JIFF25: Jewish Voices: Resurrected Songs (I Dance but my Heart is Crying)

Australian premiere 

Both a globetrotting search for long-lost treasure and a concert film, this documentary tells the incredible story of a group of historians, record collectors and musicians rediscovering and reviving Jewish music from 1930s Berlin.  

On Kristallnacht, the night of November 9, 1938, Nazis violently attacked Jewish people and businesses in Germany, including the two Jewish-run record companies in Berlin at the time, Semer and Lukraphon. Almost all of the companies’ original music materials, lyrics and sheet music were destroyed.  

Committed detective work on the part of historians and record collectors interviewed in the film has led to the rediscovery and painstaking reassembly of shellac records (pre-dating vinyl records) found in collections across the globe. Today, this historic music lives on through the Berlin-based Semer Ensemble, a group of musicians who have revived and reinterpreted the unearthed recordings, performing them live for audiences around the world. 

 English and Hebrew with English subtitles