“The Optimist: The Bravest Act Is Truth”: Producer Jeanine Thomas on Healing the Past
The Optimist, produced by Jeanine Thomas, tells the story of Herbert Heller, a Holocaust survivor who has kept his miraculous escape from the Auschwitz-Birkenau death march a secret for 60 years, even from his family. Then he meets Abbey, a young teenager whose own brush with pain and death inspires him to open up about his past. The two exchange stories, and an unlikely friendship is born.
In 2014, Thomas met the real life Herbert Heller, and they immediately formed a powerful bond. Heller loved sharing his story with the younger generations and would ask Thomas to schedule more talks for him at middle and high schools. Thomas, who accompanied him to these talks, said, “He always stood, never sat.” She saw the impact his story had on the younger generation. She decided it needed to be a movie, and The Optimist, her first ever film, was born.
Heller “was amazing. He was the easiest person to be around,” Thomas recalled. She spent a lot of time with Heller until she moved to Maine in 2020 and fell ill. She was, luckily, able to see Heller again right before he passed in 2021.
“Spending time around him was not just an honor, but he was such a fun, good person. [He was] really funny, had a lot to say . . . It was just wonderful. And for somebody who had been through everything he had been through, to have his outlook in life, he really was the optimist.” Thomas said he inspired her to be more of an optimist herself.
Thomas’s background in psychology and past experiences came together in this film. She shared that it’s the beginning of more purposeful work she plans to do in this world. The second leading cause of death among 10-34 year olds is suicide, and Thomas thought hearing a story from Heller might give the younger generation a new outlook.
Thomas has four children, and she wanted there to be a storyline in the film that related more to them. Abbey’s storyline stemmed from that desire. Thomas said that after Heller visited schools, students often wrote him letters. One of those letters was from a girl who shared that after hearing Heller’s story, she decided that because he had survived such difficult circumstances, she could make it through her own personal struggles and not commit suicide.
Thomas argued that “if we don’t heal the past and look at it and talk about it, it keeps coming forward.” She said it was crucial for the film to be a modern telling of the past and the present. She stressed the importance of remembering that the Holocaust was a historical tragedy that actually happened.
There’s slightly more than 30,000 Holocaust survivors still living in the US, and more than 11,000 of them live in poverty. An awareness campaign called Kavod is connected to this film and aims to address that problem.
“I want them to thrive in their last years . . . We have to look at it and go, ‘What can we do better?’” Every donation to Kavod is matched by an anonymous donor.
On the teen suicide prevention side of things, The Optimist team has partnered with Bring Change to Mind.
Thomas said she hopes that every person who sees the film, regardless of their age or faith, will walk away a different person. She hopes it inspires viewers to cultivate peace and change in the world.
The Optimist: The Bravest Act Is Truth will be released for a limited theatrical run on March 11th across the country. Tickets will be available on Fandango.
