OUR FILMS
History Told Through the People Who Lived It.
The films of the Gens Family Project bring survivor testimony, archival photographs, documents and landscapes together to recover the lives behind the historical record.
WHY FILM
Documentary as Evidence.
The documentaries of the Gens Family Project are built around real people and rigorously researched events. Survivor testimony is placed alongside archival photographs, documents, film footage and the landscapes in which history unfolded, allowing individual sources to illuminate one another.
Our films explore Jewish life in Lithuania, the Holocaust, occupation, displacement and the political transformations that followed. By reconnecting voices with places and evidence with lived experience, they seek not simply to describe the past, but to restore human lives to the historical record.
FEATURED FILMS
Stories Preserved on Film.
Through documentary film, survivor testimony, archival evidence and historical research are brought together to preserve individual lives and illuminate the worlds in which they lived.
FEATURED DOCUMENTARY
The Girl from Freedom Avenue
A childhood in independent Lithuania. A life transformed by occupation, war and exile.
The Girl from Freedom Avenue follows Ada Gens-Ustjanauskas from her childhood in independent Lithuania through Soviet occupation, Nazi persecution, hiding, displacement and exile. Drawing on survivor testimony, family photographs and archival research, the film reconstructs the world she knew and the history that transformed it.
FEATURED DOCUMENTARY
The Commandant’s Daughter
A daughter’s testimony. The history of the Vilna Ghetto seen from within.
Built around survivor testimony, archival research and the history of the Vilna Ghetto, the film follows the life of Ada Gens-Ustjanauskas, whose father became one of the ghetto’s most consequential and contested figures. Through her voice, family history and the historical record, the documentary explores persecution, survival and the burden of memory.
SHORT FILMS
History in Focus.
Short films allow us to examine individual people, documents and events in greater depth. Each begins with a specific piece of evidence and uses testimony, archival research and historical context to reveal the larger story around it.
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY
Lisa Nussbaum Derman
Survivor Lisa Nussbaum Derman carried the memory of the Vilna Ghetto and a destroyed Jewish world into a new life. Her testimony preserves what was lost and the determination to ensure it would not be forgotten.
VILNA GHETTO
Voices of the Vilna Ghetto
Survivor testimony brings the history of the Vilna Ghetto into the voices of those who lived it. Their memories preserve the people, relationships, choices and losses behind the historical record.
MUSIC & MEMORY
Shtiler, Shtiler
Written in the Vilna Ghetto, Shtiler, Shtiler became one of its most enduring songs. The film explores how music carried memory, emotion and humanity through a world being destroyed.
SCREENINGS & PRESENTATIONS
History Shared in the Places It Belongs.
The films and research of the Gens Family Project are presented through museums, universities, Jewish communities, libraries and public programs, creating opportunities to place historical evidence in conversation with the people and places connected to it. Screenings, lectures and discussions allow survivor testimony, archival research and family history to reach new audiences while encouraging deeper engagement with the history of Lithuanian Jewry and the Holocaust.
MORE FILMS
Explore the Film Archive.
The Gens Family Project continues to produce short documentaries examining individual lives, historical events, archival discoveries and the places where this history unfolded. Explore the growing collection below.
MUSIC VIDEO
Vilna
Vilna reflects on the Jewish city that once flourished in Vilnius, connecting its cultural memory with the streets and places that remain today.
MUSIC VIDEO
Friling
Friling brings a song born from the Vilna Ghetto into the landscape of present-day Lithuania, carrying memory across generations.
SCREENINGS & EDUCATION
Bring These Stories to Your Community.
The Gens Family Project works with museums, universities, schools, Jewish communities and cultural institutions to present its films in educational and public settings. Screenings can be accompanied by discussion, historical context and project presentations tailored to the audience.