OMA
New York City, New York | Film Short
Drama
Dana Bloch has collected hundreds of stories from holocaust survivors, the only one that escapes her is her estranged grandmother’s. As Dana gets closer to Ethel revealing her story, she realizes that the person in front of her is far more interesting than the story she intended to get.
OMA
New York City, New York | Film Short
Drama
1 Campaigns | New York, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $21,005 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
257 supporters | followers
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Dana Bloch has collected hundreds of stories from holocaust survivors, the only one that escapes her is her estranged grandmother’s. As Dana gets closer to Ethel revealing her story, she realizes that the person in front of her is far more interesting than the story she intended to get.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
The Story
OMA is a short narrative film inspired by my experience as a third generation Holocaust survivor. Both of my maternal grandparents survived WWII but never shared their stories with the family. Like many families, mine acknowledged our past, but never really talked about it. We were always concerned that my grandparents, who had been through so much, would suffer more by retelling their stories, than by holding them in. I learned from a young age that it was my responsibility to protect my grandparents from having to relive their horrors. I believe that this blockage of communication and the inherited trauma has greatly impacted my life and art.
As a creator, I have known for a while that I needed to use my art to bring my grandparents’ story to life: I knew I had to write my grandparents' story: the story of silence and its loud implications on family dynamic. I reached out to my very talented friend Melissa Jane Osborne to collaborate on what is now OMA. She picked up on the universal themes of longing for connection and understanding oneself through loved ones among others. Through our discussions, the generational gap between ourselves and our grandparents became very clear. The need for the current generation to share and over share, often behind a computer screen, is juxtaposed with our grandparents' need for privacy and anonymity.
OMA initially started as an attempt to provide answers, to flush out my grandmother’s story. I like Dana thought that knowing facts and figures that I wanted to get, would help heal mine. What I realized from this process is that no story can provide all the answers we think we want, and there are answers that people don’t want to share. All we can do is start a conversation and be open to where it goes. OMA is our way of starting that conversation.
Here on Seed & Spark, you have a backstage pass for how we're making this movie, one step at a time.
Follow us on social media, and join the conversation.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
G-Technology® Hard Drive ($300)
Costs $300
G-Technology® is the gold standard for storage solutions specifically designed for content creators. We’ll get a storage grant from them when we get the Green Light!
Freelance Crew
Costs $8,250
You may not see them on screen but they make the whole film possible.
Lens Rental
Costs $500
We want our film to look as good as possible, and that means renting some top quality lenses.
Audio Package
Costs $500
It takes a lot of microphones to capture all the dialogue, this makes sure we won't miss a word.
Festival Fees
Costs $500
Festivals are a great way to share this film with as wide an audience as possible.
Craft Services Food
Costs $1,200
Its hard work making a film and this keeps us going all day.
Insurance & Legal Fees
Costs $2,000
It may not be the most glamorous but its still essential.
Travel, Tolls & Gas
Costs $500
This will help us move our crew and equipment around Manhattan.
Location Rental Fee
Costs $1,000
Help us give back to the wonderful people who are opening their homes to us.
Office Supplies & More
Costs $500
Those little costs add up and we need to make sure we're covered.
Share this update!
About This Team
Daniella Rabbani (Director/Dana/Story by)
Daniella Rabbani is an actress, singer and filmmaker. She has devoted much of her young career to carrying on the legacy of the Yiddish theater. A third generation Holocaustsurvivor, Daniella has always been passionate about stories of the past as they relate to the present. Daniella has been praised by The New YorkTimes, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Observer, among others, for her work Off Broadway and in concerts around the world including headlining at Jazz and Lincoln Center, Town Hall in New York City and The State Jewish Theater in Warsaw, Poland. Recently, Daniella has turned her attention to television and film. As an actress, she held roles in the 2014 Sundance Film Festival's Appropriate Behavior, 2014 Tribeca Film Festival's Be Here Now-ish, PBS' Triangle Fire and FX's The Americans. She produced and starred in the sketch Couples Audition which aired on FOX's Laughs in August 2014 and created the web series Skirts & Ladders which landed her a channel partnership with Broadway Video's Above Average. She is currently working on a short film project inspired by the inheritance of family trauma. For more information please check out daniellarabbani.com.
