Richard Trank is an Academy Award winner whose Feature Documentary, The Long Way Home, narrated by Morgan Freeman, won Academy Awards in 1997. This documentary examines the period 1945-48 when survivors of the Holocaust helped create the state of Israel. His latest film is Against The Tide, narrated by Academy Award winning actor Dustin Hoffman. Against The Tide covers the conflict that erupted in the American Jewish community in the late 1930’s and 40’s over the best means to rescue the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust.
In 2007, Trank directed I Have Never Forgotten You, a comprehensive look at the life and legacy of Simon Wiesenthal. Narrated by Academy Award winning actress Nicole Kidman, it features interviews with longtime Wiesenthal associates, government leaders from around the world, friends and family. In 2006, Trank produced and directed Ever Again, which examines the resurgence of anti-semitism in Europe and its connection to international terrorism. Ever Again is narrated by Kevin Costner. In early 2005, Trank completed production on Beautiful Music. Narrated by Brooke Shields, the film tells the emotional story of the relationship between an Orthodox Jewish music teacher and her blind and autistic Palestinian student.In 2004, Trank wrote and directed Unlikely Heroes, narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley, chronicling seven extraordinary people who either resisted or defied the Nazis during the Holocaust. Other award winning films credited to Richard are Echoes That Remain; Liberation; and Search of Peace, Part I: 1948 to 1967. Throughout the 1980’s, Trank was an accomplished producer of radio news and public affairs programming. He came to the Wiesenthal Center in 1981 to create and produce its weekly news radio magazine Page One.