Through conversations with organ donors, recipients, brokers, activists, rabbis, and journalists, Mitzvah looks at people seeking life and those who aim to give it to them, and in the process, examines the illegal business of organ trafficking. Because of Halachic prohibitions, organ donation rates in Israel are surprisingly low. Trafficked organs arrive in Israel from countries like Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey, Colombia, and the Philippines. Mitzvah looks at how these countries have become centers for organ traffickers. While shooting the film, a Swedish journalist claimed that IDF soldiers were stealing organs from the dead Palestinians on the West Bank—the film questions this story and raises questions about truth manipulation and the boundaries of freedom of speech. Financed by the Polish Film Institute Mitzvah is the winner of the award of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) at Cronograf Film Festival -Chishinau Moldova 2013 and the Grand Prix for the best Polish movie – at HumanDoc Festival -Warsaw 2013.
Dir. Maciej Grabysa, Witold Gadowski
(Poland, 2012, 66 min)
Followed by a Q+A with Robby Berman, Founder & Director of the Halachic Organ Donor Society
For more information, or to register, please call 646-505-5708.
Tue, Apr 8 at 7:30 PM
JCC in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Ave at 76 St
New York, NY
www.jccmanhattan.org
