Movies by Aviva Slesin

Aviva Slesin is a masterful documentarian whose films shed light on the hidden stories and untold histories that shape our world. With a keen eye for detail and a deep empathy for her subjects, Slesin crafts profoundly moving portraits that challenge audiences to confront difficult truths. Slesin's breakout film, The Ten-Year Lunch (1987), offers a riveting chronicle of the legendary Algonquin Round Table, a circle of New York's wittiest and most influential writers, editors, and critics during the 1920s. Through meticulous archival footage and insightful interviews, Slesin transports viewers to this bygone era, illuminating the literary and social currents that flowed through this celebrated group. The film earned Slesin an Academy Award for Best Documentary, cementing her reputation as a master storyteller with an unparalleled ability to breathe life into the past. Slesin's subsequent works have continued to explore the complexities of human experience, often focusing on the lives of those who have endured profound hardship. In Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII (2002), she sensitively recounts the harrowing stories of Jewish children who were hidden from the Nazis, their fates intertwined with the courageous individuals who risked everything to shelter them. Slesin's films are not merely chronicles of events, but deeply humane meditations on the capacity for both cruelty and compassion that resides within the human condition.