Jeremy Isaacs: A World at War

My co-blogger Allan Berg has for weeks followed the re-run of the classic documentary series, A World at War – on Danish television. The series is available in great dvd-editions – buy it as I will do and throw away the vhs editon of a series that also includes the most wonderful commentary text read by Sir Laurence Olivier.

DVD, UK-version http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/worldatwar/about_the_series.html

The “Genocide” chapter is written about by Jeremy Isaacs in this way:

“Hitler´s genocide against the Jews and gypsies, and the mass murder of others, is not a military subject. But I could not leave it out; not just because I’m Jewish, though that counted, but because I could not separate the evil of Nazi racial doctrine – Aryan supremacy, Untermensch subjection – from the Allied cause. Most people in Britain did not realise what Nazi racism in practice meant until the gates of concentration camps at Belsen and Buchenwald were opened by British troops in 1945. Auschwitz, Solibor, Treblinka – death camps – were worse. I wanted a programme that showed the camps in which millions perished, before the series came to the Reich’s nemesis in Berlin. Darlow and Bloomberg’s (afsnittets instruktør og dets forfatter) ‘Genocide’, clear, restrained, compassionate, tackled an almost impossible subject…”

Allan Berg refers to two other classics: Alain Resnais “Nuit et Brouillard” and Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah”. Also these two are available on dvd:

http://www.amazon.fr/Nuit-brouillard-Michel-Bouquet/dp/B00008IZCD

http://www.amazon.fr/Shoah-4-DVD-Claude-Lanzmann/dp/B00005JM8V/ref=pd_sbs_d_1/403-1042762-9344448

If you pass by France go to any Fnac shop to buy them as I have done.

Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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