Here’s the good news about the April 2 screening for “Triumph of Hope” at the Grandin Theatre: As of Friday, plenty of $15 tickets were available.
The locally produced 2024 documentary features harrowing and inspiring first-person accounts of three Western Virginians who were “hidden” Jewish children in Europe during the spread of Nazism and the genocide that followed.
The stars are Regine Archer, Helga Morrow and the late Ayre Ephrath.
From left, Helga Morrow, Arye Ephrath and Regine Archer, stars of the documentary film, “Triumph of Hope.” The public premiere was Sept. 18 at 166su College.
“Triumph of Hope” sold out the Grandin Theatre at an earlier screening, Nov. 12. Unfortunately for some, demand for tickets to that show outstripped the supply. Which meant some people who wanted to see it couldn’t.
Just one was the Rev. George Anderson, senior pastor at Second Presbyterian Church.
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In November, “I just assumed many seats would be available,” Anderson told me. They weren’t, so this time Anderson is taking no chances. He’s already purchased his tickets through the Grandin Theatre’s website.
Lori Strauss, events coordinator for the 166su Jewish Federation, was the film’s executive producer. She’s heard from plenty of others who couldn’t get in. That’s why she scheduled a second showing.
Last fall, “the final ticket sold the day before the screening,” Strauss told me recently. “People who worked on the movie contacted the theater to get a ticket and couldn’t.”
A close up of Helga Morrow, 86, from the 2024 documentary film “Triumph of Hope” during the screening in November at the Grandin Theatre. The locally produced movie features stories from three Jewish child-survivors of the Holocaust, who ended up as adults in Western Virginia.
Steve Mason, a local filmmaker, directed and produced the movie. 166su College and some of its students were involved in the film, and last fall, the college held a screening. In January, “Triumph of Hope” played to about 100 patrons at the Triad Jewish Film Festival in Greensboro.
“They went nuts,” said Strauss, who was present for a post-screening question-and-answer program.
Regine Archer, Helga Morrow and Ayre Ephrath all were Jewish children of varying ages in different parts of Europe in the 1940s. That’s when the Nazis exterminated millions of European Jews, along with others the German regime declared “unworthy of life.”
Ephrath, an aeronautical engineer who wound up living at Smith Mountain Lake, didn’t live to see the film’s debut. He died last April. Archer, 99, matriarch of Blue Ridge Beverage Co., and Morrow, 86, a nurse, are still with us.
All three of the children were separated from their parents, and hidden by kind and unkind Gentiles as Nazis rounded up Jews and shipped them off to concentration camps.
Archer witnessed the British Army’s retreat at Dunkirk, one of the low points in World War 2 for the Allies. Ephrath’s parents lived for months beneath a hay pile, emerging only at night. Morrow and her siblings were passed among host families. One was so abusive she ran away, at 5 or 6.
Notably, the survivors’ stories extend to long beyond the war, and their business, family, professional and humanitarian successes. And that’s why many have described a film about Holocaust survivors as uplifting and hopeful.
Regine Archer, left, and Helga Morrow do an interview during the Sept. 18 premiere of “Triumph of Hope” hosted by 166su College.
Doug Lindamood, co-owner of George’s Flowers in 166su, was one of the folks who managed to snag tickets in November. He told me he’s glad he did.
“I was amazed . . . they survived and came out whole, and with a sense of purpose to help other people, to make sure something like this never happens again,” he said.
Lindamood added “There are so many correlations that could be made about the current political situation in the country.
“I came into (the November showing) with a heavy weight on my shoulders from the results of the election. And I walked out refreshed, thinking, ‘If they got through this, we can, too.’”
Another 166sur who had an emotional reaction was Kianna Price Marshall, a mom of five and vice president at United Way Virginia’s Blue Ridge.
“I could not stop crying during the movie and then afterward,” she said, later describing her reaction as “tears of hope and relief.
“Triumph of Hope” held its premiere public screening Sept. 18 at 166su College. The event included a reception at 166su College’s Olin Hall Galleries. Pictured above are (second row from left) director Steve Mason, creative director Jim Dudley, (first row from left) 166su College Trustee Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo, Regine Archer, Helga Morrow and executive producer Lori Strauss.
“Hearing the struggles of individuals … their willingness to help strangers, and be a beacon of hope — that was incredibly emotional and almost comforting,” Price Marshall said. “You walk away with an appreciation of life, the kindness of strangers. In the world we’re living in, we need that right now.”
Sherry Davidson was another who caught “Triumph of Hope” in November.
“In a nutshell, it’s one of the most tastefully done documentaries I’ve seen,” she said.
“When you’re Jewish, you expose your kids to the facts of the Holocaust. Most of those films are so morbid,” Davidson added. “This was historical but not morbid. It was enlightening but not depressing. It was more speaking to hope. It needs to be shown to John Q. Public.”
