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The Film

“Artistic creativity is the only thing left to you as a survivor.”
Majid Nafici, Survivor of the Iranian Revolution.

Poetry of Resilience is a feature-length documentary by Academy Award® nominated director Katja Esson about survivors who endured war, genocide and political persecution and turned to poetry to help them survive. From Rwanda, Japan, China, Iran, Poland and Iraqi Kurdistan and into exile in the United States, Canada and Great Britain, the film follows six stories of survival, six poets and one shared question: How strong is the human spirit? » more

News

11/2009 – Corinna Sager as keynote speaker at Wonder of Women Film Festival

Corinna Sager will be the keynote speaker at the Wonder of Women (WOW) Film Festival on Sunday, November 22nd at Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ. WOW is produced ... » more

08/2009 – New York State Council for the Arts Grant

Poetry of Resilience has just gotten notice that it will receive a grant from the New York State ... » more

02/2009 – Katja Esson to speak at Prestigious Writers Conference

Katja Esson and associate producer Alison Granucci will be speaking at the 2009 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) » more

08/2008 – Production Moves to Film Poets in Exile in the United States

In August we filmed two of the poets who live in exile in the United States. We tied up Kimneyi's story by visiting him and his wife Matilde in Sacramento, California ... » more

07/2008 – Searching for a Lost Childhood in Poland

Shortly after Rwanda we met with Lillian Boraks-Nemetz who had returned to Poland to visit the little village where she was hiding during the war. The new owners of the ... » more