subscribe: Posts | Comments

FMFF announces ‘Lost Film of Nuremberg’ documentary as closing film

0 comments

On November 20, 1945, an international military tribunal was convened for the purpose of putting more than 20 high Nazi officials, including 4 members of the Armed Forces High Command, on trial for war crimes and crimes against peace and humanity. Today, it is known as “the Nuremberg trial” and it represented the first time in history that film and photographs were employed as evidence against defendants. At the same time, the lead prosecutor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, wanted a film made documenting the trial in order to show the German public that their leaders had been given a fair trial and had, essentially, convicted themselves. He also envisioned that the film would provide an enduring lesson for posterity. But the United States War Department suppressed the film’s U.S. release, presumably because it would undermine public support for rebuilding Germany and combatting Soviet expansionism. That film has now been restored and will be shown for the very first time in the United States on the closing day of this year’s Fort Myers Film Festival.

Sandra Schulberg & Josh Waletzky’s restoration of “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today,” written and directed by Stuart Schulberg in 1948, will be shown May 16 at 2:30 p.m. at the Fort Myers Film Festival with members of the Schulberg family in attendance. This exclusive “sneak preview” comes courtesy of Schulberg Productions, which holds the American rights.

Then at 4:00 p.m., the Fort Myers Film Festival will screen a documentary that delves into the mechanics of how the 1948 film was recovered, restored and resurrected. Titled The Lost Film of Nuremberg (2021). the documentary is the brain child of Director Jean-Christophe Klotz.

A journalist and war correspondent by training, Klotz’s reporting took him to Rwanda to document the genocide and its aftermath in three films, Kigali, des images contre un massacre (2006), Lignes de front (2009) and Retour a Kigali (2019). Mogadishu in Agony is his portrait of the Somali capital ravaged by civil war and famine. He also makes films about American society and culture, notably The Routes of Terror about 9/11; The Race for Black Gold about the Sino-US oil rivalry; and John Ford, The Man Who Invented America. He is currently preparing a film for ARTE about Bret Easton Ellis.

A panel discussion and FMFF’s awards ceremony will follow the screening of The Lost Film of Nuremberg.

Both films can be viewed on Sunday, May 16 in the grand atrium of the historic Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, which is located at 2301 First Street in the downtown Fort Myers River District. For tickets and more info, please visit www.sbdac.com.

April 2, 2021.

Comments are closed.