Salem Film Fest screens ‘The Accountant of Auschwitz’

This article originally appeared in the Jewish Journal and is reprinted with permission.

by Shelley Sackett – March 22, 2019

In 2015, a frail 93-year-old former Nazi officer made international headlines when he went on trial in Germany, charged with complicity in the murder of 300,000 Jews at Auschwitz.

Nicknamed “The Accountant of Auschwitz,” Oskar Gröning was hardly the architect of the Holocaust. He was a 21-year-old soldier, following orders to collect and account for the items taken from Jewish prisoners as they were herded off trains and ultimately sent to their deaths.

Nonetheless, he was there, witnessing and abetting a system where 1.1 million people died at the notorious Nazi camp.

On the stand over 70 years later, with some who had survived Auschwitz in the courtroom as witnesses and testifiers, Gröning unemotionally described what he saw and what he did. He wanted to speak out as a witness because more than anything, he said, he wanted to debunk Holocaust deniers. On the other hand, as a participant, his hands were hardly clean. The issues raised were murky ethically and morally, asking questions with no clear answers.

Gröning was found guilty but died in March 2018, before he could begin the four-year prison sentence he was given.

If this sounds like it would make a great documentary film, director Matthew Shoychet and producer Ricki Gurwitz agreed. They teamed up to make the award-winning “The Accountant of Auschwitz,” which will screen at Peabody’s Black Box Theater (located inside the ArcWorks Community Art Center, 22 Foster St., Peabody) on Saturday, March 30, as part of the Salem Film Fest.

Shoychet, who grew up in a “pretty secular household” in Toronto, always was interested in Jewish subjects, but felt a special link through film. His grandfather showed him the 1959 film, “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which opened his 7-year-old eyes to the Holocaust.

Years later, “Schindler’s List” had a strong effect on him, Shoychet said. Although he is not a grandchild of survivors, many of his cousins and relatives were murdered. “I knew, as a Jew, I was connected,” he said.

Gurwitz attended Jewish day school in Toronto in a family she describes as a mix of conservative and reform. A “history nerd,” she was always interested in how her Jewish community has persevered through the centuries in the face of constant persecution.

Their paths crossed and they became friends in 2013 during an International March of the Living, the annual educational program that brings individuals from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance, and hatred.

Shoychet took the trip again in 2015, where he met and befriended Holocaust survivor Bill Glied, who had to leave early to testify at the trial of another former Nazi in Germany.

“I didn’t know Nazi trials were even possible anymore,” Shoychet said.

By coincidence, Gurwitz, who was working as a TV producer, called Shoychet two months later to tell him about a story she just covered: the German trial of the former “Accountant of Auschwitz.” The two combined forces, created a pitch, and started filming as soon as they could.

They faced many challenges. German law does not allow filming inside courtrooms, so animations and graphics fill in the blanks. But the biggest challenge to Shoychet was for people not to dismiss the film as “just another Holocaust film.” His unique storytelling resists a chronological approach, instead interweaving side stories that take history and relate it to Gröning’s trial.

“There is a feeling of a race against time. Soon, Nazi perpetrators and Holocaust survivors will be gone,” Shoychet said.

For Gurwitz, making the film was a “life-altering experience. Witnessing a former SS officer testify in court is something I will never forget,” she said. “I want to challenge preconceived beliefs about justice, punishment, and culpability. There are two sides here, and I could argue both of them. I want audiences to explore the complexities surrounding this trial and ask questions about how we punish war crimes, who is responsible, and what is the statute of limitations.”

Salem Film Fest 2019 runs from Friday, March 29 to April 4.

Michael Sullivan Award for Documentary Journalism

Salem Film Fest is proud to present the sixth annual Michael Sullivan Award for Documentary Journalism. This annual award is named in honor of FRONTLINE’s long-time Executive Producer of Special projects who passed away in 2013.

A trophy and $1,000 prize will be awarded to the filmmaker whose documentary most closely reflects the values Mike believed in: good filmmaking and good journalism.

