Children
of the 1980’s might recognize Dot and the
Bunny from its cable broadcasts. That was the work of Polish-born animated
filmmaker Yoram Gross, who is best known in his adopted Australian homeland (by
way of Israel), for his Blinky Bill series.
The story of the beloved children’s book character has deep personal
resonance for the animator that he explains to his family and to viewers in Tomasz
Magierski’s documentary-profile Blinky
& Me (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.
Gross
was born to a well-respected Jewish merchant family in 1926. Blinky Bill is a koala bear. However, both lost their fathers at a young
age and would spend years separated from their mothers. Gross and his mother would survive the war thanks
to fellow Poles who sheltered them, but the years apart were difficult. Immigrating to Israel soon after liberation,
the Gross family was essentially spared the repression of the Communist era,
but they were not immune from personal tragedy.
Though
a difficult period, Gross’s international reputation blossomed during his
Israeli years. Having seen enough of
war, Gross immigrated once again to Australia, where he would create his best
known work, featuring the likes of Dot and Blinky Bill, drawn from the country’s
favorite children’s literature. For
those unfamiliar with Blinky Bill,
the clips Magierski shows look like a budget version of Don Bluth’s Secret of NIMH, but they are clearly
quite heartfelt. Presumably, Gross engendered
the sort of trust with Australian parents their American counterparts once
invested in the Disney name.
In
established documentary tradition, Gross revisits Poland for the first time
since the war with his large brood of children and grandchildren. Although
these scenes are undeniably well intentioned, they do not break any new ground,
at least for those who have seen more than one Holocaust related documentary
over the last two or three years.
However, Gross’s animation could serve as the thin edged of the wedge,
introducing some legitimate oral history of the National Socialist occupation to
younger or otherwise resistant viewers.
(Sadly, it is still hard to envision Ahmadinejad watching B&M, even if he knew there were
animated koalas in it.)