The Windsor Jewish Community Centre (WJCC), in partnership with GECDSB, is pleased to announce that Walkerville Collegiate Institute and Walkerville Centre for the Creative Arts will be hosting the film, Defiant Requiem. This film was presented at the 2015 Windsor Jewish Film Festival. The Morris and Beverly Bake Foundation has provided a grant to WJCC to offer one of the Windsor Jewish Film Festival’s selections for educational purposes. A Steering Committee of GECDSB staff was created in order to make a selection and to develop lessons for the selected film. Defiant Requiem was the chosen film.
This 85-minute documentary film highlights the most dramatic example of intellectual and artistic courage in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) Concentration Camp during World War II: the remarkable story of Rafael Schächter, a brilliant, young Czech conductor who was arrested and sent to Terezín in 1941. He demonstrated moral leadership under the most brutal circumstances, determined to sustain courage and hope for his fellow prisoners by enriching their souls through great music. His most extraordinary act was to recruit 150 prisoners and teach them Verdi’s Requiem by rote in a dank cellar using a single score, over multiple rehearsals, and after grueling days of forced labor. The Requiem was performed on 16 occasions for fellow prisoners. A parallel story takes place in 2006 as Murry Sidlin, an American conductor, brings a full orchestra and the Catholic University of America’s chorale ensemble, back to Terezin to perform the Requiem once more.
Details of the performance are as follows:
Audience: Grades 10-12 History, English and The Arts students
Location: Walkerville Collegiate Institute
Time: 9:45 am – 11:15 am
Dates: April 30, 2019
Cost: $3.00 per student. For students who may not be able to cover the cost, WJCC may be able to assist, on a first-come, first-served basis
Bussing Costs: will be the responsibility of schools. However, if the school is not able to cover the cost, the WJCC may be able to assist, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Lesson plans will be provided for attending classrooms.
