On 12 September 2016, we were delighted to co-organize a public screening and discussion event with the Faculty of Law, Faculty of Arts, and eSRT in Law, Language, Literature of the University of Hong Kong (HKU):

Of Many – Screening and Discussion with Linda Mills, the Director

Dr. Linda Mills, Director
Co-Founder, Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership
Co-Chair, Of Many Advisory Board

Date: Monday, 12 September, 2016
Time: from 6:00pm
Venue: Room 723, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, University of Hong Kong

About the film: Set Against the dramatic backdrop of violence in the Middle East and the tension between Jewish and Muslim students on college campuses, Of Many focuses on the surprising and transformative relationship between an orthodox rabbi and imam, who serve as university chaplains in New York City. Through a series of voyages to communities struck by catastrophe, we witness young religious Jews and Muslims working together and overcoming long-standing divides. Timely and humorous, this short documentary offers an inspiring and hopeful narrative in the face of a seemingly irreconcilable conflict.

About the Director: Linda G. Mills is the inaugural Lisa Ellen Goldberg Professor and Vice Chancellor for Global Programs at New York University, and Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the Of Many Institute. Mills, born in Los Angeles, California co-directed the documentary, Auf Wiedersehen: ‘Til We Meet Again, a film that explores the intergenerational transmission of trauma from the Holocaust to 9-11. The film was an official selection at eight film festivals, including the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival where Auf Wiedersehen won an audience award, Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival and the Vienna Jewish Film Festival. Dr. Mills is also an accomplished producer; her projects include The Reality Show: NYU, which received the 2010 Silver Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and The Heart of Intimate Abuse, for which she received a Telly Award. Her scholarly work challenges the current paradigms of domestic abuse by rethinking how we respond to violence in intimate relationships.

On the 20th October, HKHTC’s Director of Education, Ben Freeman, addressed 1500 students at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Ben spoke for an hour about the history of the Holocaust and screened his documentary, shot in 2012 in Poland, Romania & Ukraine. The students saw modern footage of the Nazi’s death camps and heard directly from Holocaust survivors.

The students were given the opportunity to put questions to Ben and asked about the dangers of labelling and stereotyping, as well as asking how important dialogue is to combating prejudice.

Ben remarked ‘it is so important to learn the lessons of the past to create a better tomorrow, we are engaged in a fight against prejudice and we must not lose, there is too much at stake. We are all capable of fighting bigotry in our own corner of the world and we have a responsibility to do so.’

On March 25, 2015, HKHTC and the HKU Law Faculty hosted a special screening of Auf Wiedersehen, ‘Til We Meet Again.

In this compelling and often funny tale of recovery and renewal, author and activist Linda G. Mills is propelled by her family’s life-threatening experience of September 11, 2001 to return to the site of her mother’s flight from Vienna, Austria in 1939. Accompanied by her comically bored ten-year-old son, Ronnie, her highly opinionated and wholly engaging mother Annie and Aunt Rita, Linda discovers unsettling truths that upend a series of familial and historical myths.

Auf Wiedersehen is an unconventional documentary that brings the lessons of history into the present day through the eyes of an irreverent ten year-old-boy. Along the way, the family discovers an astonishing array of collaborators, victims, perpetrators, and unlikely heroes in a startlingly humorous adventure spanning five generations.

Prof. Glenn Timmermans (Faculty of Arts & Humanities, University of Macau) moderated a post-screening discussion with Linda Mills (New York University) and Peter Goodrich (Sin Wai-Kin Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities, The University of Hong Kong/Benjamin N. Cardozo School).