Three Minutes – A Lengthening
Three Minutes - A Lengthening examines an amateur film from a Jewish town in Poland in 1938 and postpones its end. A film essay about history and memory.
As long as we are watching, history is not over yet. The three minutes of footage, mostly in colour, are the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust. From these three minutes, the stories hidden in the celluloid are unravelled. The footage is edited full of imagination to create a film that lasts more than an hour. Different voices enhance the images. Glenn Kurtz, grandson of the amateur filmmaker who shot this footage, shares his knowledge of the recordings. Maurice Chandler, who appears in the film as a boy, recalls his memories. Actress Helena Bonham Carter narrates the essay film. The film was co-produced by Steve McQueen (12 YEARS A SLAVE, SHAME).