Three minutes isn’t a lot of time. It’s only 180 seconds. There are movie trailers that are longer. But in the case of the small amount of footage examined in the new documentary, “Three Minutes – A Lengthening,” three minutes can encompass so much more than you can possibly imagine.
READ MORE: Giving Life to a Lost Community in ‘Three Minutes – A Lengthening’ [Venice Review]
As seen in the trailer for “Three Minutes – A Lengthening,” the documentary from filmmaker Bianca Stigter takes a look at the only proof that the Jewish people in the village of Nasielsk, Poland actually existed. You see, back in 1938, David Kurtz shot three minutes of footage of the inhabitants of Nasielsk, and that small bit of footage is the only remaining moving images of the Jewish people who lived there before the Holocaust. Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and produced by Steve McQueen, ‘Three Minutes’ shows just how important even the smallest amount of celluloid can be when taking a look at history.
In our review of the film, we said, “Many ephemeral films of the sort Kurtz made in 1938 have been discarded or allowed to decay, but Stigter shows that in the right hands, with the right pair of eyes, three minutes can contain an entire world.”
“Three Minutes – A Lengthening” is set to debut in theaters in Spring 2022. You can watch the trailer below.
Here’s the synopsis:
So long as we are watching history, history is not over. Three minutes of footage, shot by David Kurtz in 1938, are the only moving images remaining of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk, Poland before the Holocaust. THREE MINUTES: A LENGTHENING explores the human stories hidden within the celluloid.