Check out Daniella's webseries, Skirts and Ladders:
Lynn Cohen (Ethel)
Lynn Cohen: Selected NY theatre: I Remember Mama (Transport Group/Lucille Lortel Award nomination); Macbeth (Delacorte); Ivanov (LCT/Broadway): Chasing Manet, Model Apartment (Primary Stages); Hamlet (Public Theater); Orpheus Descending (Broadway); The Devils (NYTW); Uncle Vanya (Andre Gregory production). Regional: Guthrie; Hartford Stage; Yale Rep; Huntington;Williamstown; Long Wharf; Actors Theatre of Louisville Film/TV: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; Munich; Eagle Eye: Manhattan Murder Mystery; Vanya on 42nd Street; various Law and Orders; Sex and the City (TV/movies); Damages, Nurse Jackie. Awards: New Dramatists’ Bowden Award; Fox Fellow; Lilly Award; AEA Richard Seff Award.
Melissa Jane Osborne (Screenwriter/Associate Producer)
Melissa Jane Osborne is an actor and writer who has worked with Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Samuel French Festival, NYFringe, EST-LA, Killer Films, The Barrow Group and Stella Adler Studio of which she is an alum. She is a two time O'Neill National Playwrights Conference semi finalist. Her work in new media spans from writing on the first web-series The Burg, to creating the first interactive scripted iPhone game Campus Crush for the Episode App. Campus Crush has spawned multiple sequels and become an international teen sensation with over 6 million views a month. She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, a member of the Barrow Group’s FAB Women, and IAMA Theatre Co. Her graphic novel the The Wendy Project is being released by Emet Comics and is currently being developed as a television series.
Mike Hayhurst (Producer)
Mike Hayhurst is a producer and director for theatre and film. Recent film credits include work on Lightening Bugs in a Jar (premiered at Cannes 2015); The Trip to Bountiful; and A Day Late and a Dollar Short for Lifetime. He spent four years as an Assistant/Associate at Ostar Enterprises (Rizzoli & Isles, TNT; Beauty and the Beast, CW; Company Town- pilot, CW; Nothing to Hide, directed by Neil Patrick Harris at Signature Theater; various Broadway projects).
New York theatre credits include: Some Dead Bodies; King of Bohemia (MITF, Winner: Outstanding Direction); Miró; Love Thy Neighbour. Mike was born and raised in the UK where his work included: Titus; The Vikings and Darwin; Orvin- Champion of Champions; Zombie Prom; Ubu Roi; Burying Your Brother in the Pavement. He was Assistant Director to Rupert Goold on his productions of Hamlet; Faustus; and Paradise Lost; and an Associate Director for R.I.P.P. &'08 (Norway); Crackers? (Singapore and UK). He was also Plinther #733 in One & Other by Anthony Gormley (Trafalgar Square, London). www.eveningsquire.com
Amanda Shafran (Costume Designer)
Amanda is an international theatrical designer, mixed media artist, and yogini based on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Originally from suburban New York, Amanda grew up with a curiosity for all stories waiting to be told, hidden away in the pockets of our routine realities. Attracted first and foremost to the human connectivity element in a project, Amanda aims to approach each project with equal parts mind, body, and spirit. Film:#GymShorts, Coconut Grove, Mysteries At the Manor (assistant) Theater: Cloned! (The Signature Theater) I Am The Wind (59E59), Carcass (HERE Arts Center), The Balcony (Horizon Theater Rep), The Wild Duck (NYU), Boom (NYU). Dance: Dream’d In A Dream (Sean Curran Co, Upcoming BAM Next Wave Festival) St. Petersburg Waltz (10 Hairy Legs Rep), 2015).Nocturnes for Ancestors (The Joyce Theater, Jose Limon Dance Co.), Even Here (Alvin Ailey Theater) ‘Oh Sleep, Why Dost Thou Leave me? (Second Ave dance Co). Opera: Encounter (The National Center for The Arts, Bejing) The Telephone (The Alchemical Theater Company),Acteon (The Kennedy Center). Amanda is continuously working on a collection of paintings and drawings inspired by the way our bodies and our minds process sensation and emotion, entitled FibroFigures. MFA: NYU, Tisch School of the Arts (Design for Stage and Film) 200 YOGA TT: ISHTA Yoga, East Vilage.www.AmandaShafran.com
Matthew Freeman (Dramaturg)
Matt Freeman is currently the Education Director at The Tectonic Theatre Project. He has worked with organizations such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The New Victory Theater, New York Cares, The New York City Arts-in-Education Roundtable, and The CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS) where he served as the Assistant Director. Matt holds a B.A. in Theater and Arts Administration from Muhlenberg College, an M.A. in Arts Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an M.A. in Applied Theatre from CUNY SPS.
