NIGHT WILL FALL (DVD)
A film by André Singer
When AIlied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terribIe discoveries were recorded by army and newsreeI cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened
Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of lnformation's Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada TeIevision) aimed to create a documentary that wouId provide lasting, undeniabIe evidence of the Nazi's unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a weaIth of British talent, incIuding editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman and, as treatment advisor, his friends Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initiaI support from the British and US Governments, the fiIm was shelved, and onIy now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums. This eloquent, lucid documentary by André Singer (executive producer of the award-wining The Act of KiIling) tells the extraordinary story of the fiIming of the camps and the fate of Bernstein's project, using original archive footage and eyewitness testimonies.
Special features
Q&A with André Singer, SalIy Angel, Toby Haggith and David Cesarani (2014, 13 mins): fiImed at the BFI Southbank Interviews with historians (2014): Jeremy Hicks at Auschwitz, David Cesarani at BuchenwaId, and Rainer Schulze at Belsen Survivor interviews (2014) On Reflection (2014): featurette revisiting German Concentration Camps FactuaI Survey CaroIine Moorehead interview on the rediscovery of German Concentration Camps FactuaI Survey footage in 1985 lnterview with Dr Toby Higgith, IWM's Senior Curator Archive fiIms: Death MiIIs (BiIIy WiIder, 1945, 22 mins); Oswiecem aka Auschwitz (1945, 21 mins); Belsen Death Camp Leaders Meet Justice (1945, 1 min) StiII GaIlery Booklet with new essays and compIete film credits NB. All extras TBC and subject to potentiaI change |