Screening and Discussion of “Ida”

A.A. Brill Library Film Event:

Screening and Discussion of “Ida”

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

7:00 – 10:00 pm

Post-film Discussant: Gilda Sherwin, M.D.

Ida, an Oscar winning Polish movie made in 2012, takes us back to the Poland of 1962. Set against the historic backdrop of the Holocaust and Stalinism in conjunction with more contemporary cultural developments – such as the fresh glimmerings of jazz  – we witness the personal journey of a young woman, a novitiate in convent and her cynical, though once ideologically inspired aunt, in search for hidden truths about their tragic past. This is a personal tale about faith and identity as well as a political story about betrayal and guilt.

In her discussion, Gilda Sherwin will focus on how the complex entanglement of individual and collective trauma informs the making of this movie. She will explore the lasting effects on the Polish psyche of being implicated in the crimes of the Holocaust. She will also address how unconscious, unaddressed guilt continues not only to help frame the representation of Jews and Jewishness in the Polish cultural and historical imaginary, but also how it literally and symbolically reenacts their elimination.

No CME/CE credits offered. 

Gilda Sherwin, M.D. is a training and supervising analyst at NYPSI and in full time practice in Manhattan. As part of her longstanding interest in massive psychic trauma she worked with severely traumatized individuals, mainly survivors of state sponsored torture, persecution and genocide and served as a mental health advisor to Khmer Legacies. In 2002 she co-founded a study group on Trauma and Transmission of Trauma at NYPSI and presently teaches a course on Psychic Trauma.  She has given many presentations and talks on this subject: “Multiple Meanings of Trauma: Trauma and Re-traumatization in Torture Survivors”, “Why Do Young Muslim Men Join Militant Islamist Terrorist Groups: Integration of Individual Psychology with Large Group Dynamics within a Specific Historical Context”, “Trans-generational Transmission of Trauma and the Memorial Candles Children Narrative”, as well as Trans-generational Transmission of Trauma as Resistance in the Treatment of Children of Survivors.”