Simon, Szymon Laks, and others.

She wrote her dissertation on the music of Gideon Klein and regularly contributes scholarly articles on the music of these composers. Born and Raised in Israel, Dr. Gertsenzon earned her DMA in Piano Performance from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. She graduated magna cum laude from Tel Aviv University-Buchman Mehta School of Music, where she earned her Master’s in Piano Performance and Bachelors in Piano Performance and Musicology.