LOCALadk Magazine

Paul Frederick holds the Emmy award for the category of Historical/ Cultural Long Form with his partners and co-producers, Julie Canepa and Bruce Carlin, standing beside him. Paul Frederick presents Vladimir Munk with his own Emmy award plaque at Munk's retirement home in Plattsburgh, NY. LOCALadk 42 presented with the State Prize of the Czechoslovak Republic for his scientific contributions. Munk's love for science and education would carry him through his life, moving to the United States shortly before the Russians invaded the Czech Republic in 1968. He and Kitty have lived in the United States ever since. Munk became a professor at SUNY Plattsburgh from 1968- 1990. They continue to live in Plattsburgh today. From production to the Emmys Only a month after returning home, the novel Coro- navirus pandemic shut down life as we knew it. During this time, Frederick dedicated nights and weekends to the production of Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Vladimir Munk. The project took over eighteen months to finish. While it "could" have been done sooner, Fred- erick knew he needed to space out his work on this particular story. "The topic is just such a heavy thing. I couldn't do eight hours straight day after day," he said. "There were days where I just had to do a couple hours and then go for a walk. It's such a strong story." The film was finished in 2021, its premiere showing happening in the small theater of Frederick's home, a private screening for Munk and his family along with Carlin, Canepa, and their loved ones. Before watching it, Frederick learned that Munk believed it was only about the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Aus- chwitz. "I said, 'Vladimir, I don't think you quite understand. This is about your life, not just about the event or even just about you going back,'" Frederick said. "As he's watching it for the very first time, my wife is sitting next to him. He reached over and grabbed her hand, and she looked at him and saw a single tear coming down his cheek. At the end, he just looked at me and said, 'Thank you.' And that just made it all worth it right there." The documentary first hit the big screen for a two- night showing at the Strand Theater in Plattsburgh that September with Munk in attendance for both showings. "We did a Q& A after each showing with him," Frederick said. "After the second one, he says, 'I don't think I can watch this again. I'm starting to feel sorry for myself,' which is such a Vladimir thing to say. But that was it — he didn't watch it again for some time. I think it's just really difficult to see your life story and see pictures of your family…it just brings everything back." Return to Auschwitz would be featured again, this time at the annual Lake Placid Film Festival in October 2021. PBS Mountain Lake aired it locally in January 2022. "And then in April 2022, we got it on American Public Television. That's the program service that supplies all the stations in the US with possible pro- grams for PBS to air if they choose to do so," Frederick said. "Each PBS station chooses what to air on their individual station, and while your show can be includ- ed on that list of options, you don't know who is going to take it right away. We learned that 97% of stations across the country chose to air Return to Auschwitz, in- cluding all the ones across the US and Canadian border which covers just about all the Canadian population. That means just about all of Canada either saw it or had access to it. That's really good for an independent production. After winning the Award of Excellence from The IndieFest Film Awards, a global film competition, in February 2022, Frederick and the team decided to enter the documentary for an Emmy nomination in the Boston-New England Regional Chapter. It was nomi- nated and, on June 10, 2023, Return to Auschwitz won the Emmy award for the category of Historical/Cul- tural Long Form. So how does it feel to win an Emmy? "Surreal," says Frederick. "It was just surreal."

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