St. Louis Jewish Film Festival - Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness

As a special Festival Preview Event, the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival is proud to present Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness, a powerful documentary that reminds us how one person’s courage can change the course of history. 

In the fall of 1939, as Hitler’s murderous wave swept across Eastern Europe, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara faced an impossible choice. Stationed in Lithuania as Japan’s Consul, Sugihara was surrounded by desperate Jewish refugees whose only hope of escape lay in a transit visa he was expressly forbidden to issue. Acting against direct orders from Tokyo—and at enormous risk to his career and his family—Sugihara followed his conscience, handwriting thousands of visas that enabled Jews to flee through Russia to Japan and onward to safety. Today, it is estimated that more than 40,000 people owe their lives to Sugihara’s extraordinary moral courage. 

The screening will be followed by a live Q&A with award-winning filmmaker Diane Estelle Vicari, whose documentary brings Sugihara’s story vividly to life. A graduate of UCLA’s Program in Film and Television, Vicari has built a distinguished career producing films that explore our shared humanity and global interconnectedness. Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness earned the prestigious Pare Lorentz/IDA Award, and in 2021, the California State Legislature officially designated Sugihara Visas Day, honoring the diplomat’s legacy of compassion and rescue. 

Tickets to Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness are $5/person.

Vicari’s appearance is generously sponsored by Nancy and Ken Kranzberg, and Shelly and Rick Mayhew. 

This special event coincides with the Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum’s new exhibition, RESILIENCE: A Sansei Sense of Legacy, on view January 17 – April 4, 2026. In 1942, Executive Order 9066 forced the incarceration of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. Told from the perspective of Sansei – third-generation Japanese Americans – Resilience features the work of eight artists whose families experienced this injustice and whose art reflects on its impact across generations. That impact was also felt here in St. Louis, where many Japanese American families settled post incarceration. 

This free exhibition is made possible through the Museum’s Partnership with the Japanese American Citizen’s League.