Film and Genocide
Kristi M. Wilson, Tomás F. Crowder-Taraborrelli
University of Wisconsin Press
<P><I>Film and Genocide</I> brings together scholars of film and of  genocide to discuss film representations, both fictional and  documentary, of the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and genocides  in Chile, Australia, Rwanda, and the United States. Since 1955, when  Alain Resnais created his experimental documentary <I>Night and Fog</I>  about the Nazis’ mass killings of Jews and other ostracized groups,  filmmakers have struggled with using this medium to tell such difficult  stories, to re-create the sociopolitical contexts of genocide, and to  urge awareness and action among viewers. This volume looks at such  issues as realism versus fiction, the challenge of depicting atrocities  in a manner palatable to spectators and film distributors, the Holocaust  film as a model for films about other genocides, and the role of new  technologies in disseminating films about genocide.<BR>    <I>Film and Genocide</I> also includes interviews with three film  directors, who discuss their experiences in working with deeply  disturbing images and bringing hidden stories to life: Irek Dobrowolski,  director of <I>The Portraitist</I> (2005) a documentary about Wilhelm  Brasse, an Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoner ordered to take more than 40,000  photos at the camp; Nick Hughes, director of <I>100 Days</I> (2005) a  dramatic film about the Rwandan mass killings; and Greg Barker,  director of <I>Ghosts of Rwanda</I> (2004), a television documentary  for <I>Frontline</I>.</P>