Syracuse University to screen PBS film documentary A Wing and a Prayer
Syracuse
University’s Middle Eastern Studies Program and the Jewish Studies Program will
host a special screening of the hit PBS documentary A Wing and a Prayer.
The event will be held on Monday, October 12, at 5:00 p.m. at SU’s Maxwell
School in Room 060 Eggers Hall and will feature a post-screening discussion
with the director.
This
hour-long film tells the virtually unknown story of World War II aviators who
risked their lives and freedom to prevent what they viewed as an imminent
second Holocaust. Directed and produced by award-winning filmmaker Boaz
Dvir (Jessie’s Dad, Discovering Gloria), the film has aired on PBS
stations around the United States. Recent special screenings include
American Jewish Historical Society in New York City and Columbia University’s
satellite campus in Paris.
Narrated
by actor William Baldwin, A Wing and a Prayer features firsthand
accounts of the invasion of Israel by five Western-equipped armies on the
morning after it declared independence in May, 1948. Dvir filmed
exclusive interviews around the world - including operation leader Al
Schwimmer’s only video interview - that provide rich detail about a group of
men who helped reshape history, yet have been forgotten by history books.
A Wing and a Prayer supplies that missing chapter.
“I
feel lucky and honored,” said Dvir, a film and journalism faculty member at
Penn State University, “to have had the opportunity to tell their incredible
stories.”
A
separate screening of the documentary will be held on Sunday October 11, at
2:30 p.m. at the Sam Pomeranz Jewish Community Center, 5655 Thompson Road,
Dewitt, NY.
Co-sponsors
of the event are Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public
Communications, Hillel @ SU, the School of Education, the Regional Initiative
for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and the Jewish Federation of Central New
York. The event is free and open to the public.
Interviews, photographs and
video clips available on request. 09/28/15