‘Paperclips’ filmmaker to speak at Central Queens Y

Filmmaker Matthew Hiltzik will speak with a screening of the acclaimed documentary “Paperclips” on Tuesday, April 25, at 12:30 p.m., at the Central Queens YM & YWHA in Forest Hills to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
This remarkable film, an “audience favorite” at Jewish film festivals around the country, tells the very moving story of schoolchildren in a small community in Tennessee who learn of the Holocaust for the first time. Reviewers have praised it as compassionate and heartfelt, “a modest film with a big heart.”
The award-winning film “Paperclips” tells the story of schoolchildren in a small, isolated town in the mountains of Tennessee. Brought up in an environment that is almost exclusively white and Christian, most of the children had never met anyone Jewish. In 1998, the children of Whitwell Middle School took on an inspiring project, launched out of their principal’s desire to help her students open their eyes to the diversity of the world beyond their insulated valley. What happened when students learned for the first time about the Holocaust would change the students, their teachers, their families and the entire town, opening hearts and minds. The film tells the moving story of how these students responded to what had been to them a completely unfamiliar chapter in human history.
Hiltzik’s talk and open discussion will follow the film. Hiltzik was Executive Producer for “Paperclips” and played a key role in developing and distributing the film. Currently president and CEO of Freud Communications, Hiltzik was senior vice president at Miramax Films for over 5 years.
Hiltzik’s talk and film screening is one in the spring series of events sponsored by the Hevesi Jewish Heritage Library of the Central Queens YM & YWHA, at 67-09 108 Street, in Forest Hills. All events are open to the general public, with a $4 donation suggested. For more information, call (718) 268-5011, ext. 151, or email pkurtz@cqyjcc.org.