This Year's Nominees

ALWAYS IN SEASON directed by Jacqueline Olive

FALSE CONFESSIONS directed by Katrine Philp

FREE MEN directed by Anne-Frédérique Widmann

GRIT directed by Sasha Friedlander and Cynthia Wade

THE MONEY STONE directed by Stuart Harmon

WHY CAN'T I BE ME? AROUND YOU directed by Harrod Blank

Previous Winners

2018 THE BLOOD IS AT THE DOORSTEP directed by  Erik Ljung
2017 AFTER SPRING directed by Ellen Martinez, Steph Ching
2016 INDIAN POINT directed by Ivy Meeropol
2015 DAVIDS AND GOLIATH directed by Leon Lee
2014 THE EXHIBITION directed by Damon Vignale

We want to thank all who have contributed to the Michael Sullivan Award. For more information, please contact Joe Cultrera at joe@salemfilmfest.com.

FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Sarah Kerruish and Matt Maude, Directors of GENERAL MAGIC

GENERAL MAGIC
Massachusetts Premiere
National Park Service’s Salem Visitor Center
Sunday, March 31 - 12:15 p.m.

The hopes and dreams of a secretive failed startup in Silicon Valley ends up serving as the foundation for the smartphones that dominate our daily lives today in GENERAL MAGIC, directed by Sarah Kerruish and Matt Maude. Salem Film Fest program director Jeff Schmidt caught up with Kerruish and Maude ahead of the film’s Massachusetts Premiere at the National Park Service’s Salem Visitor Center on Sunday, March 31 at 12:15 p.m.

Jeff Schmidt: You both have really interesting backgrounds. Can you talk about your past projects and how you ended up as collaborators on GENERAL MAGIC?

Sarah Kerruish:In 2015, [executive producer] Mike Stern and I started to put out feelers to find a team of people who could devote their full, uninterrupted time to the project. One of the film’s co-producers, Ceri Tallett, suggested that I should meet Matt. I had no idea what kind of person would be walking through the door during our first meeting. I hadn’t made a film in over a decade. The film industry has changed hugely in that time, especially documentaries. We met at the Tate Modern in London and we hit into this immediate working chemistry. It’s that amazing—and it happens very rarely in my life—where it was just instantaneous. Trust established very quickly. We didn’t miss a beat. Matt is an extraordinary co-collaborator. We feel extremely lucky that it happened like that.

Matt Maude: We were, huh? The timing for me was amazing. I’d been making a lot of commercials for a couple of years and I felt like I was living in a constant whirlwind of nervous exhaustion. Nervous when you’re working: big budgets, big egos, short turnarounds. And nervous when you’re not–pitching yourself like crazy. I took a month off and went to New York to escape the phone ringing. At the time I felt like I could blink and it’d be 2025 and I’d have nothing but a series of 30-second clips to show for it. While I was in NYC I had one of those life changing meetings that seem to happen in New York, meeting a wonder of a woman called Ceri Talent who told me she just started work on a feature doc and after I’d asked an avalanche of questions about it, she suggested I meet with Sarah. We got into the same slipstream very quickly. When you’re directing something together you have to not only speak the same language but also know how the other person is going to say it. You have to be able to finish each other's...

SK:Texts?

MM:Yeah…

SK:Aside from the film, I have two other full-time jobs. During the day I’m the CSO of a med-tech startup. I’m also a mother to three teenagers. It’s a lot of juggling!

MM:I never feel busy when I’m sat next to Sarah. And I’m usually exhausted. I have no idea how you do it.

JS: Sarah, this film started many years ago for you. Can you talk about your involvement with the startup group General Magic and how that so many years later this film project came to be?

SK:Back in 1992 I travelled to Silicon Valley to film footage for a secretive startup called… General Magic!

I had no idea at the time what Silicon Valley was like. Why people dressed in T-shirts and board shorts. What drove people to work so late into the night. For colleagues to hang out all the time, whether at work or at home. I was blown away by every single person I met. How passionate, creative, and brilliant they were. For the next few years I returned back to the company again and again to film different sequences. The engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs who worked there, known as Magicians, became my friends, my family. I met my husband working there!

