Monday, October 25, 2010

Yael Hersonski's A FILM UNFINISHED (2010)

My review of A Film Unfinished is up at In Review Online.

It's strange how a reiteration of things you already know can be so powerful. A Film Unfinished is just such a documentary. It doesn't reveal anything new or anything we didn't already know about the Nazis. However, this close inspection of a propaganda film shot in the Warsaw Ghetto in those tenuous months in mid-1942, sits in the chest like a rock. As quoted on the film's website by director Yael Hersonski: "A Film Unfinished first emerged out of my theoretical preoccupation with the notion of the 'archive', and the unique nature of the witnessing it bears." This documentary starts with theory and curiosity but is finished with a great deal of compassion. A fascinating and heartbreaking film.

I think this may have played in the Twin Cities while I was out of town. It will likely come out on DVD early next year.

3 comments:

Sandy Nawrot said...

Can you spare a sista a copy? Is that how you viewed this movie? Robert and I are dying to see it. Of course, it didn't show it's brilliant face around here.

Kathie Smith said...

Sorry San. It was a screener I had to return. It will be out in a couple months.

Sandy Nawrot said...

Well hell, tell them I'll screen and review it too! (Not that I could be half as eloquent, but you know...)