ARTS&LIFE
FILM FESTIVAL
W
riter-director Bianca Stigter’s
upcoming appearance at
Detroit’s Jewish Film Festival
serves as a reunion in some ways. Besides
participating in a formal discussion of her
documentary, Three Minutes
— A Lengthening, she will
be meeting with the Metro
Detroit family so important to
her research.
Stigter felt welcomed years
ago by relatives of Maurice
Chandler, 97, identified as a
youngster among the people in
a web posting of a traveler’s private souve-
nir movie made in Nasielsk, Poland, a year
before the Nazis invaded and decimated the
Jewish population in that town.
After seeing the three-minute web post
and thinking about the time before the
Holocaust, Stigter decided to seek out more
information about the townspeople shown
so she could elaborate on their personal
stories before the Holocaust by using the
impact of professional cinema.
“It was wonderful connecting with
the Chandler family,
” said Stigter, whose
interviews with Chandler helped identify
some of those who surrounded him and
formed the basis for additional research.
“They couldn’t have been more hospitable
and kind to me, and I couldn’t be more
impressed with them. They gave me their
time freely.
”
The film and Stigter’s experiences in
making it will be spotlighted at 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 1, at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.
Also participating will be Glenn Kurtz,
who found his grandfather’s 16 mm film
in the Florida home of his parents, did his
own research with the Chandler family as
well as through many archival explorations
and wrote about those recognized in Three
Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World
in a 1938 Family Film (Farrar, Straus and
Giroux). WXYZ newsman Simon Shaykhet
will be the moderator.
“It’s so meaningful to me that the film
will be shown at this festival and that the
Chandler family will be present to expe-
rience the way this story connects with
people,
” said Kurtz, who points to positive
audience reactions during earlier showings
that included presentations at the Sundance
Film Festival and Toronto International
Film Festival.
“Mr. Chandler’s astonishing memory has
been critically important to preserving the
Three Minutes —
A Lengthening
shows a snapshot of
life before the
Holocaust in Poland.
What Was Lost
Bianca
Stigter
SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
54 | APRIL 21 • 2022
A still shot from the film
continued on page 56