New York Times features reporter Andrew Jacobs says every third story he writes he thinks, “this would make a great documentary.”

When he wrote about a group of Holocaust survivors three years ago who gather each summer in the Catskill Mountains, he decided to make such a documentary himself.

“Four Seasons Lodge,” which enjoys its world premiere at 6:15 p.m. tonight (June 17) at the Silverdocs film festival in Silver Spring, Md., explores the uncommon bonds between the mostly 80-something residents of a bucolic bungalow in New York. (The film will also be shown at 5:30 p.m. June 22)

Each lost most, if not all, of their family members in the Nazi concentration camps. But for more than 25 years they’ve gathered at the New York resort to dance and unwind, even if the atrocities from their past are never too far from their thoughts.

The first-time filmmaker found his subjects more than eager to share their stories.

“In this country, old people are ignored. For people to be interested in their lives and their history and their current selves meant a lot to them,” Jacobs says. “They were remarkably trusting.”

Jacobs expected to find plenty of bitterness in his subjects, a "simmering anger" over what they've endured, he says. What he found was markedly different.

"They are sad underneath the surface, but they really had made a decision to embrace the daily joys of life. They recognize it's so precious and so easily lost," he says.

"Four Seasons Lodge" has its share of horrifying stories, but Jacobs honored the survivors by focusing on their enthusiasm, not their tragic pasts.

"There's been so many Holocaust films," he says. "I wanted to take a fresh approach ... and [the Holocaust] is not what they're about."

UPDATE: "Four Seasons Lodge" isn't the only documentary which focused on this very special group of seniors. "99 Geiger Road" also examined this bungalow community and its residents. Filmmaker Donna Schatz visited, and shot footage, of the seniors a year before "Four Seasons Lodge" did.

Her 25-minute film will be screened three times in the coming months:

* Rappahannock Independent Film Festival, Sept. 18-21, 2008 Fredericksurg, Va.

* The 5th Annual Jewish Eye - World Jewish Film Festival, October 2008 Ashkelon, Israel.

* 12th Annual Miami Jewish Film Festival, Jan. 24 - Feb. 1, 2009.

For more information visit her documentary's web site.

(Photo: Seniors gather to share both good and bad memories in the new documentary "Four Seasons Lodge")

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