Saratoga Jewish Cultural Festival presents a panel discussion of the film Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust, a 2004 documentary directed by Daniel Anker and narrated by Gene Hackman. The film examines the treatment of the Holocaust in Hollywood films over a period of 60 years and the impact of the films on public perception and thinking and vice versa.
The panel discussion on Zoom is sponsored by Temple Sinai of Saratoga Springs and supported by a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York and will be held on August 9 at 7 pm. Watch the film on YouTube before the panel discussion.
Register here or by using the form below.
The Documentary
The film was originally produced for the cable network American Movie Classics. Director Daniel Anker’s father was a refugee from Germany, and many of his relatives, including his great-grandfather, uncle, and cousin were murdered in the Holocaust. However, he had not considered making a film on the subject until AMC approached him with the idea.
Imaginary Witness includes scenes from more than 40 films and newsreels, as well as interviews with leading scholars, filmmakers, and Holocaust witnesses. It shows how films portrayed Holocaust events, reflected public sentiment, or helped to shape it. It explores the question of how an industry that sells fantasy has dealt with one of the most horrifying episodes in modern world history, but also how the movies themselves reflect America’s ever-evolving relationship to the events of that era.
At the core of the film is an ethical and moral debate about portrayal. Is it even possible to imagine on screen the unimaginable? Should the movie industry even undertake such endeavors? Ultimately, the film asks hard questions about the uneasy relationship between American popular culture and the Holocaust, about the responsibility of filmmakers for their portrayal of history, and about the power of film to affect the way we look at ourselves.
The American film industry took it upon itself to act as a cheerleader for U.S. and Allied military interests during World War II, but Hollywood was initially reluctant to directly condemn antisemitism. “The first, and for decades the only film to address antisemitism directly was Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator in 1940,” says Phyllis Wang, Coordinator of SJCF.
It wasn’t until years after the war ended that filmmakers began offering a realistic, dramatic look at the horrible toll of Hitler’s final solution. Imaginary Witness examines how filmmakers reacted to German scapegoating of Jews before, during, and after the war, ranging from the bold prior to the war, to the oblique during the war, and eventually to honest portrayals of the full consequences, beginning in the 1950s.
Where to See the Film
Imaginary Witness is available to stream on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/YL418VqGQ1Q?si=9H1U3FqwVPT51GIr
To see the trailer, click the link below:
Sponsor: Temple Sinai & Saratoga Jewish Cultural Festival