In 1938, David Kurtz traveled from his home in Flatbush, Brooklyn, for a vacation across Europe. He stopped in the small Polish village of Nasielsk, where he was born — a pinpoint on the map that would have been ignored by any tourist, and has been mostly overlooked by history.
But he happened to bring a 16mm camera, bought expressly for the trip. And in 2009, his grandson Glenn Kurtz found three minutes of footage, brittle with age, that pulls this tiny village back into our collective memory.
Kurtz wrote a beautiful book about his experience in 2014, called “Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film.” Director Bianca Stigter found the book, and then the footage, which was added to the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She was inspired by both to make a short film essay, “Three Minutes — Thirteen Minutes — Thirty Minutes,” which she has...
But he happened to bring a 16mm camera, bought expressly for the trip. And in 2009, his grandson Glenn Kurtz found three minutes of footage, brittle with age, that pulls this tiny village back into our collective memory.
Kurtz wrote a beautiful book about his experience in 2014, called “Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film.” Director Bianca Stigter found the book, and then the footage, which was added to the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She was inspired by both to make a short film essay, “Three Minutes — Thirteen Minutes — Thirty Minutes,” which she has...
- 8/25/2022
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
In one of the hardest sequences to look at in “From Where They Stood” (it’s also one of the hardest to look away from), we see four photographs taken inside the Buchenwald concentration camp by Alberto Errera, a Jewish prisoner from Greece who was a member of the Sonderkommando — the inmates who were allowed to live, at least for a time, because they agreed to be part of the grisliest work detail. There is no known photograph that exists of what went on inside the gas chambers. But Errera came close by taking several clandestine photographs from the gas chambers, giving us a window into what happened before and after.
One of his images shows a group of women prisoners, several of them naked, against a woodland setting; they think they’re about to take a shower, which is the lie that was told to prisoners to get them to enter the gas chambers.
One of his images shows a group of women prisoners, several of them naked, against a woodland setting; they think they’re about to take a shower, which is the lie that was told to prisoners to get them to enter the gas chambers.
- 8/5/2022
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
The phrase “bear witness” is often used to describe the perpetual requirement to expose, affirm, and explain the events of the Holocaust. But how do we continue to meet this need for history and humanity when the witnesses themselves are gone?
This is the question with which French documentarian Christophe Cognet has grappled for much of his career. Cognet’s specific interest is in the art left behind, and therefore carried forward, by victims who would otherwise have been silenced. “From Where They Stood” continues his quest by examining the few photographs that were taken by prisoners in concentration camps and still exist today.
Each segment of the film is dedicated to the photos captured by one person, like Rudolf Cisar, who managed to take around 50 photos at Dachau. Or Georges Angeli, who took 11 clandestine pictures at Buchenwald, or Alberto Errera, who was killed after attempting to escape Auschwitz in...
This is the question with which French documentarian Christophe Cognet has grappled for much of his career. Cognet’s specific interest is in the art left behind, and therefore carried forward, by victims who would otherwise have been silenced. “From Where They Stood” continues his quest by examining the few photographs that were taken by prisoners in concentration camps and still exist today.
Each segment of the film is dedicated to the photos captured by one person, like Rudolf Cisar, who managed to take around 50 photos at Dachau. Or Georges Angeli, who took 11 clandestine pictures at Buchenwald, or Alberto Errera, who was killed after attempting to escape Auschwitz in...
- 7/29/2022
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to Christophe Cognet’s “From Where They Stood,” a searing WW2-set documentary which premiered at the Berlinale.
Represented in international markets by MK2 Films, “From Where They Stood” went on the win the Spirit of Freedom Award for best documentary at last year’s Jerusalem Film Festival.
Produced by Raphaël Pillosio, “From Where They Stood” retraces the footsteps of a handful of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps who managed to take clandestine photographs of the hell the Nazis were hiding from the world. These photos were either smuggled out or hidden and retrieved after the war.
Greenwich’s Edward Arentz negotiated the acquisition with Fionnuala Jamison of MK2 Films on behalf of the filmmakers.
“In contrast to today, when thankfully, evidence of war crimes and genocide can be gathered often remotely and disseminated worldwide with startling precision and detail,...
Represented in international markets by MK2 Films, “From Where They Stood” went on the win the Spirit of Freedom Award for best documentary at last year’s Jerusalem Film Festival.
Produced by Raphaël Pillosio, “From Where They Stood” retraces the footsteps of a handful of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps who managed to take clandestine photographs of the hell the Nazis were hiding from the world. These photos were either smuggled out or hidden and retrieved after the war.
Greenwich’s Edward Arentz negotiated the acquisition with Fionnuala Jamison of MK2 Films on behalf of the filmmakers.
“In contrast to today, when thankfully, evidence of war crimes and genocide can be gathered often remotely and disseminated worldwide with startling precision and detail,...
- 7/4/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
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