Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust Backdrop Blur
Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust Poster

Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust

Daniel Anker’s 90-minute documentary takes on over 60 years of a very complex subject: Hollywood’s complicated, often contradictory relationship with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The questions it raises go right the very nature of how film functions in our culture, and while hardly exhaustive, Anker’s film makes for a good, thought provoking starting point.

Top Cast

  • Gene Hackman

    Gene Hackman

    Narrator

  • Norma Barzman

    Norma Barzman

    Self

  • Michael Berenbaum

    Michael Berenbaum

    Self

  • Robert Clary

    Robert Clary

    Self

  • Dan Curtis

    Dan Curtis

    Self

  • Ralph Edwards

    Ralph Edwards

    Self

  • Ralph Fiennes

    Ralph Fiennes

    Self

  • Stanley Frazen

    Stanley Frazen

    Self

  • Ben Kingsley

    Ben Kingsley

    Self

Overview

Daniel Anker’s 90-minute documentary takes on over 60 years of a very complex subject: Hollywood’s complicated, often contradictory relationship with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The questions it raises go right the very nature of how film functions in our culture, and while hardly exhaustive, Anker’s film makes for a good, thought provoking starting point.

Rating

6.6 / 10
14 Reviews
1 Popular

Trailers & Clips

Recommendations

Visions of Light

Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.

Visions of Light

7.0 1992