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A video collage of song and remembrance. The story is based on
Judith Magyar
Isaacson's highly acclaimed memoir recounting her real-life story as
a young Hungarian girl growing up during the tumutluous years of
WWII and the Holocaust.
The film follows Judith's present day journey back to the places of her past, reflecting an interior journey to recover memories she had long repressed as a means of survival. Based on the electronic chamber opera by Mark Polishook and featuring vocalist Angelina Reaux - the libretto was drawn from the memoirs of Judith Magyar Isaacson. The film's soundtrack is a contemporary electronic opera for one voice, featuring acclaimed vocalist Angelina Reaux. Staged scenes from the opera, together with rare archive footage and private family photos, combine to create a haunting tale of a young woman's coming of age. |
Film/Lecture
with Composer Dr. Mark Polishook
Seed of Sarah
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Film
Dr. Mark Polishook
Judith Magyar Isaacson
- Judith Magyar was born in Hungary. In 1944 she, her mother, aunt, and
grandmother were deported to
Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Her grandmother was killed there and Judith, her mother and aunt were sent
to another concentration camp, Hessich-Lichtenau; Isaacson's comments about
this time appear in an
April 2000 news article. In 1945 they were taken to Tekla where the US
Army liberated them. Judith married
Irving
Isaacson, an American Army officer, and moved with him to Lewiston,
Maine, Irving's hometown. In 1965 Judith graduated from
Bates College with a major in
mathematics. She taught math at Lewiston High School for three years and
then studied at Bowdoin College where
she earned a Master's degree in 1969. That same year she was hired as Dean
of Women at Bates College. She was Dean of Students from 1975 to 1977 when
she retired. She received an honorary doctorate from Bowdoin in 1994.
A 1976 invitation from Bowdoin College to speak about her survival in the camps was a turning point in her life. The day after her presentation, she began to write the manuscript that would be published as Seed of Sarah: Memoirs of a Survivor in 1990. Her book has been translated into several languages, was the inspiration for Mark Polishook's electronic chamber opera, and is the subject of a short video.
Her manuscripts for the book plus family papers can be viewed at Bates College Ladd Library. Other Isaacson papers can be found in the Maine Women Writers Collection, University of New England.
Judith Magyar Isaacson (1925 - )
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