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Documentary film about the camps in the south of France, in which Spanish civil war refugees and the volunteers of the "international brigades", non-sedentary people and Alsatian and foreign Jews were interned from 1939 onwards. Under the Vichy regime, the camps were used to intern other criminalized population groups and French Jews, who were also deported from there to extermination camps. In a mosaic of artificially framed shots, formerly interned contemporary witnesses describe their own life stories. Director Mangiante not only sheds light on the history of the camps, but also the mechanisms of personal memory.
Director
Status
Released
Original Language
FR
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".
This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.
