Robert Moniot was in the process of relocating with his family to a new country when he grasped the opportunity to pitch his film, THE ICE CREAM MAN, to the Claims Conference. We caught up with the filmmaker to find out more.
We are proud to be partnering with the Claims Conference to help spread the word about their 2024 Emerging Filmmaker Contest.
Applications are now open! The Claims Conference is inviting emerging filmmakers worldwide to make short films about the Holocaust and the selected project will receive $60,000 toward their project. The deadline for submissions is June 17th, 2024. Visit their website to find out more.
Hi Robert! Introduce yourself!
Hello! I’m 57, I moved around a ton as a kid, my wife is a U.S. diplomat and we are stationed in the Netherlands with our four kids.
What is the title of your winning film? What is it about?
THE ICE CREAM MAN – Based on the true story of Ernst Cahn, the beloved Jewish owner of the most popular ice cream parlour in Amsterdam, who in 1941 was targeted, arrested, and tortured for thirteen days by SS Lieutenant Klaus Barbie, the infamous “Butcher of Lyon.”
The choices Ernst made sparked a series of events that led to over 300,000 Dutch citizens going on strike and shutting down Amsterdam for three days, in what became the largest anti-Nazi protest in history.
What was it like pitching your work to the Claims Conference for the contest? What did the process look like? Did you think that you had a winning idea?
Almost two years ago, my wife told me the State Department was sending us to The Hague, and I Googled the closest beach to our new house, and then was horrified to learn that the Nazis executed resistance prisoners in the dunes there. Then I read about Ernst Cahn, who was the first person the Nazis executed during the war, and I thought there was definitely a movie there. And then literally the next morning, while checking out Deadline Hollywood online, an ad popped up for the Claims Conference Emerging Filmmaker contest.
This was six days before the deadline, so it was a mad dash to not only write the script, but to find my locations via Google, work up a schedule and a rough budget… it was an insane thing to do, but I really thought the story needed to be told.
And then I won.
Where were you when you found out you’d won? What was your reaction?
We had just moved to the Netherlands and I was sitting in my new kitchen. I was excited and terrified, because now I had to figure out how to really make the damn thing.
Where did the initial idea for your film come from?
When I Googled our beach, the image that popped into my head was of a man standing on these unspeakably beautiful dunes overlooking the North Sea with his hands tied behind his back in front of a firing squad… it’s now the poster for the film.
What were the biggest challenges you encountered during making your film? How do you view them now?
Any movie, every movie, is like going to war… but our film is fairly epic, especially for a short film, so our challenges were typically fairly epic themselves.
How did you use your winnings?
The 50K grant for winning the contest (and all the other funds we’ve raised) have been spent on making the film, and developing a curriculum to accompany the project as we give it to schools, libraries and museums around the world, for free.
Tell us three things you learned from the process of making your film
Never stop asking for help. Trust your gut. Protect your actors, and get out of their way.
What do you love most about your finished film?
All the people, my film family, that made it possible.
What is your advice to filmmakers who are behind you in the process of making and distributing their films? What do you wish someone had told you?
Don’t let anything stop you. Every step of the way, you will find really good reasons why you should quit. DON’T. Just take the next step.
What are you going to do after this and what are your dreams for the future of the film industry?
I’m gonna keep making movies till I die. My dreams for the future are that I don’t die for a couple of hundred years.
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
I’d like to thank my wife and kids for their love, patience, and sacrifices during the making of this film.
If you are a film industry professional and would like access to the catalogue and more, find out here how to sign up.
Filmmaker? Upload your short film to T-Port or sign up for our newsletter to get regular updates on the current trends and exciting innovations in the short film universe.