Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire Screening and Oren Rudavsky and Elisha Wiesel in Conversation

Moderator Annette Insdorf will interview director Oren Rudavsky and Elisha Wiesel after a screening of the award-winning film about his father. She is the Co-producer of the documentary, which was a selection of the 2025 Telluride Film Festival, and received the Audience Award at three other festivals. Additional honors include the Yad Vashem Award at DocAviv and the Torchbearer Prize at the Miami Jewish Film Festival.

Eighty years after his family’s deportation and the wholesale slaughter of European Jewry, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire explores the man behind the searing memoir Night. Told through his own words and eloquent voice, it reveals the known and unknown Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) — his conflicts, memories, and legacy as one of the most public survivors of the Holocaust. With unique access to personal archives, and incorporating original interviews with his wife Marion and son Elisha, the film has a unique intimacy. It also includes his passion for human rights, whether confronting President Reagan about visiting a German cemetery, or pleading with President Clinton to take action during the war in Bosnia. With hand-painted animation by Joel Orloff and a score by Osvaldo Golijov, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire illuminates the survivor, writer, teacher and public figure.

Oren Rudavsky directed the PBS American Masters documentary, Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People. His film A Life Apart: Hasidism in America was short-listed for the Academy Awards and broadcast on PBS. Hiding and Seeking was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and chosen for the PBS POV series. He co-directed both with Menachem Daum.

Elisha Wiesel is a businessman, hedge fund manager, social activist, and philanthropist. He is the only child of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, and the Chairman of The Elie Wiesel Foundation.