When General Magic went bankrupt I stayed in the Valley. Got involved in the tech industry. But it wasn’t until I went through my own catastrophic failure in business did I begin to think about the role of failure in future success. I wanted to specifically understand its role in bringing big ideas to life. I knew this experience wasn’t unique to me and in many ways is a central part of creation. I also wanted people to understand the different contexts for failure.

MM: It feels like you’ve been making this film for the last 23 years. It’s just the first 20 years you didn’t know you were.

SK:It certainly played around a lot in my head...Matt pushed the idea that there are a lot of problems to solve in the world and this is not just about the creation of one thing, but many things that affect our lives. It’s sort of a blueprint for how you affect change and bring ideas to life. Basically, how do we use this knowledge of technology and creativity to solve big, meaningful problems? We wanted to give this toolkit to the next generation and say look, this is what we’ve learned. Please take this and go. Go and make.

JS: In a film that centers on technology, it would perhaps be expected for so much documentation to be available detailing the company and its inner workings, and yet the level of intimacy captured in all of the archival footage is a bit surprising as it's not staged corporate video. Can you talk about your approach in constructing a narrative around this historical snap shot in time?

MM:One of the great things about working with Sarah and all the experience she brings is that as soon as we started development she suggested that we script the documentary as if it’s a fiction film. It quickly became clear that the film was a three-act film. We built the documentary around that narrative spine.

SK:Right at the beginning we were told by everyone around us that we needed a narrator to guide the viewer and hold their hand through explanation or exposition. We felt that as soon as you put a voiceover in there, you’re dictating an opinion to the audience. Although some films do need it, the fear is that you rely on this ‘voice’ too much and it can be to the detriment of the characters. We didn’t want our audience to be spoon fed. We want them to be making their own judgements about the characters and the decisions they are making. It makes it much more challenging making the film, particularly in the editing. The structure has to be more thought out.

MM: We couldn’t have made the film without the archival footage and I think that’s what audiences have really responded to at other festivals. The footage allows audiences to really live at the company back in the 1990s, to really spend time living with the characters. Discovering as they do. There’s a wonder in that creation time. It’s infectious. It makes each of the characters relatable. They are brilliant, but ordinary people doing something extra to create extraordinary things, the products we all use today to live our lives.

JS: As a film that looks back at a moment in time you obviously spend a lot of time researching facts and determining who you should interview, etc. Was there anything that surprised you as you looked into the story of General Magic?

MM:Finding the archival footage was surprising! I describe it like a detective trying to solve a crime that never happened. This film could never have been made in the UK (where both Sarah and I are from). In the UK we’ve all got such long and boring, bloody, histories that no one really hangs on to belongings. In the US, with your relatively short history… you all hoard stuff in garages (am I pronouncing that right?) and huge storage containers. It means nothing gets chucked away. You need that when you’re making an archival documentary! We asked the people who worked at General Magic for all the photographs they had from the time. Once we received them we’d pour over them with a magnifying glass, looking for the faces and names of people in each of the photographs. Occasionally you’d see a stills camera in shot. Someone holding a Polaroid or 35mm. We’d get in contact with that person and ask for their photos. Then, magically one day, a photograph arrived with someone in the background holding a video camera. We found out who that person was and one sunny Monday morning, travelled to Hawaii to search in someone’s garage. We found 300 hours of VHS footage perfectly preserved in storage. In amongst that treasure troves was one tape that changed the film. An incredible 45 minutes of gold.

SK:That tape…

MM:Yeah...(pause)

SK: I still dream that we’ll find another tape out there.

MM:That’s not my dream, Sar… that’s a nightmare. We’ve finished the film!

SK: Have we?

MM:…Yes.

JS: What motivates you as filmmakers?

SK: Truth.

