IC Alum Receives Fulbright Award

By Grace Collins '22, September 7, 2021

Leah Galant '15 to study Germany’s culture of Holocaust remembrance.

Leah Galant '15. (Photo submitted)

Leah Galant ’15, a documentary studies and production major, has been granted a Fulbright Award for the 2021-2022 academic year. Galant will be traveling to Germany, where she’ll be partnering with Berlin’s Freie University to create a documentary film about the country’s culture of remembrance surrounding the Holocaust.

Her project will explore how a large portion of German society is willing to confront the past and engage with Holocaust history, particularly through an educational lens. She also seeks to analyze this culture in the face of current challenges surrounding the rise of extremism and fascism around the world.

As a Jewish woman herself, Galant’s inspiration for the film largely came from her own family.

“Thinking about the power of broadcast and public media in that situation is what got me interested in creating a film project myself. A lot of my work touches on comparing the past to the present and using personal narratives to tell those stories.”

Leah Galant '15

“My father had received a call about allocating reparations back to our family based on a descendant of ours who perished in the Holocaust,” she said. “I found it interesting that there’s such a robust program for Holocaust reparations in Europe and Germany that extends far enough to my family. I thought, why don’t we have one here in the United States allocated for victims of the racist, white supremacist, and genocidal acts inflicted on Black, Indigenous, and Asian Americans.”

The project was also inspired by “Holocaust,” a PBS mini-series starring Meryl Streep that aired in Germany in 1979 and is widely cited for its impact on Germany’s public perception of the events that took place.

“So many people tuned in, and it was the first time that German citizens and society at large realized how horrendous what had happened was,” said Galant. “Thinking about the power of broadcast and public media in that situation is what got me interested in creating a film project myself. A lot of my work touches on comparing the past to the present and using personal narratives to tell those stories.”

While in Germany, she’ll work with educators and historians, interview individuals, and explore Holocaust artifacts and testimonials. Following her research phase, she plans to go into full production by the end of the fall and complete the project by the end of summer 2022. Her hope is that eventually other countries can turn to the people and programs filmed in Germany as a “blueprint” for creating and maintaining cultures of remembrance while also acknowledging the vast sociopolitical and geopolitical differences between countries.

“Leah’s proposal to study the politics of remembrance in contemporary Germany is extraordinary in the way it combines a compelling intellectual vision with an expertise in the practical skills of filmmaking. She developed these talents as an undergraduate in the documentary studies program, which has produced a host of Fulbright winners over the years.”

Hugh Egan, professor of English at Ithaca College

When she decided to pursue the project, she reached out to Hugh Egan, professor of English at Ithaca College and faculty liaison for students seeking Fulbright grants, for guidance through the application process.

“I was happy to find out I was still eligible for the program because I knew IC has a pretty great track record with Fulbright Scholars,” said Galant. “There were a lot of components to the application, but for me, filling out applications is exciting and feels right when you're excited about the project itself. I’m really grateful to IC for Hugh and his support.”

“Leah’s proposal to study the politics of remembrance in contemporary Germany is extraordinary in the way it combines a compelling intellectual vision with an expertise in the practical skills of filmmaking,” said Egan. “She developed these talents as an undergraduate in the documentary studies program, which has produced a host of Fulbright winners over the years.”

Galant also credits much of her expertise to the community of scholars she was a part of while studying at IC, including several other Fulbright winners. She also spoke to the impact of the critical race theory, media literacy, and sociology classes that complemented her technical filmmaking education.

“I'm appreciative that the documentary studies program requires a minor, because being able to merge those two worlds is really important to me, and I think it was a beautiful combination,” she said. “I’m grateful to have graduated with the ability to continue to question and critically think about the media that I'm making. The community of peers and collaborators that I met at Ithaca has continued to give me confidence and inspire me to do projects like this.”

Prior to this accolade, Galant was already well on her way to a successful career in documentary filmmaking. Along with Maya Cueva ‘15, she directed and was the cinematographer of a film titled “On The Divide” that premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and will broadcast on POV PBS in Spring 2022.