Two-time Emmy award winning director Richard Kroehling (World Without End, 2B) combines the art of poetry and film in ‘After,’ the dramatic hybrid documentary that explores the world of poetry as poets respond to the aftermath of the Holocaust.

Featured in the documentary are Academy Award winning actress Melissa Leo (The Fighter), Géza Röhrig (Son of Saul), and Bo Corre.

Release Date

Directed by Richard Kroehling, ‘After’ opens at Cinema Village in New York City on November 1, 2024, and at Royal Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles on November 8, 2024.

Synopsis

The first of its kind, where poetry and cinema combine and transcend, ‘After’ is an exploration of poetry written about the Shoah. Contemporary poets respond to the Holocaust and talk about the importance and necessity for poetry in a world that still grapples with genocide.

Rather than seeing the devastation, ‘After’ shows how poets respond to catastrophe and write in its aftermath. The film is ultimately about human resiliency, the power and courage to forge new lives, and the value of poetry in looking to the past to help create a better future.

Weaving a narrative, each poem has its own story, main character(s), and point of view, each acting as a short island with the entire film. ‘After’ also interlaces sequences of music, archival footage, personal photographs, and documents. The power of the words, performances, commentary, cinematic interpretations, sounds, and silences bring the poems to life on screen, offering a modern chronicle of poets examining history and the current day.

“As survivors leave us each day, their voices live inside the poems we include in After. The film serves as both a model and a warning for an increasingly divided and violent planet. After is based on the idea that artmaking has a responsibility to look into the abyss and to address it so that catastrophe becomes a kind of starting point. I want this film to allow cinema and the spoken word to combine and even transcend by creating cinematic evocative images, narrative events, sound design and performances that ask what it means to write and create in the aftermath of the Shoah, as both as a cautionary notice and lyrical exploration.” – director Richard Kroehling.

Official Trailer

Watch the official trailer for ‘After’.