MM: I’m not sure it motivates me but can I talk about what inspires me as a filmmaker? It’s the best job on earth. I get to get up every day doing something I love. I get to meet people who I thought I’d never meet, go to places that I thought I’d never go to. It's a hobby we get paid to do. Every part of the filmmaking process is so addictive. You're by yourself in the editing room. Part of a massive team in the shooting. A witness with a record button. It’s stressful at times but even when it is the stress is enjoyable. Being part of filmmaking team is like surviving the Zombie apocalypse whilst building a Spaceship to go to the Moon. With gaffe tape. The skill base is so diverse. The ideas so crazy. Somehow you survive. You get to collaborate with people so capable and so emotionally intuitive. When you’re around people with that amount of empathy, confidence and intuition, it just rubs off on you. Or I hope it does.... That’s what motivates me.

SK: What he said. But truth mostly.

JS: What do you hope people will take away from GENERAL MAGIC?

SK: I hope it inspires people to pursue their passions. To look again at the failures in their lives and question whether they were actually really failures.

MM: I hope we challenge apathy. I hope that the film inspires people to pursue their own dreams. Or to re-think them after it may have previously failed. So much of success is based on timing. Was the market ready for it? Were you? Could it work now with the lessons you’ve learnt? We’re all capable of creating massive change. God knows the world needs it. It’s up to us all. We hope you enjoy the film!

FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: Trisha Ziff, Director of WITKIN & WITKIN

Two aging identical twins artists who share a passion for art, but don’t have much else in common is the focus of director Trisha Ziff’s feature documentary WITKIN & WITKIN. Salem Film Fest program director Jeff Schmidt caught up with Ziff ahead of her film’s New England Premiere at CinemaSalem on Saturday, March 30 at 4:30 p.m.

Jeff Schmidt: SFF audiences were first introduced to you when we screened THE MAN WHO SAW TOO MUCH at SFF 2017.  Can you tell us a little bit about your background and your approach to filmmaking?

Trisha Ziff: I come from a background in photography as a community activist and photo curator. THE MAN WHO SAW TOO MUCH was the third film in a series of 4 films I have made tangentially related to photography. WITKIN & WITKIN is the most recent and the final film in the series for now.

JS: How did you first become acquainted with the Witkin brothers and when did you decide to make a film about them?

TZ: I knew Joel-Peter Witkin's work for a very long time, was fascinated by his work, and met him while crossing America in Albuquerque over 20 years ago, but had no idea he had a brother who was a painter. Totally independently I went to an exhibition of Jerome Witkin's work in Los Angeles, and fell in love with a painting which I saved up and bought and both a photograph and painting hung on my walls for years without my knowing they were identical twins. When I discovered this, I thought it would be so interesting to make a film with them both. I visited Jerome in Syracuse while screening THE MEXICAN SUITCASE, and asked if he would be interested and then I flew to Albuquerque and asked Joel and he agreed too. First came the exhibition in Mexico City, an amazing show of both their work; then a book; and then both the book and the exhibition became an integral part of the film.

JS: While the film showcases Jerome's paintings and Joel-Peter's photography and gives viewers a sense of each brother's aesthetic and artistic process, it's also a peek at family dynamics and sibling rivalry. How early on in the filmmaking process did you recognize the film would me more than just an exploration of their art?

TZ: For me it was always more than art. I am not so interested in making art movies. I think art is an expression of life and so, for me, I was far more fascinated by their lives. That is not to diminish their art. I have huge respect for them as artists, of course. That is why I made the film, but their histories, their sister, the women in their lives, seeing them in the autumn of their lives, that for me was what I found the most interesting! And of course how they work and how they related to each other.

JS: What do Jerome and Joel-Peter think about the film?

TZ: I think they both used the word “fair.” They have been amazingly supportive despite the fact the film has some hard truths they say about each other. For me it was important to give them the space to be open and honest but also not get involved, just witness. Watching them see the film for the first time at the Los Cabos Film Festival was for me a bit scary, but they were great!

JS: What motivates you as a filmmaker?

TZ: Good stories, life, discovering stories within stories. WITKIN & WITKIN is about relationships, not art. It’s a film about growing older and reflections on life. It’s not an art film! I think for me to make any film, I fall in love with my characters and they become a part of who I am. Or there is a tension which is another kind of love, but that generosity of my characters, their trust, is I think an extraordinary experience.

