A snippet of 16mm film offers an emotionally charged, meditative glimpse into the lives of the unsuspecting Jewish citizens of a small Polish village at the precipice of World War II.
In 1938, the smiling faces of men, women, and children were briefly captured on film by a visiting American, David Kurtz. Many years later, these three minutes of footage were found sitting in his Palm Beach apartment by David’s grandson, author Glenn Kurtz. The home video taken one year before WWII began showed predominantly Jewish people smiling and waving at the camera. Glenn became obsessed with identifying these subjects, wondering if anyone had survived the war.
What is astonishing is how much there is to be uncovered within the brief running time of grainy footage. Glenn started by examining a synagogue featured in the background and identified the town as Nasielsk, Poland, a small village north of Warsaw. In between discoveries, the incredible actor Helena Bonham Carter narrates historical aspects with an appropriately hushed voice.
Luckily, Glenn restored the footage, saving it from complete decay. He began peering through each frame with a microscope. This was an attempt to identify shopkeepers by their storefront sign, the fabric of clothes worn by subjects determined to have come from Eastern Prussia, and other ingenious visual sleuthing methods. Eventually, more people were asked to view the footage, including survivors. The real showstopper is when every person shown onscreen is methodically cropped into their own portrait. A true testament to each victim or survivor.
Some moviegoers ask, do we benefit from another WWII film? Have we not covered the Holocaust in all its dreadful details thoroughly by now? While technically, there is a film or documentary every year covering some part of WWII or the war crimes carried out, there were millions of victims. And ultimately, these millions of victims deserve to have their stories shared.
Conceptually, “Three Minutes: A Lengthening” is one of the most compelling documentaries this year. Kurtz’s devotion to digging through each frame, survivors’ recounting the events, and the footage becoming restored is emotionally staggering. But Writer/Director Bianca Stitger is uncertain where to end it when she should have concluded the documentary on the aforementioned scene of portraits. Regardless, this documentary will remain significant for its achievement in storytelling and uniquely analyzing the past through film.
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