Of course young people in America should be able to see this vital documentary

Mystery surrounding documentary film set inside Warsaw Ghetto

Almost seventy years ago a Nazi propaganda film was shot inside the Warsaw Ghetto. It depicted the lives of Jews, most of whom went on to perish in a German concentration camp. Much of the film has been shrouded in mystery. The Nazis never completed it and it is not clear why they made it.

One Israeli filmmaker was determined to explore the origins of the film and this week her documentary investigation is being released in American cinemas.

Restrictions have been placed on the film in the United States for disturbing images, including emaciated corpses, hindering it as a tool of education of the Nazi treatment of the Jews and how film can be used as propaganda. I hope this is reconsidered.

The original footage was unfinished, its purpose not completely understood. The Israeli documentary director has put together not only the film, as well as outtakes later discovered, but the testimony of Germans involved in filming and Warsaw Ghetto survivors' reactions to the film. It sounds like a very powerful combination. The Nazis apparently wanted to show the disparate worlds between the Jewish rich and poor of Warsaw, and to perhaps to record this for posterity of a people only known of in Europe in the past, should their annihilation programme succeed.

I saw this the other day at YKWIA's, but it's in my subscription list, too

It's quite excellent (well, it is the BBC, what do you expect?) Particularly riveting are the gazelle protecting her fawn and the wrath of the buffalo. The cinematography is just wonderful; it's well worth a look:

Using a bookmobile to capture the spirit of reading

Jessamyn West made a blog entry on the following subject, and I thought I'd spotlight it here as well:

Tom Corwin celebrates reading with bookmobile

[Musician, author and documentarian]Corwin bought this decommissioned bookmobile in October, for $7,500, from a library in a suburb of Chicago after Marin County author Peter Laufer told him over dinner that he'd seen it on Craigslist and wished he could buy it.

"By the end of dinner, I had come up with this whole concept of buying the bookmobile myself," Corwin recalls, "and having authors join me, taking turns behind the wheel, and driving across the country interviewing people about the books that have touched their lives and creating a documentary film and a Web-based literacy outreach component. Peter Coyote was my first call, and he said, 'I love it. I'm in.' "

The piece has Daniel Handler (author of the Lemony Snicket 'Series of Unfortunate Events' books) driving along with Corwin.

Corwin explains that his project is really "an opportunity for the authors and readers to connect on their common love of books."

He will also weave into the documentary the history of bookmobiles, which started in Maryland in the early 1900s and are still thriving all over the country. He stopped at the ALA Conference in Chicago before he rushed back to San Francisco for Litquake (festival co-director and author Jane Ganahl is a big supporter of Corwin's project), and interviewed the librarians who drove his bookmobile for 18 years. They described the magical relationship they had with their patrons as they exposed them to new things through literature

For more on the project and fundraising for it, check out the website. The project also has a presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks, Jessamyn, for the links.

As I was giving blood Friday

they had an episode of The View on, with Doris Haddock, 97 years old and the subject of a documentary airing this week on HBO called 'Run Granny Run'. She ran for Senate in her native New Hampshire at the age of 94. Known as 'Granny D', she's feisty and what we need in Washington. The View interview was wonderful, but here's the blurb for the documentary. I unfortunately don't have cable, so I can't watch it. She and I seem to have similar liberal Democratic politics, although I prefer Kucinich (her second choice) over Gravel in the 2008 Presidential election. PS I love her accent.



Okay, I'm really going to bed now. Good night.