Eddie Vitch was born in a shtetl in Poland at the turn of the century, immigrated to the US and drew caricatures of Golden Age stars at the Brown Derby in Hollywood, the was deported back to Europe in the 1930s and started performing as a Chaplin-esque mime. In 1940, while on stage at the Casino de Paris, Vitch was scouted by the Nazis, and he performed in Germany throughout the war and even fathered a child with a German woman all while concealing his Jewish identity. Long after his death his descendants came together to try and understand how he was able to hide in plain sight, and to reckon with his morally ambiguous means of survival.  

Much of the foundation of the film was built through archival - we were reconstructing the story of a man who has been dead for 30 years, and during whose life lying had been his means of survival. As an AP I sourced documents and footage related to the many distinct chapters of Vitch’s life from archives and individuals all over the world. One of the most rewarding finds came via Yad Vashem’s online archive - I found footage of a long-lost family member of the film’s subject who had also lived through the war and was able to connect his descendants to cousins they didn’t know they had.  

Role: Associate Producer