Testaments to the Enduring Power of Memory

David Crumm, Editor of Read the Spirit, just posted a review for the recent DVD release of Belzec. Here's a taste of what Mr. Crumm had to say:

In 1985, filmmaker Guillaume Moscovitz was moved by Claude Lanzmann's masterwork on the Holocaust, "Shoah"—a 10-hour documentary that focused mainly on real people who lived near the Nazi concentration camps. Belzec is included briefly in Lanzmann's epic film, but Moscovitz decided around 2002 that Belzec's mysteries deserved a separate, feature-length documentary.

I agree after having watched "Belzec"—including some portions of the film that I viewed twice and even three times to catch small details.

"Belzec" opens with Heinrich Himmler's chilling claim that the Holocaust would represent "a glorious page of our history that has never been written—and shall never be written." The attempt to erase all traces of the crimes at Belzec were in keeping with Himmler's goal. The grand scale of the genocide would be followed by erasure and, finally, a complete revision of world history.

First and foremost, Lanzmann's and Moscovitz's films are testaments to the enduring power of memory. Yes, they raise horrific questions about how much neighbors of this camp knew during the Final Solution! In fact, we learn through Moscovitz's interviews, these neighbors knew precisely what was happening!

Most importantly, though, the film invites us, as viewers, to actively help in the reconstruction of memory.

Read the full review at Read the Spirit

You can buy Belzec on DVD here: Menemsha Store

Belzec - On DVD Tuesday!

Hello everyone! My name is Ben, and it is my pleasure to announce the newest release from Menemsha Films, available this Tuesday on DVD: Belzec!

Belzec is a heart-wrenching documentary which sheds light on a heretofore forgotten aspect of the Holocaust: the death camp in Belzec, Poland. By interviewing locals who witnessed the horrors firsthand and the only known living survivor of the camp, a woman who was hidden under a pile of wood for years as a young girl, the film juxtaposes these memories with the site of the camp today: an empty wooded field, no trace left by the Nazis except the ground bone and ashes mixed with the dirt.

The film's synopsis:

The horrifically efficient Nazi death camp, Belzec, was in operation for less than one year, but witnessed the murder of at least 600,000 Jews. Once the Soviet counterattacks began, the S.S. eliminated all traces of the camp, and the name Belzec faded from the collective conscience. Conceived of by Executive Producer Claude Lanzman as the last chapter to his epic Shoah, helmer Guillaume Moscovitz has created a chilling account that's as much about remembrance as it is about the past.

The film was also reviewed in Variety, by Jay Weissberg.

"This contrast between the tree-covered plain and the death buried just below the surface is what intrigues Moscovitz. Much of the handsomely lensed docu is composed of interviews with locals, people who remember seeing the trains pulling up (the camp was built just 1,500 feet from the town's railroad station), hearing the screams, and, of course, smelling the foul air of burning corpses.

It's refreshing to finally hear villagers who don't claim to have been ignorant of what went on inside the barbed wire fences, although a few don't seem especially traumatized by what was happening in their backyard.

The only Jewish survivors of Belzec were those men forced to usher the prisoners into the gas chambers and later transport the bodies to the pits. Moscovitz makes superb use of their chilling written testimonies.

But even more devastating is listening to the sole living Jewish witness, Braha Rauffman. As a 7-year-old, she was hidden by a villager for 20 months, in a makeshift hole covered with firewood that didn't even allow her space to fully stretch her legs. Her testimony, almost unbearable to hear, contrasts sharply with the more generic recollections of the townspeople."

You can buy the DVD here: Menemsha Store

For more information on Belzec and many other quality films from Menemsha, visit our website! Menemsha Films

Partying with Kawasaki's Rose

Menemsha Films president Neil Friedman strikes a pose with the leading ladies of Kawasaki's Rose; Petra Hrebeckova, Anna Simoniva, and Lenka Vlasakova, during the premiere after party at Vienna Bar in Berlin.

