A Film Unfinished
An examination of outtakes from an infamous Nazi propaganda film exposes how the Reich manufactured scenes of life inside the Warsaw Ghetto before the brutal deportations and ultimate liquidation of the largest ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Awards & Recognition
Winner
2010 Sundance Film Festival - World Cinema Documentary Editing Award
Nominee
2011 News and Documentary Emmy Awards - Outstanding Historical Programming – Long Form
At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply "Ghetto," this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of this long-missing reel complicates earlier readings of the footage. A Film Unfinished presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (including a staged dinner party) falsely showing "the good life" enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, and probes deep into the making of a now-infamous Nazi propaganda film.