When Jacky Comforty’s parents pushed him to tell the story of Holocaust survivors, he turned away from his background in comedy.
The resulting project was “The Optimists,” a 2001 documentary about the rescue of 50,000 Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust.
The film will be screened Saturday at the Ryder Film Series at the IU Fine Arts Theater.
“One day they said, ‘You know, there’s really one story you must tell, and that’s how we survived the Holocaust,’” Comforty said. “And that opened a whole new path.”
Following the film’s screening, Comforty, the film’s director, will host a Q&A with the audience.
Comforty, who comes from a family of Holocaust survivors and grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel, said the Q&A is intended to start a conversation because film should not give final answers.
“Film is a trigger,” he said. “It should be a beginning of discussion and conversation.”
The film, which Comforty said was groundbreaking in its organic storytelling, has won several awards, including a CINE Golden Eagle and the Peace Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.
“My expertise is to go and make a film without a script, and create it in an organic process of collection and sorting and sieving and distilling a movie out of what I collect,” he said. “I love the uncertainty.”
Comforty, who is based in Bloomington, said “The Optimists” brings history alive through both political and personal accounts of the Holocaust.
“You need to be exposed to it so you can relive it,” he said. “That’s what the film does. It gives you a combination of experiences and feelings.”
The documentary includes interviews from 150 people, 250 hours of video and more than 5,000 photographs, Comforty said.
“The Optimists” was a 12-year production in the making.
“Once I was in Bulgaria, it felt like being in Treasure Island with not enough deep pockets to fill them with all the great things you find,” he said.
After countless hours of research, he said the volume of his data soon became overwhelming.
“I would always be aware of my ignorance,” he said. “Once you reach a certain plateau, you realize how much more you don’t know. It was really important for me not to mess up with the material I was lucky to collect.”
Comforty said he hopes the Bloomington community will meet “The Optimists” with a positive reception.
“I think people usually come elated out of the film,” he said.
“Not because of me, but because I was lucky to find some amazing people. I found a priest who was 92 years old who was involved in stopping the deportation of the people of his town.”
Unlike most films on the Holocaust, Comforty said his film focuses on the kindness and resiliency of the community that helped rescue the Bulgarian Jews.
“It’s very easy to be caught up in being morally superior, which I think is the worst thing for a filmmaker to be,” he said. “The purpose of the film was to show the good side of humanity.”
Comforty said “The Optimists” was made with a message that transcends the Holocaust.
“I think it’s always relevant, and that’s why I tried to make a film that will have longevity,” he said. “In the process of making a film for 12 years, all the time goes, and you understand that you need to make something that is somehow timeless.”
