Those who have read Anna Olswanger’s Greenhorn know that the author — a native Memphian and literary agent in the New York area — based the book on a true tale of two boys: one a stutterer bullied by his classmates at a New York City yeshiva just after World War II; the other a Polish survivor of the war who keeps a mysterious box by his side.
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The film version of Greenhorn — written and directed by Tom Whitus; co-produced by Olswanger and Whitus — was released last year. It screened earlier this year at the 2015 Morris and Mollye Fogelman International Jewish Film Festival at the Memphis Jewish Community Center, where Greenhorn was honored with an Audience Award for Best Short Film Drama.
Memphians who didn’t make it to the local Greenhorn screening have a chance this week to catch it not once but three times when it airs on WKNO. The showings are on Thursday, April 16th, at 9:30 p.m. and on Friday, April 17th, at 2:30 a.m. WKNO2 will also air the film on Friday at 10:30 p.m. And the timing here is no accident. Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) begins at sunset on Wednesday.
For more on the background to Greenhorn the book and to Greenhorn the film, go to Anna Olswanger’s website, olswanger.com. •
