Private Project

The King of Spades of Raseiniai

The grandson of Lithuanian immigrants realizes later in life that his grandparents' narrative of escaping Lithuania at the end of World War II covered up the much darker past of their participation as perpetrators in the Holocaust by bullets in Lithuania in 1941. The Filmmaker travels from New York to Florida, Lithuania, and Israel to uncover evidence of a story they never told him while they were alive.

  • Bryan Mark Urbsaitis
    Director
    Men In Heels
  • Bryan Mark Urbsaitis
    Writer
    Men in Heels
  • Bryan Mark Urbsaitis
    Producer
    Men In Heels
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Feature
  • Genres:
    Documentary, Autoethnography, Experimental, Holocaust perpetrator
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 40 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 31, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Israel, Lithuania, United States
  • Language:
    English, German, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Yiddish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 4K, archival footage
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Bryan Mark Urbsaitis

Bryan Mark Urbsaitis is a Lithuanian-American filmmaker and scholar and has received degrees from New York University (PhD International Education 2007), and City University of New York HunterCollege (MFA Integrated Media Arts 2016) and has taught Communication at New York University and the City University of New York. He is an international conflict & media
consultant, ethnographer, and filmmaker with an eye and ear for social justice issues. He is multilingual (English, French,
Japanese, Spanish) and a cyclist and founder of Aids Ride South Africa (ARSA), an annual cycling project from Johannesburg to Cape Town to raise money and awareness for HIV and AIDS in South Africa and globally.

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Director Statement

My consulting, teaching, writing, filmmaking, and research are all very much informed by the ever-evolving breadth of our own linguistic, communicative, and educational cross-cultural
experiences. Informally the world has for years been my
cross-cultural classroom. I have traveled to 87 countries and have had the chance to do research projects and films in many of them. Figura Fondo (EICTV Cuba 2013), Breakfast in South Africa (2014), Men in Heels (New York, USA), and The King of Spades of Raseiniai (in production 2024). I enjoy screening my films domestically, and internationally and I aspire to educate and create social change through positive examples of personal and public empowerment.