The most innocent victims of war are children. The Ship That Turned Back is a “documemory” love letter, based on the memoir of a child’s wartime escape told from two perspectives. The grandfather recalls his harrowing experience as a 7-year-old child and the film's boy narrator leads us through the family’s escape by train and ship. From Academy Award documentary filmmakers Allie Light and the late Irving Saraf, the film uniquely combines memories, archival footage, dramatic re-enactment with family members, and children’s drawings that come to life through animation. We recently had our world premiere at the 47th Mill Vally Film Festival.

DOCUMENTARY | 34:00

Director Biography - Allie Light

Allie Light, winner of the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the 1994 National Emmy Award for best interview program, writes, directs and produced documentary films with her partner, Irving Saraf. Her credits include: Rachel’s Daughters: Searching for the Causes of Breast Cancer (HBO), Dialogues With Madwomen, (Emmy Award; Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance Film Festival); In The Shadow Of The Stars, (Academy Award); Mitsuye and Nellie, Asian American Poets; Visions of Paradise (five films about folk artists); Shakespeare’s Children (produced by Kate Kline May); Blind Spot: Murder by Women; Children and Asthma and Good Food, Bad Food, Obesity in American Children (programs about children’s health and the environment); An Iraqi Lullaby, The Sermons of Sister Jane, Believing the Unbelievable, and Empress Hotel. Her most recent work is Any Wednesday and is Allie’s first narrative film. Allie has published a book of poems, The Glittering Cave and edited an anthology of women’s writings, Poetry From Violence. Her essays appear in publications about women. Ms. Light lectured in film at City College of San Francisco and, for ten years, in the Women Studies Program at San Francisco State University. Her life story appears in On Women Turning 50, Celebrating Mid-Life Discoveries, by Cathleen Rountree (Harper/Collins, 1993), and interviews with Allie are in Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors, by Judith M. Redding & Victoria A. Brownworth (Seal Press, 1997) and Documentary Filmmakers Speak by Liz Stubbs (Allworth Press, 2002). Allie has served on the Media Advisory Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.