JS: What do you hope people will take away from WITKIN & WITKIN?

TZ: A sense of kindness, perhaps, of being understanding of those we are close to? It’s not only identical twins who have tension between them… I think most siblings do… perhaps a moment to reflect on those relationships.

FOCUS ON: DAWNLAND

By Shelley Sackett

DAWNLAND tells the story of the state of Maine's effort to come to terms with a shockingly shameful part of its history, when state welfare workers removed Indian children from their families and placed them in foster care. The film follows the work of the state's Truth And Reconciliation Commission, set up in 2012, which gathered stories from the state's indigenous people.  It premiered at The Cleveland International Film Festival and recently won the 2018 Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Woods Hole Film Festival.

Salem Film Fest Selection Committee member Shelley Sackett had a chance to talk with co-director and cinematographer Ben Pender-Cudlip, ahead of DAWNLAND’S North Shore premiere, which will take place at The Peabody Essex Museum on Friday, September 21 at 7:00pm.

SS: How did you first get involved in filmmaking?

BP-C: In 2009 I was working in computer consulting. My company was a sponsor of a local film festival (IFFBoston), so I used our complimentary passes and saw a ton of nonfiction films. After going to a bunch of Q&As and talking to directors, I decided: I could do this! So I went to work on Monday, gave my two weeks’ notice, and started figuring out how to make films. DAWNLAND is my first documentary feature, and I’m thrilled that it has the chance to have a really robust social impact.

SS: How did you get involved with this project?

BP-C: Co-director Adam Mazo and I had collaborated on other issue-oriented documentary projects. Our friend and colleague Dr. Mishy Lesser—the exceptional learning director for the Upstander Project—heard about the TRC in its formative stages via WBUR. Adam reached out to the TRC and REACH and after 8 months of conversation we were invited to make a film about the process. I joined as co-director and cinematographer, and we ended up spending two years traveling back and forth from our homes in Boston to Maine filming the TRCs work, and gathering the material to tell the story of Indigenous child removal in the United States.

SS: What compelled you to tell this story? What about it ignited a fire in your belly?

BP-C: I didn’t know that Native children were being stolen from their homes by state agents, and I wasn’t aware of this country’s long history of separating Native families. I was shocked and wanted to learn more. I’m a non-Native person, and I feel an obligation to try to end institutional racism in the United States. DAWNLAND allows us to tell a story about a present-day investigation that sheds new light on past wrongs, exposes current injustice and contributes to healing and change.

SS: What do you hope audiences take away from this film?

BP-C: I hope audiences understand that this isn’t just a story about the past. The child welfare crisis in Indian Country is ongoing, especially in places like Minnesota where Native children are 20 times more likely than white children to be in foster care. Genocidal policies have a ripple effect from generation to generation, and whole communities are being damaged. And the same basic impulse is playing out at the southern border under the moniker of “family separation,” predicated on the same belief that families of color are worth less than white families.

SS: What have been some of the audience responses at screenings? Given its special place in the narrative, was the Maine screening different?

BP-C: Before releasing DAWNLAND widely, we held a series of screenings in Wabanaki communities. It was a very emotional experience to watch the film with the same people who had stared down the pain and come forward to share their stories of survival and resilience with the commission. In one community, people sang along to songs in the soundtrack. In another, we had a circle discussion afterwards and somebody chose that moment to share their story for first time. It’s our highest dream that this film will help Wabanaki people heal.

SS: Anything else you'd like to share?

BP-C: We hope DAWNLAND viewers will come to understand that Wabanaki and Native people are still here. We hope teachers will use the film and companion teacher’s guide with students nationwide, and especially in New England where this story is especially relevant. In particular, for teachers on the north shore and greater Boston, we’d love to invite them to participate in the Upstander Academy in Boston in summer 2019 to learn about genocide and human rights with the DAWNLAND team and film participants.

DAWNLAND will screen at the Peabody Essex Museum on Friday, September 21, 2018 at 7pm