Brian Brooks of indieWire featured this photograph in their post-Berlinale coverage, and here's what they had to say about it:

In his first write up of the Berlinale in his Critics Notebook Shane Danielsen called Czech film “Kawasaki’s Rose” (Kawasakiho Ruze) “the one undeniable ‘find’ of the festival so far.” Following the premiere of the film, directed by Jan Hrebejk and which screened in the festival’s Panorama, all gathered for dinner and some good times (and apparently even a little nudity later that evening) in the German capital. Giving a good pose (and a bit of leg), actors Petra Hrebeckova, Anna Simoniva, Lenka Vlasakova along with Neil Friedman of Menemsha Films. [Photo by Mark Rabinowitz]

Click here for the original article: indieWire

The Undeniable 'Find' of the Festival

Just in from the Berlin International Film Festival, Shane Danielsen of indieWire has posted a glowing review of Kawasaki's Rose, the latest film from Czech master Jan Hrebejk, which premiered this past Friday as the opening night selection of the prestigious Panorana Special section. Here's what he had to say about the film:

"Theirs were the usual discontents: The parties were fewer. The market was slow. There were no good movies. Had they not seen ‘Kawasaki’s Rose’? The latest from prolific Czech director Jan Hrebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky, it was easily the best feature of the first few days, the one undeniable ‘find’ of the festival so far.

I couldn’t say I was surprised. To my mind, Hrebejk has long been the most criminally neglected of major contemporary international filmmakers: a consummate director of actors, with a subtle but undeniable visual sense and an instinctive grasp of structure. Yet despite having produced roughly one film a year for the past decade, and having been nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar (for 2000’s ‘Divided We Fall’), this is the first of his works to premiere at one of the Big Three European festivals. And even then – in another inexplicable programming decision – it wasn’t in Competition, as it should have been, but appeared instead as a “Panorama Special”.

Writing in Variety last September, I pointed out that there’s a complete body of work there – nine features to date – awaiting discovery by some enterprising programmer or festival. They’re small movies, mostly modern-day domestic dramas, but are distinguished by their humanity, unusual intelligence, and the unadorned elegance of their craftsmanship. “You have to stay small to go deep,” one character says here, and a neater explication of Hrebejk’s philosophy I have yet to find.

This one – about an elderly man, a respected figure from the Communist resistance, whose misdeeds during the Dubcek era are slowly revealed – slipped easily back and forth between various perspectives (and such is Jarchovsky’s skill, every character here was nuanced, contradictory, fully realized), and parceled out its revelations as deliberately and rigorously as a conspiracy thriller. Less hectic than ‘Horem Padem’, more emotionally resonant than ‘Beauty In Trouble’ (as fine as each of those films was), it ranked among the writer and director’s very finest work to date. "

Check out the rest of the article here:

indieWIRE

Variety ♥'s Kawasaki's Rose

Derek Elley of Variety recently posted a great review of Kawasaki's Rose, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival this past Friday. The good word of mouth just keeps flowing for this film! Here's a preview of what he had to say:

"While many other Central European countries have dealt with their collaborationist past in movies, Hrebejk and Jarchovsky claim theirs is the first to do so in the Czech Republic. Typically, but without devaluing the content, it's dealt with in a very Czech way -- sans real bitterness, marbled with a lightness of touch, and capped by a final scene that's wound-healing in its tartly genial humor."

"Ensemble performances are topnotch, from Huba and Kolarova as the husband and wife who still retain their dignity even as their past becomes media property, through Vlasakova as their conflicted daughter, to smaller parts like Anna Simonova as Bara, Lucie's restless teen daughter. One cross-generational scene between Huba and Simonova is a beauty, showing how Jarchovsky's well-worked script keeps all family members involved in the ensemble at all times."

You can read the rest of the article here:
Variety

Berlinale '10 continued

It's been a while since I last posted here, and while I do not have a list of sympathy-enducing excuses, I can assure you I am back and with an ample supply of Independent Film News.

The 60th annual Berlin Film Festival begins tomorrow! And while Roman Polanski will surely not be making an appearance, his newest film, The Ghost Writer, will.

Now if you are overwhelmed by the amount of film about to be displayed over the next week and a half in Berlin just know that you are in good company. Because as of this morning indieWire posted their guide to each film that will be shown in the competition section of the festival.

Tomorrow I introduce you to the Panorama section, until then let me know what you think of the Competition section as well as any other questions you might have about the whole festival in general.

Berlinale!

Still trying to catch up with everything that happened at Sundance? Well you better hurry up because the festival circuit waits for noone. Up next is the Berlin Film Festival. Founded in 1951 and held annually in February since 1978, the Berlin Film Festival, or Berlinale as it is commonly reffered to, has become the world's largest publicly-attended festival with over 450,000 admissions last year.

