Doc explains Holocaust to young generation

While many documentaries strive to educate audiences about the horrors and tragedies of the Holocaust, fewer try to explain the injustices to a young audience.

Keith Famie noticed this discrepancy while watching a Holocaust survivor speak to an audience of teenagers at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills a few years ago.

“The presentation was powerful and insightful and educational, and the kids seemed to enjoy it and asked questions, but I didn’t think they really got it,” he explains. “It’s not their fault. It’s just that the generation gap was too large.”

So, Famie set out to create a documentary that spoke to these young people.

That documentary, “Shoah Ambassadors,” will premiere Nov. 11 at the Emagine Theatre in Novi. The showing is sold out, but the program will debut on TV on Nov. 18.

“Shoah Ambassadors” features stories of Holocaust survivors told through the lens of two young, creative people: Curtis Bates, 20, an up-and-coming rapper and songwriter from Detroit, and Hailey Callahan, 23, a fine-arts graduate from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit.

“I wanted two young people to help tell the story,” Famie explains. “This film is not for the Jewish community. This film is not for the 50-, 60- or 70-year-old person. This film is really for the younger generation. How do you get the younger generation to have a better sense of understanding of the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust? It’s astonishing how many young people don’t have a full understanding of the Holocaust, so we set out to change that.