Slideshow Image
Slideshow Image
Date Location Tickets
7:00 PM - TUE 1/24 MIAMI BEACH CINEMATHEQUE Rush Line

Florida Premiere

Big Sonia

Directed by Leah Warshawski & Todd Soliday

US | 90 minutes | 2016

At 4'8", Sonia Warshawski can barely see over the leopard-skin-patterned steering wheel of her Oldsmobile. But at age 90, Sonia has a personality that towers over her Kansas City community, where she has tirelessly run her late husband's tailoring business for decades. The shop is the last business left operating in a lonely corner of a dying shopping mall, but for Sonia, it's the vibrant center of her long, eventful life. Every day she faces the threat of eviction, but Sonia has experience with escaping finality: As one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors in Kansas City, she witnessed the unspeakable horror of her mother disappearing behind the doors of a Nazi gas chamber. Today she still dispenses positive life lessons (known as "Soniaisms"), and speaks to local churches, schools, and prisons about the atrocities she endured as a teenager. Husband-and-wife filmmakers Todd Soliday and Leah Warshawski (Sonia's granddaughter) tell Sonia's story in this moving and uplifting documentary that interweaves first-person narratives with memories from family and friends.

Directors Leah Warshawski and Todd Soliday will be in attendance for a special wine reception at 6:30pm, and will also be present to introduce the film and participate in an extended conversation afterwards.

Director Leah Warshawski & Todd Soliday
Countries of Production US
Year of Presentation 2016
Language(s)
Premiere Status Florida Premiere
Runtime 90 minutes
Principal Cast Sonia Warshawski, Regina Kort, Morrie Warshawski, Debbie Warshawski
Back to Top