Third Reich: The Rise & Fall

If you ever thought you had absorbed all there was to learn and see about Germany during Hitler's rule, think again. This ain't no Ken Burns documentary.  If you love film, photography, and history, you must watch Third Reich: The Rise & Fall.

 A 2010 two part miniseries directed by Nicole Rittenmeyer and Seth Skundrick, Third Reich uses propaganda films, historical documentation, and most importantly, home movies and smuggled footage that has never been viewed in America, or that is still banned in Germany. Rittenmeyer and Skundrick also directed my favorite 911 documentary, 102 Minutes That Changed America, a documentary entirely using the personal footage and rare news footage of the Twin Tower attacks, composed in real time, starting moments before the first plane hit, and ending as the last tower fell. Much in the style of revered nuclear bomb documentary, Atomic Cafe, there is no narrative, except the voices behind the cameras. If you are a fan of either Atomic Cafe or 102 Minutes, Third Reich has a similar use of found film, though unlike the other two, there is a narrator and voice-overs of diary entries and letters.

It is also exciting to see so much color footage in this WWII documentary. Color film did exist in the 1930s, though expensive and rare, seeing the people and destruction in living color brings it to a reality that I have yet to become jaded over. Black and white causes a separation; today it is a stylistic choice and an understood limitation of the past, so there is an undertone of stoicism in every image. Color images taken during time periods we most associate with black and white are the most compelling and relatable.

The home movie footage adds a soul to the German people, that is not often seen in WWII documentaries. It is easy to get used to documentaries that rely on interviews and re-use footage and images whenever possible. Third Reich breaks all the expectations. Aside from the expected images of death, scenes like the home movie footage of a soldier's autobiographical puppet show/pyro fantasy are particularly disturbing. Ranging from endearing family moments to shockingly grizzly scenes of death, Third Reich is so intimate and candid, you are constantly left amazed at what you behold. 

Prisoner of Paradise: The Making of a False Film

We have all seen our fair share of Holocaust films and documentaries.  Though many of the stories are comparable, the atrocities committed are never easy to swallow. When I saw the description of Prisoner of Paradise, it was apparent to me that I had never heard of anything like this. For starters, the title of the film, Prisoner of Paradise, is and unexpected title for a Holocaust documentary. Even facetiously, how could any part of this period be considered a paradise?
 The documentary follows Kurt Gerron, a Jewish German actor/entertainer from the 1920s and 30s, director in the 1940s. Gerron was captured like so many other Jewish talents, however, he was given a strange assignment while in captivity at the concentration camp, Theresienstadt.

Theresienstadt was the camp in which many Jewish actors, musicians, writers, and intellectuals were taken during the Holocaust. It was advertised as a more comfortable concentration camp for the privileged few. Not surprisingly, this was a lie. While the facilities were grand in appearance, they were altered for the Jewish guests. For extra money, a room with a view could be reserved for a prisoner, but they never taken to these better rooms. There was an auditorium that was available for the actors to put on performances, but the space could be used as a crypt at anytime. 
It was Gerron's job to use his skills as a director to make a propaganda film that would try and prove to the Danish Red Cross and the outside world that the Nazi camps could be cultural centers, and a happy place where Jews could live separately from everyone else.
You discover what Gerron's existence was before the Nazi take over, and how he desperately tried to hold onto his freedom, and then his life. His story is moving and unique. You see a man with a literal and metaphorical gun to his head, extracting every ounce hope to put on celluloid. Hope from men, women and children that are surrounded with death. Simply put, Prisoner of Paradise is the best Holocaust documentary I have ever seen.