The UTC History Department, with help from the SunTrust Chair of Excellence, invites the public to a film screening of A Film Unfinished, directed by Yael Hersonski, Monday at 7 p.m. in the UTC University Center Signal Mountain Room. Admission is free.
A Film Unfinished won awards at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, the 2010 Berlinale, and the 2010 Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. For more information visit http://www.afilmunfinished.com.
The film is part of UTC’s Visual History Film Series, which this year focuses on documentary films about the Second World War and the Holocaust. For more information about any of the film screenings or the film series, contact Prof. John C. Swanson at John-Swanson@utc.edu.
Review for A Film Unfinished:
At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply “Ghetto,” this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel, inclusive of multiple takes and cameraman staging scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage. A Film Unfinished presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (including a staged dinner party) falsely showing “the good life” enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, and probes deep into the making of a nowinfamous Nazi propaganda film.
A Film Unfinished is a film of enormous import, documenting some of the worst horrors of our time and exposing the efforts of its perpetrators to propel their agenda and cast it in a favorable light.
Remaining films in UTC’s Visual History Film Series include:
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 7 p.m. UTC, UC Raccoon Mountain Room
Six Million and One, a film by David Fisher, 2011, Color, 93 minutes
Tuesday, March 26, 7 p.m., UTC, UC Raccoon Mountain Room
About a Village: The Hechwald Children, a film by John C. Swanson, 2011, with discussion with filmmaker, Color, 68 minutes