This year it will be held from February 12th to the 21st where over 400 films will be competing for a bevy of awards:

Golden Bear (Goldener Bär, Top Prize)

Best Motion Picture
Lifetime Achievement ("Honorary Golden Bear")
Silver Bear (Silberner Bär)

Jury Grand Prix
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Screenplay
Best film music
Extraordinary achievement by a single artist
Grand Prize of the Jury (Short film award)
Others

Panorama Publikumspreis, the Audience Award
Berlinale Camera, a special award for services to the Festival
A Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the 14plus section of the Generation Competition
A Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the children's section of the Generation Competition
Teddy Award for films with LGBT topics
Shooting Stars Award for young European acting talent, awarded by European Film Promotion


This year, the tough job of doling out these awards, has been assigned to Werner Herzog, who will presiding over a very well-rounded jury.

I am also proud to say that two of Menemsha's films will be shown - Jan Hrebejk's Kawasaki's Rose, which will be the opening film of the Panorama Section, as well as Shameless, another one of Hrebejk's recent films.

Oscar Facts

Regarding the announcement of the 82nd Academy Awards Nominees yesterday, I ran into these interesting facts from Entertainment Weekly, penned by Dave Karger.

1. Avatar received nine nominations but was left out of Best Screenplay. The last film to win Best Picture with out a screenplay nomination? James Cameron’s last nominee, Titanic.
2. Avatar wasn’t nominated for SAG Best Cast, lost the PGA and DGA awards, and is likely to lose the WGA prize later this month. Since the SAG Best Cast prize was introduced in 1996, no film has ever won Best Picture without winning at least one of the four major guild awards.
3. With four nominations, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot tied with Leonard Nimoy’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home for the most nods for a Trek film.
4. Up in the Air scored six nominations (including three for acting, more than any other movie) but was left out of Best Editing. No film has won Best Picture without an editing nomination since Ordinary People in 1981.
5. Up in the Air producers Jason and Ivan Reitman are the first father/son producing team to be nominated for Best Picture since Mario and Vittorio Cecchi Gori for Il Postino in 1995.
6. The Lovely Bones‘ Stanley Tucci is the only acting nominee this year whose film received no other nominations.
7. Earning her 16th career acting nomination for Julie & Julia, Meryl Streep broke her own record—again—for the most nominated actor in Oscar history.
8. This year’s SAG nominees in the individual acting races lined up with the eventual acting nominees 19 for 20, the most ever. The only Oscar nominee not to earn a SAG nod first: Crazy Heart’s Maggie Gyllenhaal.
9. If Avatar wins Best Picture, it’ll be the highest-grossing winner ever (obviously).
10. If The Hurt Locker wins Best Picture, it’ll be the lowest-grossing winner ever.

And as always add any other interesting tidbits concerning this years Oscar race.

Unter Bauern (Saviors in the Night)

SAVIORS IN THE NIGHT (UNTER BAUERN) is based on the memories of Marga Spiegel. In her narrative, published in 1965, she describes how courageous farmers in southern Münsterland hid her, her husband Siegfried {named Menne} and their little daughter Karin from 1943 until 1945, thus saving them from deportation to the extermination camps in the East. The film tells this story of survival with a sense for the absurd in daily life and not without the typical Westphalian humor.

Here's a great review of the film by Symi Rom-Rymer, a regular writer for Moment Magazine.

Oscar Nominations 2010

The nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards came out early this morning, and with their announcement comes alot of speculation; who's rooting for who, who should win, and who will win. So over the course of the next month, and the few days leading up to the Awards Ceremony I'm going to be giving you my picks as well as Movie/Director profiles. Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts on their decision to nominate 10 films for best Motion Picture this year, instead of the usual 5.

A Movie for all Ages, and Sizes for that Matter

One of Menemsha's latest releases, A Matter of Size, has been playing to packed crowds, standing ovations and rave reviews all over the country. An Israeli film about four oversized Jewish men who turn to sumo wrestling to solve all their problems, is definitely a crowd-pleaser that should surprise many come awards season.

But don't take it from me, heres an unbiased review from Jay Solomon at the More of Me to Love blog.

Sundance Recap

Sundance 2010 ended yesterday, leaving you with a solid list of winners (brought to you by News in Film.)
As always their were some that were surprising and some predicted, but overall I think they did a good job of sticking to their word of trying to "get back to their indie roots."