Filmmaker, Researcher, Author
Award-winning filmmaker Specializes in customized documentaries, educational and instructional programs for professional and educational application. Jacky Comforty is multi-skilled, multidisciplinary, and multilingual. He has worked for over 35 years creating films and videos in the United States, Germany, Israel, and Bulgaria.
A social-educational entrepreneur whose programs inspire learning and help training, community-building and outreach activity. His leadership, dedication and integrity have brought international experts and renowned academics to support his work.
Jacky has specialized in two main subjects. His work has been groundbreaking in the fields of Inclusive Education and Holocaust Studies. He is particularly known for his work on the rescue of the Holocaust in Bulgaria. He is curator and owner of a large photographic, film, and audio archives of historical and scholarly significance to Holocaust Studies and of smaller collections about early childhood education, peace education, and history.
Jacky Comforty is the creator of the best-selling Inclusion Series that helped implement inclusive practices in U.S. school districts and is used in hundreds of universities around the country. He is the creator of educational programs for notable U.S. universities and institutions and for collaborative work with diverse scholars and disciplines. 
Mr. Comforty is director, co-producer, and editor of the award winning film The Optimists, which tells the story of the Bulgarian Jews and their survival during WWII
Mr. Comforty commands a range of genres, from documentaries to comedies. He is known for the effective, sensitive, interviewing techniques he has developed for oral histories and other projects requiring on-camera discussions that are genuine, meaningful, and in-depth.
Mr. Comforty opened his educational media company, Comforty Media Concepts, Inc., in 1987. His production company is well equipped with multi-format, full scale, state-of-the-art design and post-production capabilities.
Mr. Comforty speaks and lectures in English, Hebrew, German, and Bulgarian.
His video work and media installations have been displayed in major museums in the United States; 200 hours of his oral histories are archived with the United States Holocaust Museum and the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance.
His independent documentary work has received numerous awards in major international film festivals and his work has been screened in over 100 cities worldwide. He is a popular speaker whose after-screening presentations include lively question-and-answer sessions with audiences.

Selected Films:

Balkan Jazz (2013) The film tells the life story and music of Niko Nissimov and his Jewish friends who were pioneers of Jazz music in Bulgaria. The movie charts the rise of their band Jazz of The Optimists to stardom in the late 1930s. The beginning of World War II Changed everything for them as Bulgaria joined the Axis powers. All Jewish men were drafted to slave labor camps, and the entire community was on the verge of extinction.

The Optimists (2001) Comforty’s films have been screened around the world in festivals and theatrical showings, and commissioned for important museums. My documentary on the Bulgarian Jews and their survival, The Optimists, won the prestigious Peace Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, The Jewish Experience Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival, and the USA CINE Golden Eagle award. The New York Times called The Optimists  “A rare documentary . . . compact and elegant.” The Boston Globe labeled it as “Potent and gripping”, while the TV Guide said, “Uplifting documentary . . . fascinating story” and The Chicago Tribune wrote, “Individuals triumph over odds in inspiring ʻOptimistsʼ.” IMDB rating 8.5.

1998 IN THE SHADOW OF MEMORY. Comforty Media Concepts/The Collected Image. A documentary about living in the aftermath of Lidice, the Catholic Czech town destroyed by the Nazis during World War II for alleged Resistance collaborations. Funding made possible by Chambon Foundation. CINE Golden Eagle, 1998. Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Jerusalem International Film Festival, Communicator Award, Bronze award.

1996 THROUGH A GLASS, LIGHTLY: THE ARTISTS COMMENT ON RECLAMATION AND TRANSFORMATION. Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL. About the lives and work of three outsider-artists who collect what others discard, turn it into sculpture and paintings, and, through art, teach inner city youth to appreciate and care for their surroundings. 1997 CINE Golden Eagle; 1995 First Prize, Arts:  Artists Category, American Association of Museums Muse Awards;  1995 Bronze Apple, NEMN.

1995    Step by Step: Heather’s Story.  65-minute documentary video for parents and educators about inclusion over time. This video provides a two-year, longitudinal look at a little girl with Down Syndrome who progresses from special education classroom to neighborhood school. 1997 Gold Hugo.

Books

The Stolen Narrative of The Bulgarian Jews and The Holocaust shares a complex tapestry of voices of memories previously underrepresented, ignored and denied. An alternative perspective that includes stolen, silenced, but now reclaimed Jewish narrative based on our peoples’ experiences. It contextualizes and personalizes our history, reconstructs the puzzle, praises those who helped the Jews and shares their exemplary acts of humanity for future generations. It fills a void in the Bulgarian Holocaust literature–specifically first-hand accounts of memory of survivors, eyewitnesses, photographs, official publications, laws, and newspaper articles.

According to Omer Bartov, John P Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History, Department of History, Brown University, who wrote the Foreword to our book,

“What I find so powerful and moving in this book is the fine and delicate balance that it strikes between rejecting the self-serving story of how Bulgaria, alone of all other countries in Europe (with the partial exception of Denmark), and headed by its wily king, ‘saved its Jews’ and letting scores of witnesses tell their heart-wrenching stories of how they lived through those times.

“This book is thus an important corrective to the existing scholarship; but it is also a major contribution to the literature on the Holocaust in that it brings back the voices of the community itself, thereby allowing members of Bulgarian Jewry to tell their own story.” 

The Day of the Culture (Book and Film in-progress)
Jacky Comforty  * Martha Aladjem Bloomfield  * Moti Kanari  *  Angel Chorapchiev
In Spring 1943 the Final Solution of the European Jewry was operating at full steam. The next in line were the Jews of Bulgaria.  This would have been the second deportation wave of Jews to extermination, after Bulgaria completed a partial deportation in March 1943. Opposition from politicians and the church delayed the delivery of about 8500 people, while some 12,000 were handed over for extermination in Treblinka. The Bulgarian government was determined to complete the deportations. A desperate Jewish demonstration against the planned deportation on “The Bulgarian National Culture Day” on May 24, 1943,  put a stick in the wheels of the Final Solution. This is a unique story of Jewish resistance and self defense and our book will outline the process. 

Publications:

  • Humanistic approach to working with children with special educational needs / an example of a day care center in the town of Ashkelon, Israel / for Conference on Early Childhood Education at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, 2009.  With Associate Professor Rayna Zaharieva, PhD.

  • Inclusion of children with special educational needs in US schools, the “Management of secondary education” issue 5, 2008, pp. 67-74.  With Associate Professor Rayna Zaharieva, PhD.

  • Issues concerning teachers about inclusion of children with special educational needs in American schools, s.258-263. For  the international conference “Humanity and pragmatism in education for the XXI Century”, Varna, 2007.  With Associate Professor Rayna Zaharieva, PhD

  • Including children with special educational needs – the experience in the American schools.  Online magazine “E-learning”, June 2006/2007g., P 27-44. With Associate Professor Rayna Zaharieva, PhD.

  • MEDIA EDUCATION AND MEDIA LITERACY – manual for teachers on understanding media critically and using new and old media in the classroom and and as a good tool.