Director : Andrew Jacobs

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Distributor: First Run Features

Film Summary
From the darkness of Nazi-occupied Europe to the lush mountains of New York's Catskills, the award-winning FOUR SEASONS LODGE documents what might be the final season for a community of Holocaust survivors who come together each summer to celebrate their lives. Beautifully photographed by a team of cinematographers led by Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), this unexpectedly humorous film takes on sobering topics like aging and the legacy of the Holocaust in a uniquely life-affirming way, capturing the Lodgers' intoxicating passion for living, in bracing contrast to lives harrowed by loss. Says Fran Lask, 82, a survivor of Bergen-Belsen: "This is our revenge on Hitler. To live this long, this well, is a victory."

Filmmaker Andrew Jacobs has been a staff writer at the New York Times for the past 10 years, where he has covered a wide variety of beats, from the American South and the aftermath of September 11, to New Jersey politics and the New York City Police Department. He is currently a correspondent in the Beijing bureau. The idea for FOUR SEASONS LODGE grew out of a six-part series Jacobs did for the Times about summer life in the Catskills.

Jacobs says, “As the world continues to grapple with war and genocide, we think audiences will embrace this astonishing tribe of survivors who have found a way to find joy in life despite having endured unimaginable atrocity. People will be moved by the Lodgers and enriched by their wisdom, strength and humor.”

WINNER, 2009 Miami Jewish Film Festival, Audience Award for Best Documentary
OFFICIAL SELECTION, 2008 Hamptons Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION, 2008 Silverdocs
OFFICIAL SELECTION, 2009 Provincetown Film Festival

"A must-see." (Newsday)

"Like a funny visit with your grandparents, multiplied by a dozen." (New York Magazine)

“Restores your faith in storytelling.” (Variety)

“Call these sometimes rowdy, cantankerous survivors heroes if you like (some are more serene than others about death intruding for a second time); they certainly don’t. Several believe they survived through God’s help or because they were poor and knew better than the rich how to endure; others are convinced that dumb luck saved them. What is heroic is their unquenchable appetite for the banal pleasures of the everyday.” (Ella Taylor, New York Times)

“Compelling...tender...intimate.” (Boston Globe)



“Lands in a class of its own…cosmically inspiring.” (indieWIRE)