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"The art of the stage actor and even of a stage director is evanescent. Nothing remains of it but a 'still' photograph or two (...) Not everyone can be a genius. Somebody has to be a Leon Askin - and that's me." Leon Askin, born in Vienna in 1907 , fled from the Nazis to the USA in 1940. The private Leon Askin is portrayed: his daily routine, his contact with those around him, at work. During quiet moments, he discusses his thoughts about persecution, emigration, work, discipline, success, the image one projects to the world, his identity as a Jew, loneliness, the struggle for recognition and health, life acting - and also about death.
Director
Writer
Status
Released
Original Language
DE

When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".

A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.