Sara Wolkowitz (Editor)
Sara is an independent filmmaker and theater director. Most recently, Sara co-directed a short film, LIGHTNING BUGS IN A JAR, which screened at the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival 2015. Marrying her two loves, film and theater, she directed and edited a feature documentary, STILL ON THE ROAD, about America's longest touring theater company, The Acting Company. It premiered at Lincoln Center in January 2011 and is currently airing on PBS. Sara also co-directed a promo trailer starring Gillian Anderson for an upcoming children’s television show. In 2011, Sara directed a new documentary web series, DIARY OF A CHORUS GIRL, about Alex Ellis, who made her Broadway debut in the musical CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. One of her favorite New York theater credits is THE ULTIMATE STIMULUS (FringeNYC 2014, Under St Marks, DixonPlace). She has BA in Film from Vassar College. Her favorite project is filming her grandparents' stories. www.sarawolkowitz.com
Jonathan Betzler (AD)
Jonathan graduated with a BFA in Film and Television from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. His first feature film, Homecoming, played several festivals and was named Best Narrative Feature at the Southern Winds Film Festival in Oklahoma. Recently, he also executive produced and co-directed, the award-winning character-driven web series, Intersection. His short films include Winter Solstice, Just Reward, Plato Told Him, Uninvited and One Particular Person which won the Jury Prize at the online film festival Got Film Fest and was awarded Best Romance at the New York Independent Film and Video Festival. Jonathan worked with Merchant Ivory Productions for two and a half years and was involved in the productions of Surviving Picasso, A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries andThe Golden Bowl, and Cotton Mary.
Bianca Crudo (Assistant to the Director)
Bianca is an actress, singer, and creator based in New York City. Born in Toronto and raised in Connecticut, Bianca has filmed and performed in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She made her film debut as a lead in The Healer, a foreign film directed by the Oscar-Nominated Agnieszka Holland, and starring Miranda Otto and William Fichtner. She is a recent graduate from Fordham University. Since graduation, she made her post-graduate acting debut at the cell theatre in the NY Premiere of Horse Girls, directed by Sarah Krohn and written by Jenny Rachel Weiner. Bianca was also aproduction assistant on A Delicate Balance, which opened on Broadway in the fall. She continues to work closely with Joey Parnes Productions, and has assisted them on Vanya, Sonia, Masha, Spike, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, and Betrayal. To learn more about Bianca, check out her website biancacrudo.com
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
The Story
OMA is a short narrative film inspired by my experience as a third generation Holocaust survivor. Both of my maternal grandparents survived WWII but never shared their stories with the family. Like many families, mine acknowledged our past, but never really talked about it. We were always concerned that my grandparents, who had been through so much, would suffer more by retelling their stories, than by holding them in. I learned from a young age that it was my responsibility to protect my grandparents from having to relive their horrors. I believe that this blockage of communication and the inherited trauma has greatly impacted my life and art.
As a creator, I have known for a while that I needed to use my art to bring my grandparents’ story to life: I knew I had to write my grandparents' story: the story of silence and its loud implications on family dynamic. I reached out to my very talented friend Melissa Jane Osborne to collaborate on what is now OMA. She picked up on the universal themes of longing for connection and understanding oneself through loved ones among others. Through our discussions, the generational gap between ourselves and our grandparents became very clear. The need for the current generation to share and over share, often behind a computer screen, is juxtaposed with our grandparents' need for privacy and anonymity.
OMA initially started as an attempt to provide answers, to flush out my grandmother’s story. I like Dana thought that knowing facts and figures that I wanted to get, would help heal mine. What I realized from this process is that no story can provide all the answers we think we want, and there are answers that people don’t want to share. All we can do is start a conversation and be open to where it goes. OMA is our way of starting that conversation.
Here on Seed & Spark, you have a backstage pass for how we're making this movie, one step at a time.
Follow us on social media, and join the conversation.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
G-Technology® Hard Drive ($300)
Costs $300
G-Technology® is the gold standard for storage solutions specifically designed for content creators. We’ll get a storage grant from them when we get the Green Light!
Freelance Crew
Costs $8,250
You may not see them on screen but they make the whole film possible.
Lens Rental
Costs $500
We want our film to look as good as possible, and that means renting some top quality lenses.
