Four Seasons Lodge, 2008, 102 minutes. Edited by Kim Connell and Aaron Soffin.

An aging group of Holocaust survivors gathers each summer at an idyllic hideaway in the Catskills, where they savor tightly bonded friendships, find new love and celebrate their survival.

The full-length feature is now available to rent on YouTube, or buy on Amazon.

I spent 9 months living in Kigali, Rwanda in 2008 and 2009, working with Voices of Rwanda, an oral-history archive dedicated to preserving the stories of Rwandan genocide survivors. On election day in November 2008, we sorely missed being at home in the US. But hearing the joyful reactions of the Rwandans around us helped make us feel at home.

I started raising money to build a school in Cambodia last year, by growing a moustache. Then, in January six of us went with Jewish Helping Hands to Cambodia to check it out for ourselves. (Full disclosure: Jewish Helping Hands is my father’s foundation.) On the ground in Cambodia, we were inspired by the hope and courage of the children of the Cambodian genocide, a genocide most of us barely knew occurred.We are supporting two educational projects and encourage you to help us meet our goals. First, we’re raising money to build a school in the poor provinces through Cambodia Schools and second, we’re enabling orphans to be raised by foster families and attend school, by supplying their families with money for rice. Without the school, these rural children will have very little hope for a decent future, and without our rice, these orphans won’t go to school. Only $600 will keep one orphan in school through the end of high school.Learn more about Jewish Helping Hands.Learn about the history of the Cambodian genocide at Yale’s Cambodian Genocide Project.

When Adnan Comes Home, 2005, 73 minutes. Edited by Aaron Soffin.

Adnan, a teenager in Baghdad, is burned in a prison fire after being arrested for petty theft.  His family must learn how to navigate the justice system quickly, or risk leaving him badly hurt in a prison hospital.

The DVD is available for purchase on Amazon, and the film can also be streamed from Amazon.