Bethesda Native's Oscar-Nominated Film Touches Denzel Washington

BETHESDA, MD — The poignant documentary of a Holocaust survivor who donated the violin he played in memory of his mother and brother, who were killed in the Nazi concentration camps, could bring an Academy Award to a Bethesda native. “Joe’s Violin,” directed by Walt Whitman High School grad Kahane Cooperman, is nominated for an Oscar in the documentary short film category.

The film tells the story of Joseph Feingold, 91, of New York City, who donated his violin to the charity instrument drive by WQXR Radio and the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. Brianna Perez, 12, a Dominican-American girl living in a poor section of the Bronx, received the violin and is learning how to coax music from it.

One of those entranced by the story is two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington, who directed this year's Best Picture nominee "Fences." At the Feb. 6 lunch for Oscar nominees, Perez spied Washington outside the venue, the Beverly Hills Hotel. In order to get a photo with the legendary actor and director, Perez had to play a tune on the violin.

"It's all right, mistakes are the best part," Washington told the budding soloist as she played from memory for him. At the conclusion of the impromptu concert, the multiple-Oscar nominee hugged Perez to applause from onlookers.

“It was an incredible moment I will probably never forget,” Cooperman told WTOP. … “Right then and there, by this pool in front of strangers and Denzel Washington, her idol, Brianna pulled out Joe’s violin … and played Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’ for him. … Despite the fact that it was on such a busy day, he took time for her … I’m surprised you can’t hear me sniffling in the background.”

The 89th annual Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 26, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC. Washington is nominated this year for Best Actor in “Fences,” which is also up for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Viola Davis, and Best Writing Adapted Screenplay.

Cooperman, who lives in New Jersey, earned 11 Emmys and 2 Peabody Awards as a producer of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” She spent two years working on "Joe's Violin," learning the story of Feingold, who was born into a musical family in Warsaw, Poland. As a teenager he was sent to a labor camp for six years, while his mother and brother were killed in concentration camps. After the war, Feingold and his father resettled in New York, where he became an architect and played the violin in memory of his murdered mother and brother.

The emotional impact of Feingold's donation was clear to young Perez and her teachers, the filmmaker said.

"While I was making this film, I was weeping for two straight years. I was so moved by what was unfolding before our eyes. I was constantly just in awe of all the goodwill and these wonderful people who were connected," Cooperman told Deadline.com. "I did not know how it would play out—there’s no guarantee that these characters would be as special as they were, or that they would connect at all. When the school decided to invite Joseph, I just thought, it’s so beautiful, because all these ends are going to come together."

»YouTube video, screenshots by Sosha Stone; Oscar-winner Denzel Washington listens to Brianna Perez play, the focus of Bethesda native Kahane Cooperman's documentary short film “Joe’s Violin.”