Audio Package
Costs $500
It takes a lot of microphones to capture all the dialogue, this makes sure we won't miss a word.
Festival Fees
Costs $500
Festivals are a great way to share this film with as wide an audience as possible.
Craft Services Food
Costs $1,200
Its hard work making a film and this keeps us going all day.
Insurance & Legal Fees
Costs $2,000
It may not be the most glamorous but its still essential.
Travel, Tolls & Gas
Costs $500
This will help us move our crew and equipment around Manhattan.
Location Rental Fee
Costs $1,000
Help us give back to the wonderful people who are opening their homes to us.
Office Supplies & More
Costs $500
Those little costs add up and we need to make sure we're covered.
Share this update!
About This Team
Daniella Rabbani (Director/Dana/Story by)
Daniella Rabbani is an actress, singer and filmmaker. She has devoted much of her young career to carrying on the legacy of the Yiddish theater. A third generation Holocaustsurvivor, Daniella has always been passionate about stories of the past as they relate to the present. Daniella has been praised by The New YorkTimes, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Observer, among others, for her work Off Broadway and in concerts around the world including headlining at Jazz and Lincoln Center, Town Hall in New York City and The State Jewish Theater in Warsaw, Poland. Recently, Daniella has turned her attention to television and film. As an actress, she held roles in the 2014 Sundance Film Festival's Appropriate Behavior, 2014 Tribeca Film Festival's Be Here Now-ish, PBS' Triangle Fire and FX's The Americans. She produced and starred in the sketch Couples Audition which aired on FOX's Laughs in August 2014 and created the web series Skirts & Ladders which landed her a channel partnership with Broadway Video's Above Average. She is currently working on a short film project inspired by the inheritance of family trauma. For more information please check out daniellarabbani.com.
Check out Daniella's webseries, Skirts and Ladders:
Lynn Cohen (Ethel)
Lynn Cohen: Selected NY theatre: I Remember Mama (Transport Group/Lucille Lortel Award nomination); Macbeth (Delacorte); Ivanov (LCT/Broadway): Chasing Manet, Model Apartment (Primary Stages); Hamlet (Public Theater); Orpheus Descending (Broadway); The Devils (NYTW); Uncle Vanya (Andre Gregory production). Regional: Guthrie; Hartford Stage; Yale Rep; Huntington;Williamstown; Long Wharf; Actors Theatre of Louisville Film/TV: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; Munich; Eagle Eye: Manhattan Murder Mystery; Vanya on 42nd Street; various Law and Orders; Sex and the City (TV/movies); Damages, Nurse Jackie. Awards: New Dramatists’ Bowden Award; Fox Fellow; Lilly Award; AEA Richard Seff Award.
Melissa Jane Osborne (Screenwriter/Associate Producer)
Melissa Jane Osborne is an actor and writer who has worked with Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Samuel French Festival, NYFringe, EST-LA, Killer Films, The Barrow Group and Stella Adler Studio of which she is an alum. She is a two time O'Neill National Playwrights Conference semi finalist. Her work in new media spans from writing on the first web-series The Burg, to creating the first interactive scripted iPhone game Campus Crush for the Episode App. Campus Crush has spawned multiple sequels and become an international teen sensation with over 6 million views a month. She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, a member of the Barrow Group’s FAB Women, and IAMA Theatre Co. Her graphic novel the The Wendy Project is being released by Emet Comics and is currently being developed as a television series.
Mike Hayhurst (Producer)
Mike Hayhurst is a producer and director for theatre and film. Recent film credits include work on Lightening Bugs in a Jar (premiered at Cannes 2015); The Trip to Bountiful; and A Day Late and a Dollar Short for Lifetime. He spent four years as an Assistant/Associate at Ostar Enterprises (Rizzoli & Isles, TNT; Beauty and the Beast, CW; Company Town- pilot, CW; Nothing to Hide, directed by Neil Patrick Harris at Signature Theater; various Broadway projects).
