From Hollywood extra to documentary star—This journalist’s unexpected movie journey!

Ellen Futterman, Chief Digital Content Officer

Published March 19, 2025

While it wasn’t exactly my big-screen debut — I had a brief stint as an extra in “A League of Their Own” in the early 1990s— it was my first time with a speaking role. And in a truly fitting bit of casting, I played myself.

Journalist Shula Neuman and I appear in the documentary “Names, Not Numbers,” a project in which juniors and seniors from Kadimah High School, a division of Epstein Hebrew Academy, interviewed local Holocaust survivors to preserve their stories. We were invited to help the students develop their interview techniques, which is how we became part of the film.

The hourlong doc will open the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival on March 30 as part of a double feature alongside “Fiddler on the Moon,” a short film about Jewish astronauts. The screening begins at 3 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center near Creve Coeur.

Founded by St. Louis native Tova Fish-Rosenberg, “Names, Not Numbers” is a Holocaust education program that uses documentary filmmaking to teach students about the Holocaust by having them interview and film Holocaust survivors.

Kadimah High students joined more than 8,000 others across the country who have taken part in this oral history and film project. To date, more than 5,000 survivors and World War II veterans have shared their stories through the initiative.

The documentary St. Louis audiences will see highlights three local survivors, including Rachel Miller, who will participate in a panel discussion after the screening. She will be joined by Fish-Rosenberg; director Michael Piro; noted historian and author Michael Berenbaum; Kadimah student Devorah Haspel; and Rabbi Jonathan Fruchter, Judaic studies principal at Kadimah.

To purchase tickets and learn more, go to jfedstl.org/series/the-stl-jewish-film-festival

About the Contributor

Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-Chief

A native of Westbury, New York, Ellen Futterman broke into the world of big city journalism as a general assignment reporter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner in the latter part of the 20th century. Deciding that Tinsel Town was not exciting enough for her, she moved on to that hub of glamour and sophistication, Belleville, Ill., where she became a feature writer, columnist and food editor for the Belleville News-Democrat. A year later the St. Louis Post-Dispatch scooped her up, neither guessing at the full range of her talents, nor the extent of her shoe collection. She went on to work at the Post-Dispatch for 25 years, during which time she covered hard news, education, features, investigative projects, profiles, sports, entertainment, fashion, interiors, business, travel and movies. She won numerous major local and national awards for her reporting on “Women Who Kill” and on a four-part series about teen-age pregnancy, ‘Children Having Children.'” Among her many jobs at the newspaper, Ellen was a columnist for three years, Arts and Entertainment Editor, Critic-at-large and Daily Features (Everyday) Editor. She invented two sections from scratch, one of which recently morphed from Get Out, begun in 1995, to GO. In January of 2009, Ellen joined the St. Louis Jewish Light as its editor, where she is responsible for overseeing editorial operations, including managing both staff members and freelancers. Under her tutelage, the Light has won 16 Rockower Awards — considered the Jewish Pulitzer’s — including two personally for Excellence in Commentary for her weekly News & Schmooze column. She also is the communications content editor for the Arts and Education Council of St. Louis. Ellen and her husband, Jeff Burkett, a middle school principal, live in Olivette and have three children. Ellen can be reached at 314-743-3669 or at [email protected].