“Dear Diary, you are the happiest because you cannot feel the great misfortune that happened to us.”
—Eva Heyman, March 19, 1944
Creators: Father and Daughter, Mati Kochavi and Maya Kochavi
Eva Stories is based on the diary of Eva Heyman, a 13-year-old girl who lived in Hungary during World War II.
Instead of a diary, Mati Kochavi and his daughter Maya gave Eva a smartphone and an Instagram account. Their 60-minute film, shot with more than 400 actors and crew on a budget of less than $5 million, depicts Eva’s life through 70 short clips, all of which were released on Holocaust Memorial Day 2019.
In 48 hours, they received more than 300 million views. Eva dreamed of some day becoming a famous news photographer; instead she was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944 and became famous 75 years later.
Digital Dozen Awards
Unlike most awards programs, the Digital Dozen has no categories. Digital tends to blur categories rather than maintain them. Instead, they consider every industry—advertising, marketing, art, entertainment, journalism, live performance—and every technology, from simple, Web-based interactivity to video games to AR and VR. Any digitally enabled project with a narrative component produced anywhere in the world is eligible for consideration. Once the winners have been chosen, they are archived online in a special site designed to showcase their attributes and the response they’ve generated. This archive is intended to be of value to media scholars today and decades in the future—a commitment that is very much in line with the DSL’s, and Columbia University’s, educational mission.