New York theatre credits include: Some Dead Bodies; King of Bohemia (MITF, Winner: Outstanding Direction); Miró; Love Thy Neighbour. Mike was born and raised in the UK where his work included: Titus; The Vikings and Darwin; Orvin- Champion of Champions; Zombie Prom; Ubu Roi; Burying Your Brother in the Pavement. He was Assistant Director to Rupert Goold on his productions of Hamlet; Faustus; and Paradise Lost; and an Associate Director for R.I.P.P. &'08 (Norway); Crackers? (Singapore and UK). He was also Plinther #733 in One & Other by Anthony Gormley (Trafalgar Square, London). www.eveningsquire.com
Amanda Shafran (Costume Designer)
Amanda is an international theatrical designer, mixed media artist, and yogini based on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Originally from suburban New York, Amanda grew up with a curiosity for all stories waiting to be told, hidden away in the pockets of our routine realities. Attracted first and foremost to the human connectivity element in a project, Amanda aims to approach each project with equal parts mind, body, and spirit. Film:#GymShorts, Coconut Grove, Mysteries At the Manor (assistant) Theater: Cloned! (The Signature Theater) I Am The Wind (59E59), Carcass (HERE Arts Center), The Balcony (Horizon Theater Rep), The Wild Duck (NYU), Boom (NYU). Dance: Dream’d In A Dream (Sean Curran Co, Upcoming BAM Next Wave Festival) St. Petersburg Waltz (10 Hairy Legs Rep), 2015).Nocturnes for Ancestors (The Joyce Theater, Jose Limon Dance Co.), Even Here (Alvin Ailey Theater) ‘Oh Sleep, Why Dost Thou Leave me? (Second Ave dance Co). Opera: Encounter (The National Center for The Arts, Bejing) The Telephone (The Alchemical Theater Company),Acteon (The Kennedy Center). Amanda is continuously working on a collection of paintings and drawings inspired by the way our bodies and our minds process sensation and emotion, entitled FibroFigures. MFA: NYU, Tisch School of the Arts (Design for Stage and Film) 200 YOGA TT: ISHTA Yoga, East Vilage.www.AmandaShafran.com
Matthew Freeman (Dramaturg)
Matt Freeman is currently the Education Director at The Tectonic Theatre Project. He has worked with organizations such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The New Victory Theater, New York Cares, The New York City Arts-in-Education Roundtable, and The CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS) where he served as the Assistant Director. Matt holds a B.A. in Theater and Arts Administration from Muhlenberg College, an M.A. in Arts Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an M.A. in Applied Theatre from CUNY SPS.
Sara Wolkowitz (Editor)
Sara is an independent filmmaker and theater director. Most recently, Sara co-directed a short film, LIGHTNING BUGS IN A JAR, which screened at the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival 2015. Marrying her two loves, film and theater, she directed and edited a feature documentary, STILL ON THE ROAD, about America's longest touring theater company, The Acting Company. It premiered at Lincoln Center in January 2011 and is currently airing on PBS. Sara also co-directed a promo trailer starring Gillian Anderson for an upcoming children’s television show. In 2011, Sara directed a new documentary web series, DIARY OF A CHORUS GIRL, about Alex Ellis, who made her Broadway debut in the musical CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. One of her favorite New York theater credits is THE ULTIMATE STIMULUS (FringeNYC 2014, Under St Marks, DixonPlace). She has BA in Film from Vassar College. Her favorite project is filming her grandparents' stories. www.sarawolkowitz.com
Jonathan Betzler (AD)
Jonathan graduated with a BFA in Film and Television from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. His first feature film, Homecoming, played several festivals and was named Best Narrative Feature at the Southern Winds Film Festival in Oklahoma. Recently, he also executive produced and co-directed, the award-winning character-driven web series, Intersection. His short films include Winter Solstice, Just Reward, Plato Told Him, Uninvited and One Particular Person which won the Jury Prize at the online film festival Got Film Fest and was awarded Best Romance at the New York Independent Film and Video Festival. Jonathan worked with Merchant Ivory Productions for two and a half years and was involved in the productions of Surviving Picasso, A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries andThe Golden Bowl, and Cotton Mary.
Bianca Crudo (Assistant to the Director)
Bianca is an actress, singer, and creator based in New York City. Born in Toronto and raised in Connecticut, Bianca has filmed and performed in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She made her film debut as a lead in The Healer, a foreign film directed by the Oscar-Nominated Agnieszka Holland, and starring Miranda Otto and William Fichtner. She is a recent graduate from Fordham University. Since graduation, she made her post-graduate acting debut at the cell theatre in the NY Premiere of Horse Girls, directed by Sarah Krohn and written by Jenny Rachel Weiner. Bianca was also aproduction assistant on A Delicate Balance, which opened on Broadway in the fall. She continues to work closely with Joey Parnes Productions, and has assisted them on Vanya, Sonia, Masha, Spike, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, and Betrayal. To learn more about Bianca, check out her website biancacrudo.com