top of page

Can poetry bring the dead back to life?

I’m producing a documentary called AFTER in which contemporary poets perform and examine the role of art in responding to the Holocaust.


Conceived by two-time Emmy Award winning director Richard Kroehling and filmed by multi-award-winning cinematographer Lisa Rinzler, AFTER is a bold, emotionally gripping visual tour de force. Acknowledging there are no easy answers for the Shoah, viewers will see a film that is ultimately about human resiliency – the power and courage to forge new lives and the value of looking to the past to help create a better future.


AFTER features the works of poets Géza Röhrig (Academy Award winning film, Son of Saul); MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow Edward Hirsch; Pulitzer Prize-nominated and founder of Cave Canem Cornelius Eady; multi-award winner Alicia Suskin Ostriker; famed poet and musician Leonard Cohen; German-language poet Paul Celan; legendary Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai; and more. Bringing the dead back to life is one of the jobs of poetry, and that is what happens in the film.



Recently, I was on a podcast, Recovery Unplugged with Amy McCorkle, where we talked about film, poetry, the

lasting effects on survivors and their descendants, among other things. To watch the podcast, https://www.facebook.com/amyunplugged2/videos/436246138056294


And to learn more about the film, our website is: www.after.film.


Wishing you all the best for 2022! May the pandemic end.


Recent Posts

See All

I’m excited and honored to share an essay co-authored with Jaclyn Piudik about the writing of our poetry book, Seduction: Out of Eden. The essay, A Paradise of Language: The Seduction of Creation, app

It’s Elul, the Hebrew month before Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, and I’m reflecting on my year, the things I did well, those not so well. There are deeds I’m proud of, some I’m ashamed of, and

I'm excited and honored to share two poems that were published on Across the Margin, a wonderful online journal. To see the poems: Two Poems by Janet R. Kirchheimer – Across the Margin Hope you enjoy

bottom of page