Amazon Prime / Google Play 2020 – The Stand Up Doll
How do you get up when life knocks you down?
Let a 100-year-old woman share the secrets to life! Attitude is everything.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Evelyne Tollman Werzowa
Watch The Stand Up Doll on Tubi and Prime Video
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I met Risa Igfeld when she was 85. I was so taken by her zest for life. She survived the Nazi invasion, sang songs in over 15 languages had so many hardships and yet still had such a great attitude and so much gratitude. At 85 she was falling in love again, I was going through another breakup! I wanted to know how she did it! So I started filming her. I did not know it would be 15 years that I would follow her for. But life keeps changing and I wanted to film how she handled it all.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
We all go through so many hard times in life. Risa shares how you get up again when life knocks you down. I documented her from 85-100. How does one live a vital life with joy and love when one goes through so many hard times? Attitude! What are Risa's secrets for getting up again after so many losses, so many hard times?
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
In The Stand Up Doll we explore ageing, loss, sex, death and love...you know just the easy things in life! What it means to be a mother and her daughter's take on living with two survivors of the Holocaust. Risa tried to do the best for her daughter, after everyone she ever loved. Yet her daughter never felt she got enough of her mother. I wanted to know what we can learn from that generation. About being a woman, about sexuality as you grow older. How did Risa manage to fall in love at 85 and have a lover at 98? These are questions we all grapple with. How will I age? Love? How do I go on after the loss of a child? Risa answers these questions with joy, humour and song.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I had no idea where this film would go. I just knew Risa was special. As I kept filming she lost her daughter, her son and the love of her life. I thought that would be it for Risa, that she was on her way out. But she kept on going. I wanted to know why. Was her happiness some sort of denial? Was playing music and being vital her secret to life? Or was it her positive attitude? I wanted to find out.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
I've received wonderful feedback. The film won best Documentary film at Silk Road Film Festival in Dublin and best comedy in Amsterdam Film Festival. Now it is on Amazon Prime I am getting emails from people thanking me for sharing such an uplifting story one that is so universal, reminding them the what's important to in life. Each person gets something so different. One helped her understand her mother and the survivors secret after the Holocaust. Others saw a story about ageing and that we are all still our younger selves wearing an older mask.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The feedback I got from one woman was that she was surprised by Risa's joy. She did not understand it and thought it was not possible to feel such joy when she had experienced so much loss. I love that made her question the nature of joy and where happiness comes from. I was delighted that it brought up so many different questions in people. For me, The Stand Up Doll is about getting up when life knocks you down, especially during these trying times.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I hope more people will see The Stand Up Doll. Ponder the meaning of their own lives and look at the elderly differently. They are our biggest teachers and they seemed to be discarded in America too often.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
I would love to share this film with journalists so more people can know about it and have it seen abroad as well.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I would like as many people to see it, share it. It can make us look at our own humanity, what it means to age, love, loose, find you and humour no matter what life presents. We're here to enjoy ourselves and love others with reverence and kindness before it's over. And it goes fast. Risa sings at her 100 birthday "Enjoy yourself, it's later then you think”.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Was Risa's joy real? Was it a form of denial? Is it how survivors survive?
Or can we learn from her joy, her positive attitude? If you can't change something, then to make peace with it. It's up to you and how you look at things. You can complain, be a victim or choose to live your best life.
Would you like to add anything else?
Risa has a lot to teach us. Every person gets something different watch some live from 85 to 100. Some call Risa a time capsule. I hope we can appreciate the old for all they have seen and learn from the world they have.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I have a few other scripts I would love to get made.
Thank you for sharing The Stand Up Doll.
Warmly, Evelyne.
Interview: March 2020
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
The Stand Up Doll
How do you get up when life knocks you down?
Let a 100-year-old woman share the secrets to life! Attitude is everything.
Length: 1:17:11
Director: Evelyne Tollman Werzowa
Producer: Jeff Kanew, Walter Werzowa, James Tumminia
Writer: Evelyne Tollman Werzowa, Jeff Kanew
About the writer, director and producer:
EVELYNE TOLLMAN WERZOWA is from South Africa where she began acting and writing plays since she was a young girl. Evelyne attended LACC theatre academy and went on to study with screenwriting completing the Writers Boot-camp two year program. Evelyne has produced and performed in some of her plays, LA, LA, No! No! Into The Still Point and The Pig And I, which were highly recommended by the LA Weekly, who called Tollman’s work outstanding comparing her unique humour to Monty Python. Evelyne's scripts Old Time Girl, Cricket Song and My Wedding At Auschwitz made Semi-Finalist in Table Read My Screenplay, ScreenCraft, LA Film Awards and Zoetrope. Somebody's Mother her first feature film which she made with her sister Gabriela is on Amazon Prime. The Stand Up Doll is her directing debut and has been 15 years in the making, documenting Risa from 85-100 and counting.
JEFF KANEW is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer and film editor who early in his career made trailers for many films of the 1970s and is probably best known for directing the film Revenge of the Nerds and for editing Ordinary People.
Key cast: Risa Igelfeld life of.
Looking for: journalists, buyers
Facebook: The Stand Up Doll Film
Instagram: @evelynetollman
Hashtags used: #womeninfilm #femalstories #centenarian #inspringstories #survivors #holocaust
Website: www.thestandupdoll.com
Other: IMDb
Made in association with: Tollman Sister Films
Funders: Self Funded
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Amazon Prime; Google Play; iTunes.