The Director
Director/Producer/Writer Hilary Helstein
Hilary began her career in the world of humanitarian causes with her work with Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. She directed and produced over 200 segments and interviewed many prominent Holocaust survivors, military liberators and rescuers; among them, Simon Wiesenthal, Nobel Prize recipient Walter Kohn, and renowned Rabbi Graudenz, part of the Sugihara rescue committee. In addition, she traveled to remote areas to interview survivors with unique experiences, including several members of the Varian Fry rescue mission, Chief of Staff of the US Army, and a “Mengele twin.” Hilary’s expertise was utilized to train other interviewers and for quality assurance throughout every English speaking region in the world. She reviewed an additional 300 testimonies for quality assurance.
Hilary’s deep passion for film and the arts led her to her most recent creation - the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival. As Executive Director, Hilary has facilitated completing four successful years of this citywide event. Hilary single-handedly produced this film festival to bring to the LA community a week-long event featuring the newest American and international films celebrating the diversity of the Jewish culture. Her role includes: fundraising and sponsorship, programming, developing partnerships with organizations (ie. the ADL, Jewish World Watch and JDate), consulates and synagogues throughout the city, organizing events and venues, creating the festival brochure and program guide, marketing and advertising; and talent coordination.
Prior to that, in 2005, Hilary directed a documentary on the renowned Los Angeles Rabbi Schulweis. The film, Harold M. Schulweis: The First 80 Years was screened at a special event for an audience of over 1200 people including emissaries such as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and significant clergy including Rabbi Harold Kushner and Cardinal Mahoney.
In addition to filmmaking, Hilary has worked in another capacity in the cultural arts. In 2004, she curated an exhibition of paintings, Samuel Bak: Between Worlds on the surrealist for the Finegood Art Gallery. Prior to that, Hilary co-curated the art exhibit, Memory and Meaning: the Holocaust Through the Eyes of the Artist, for the Jewish Federation’s Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. She worked with over 40 artists and personally brought to it the most recognized artists in this genre including Art Spiegelman and Mindy Wiesel.
Ms. Helstein was segment producer for the documentary series, America! which aired on the Odyssey Network. In addition, she directed a service learning/educational project for the Museum of Tolerance and an oral history project for CalArts. Hilary started her career in LA in film development for actor Tom Hanks.