Big Sonia

At 4'8", Sonia Warshawski can barely see over the leopard-skin-patterned steering wheel of her Oldsmobile. But at age 90, Sonia has a personality that towers over her Kansas City community, where she has tirelessly run her late husband's tailoring business for decades. The shop, John's Tailoring, is the last business left operating in a lonely corner of a dying shopping mall, but for Sonia it's the vibrant center of her long, eventful life. Every day she faces the threat of eviction, but Sonia has had experience with escaping finality: As one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors in Kansas City, she witnessed the unspeakable horror of her mother disappearing behind the doors of a Nazi gas chamber; after being force-marched from one death camp to another, Sonia was finally liberated only to be shot accidentally through the chest - and yet she survived. Today she still dispenses positive life lessons (known as "Soniaisms") to anyone who'll listen, and also speaks to local churches, schools, and prisons about the atrocities she endured as a teenager. Husband-and-wife filmmakers Todd Soliday and Leah Warshawski (Sonia's granddaughter) tell Sonia's story in this moving and uplifting documentary that interweaves first-person narratives with memories from family and friends. "Big Sonia" may struggle to face her latest daunting challenge - retirement - but she's certainly doing it in style. (Seattle International Film Festival)