#JLF
Aleksandar Hemon and Velibor Božović, moderated by Basharat Peer
On 2nd March 1908, Lazarus Averbuch, a young Russian Jewish immigrant to Chicago, tried to deliver a letter to the city’s Chief of Police. He was shot dead. It was claimed he was an anarchist assassin and an agent of foreign operatives who wanted to bring the United States to its knees. A century later, two friends become obsessed with the truth about Lazarus and decided to travel to his birthplace.
The Lazarus Project was based on a real journey that Aleksandar Hemon and his childhood friend, photographer Velibor Božović made to Poland, western Ukraine, Moldova, and Bosnia, where both men come from. Božović took about 1200 photographs, sometimes assuming the point of view of the fictional photographer. The two friends talk about fact, fiction and photography with Basharat Peer.