What it’s about
In 2009, writer Glenn Kurtz was rummaging through his parents’ Florida attic and found an old, degraded three-minute home movie. He eventually learns his grandfather David shot the film back in 1938, showing inhabitants of a small Jewish town in Poland, most of whom would soon perish in the Holocaust. He then researches the setting and the faces to piece together more details about this haunting moment in time.
Why we love it
Stigter’s searing doc “Three Minutes” is based on Kurtz’s own book detailing all the digging he did on this precious artifact, whose unexpected discovery feels almost mystical in itself. The fruits of his research inspires the elegiac narrative, which turns shreds of fact into heartbreaking poetry. This bold yet delicate exercise confronts us with the unspeakable evil of the Holocaust all over again, and in a whole new way. This brief film (just 69 minutes) will stay with you, reminding you never to forget.