Queen of British Horror Films and Child Holocaust Survivor INGRID PITT Dies Aged 73

Perry Chen drawing Beyond the Forest animatio(photo by Zhu Shen)

Queen of British Horror Films and Child Holocaust Survivor INGRID PITT Dies Aged
73 on Nov 23, 2010.

The Inspiring Message of Her Miraculous Escape from a Nazi camp at age 8
being told in the forthcoming animated biopic, “Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest”—a
project 6 years in the making, with the star’s active collaboration. The filmmakers
have finally solved the oft-noted “enigma” of why a Holocaust survivor would act in
horror films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-r69K2ijiA

http://tinyurl.com/2dg7ju7

(CW San Diego Living TV interview with filmmakers)

Ingrid Pitt and Clint Eastwood starring in "Where Eagles Dare"

Although horror film star Ingrid Pitt escaped amazingly from a Nazi concentration
camp at age 8—the horror of her suffering continued to torture her throughout her
life. It was poetic justice that Pitt went on to star in the mainstream 1968 World War II
epic, Where Eagles Dare, playing an undercover anti-Nazi agent opposite Clint
Eastwood and Richard Burton.

Perry Chen sketch of Ingrid Pitt in Beyond the Forest

Pitt’s childhood story—and its message for protecting children today from oppression
and abuse—will be told in a forthcoming animated short film designed by Two-Time
Academy Award nominated filmmaker Bill Plympton, co-written by visionary director
Kevin Sean Michaels and internationally known Holocaust expert and lecturer, Dr.
Jud Newborn, co-author of the bestselling “Sophie Scholl and the White Rose”
(Oneworld http://www.amazon.com/Sophie-Scholl-White-Rose-Newborn/dp/1851685367

Pictures being drawn by 10-year old internationally recognized child prodigy Perry Chen. Zhu
Shen, Co-Producer.

Bill Plympton-character design for Ingrid Pitt - Beyond the Forest

Perry Chen drawing Ingrid Pitt for "Beyond the Forest" (photo by Zhu Shen)

The project began development nearly 6 years with the full cooperation of Ingrid Pitt,
who, despite the pain it caused her, stoically recorded the narration only 7 months before
her death. It is her last project. The filmmakers from the outset have had Pitt’s active
support in making a full length feature film with reenactment.

http://www.awn.com/blogs/perrys-previews/holocaust-through-eyes-child-animated-child

(Animation World Network: The Holocaust Through the Eyes of a Child – Animated by a Child)

http://www.toonboom.com/products/toon-boom-studio/userstories/story/?id=PerryChen

(Toon Boom Animation: Producing a First Animated Short at 10 Years Old)

Contacts, USA:

Jud Newborn, Phd – jnewbo@aol.com + 516-931-7796;
http://www.goldenland.com/jud_newborn.htm –

-Kevin Sean Michaels
kevinseanmichaels at gmail dot com + 516-906-0082 -
http://whocallstheshots.com/2008/04/01/kevin-sean-michaels-documentarian-vampproductions

- Zhu Shen bioforesight at gmail dot com + 858-761-7955;
http://www.perryspreviews.com -

Reuters (Michael Collett-White):

INGRID PITT, seductive queen of the Hammer horror
films who survived a Nazi concentration camp as a girl, has died aged 73, a spokesman
for her agent said on Wednesday.

She appeared in the 1968 classic “Where Eagles Dare” alongside Richard Burton and
Clint Eastwood, and five years later in the mystery drama “The Wicker Man.” But it was for
her roles in erotic horror films “The Vampire Lovers” (1970) and “Countess Dracula”
(1971) that she was best known in Britain.
“Underrated as both an actress and a writer, Pitt was a warm but stubbornly
enigmatic figure,” said Marcus Hearn, a historian of Hammer horror movies and a friend
of the actress. Pitt was also a writer, producing two novels set during the Peron era in
Argentina and several horror-related works of fiction.
She told an interviewer in 2006 that she did not particularly enjoy watching horror
movies. “I was in a concentration camp as a child and I don’t want to see horror,” Pitt said.
“I think it’s very amazing that I do horror films when I had this awful childhood. But
maybe that’s why I’m good at it.”

SELECT ENDORSEMENTS FOR
INGRID PITT: BEYOND THE FOREST:
“I am duly impressed! As the first endorsers of BEYOND THE FOREST, Ina
and I feel it has great possibilities, giving special insight into the Holocaust.
We experience almost daily how people react to the subject, through
presentations of the movie based on our book, STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME, and
because of my close relationship with the Anne Frank Center USA, in which I
have been involved for 25 years as Director, President, Chairman and now
Chairman Emeritus, and which has brought me together with thousands of
people of all ages. At the age of 97 I am not able to participate as actively
in new projects, but I plan to give as much support as I can to this
innovative, artistically executed film, BEYOND THE FOREST.”
—JACK POLAK, CHAIRMAN EMERITUS, THE ANNE FRANK
CENTER USA
“It is through the remarkable individual tales of survivors such as Ingrid Pitt
that the Holocaust takes on a personal dimension for those coming to it
sixty-five years later. As witnesses gradually die away, it becomes
imperative to keep the memory alive in the hearts and minds of generations
to come. I love the idea of animation using the work of a child artist. It is a
way of allowing us to imagine what Ingrid Pitt, and countless other children
like her, had experienced, through a child’s perspective. Jud Newborn has
done some exceptional research and writing on the Holocaust. There is no
question in my own mind that together the makers of this film will create
something that will be honest, sensitive, memorable.”
—SHULAMIT RAN, PULITZER PRIZE WINNING COMPOSER “O,
THE CHIMNEYS” (SETTINGS OF POETRY BY NOBEL LAUREATE NELLY
SACHS); Opera “BETWEEN TWO WORLDS – THE DYBBUK”
“Your movie project, INGRID PITT: BEYOND THE FOREST sounds so
wonderful and appropriate to today—to the children in this world, growing
up and needing touch with theirs’ and others’ hearts and souls. To know the
true feeling of love and empathy for their peers through history is ideal.”
—MILLIE PERKINS, STAR of the CLASSIC FILM, “THE DIARY
OF ANNE FRANK”