Blast furnaces, winding towers, processing plants – now largely destroyed evidence of industrial development – live on in the photographs of Bernd and Hilla Becher. In the documentary film 'The Photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher', the now deceased artist couple talk about their life, work and influence, which was devoted to photographing industrial buildings for four decades. The portrait of the renowned photographers is complemented by contemporary witnesses such as their son Max Becher and former students of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, including Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff and others.
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 visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
