The Liegnitz Plot
Director and Producer Dan Sturman, Producers Gary Gilbert and Dylan Nelson
Logline
Part detective story, part heist film, part history we must never forget, “The Liegnitz Plot” investigates a tale dating back to the Holocaust: that a mysterious Nazi stole priceless stamp collections from concentration camp victims and buried the stolen stamps in a small town in Poland. Embarking on a real-life “Argo”-like adventure, one-time “Seinfeld” producer Gary Gilbert sets out to confirm the story and recover the stamps. His tactic: a fake movie shoot. His goal: to return the stamps to their rightful owners, hopefully delivering a small measure of justice more than 70 years after the Holocaust. Gary is an improbable hero, a mensch who won’t take no for an answer. As he begins to peel back layers of Nazi family secrets, he discovers that the assumptions American Jews make about present-day Poland—and those that some Poles make about American Jews—complicate his plan in ways he never imagined.
Dan Sturman - Director, Producer
Dan’s work includes the 9/11 documentary “Twin Towers,” which won an Academy Award in 2003; the Sundance, Peabody, and Emmy award-winning documentary “Nanking,” which was short-listed for an Academy Award, released theatrically, and sold to HBO Documentary Films; and “Soundtrack for a Revolution,” which was also short-listed for an Academy Award, released theatrically, and broadcast on PBS. His films have shown at festivals around the world, including Cannes, Sundance, Hong Kong, Telluride, Hot Docs, and Tribeca, and have received special screenings at the White House, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Most recently, Dan produced “Four Winters: A Story of Jewish Partisan Resistance and Bravery in WW2,” which premiered in 2020 at Lincoln Center.
Dylan Nelson - Producer
Dylan is an Emmy- and Producers Guild Award-nominated documentary filmmaker. She co-produced the Participant Media feature “Merchants of Doubt,” about the links between big tobacco and climate denial, which screened at the Telluride, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals and was released theatrically through Sony Pictures Classics. With Dan Sturman, Dylan directed and produced the documentary feature “The Hollywood Complex” (Hot Docs 2011/Showtime 2012), produced “Soundtrack for a Revolution” (Tribeca/Cannes 2009, PBS’s American Experience 2011), and line- and associate-produced “Nanking” (Sundance 2007, HBO/Cinemax 2008). Among other recent projects, she produced the 2021 documentary feature “Groomed,” about child sexual assault, for Blumhouse and Discovery+.
Gary Gilbert - Producer
Originally from New York, Gary has been writing and producing television series in Los Angeles for ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox for over two decades. He has written episodes for a dozen situation comedies and is a co-creator of the show “Sister, Sister” as well as the executive producer and a writer on the pilots of “Seinfeld” and other series. He currently teaches creative writing to incarcerated youth in Los Angeles’ three detention centers.
Project logline and bios courtesy of the grantees.