JEWS IN ECUADOR
Videos and Films
“Jews of Ecuador” welcomes copies of videos and vintage films from anyone with a connection to the history of the Jewish community in Ecuador. Also included are an assortment of films and videos of interest that appear on YouTube and other sources.
Send DVRs or other electronic formats of vintage films and videos to Ralph Grunewald at [email protected]
EVA ZELIG, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR OF “AN UNKNOWN COUNTRY”
Director Eva Zelig talks about her film An Unknown Country, a documentary that tells the story of her family and of others who fled Europe escaping the Nazi terror to find refuge in an unlikely destination: Ecuador. She discusses the many perils of being exiles in that country, and how many descendants of refugees feel looking back on it. With Judy Gelman Myers on New Jewish Cinema.
“AN UNKNOWN COUNTRY”
This is a trailer from “An Unknown Country” — a documentary film by Eva Zelig about the history of the Jews of Ecuador.
MOSELIO (ELIO) SCHAECHTER
Moselio Schaechter spent his childhood in Mussolini’s Italy. Thanks to a transit visa for Portugal and the United States, the Schaechters made it to Quito, Ecuador in January 1941. Over the next nine years, Moselio struggled to accommodate his Jewish identity with a nascent South American self. In this talk he shares memories of his youth, his experience in the Ecuadorian Jewish refugee community, his life in the U.S., and his subsequent visit to his old “home.” Schaechter is a distinguished professor emeritus at Tufts University and an adjunct professor in microbiology at SDSU and UC San Diego.
ECUADOR (1949) – WATSON KINTNER COLLECTION
This is how Ecuador appeared just 4 years after the end of WWII, when many of our parents and grandparents had found safe haven after escaping Nazi Europe or surviving the Holocaust.
This footage of one of 10 reels that are found in the collection of the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania and are known as the Watson-Kitner Collection.
FILM FOOTAGE OF ECUADOR (1949)
Penn Museum (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology). This is how Ecuador appeared just 4 years after the end of WWII, when many of our parents and grandparents had found safe haven after escaping Nazi Europe or surviving the Holocaust.’
This rare footage was submitted by Kitty Janowitzer (Quito), with this note from a friend of hers:
Estimados Todos:
¡Conservar este material fílmico!
En el Internet Archivo hay unas películas del Ecuador filmadas en 1949 por un equipo de antropología por la PENN University, de bastante buena calidad. (lamentablemente sin audio) el Link de PENN; link muestra casas, edificios, del Guayaquil antiguo que NO me resultan familiares, porque no nacía aun, y no registro en la memoria esas referencias, ( vine a GYE recién a la edad de 9 años desde Esmeraldas): pero me causan un Deja Vu, ciertas escenas como la secada de cacao en las veredas, el vendedor ambulante de escobas, las casas viejas, piladoras, trafico de balsas y canoas en el rio, la vegetación tan verde y exuberante, para luego viajar por tren, esa parte es emocionante, etc.
Saludos,
El Tomas el que atesora documentos incunables
GUAYAQUIL 1949
This is how Guayaquil appeared just 4 years after the end of WWII, when many of our parents and grandparents had found safe haven after escaping Nazi Europe or surviving the Holocaust.
RECORRIDO POR EL MALECON 1900 GUAYAQUIL – ECUADOR
ECUADOR – LIFE AT ITS PUREST
GUAYAQUIL — DE MIS AMORES — GRUPO TRADICION
QUITO — A BUS TOUR
QUITO — A WALKING TOUR OF BEAUTIFUL QUITO
Guayaquil from a Drone
Guayaquil – Malecón 2000 and Iguana Park