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