The Movies that Matter film series was developed to address the most pressing social justice issues of today and to inspire students and community members to become civically engaged in positive change. The films in the series can be brought to schools, community locations or screened at the Mizel Museum as part of a tour or field trip.

The Mizel Museum’s long-standing Miryam Brand Holocaust Film Project is part of the Movies that Matter series. These award-winning Holocaust films and documentaries teach timeless historical lessons to students and inspire them to stand up to hatred in their communities. An asterisk (*) indicates that a film is part of our Miryam Brand Holocaust Film Project.

Holocaust Films:
Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh*
Surviving Skokie*
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life*

Social Justice Films:
Get in the Way: The Journey of John Lewis
Surviving Skokie*

This program is adaptable to any grade and is available to adult community groups. 

Blessed is The Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh

Blessed is the Match is the featured Miryam Brand Holocaust Film for 2017-18. This captivating film tells the story of Hannah Senesh, a 22-year-old woman who parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe in an effort to save the Jews of Hungary. As a poet and diarist, she left behind a body of work that has inspired generations. The life story of this remarkable, talented and complex woman illustrates the importance of standing up for one’s beliefs.

This film can be brought to your school, community location, or screened at the Mizel Museum as part of a tour or field trip.

Get In The Way: The Journey of John Lewis

Get in the Way is the first documentary biography of John Lewis, civil rights hero, congressional leader and human rights champion, whose unwavering fight for justice spans the past 50 years.

The film tells a highly personalized narrative of an epic chapter in U.S. history and touches audiences deeply, regardless of their race, gender, age, religious, sexual or political preferences. Bringing Lewis’ story into the present, Get in the Way emphasizes his enduring determination to stand up to injustice and discrimination wherever he finds it using strategy, legislation and direct action.

This film can be brought to your school, community location, or screened at the Mizel Museum as part of a tour or field trip.

Surviving Skokie

Surviving Skokie, our featured film for 2016-17, is an intensely personal documentary about Holocaust survivor and Mizel Museum educator Jack Adler and the anti-Semitism he encountered in America after the war. In the 1970s, Jack and other Holocaust survivors came face-to-face with neo-Nazis in Skokie, Illinois. Though they were obviously traumatized, the survivors refused to be silent and allow hatred and anti-Semitism to rise once again. The film also depicts Jack’s journey back to the concentration camp in Poland where he was imprisoned.

This film can be brought to your school, community location, or screened at the Mizel Museum as part of a tour or field trip.

The Lady In Number 6: Music Saved My Life

The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life is an Oscar-winning documentary that brings to life the universal lessons and contemporary relevance of the Holocaust. The film follows Alice Herz-Sommer, renowned pianist and the oldest known Holocaust survivor at the time of filming, and tells her inspiring story of resiliency and optimism. In this remarkable film, Alice shares how music saved her life during her time at Theresienstadt concentration camp and in the years afterward.

This film can be brought to your school, community location, or screened at the Mizel Museum as part of a tour or field trip.