Trailer for the documentary Modjeska Woman Triumphant.
The film is about conquest; “attaining the unattainable;” about the life of an artist missionary. The American journey of the nineteenth century iconic Polish actress Helena Modjeska as she builds her own persona one step at a time to later become an icon on the American stage. It’s about her earliest impressions, influences, conflicts and desires as she leaves her war-torn Poland to become the voice of Poland and the voice of women--- the dignified, the fallen, and the conflicted. It is a journey about faith and compassion. Modjeska was a muse for world-class artists, inspiring composer Ignacy Paderewski, American author Willa Cather and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Shakespearean actors Edwin Booth and Maurice Barrymore as well as Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz. Adored and admired for her beauty and nobility, she never forgot her true nature and the influence of Mother Nature on her art. It is a film about California, utopian living and artistic freedom. Symbolically, the 'Forest of Arden' in Orange County became her beloved sanctuary. Based on Modjeska’s letters, memoirs, biographies and interviews with scholars and descendents, the stylized documentary tells the story of one woman’s commitment to her self, to her Shakespeare, to her family, to her “countries” and to humanity through her art.