The Archives tells the story of Holocaust archivists, quiet warriors who preserve and uncover the truth of history. Their domains are the archives, hallowed places of stored history that are the searching grounds for the victims’ descendants, family archivists excavating the trauma of the past to build a better future.
SYNOPSIS
With the truth under constant threat of erasure in today’s post-truth era, The Archives shines a light on Holocaust memory through the site of the archives. The film accompanies family archivists and institutional archivists on their journeys as they collect, organize, exhibit, and donate the historical archives that prove the gruesome facts of the Holocaust in writing and through artefacts. From cemeteries in Eastern Europe to State Archives in Austria and Brazil, from YIVO to Yad Vashem, from never-opened letters sent from concentration camps to Nazi Aryanization files, these archives will be the only witnesses of the Holocaust once the last direct eyewitness is gone. The film takes us on an emotional and international journey of encounters between family archivists and institutional archivists around the world. Together these archivists are looking for the missing links in interrupted family stories, while bringing erased and hidden pre-Holocaust histories back to life. The Archives shows not only that the documents preserving the history of the Holocaust are alive, but also how crucial it is that they be maintained and safeguarded for eternity.
Director Statement
I made The Archives because I have a deep-seated family history of witnessing the Holocaust happen. The only existing archival record of my Austrian Jewish great-grandmother’s execution is a half sentence on a page in an obscure genealogy that she shares with another victim. With The Archives I want to honor the importance and indisputable facts of history and archives that preserve the truth. I want the viewer to realize that these archives, whether collected by family archivists or dedicated institutional archivists, will be our only link to the lives that are gone. I also hope to inspire future generations to search through boxes in dusty attics just in case the secret traces of a long-lost life lies hidden, waiting to be brought to light.
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director Bernadette Wegenstein
Bernadette Wegenstein is an Austrian-born linguist, author, and documentary filmmaker living in Baltimore. Her work brings together feminist thought and her interest in the construction of minoritarian identities. Bernadette has produced and directed several award-winning documentary features and shorts. Most recently Devoti tutti (2023), which premiered at Biografilm Bologna and won several film awards, including Best Documentary at this human world in Vienna, Austria, and the Audience Award at the Ortigia Film Festival. The Conductor (2021) premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, played at over 100 festivals, and won five Best Documentary awards, including the Focus on the Arts Award at Naples International Film Festival, as well as several Audience Awards. It aired on PBS “Great Performances” and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary in 2023. The documentary music short about human isolation during COVID pandemic, See Me: A Global Concert, won numerous Best Music Film and Best Editing awards, including the Firenze Corti Premio Rive Gauche. Her intimate breast cancer documentary, The Good Breast, premiered at the Geena Davis Gender Institute’s Bentonville Film Festival. In addition to The Archives documentary, she is currently working on developing her first narrative feature film, A Sweet Secret, based on the story of a forgotten Jewish comedy from 1927.
Producer Henrique Landulfo
Henrique Landulfo started his career in cinema production in Brazil in 2004. He is the Producer and Co-Director with Sandra Kogut of the documentary feature No Céu da Pátria Nesse Instante (2023) about the Brazilian political division during the 2022 elections, which premiered at the 56th Brasília Film Festival and won the Best Editing and Special Jury prizes. The film screened at IDFA (Netherlands), the Málaga Film Festival (Spain), DOK.fest München (Germany) and many others. Henrique participated as a field producer in the film Pelé (Netflix, Pitch International, UK, 2020), which retells the story of one of the greatest Brazilian idols of all time. He was a co-producer for The Conductor, by Bernadette Wegenstein, a documentary about the renowned conductor Marin Alsop, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for an Emmy for Best Documentary, as well as having participated in more than 100 film festivals.
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Women Make Movies (WMM), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit media arts organization registered with the New York Charities Bureau of New York State and accepts charitable donations on behalf of this project. Your donation will be spent by the filmmaker(s) toward the production and completion of this media project. No services or goods are provided by Women Make Movies, the filmmaker(s) or anyone else associated with this project in exchange for your charitable donation.
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