Natalie Mayer Endowed Lecture Series

About the Film: 

“You think you know your mother until you don’t,” says filmmaker Marisa Fox. Tamar was a New York doctor’s wife who claimed she fled her native Poland on the cusp of World War II and was never a Holocaust “victim.” Twenty years after her death, Fox, a journalist and mother, learns Tamar had a secret identity and chases down leads that span the globe, uncovering a story of Nazi trafficking and a defiant band of sisters in a women’s forced labor camp. Dogged research, extraordinary archival imagery and staggeringly candid interviews reveal a portrait of a woman who dared to be the hero of her own story, transforming herself from Nazi slave to freedom fighter, from refugee to spy and saboteur, ultimately reinventing herself as a matriarch in America. A real-life story of a daughter coming to terms with a woman who went to extraordinary lengths not to be defined by trauma.”

About the Filmmaker:

Marisa Fox is an award-winning journalist and the film director of My Underground Mother. As a correspondent for Haaretz, New York Newsday, New York and a contributor to The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, CNN, Forward and The New York Times, she has reported on major news stories from 9/11 to the opioid crisis, from January 6 th to October 7 th , and is a “she source” for Gloria Steinem’s Women’s Media Center, specializing in gender, genocide, wartime sexual trauma and radical extremism. She also served as a magazine editor and cover story writer for InStyle, O, Elle, Billboard, Details, The Hollywood Reporter and a television producer for FX, MTV, Vh1 and Channel 13-WNET. Her work has earned awards and nominations from the American Society of Magazine Editors. My Underground Mother, Fox’s directorial debut, won the Best Documentary jury award at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, and led her to curate one of the only women’s Holocaust monuments and a digital exhibit of women’s testimonies with USC’s Shoah Foundation. She is currently writing a book about her search for her mother’s missing past.

On December 15, 2024, Natalie lost her courageous battle with cancer. While her passion, tenacity and vivacious presence will be missed at PLU, her legacy will endure forever. This event will also honor the legacy of our donor, Natalie Mayer, who was dedicated to teaching others about the Native American experience.