Virtual Screening Details:

Streaming Timeframe: Wed. March 17, 7pm - Sat. March 20, 7pm (sales end 2 hrs before; no grace period after 72-hour timeframe expires)
Available for Viewing throughout the United States
Zoom Conversation: Thu. March 18, 7pm with American radio host Martin Goldsmith, co-screenwriter, who appears in the film based on his conversations with his father. Moderated by Mina Miller of Music of Remembrance (link emailed 1hr before).
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About The Film

American radio host Martin Goldsmith never knew what really happened to his parents Georg (Günther) and Rosemarie before their escape from Germany in 1941. "Winter Journey" is based on his book about his Jewish parents, who fled Nazi Germany. In the film adaptation, as he confronts his father over a long weekend several decades later, we are brought back to the 1930s, when his parents were talented musicians. After the Nuremberg Laws were enacted in 1935, they were only able to perform as members of the Kulturbund, or Jewish Cultural Federation, a remarkable arts organization that was used as a propaganda tool by Joseph Goebbels and the Reich Chamber of Culture. Martin questions Georg about his time in Germany and the pact he made with the devil before fleeing to start a new life in the U.S. in 1941.

WINTER JOURNEY plays remarkably and ingenuously with edited archival images, historical reconstructions, and reenactments of the actual conversations Goldsmith had with his father. Goldsmith himself is the unseen interviewer, while a vulnerable Bruno Ganz (WINGS OF DESIRE, THE TOBACCONIST) delivers a sublime performance as his father in the actor's final role.

Guest Bios

Costar and co-screenwriter Martin Goldsmith, is the author of The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany, which tells the riveting story of the Kulturbund, an all-Jewish performing arts ensemble maintained by the Nazis between 1933 and 1941, an ensemble that included Goldsmith's parents. His book is the basis of the acclaimed film WINTER JOURNEY, co-written by Goldsmith, directed by Anders Ostergaard, and starring the late Bruno Ganz. Goldsmith is also the author of Alex's Wake: A Voyage of Betrayal and a Journey of Remembrance, the story of his grandfather and uncle, who were two of the more than 900 passengers on the ill-fated Jewish refugee ship St. Louis in 1939, and his own six-week journey in their footsteps in 2011. Goldsmith has been a classical music radio programmer and presenter for forty-nine years. From 1989 to 1999, he served as the host of "Performance Today," National Public Radio's daily classical music program, which won the coveted Peabody Award for broadcasting during his tenure. Semi-retired from Sirius XM Satellite Radio in Washington, DC, where he served as the company's Director of Classical Music Programming starting in 2000, Goldsmith now hosts music programs on weekend afternoons.

Moderator: Mina Miller, Executive Director of Music of Remembrance, is a recognized authority on Holocaust-era music and musicians, and has lectured internationally on the precious cultural and artistic legacy that escaped Nazi destruction. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music and earned her PhD in Music from New York University. As a pianist, she has performed solo recitals at London's Wigmore Hall, the Tivoli International Music Festival (Copenhagen), and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland). She can be heard on the MOR recordings of Laitman's Vedem (Naxos 2011) and Heggie's For a Look or a Touch (Naxos 2008) as the pianist in Laitman's song cycle The Seed of Dream, and Cipullo's After Life as the pianist in In Sleep The World Is Yours. She received the Pathfinder Award from The Puget Sound Association of Phi Beta Kappa in May 2003. In 2006, the Women's Endowment Foundation (a supporting foundation of The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle) named her a Phenomenal Woman honoree. In 2018 she was honored by the Washington State Jewish Historical Society as an Agent of Change, one of twenty remarkable women in the state, and was the recipient of the Consul General of Japan Award.

Director Bios

Anders Østergaard was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and is a director and writer known for Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (2008), Gasolin' (2006) and Tintin and I (2004). He graduated from the Danish School of Media and Journalist. His preferred approach involves both observational and expository documentary types and draw on a mix of archival material and new recordings, combining a sense of documentary authencity with psychological intimacy.

Erzsébet Rácz was born in Hungary in 1971 and grew up behind the Iron Curtain. In 2001 she moved to Berlin and graduated in scriptwriting from DFFB. She is an award winning screenwriter. She teaches at the University of Theatre and Film, Budapest and dffb Berlin.

 Sponsors:

• Community Partners:
  • Goethe Pop Up Seattle
  • Music of Remembrance