Built by Zidell will be screening at Rose Schnitzer Manor in Portland on October 4, 2018 at 7pm. Let us know if you are interested in joining us.
Big news!! Built by Zidell is an official selection at this years Covellite International Film Festival in Butte, Montana!
Media Release
Film Screening: Built by Zidell
June 27, 2018, 7pm, Tickets $8 general public, $5 members
Media contact: Rebecca Biggs, Communications Manager, 503-226-3600, bbiggs@ojmche.org
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, 724 NW Davis Street, Portland
Built by Zidell
A David Bee Film
First Public Screening of Documentary on the Zidell Family’s Commitment to Building Portland’s Newest Neighborhood
The film Built by Zidell tells the story of a riverfront industrial property and the four generations of a family of entrepreneurs on that site. Beginning with Sam Zidell, an early 20th century immigrant from eastern Europe, the family's Jewish values, ethics and commitment to “giving back” have guided their business operations, as well as their resolution to undertake and successfully complete the largest privately-funded environmental remediation in Portland, Oregon. And now, after more than 50 years of building huge steel barges at the site, the Zidell family has embarked on their most ambitious project yet, building a new Portland neighborhood, Zidell Yards.
“Following the major environmental remediation project in 2010-2011 at the Zidell waterfront property in Portland, Charlene Zidell had the thought that the project would not be remembered by Portlanders in the future,” said Paul Fishman, Project Manager for the Zidell Waterfront Remediation Project and Producer of Built by Zidell. “She wondered about making a film to document the extraordinary extent of work involved in remediating a century of industrial activities, including ship building during World Wars I and II, and ship dismantling after the second of those wars, along a half-mile stretch on the west bank of the Willamette River.
“Once David Bee of LightMotive Films, was brought in to the project, David soon realized, after researching the site and project histories, that there was a much larger story that needed to be told.”
The environmental remediation project included 30 acres of upland property as well as 12 acres of riverbank and river bottom adjacent to the site. Prior to the Zidell companies being on the site, there were shipyards during World War I. Sam Zidell leased a building on the site between the World Wars, and purchased the property after a WWII shipbuilding company closed. Zidell bought surplus ships from the U.S. government and deconstructed nearly 300 of them at the site for recyclables and saleable materials, equipment and items. Zidell Marine built almost 300 steel-hull barges on the site over the past 50 plus years.
The Zidell companies, through the State of Oregon Voluntary Cleanup Program, agreed to remediate the legacy contamination left from more than a century of industrial and urban activity, including from their own ship breaking and ship building activities, as well as from previous industrial activities and discharges from multiple private and public storm water outfalls.
As a result, the $30+ million award-winning remediation project set new standards for remediation of industrial impacts with the goal of protecting human health and the environment. A new Master Plan for what is now known as Zidell Yards will guide the development of the 30-acre property into a new and vibrant Portland neighborhood; a beginning of a new phase for the family property, and a new set of business ventures for the family.
About Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education explores the legacy of the Jewish experience in Oregon and teaches the universal lessons of the Holocaust. Through exhibitions, programs, educational resources, and opportunities for intercultural conversation, OJMCHE challenges visitors to resist indifference and discrimination and to envision a just and inclusive world.
OJMCHE features, along with core exhibitions, national and international changing exhibitions that showcase Jewish contributions to world culture and ideas, issues of Jewish identity, and the forces of prejudice. OJMCHE also offers programs, films, lectures, and concerts that cover a wide range of topics relating to Jewish art, culture, and heritage, which stimulate dialogue about identity, culture, and assimilation. Education programs embrace the Jewish experience and explore the lessons of the Holocaust. The organization is the steward of the Oregon Holocaust Memorial, located in Washington Park, and of the Archives and Artifact Collection documenting the Oregon Jewish experience. Tours of the Oregon Holocaust Memorial are free and available by appointment. For more information, visit www.ojmche.org.
Built by Zidell was directed and edited by David Bee of Lightmotive Films. The film screening is sponsored by OJMCHE, LightMotive Films, NorthWest Ecosystem Services, Inc., Sherry and Paul Fishman and Maul Foster & Alongi, Inc.
