56 | APRIL 21 • 2022 

ARTS&LIFE
FILM FESTIVAL

continued from page 54

history of his childhood home 
and Nasielsk’s Jewish commu-
nity.
”
Kurtz’s work on the nonfic-
tion text ensued after Chandler’s 
granddaughter Marcy Rosen 
was directed to the three-min-
ute film through the web 
browsing of friend Jeffrey 
Widen. She recognized her 
grandfather because of resem-
blances to relatives and got 
in touch with Kurtz to thank 
him for making the film pub-
lic through the United States 
Holocaust Memorial Museum.
“Mine was the first in a series 
of amazing steps, and that was 
wonderful,
” Rosen said. “That’s 
why the film is so special. It 
takes this tiny piece and makes 
it a little bit bigger. You can see 
a little bit more into this world. 
“I think it’s so often when we 
are learning, studying or think-
ing about the Holocaust, we’re 
seeing it from a very particular 
angle. We look at everything 
that was lost, and the film does 
show us everything that was 

taken away. 
“We can also look at the 
things we still have with these 
little glimmers into Jewish life. 
We can try to understand the 
places that we came from and 
contributions of people who are 
nameless but helped preserve us 
— like the woman who helped 
save my grandfather.
” 
Stigter approaches the film 
from the viewpoints she holds 
as a longtime historian and cul-
tural critic in the Netherlands. 
“I always want to know what 
it was like before — what was 
there before,
” she said. “We 
know what happened after-
wards.
” 
In taking on this project, 
Stigter also was affected because 
the vacation film was in color. 

“We tend to see the world 
from before 1950 in black and 
white,
” she said. “Here, you 
suddenly see it in color, and 
that made it very vivid for me. 
I want viewers to understand 
that the film [vividly] shows a 
different world and a different 
time as proof of what really 
happened and then not to for-
get it.
” 
As both an historian and 
filmmaker traveling to festivals, 
Stigter expresses concerns about 
advancing technology distorting 
film content such that movie 
viewers can turn skeptical about 

what they see or react to the 
distortions that actually pro-
mote propaganda.
Chandler, who divides his 
time between Michigan and 
Florida, has been impressed 
with Stigter’s persistence and 
efforts in establishing the con-
tent for the film narrated by 
Helena Bonham Carter, but as 
one of the few Nasielsk surviv-
ers, he has a stronger overall 
message.
“We have to think about 
survival every day,” Chandler 
said. “We have to look out for 
the Jewish people.” 

tation of Three Minutes: A 
Lengthening, a documentary 
with Detroiter connec-
tions to Poland before the 
Holocaust. Famed filmmaker 

Bianca Stigter, based in the 
Netherlands, appears for 
the showing and discussion 
session that includes author 
Glenn Kurtz, who wrote the 

book Three Minutes in Poland: 
Discovering a Lost World in a 
1938 Family Film (see accom-
panying story). 
Among the films filling out 

the festival in theater are The 
Levys of Monticello, about a 
Jewish family that preserved 
Thomas Jefferson’s home; 
Tiger Within, about the friend-
ship shared by a Holocaust 
survivor and homeless 
teen; The Conductor, about a 
woman breaking the orches-
tral glass ceiling; and One 
More Story, about a skeptic’s 
encounter with love. 
The virtual presentations 
include A Common Goal, 
about Muslim members of 
an Israeli soccer team, and 
Love and Mazel Tov, about 
romance amid comedic mis-
understandings. 

Still shot from the film 
 
The Conductor

Details 
Three Minutes — A 
Lengthening can be seen 
at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 1, 
in the Berman Center for 
the Performing Arts at 
the Jewish Community 
Center in West 
Bloomfield. $12. To buy 
tickets, go to theberman.
org/on-sale. Masks are 
required.

Maurice Chandler shares his story at Hillel Day School surrounded 
by great-grandson Lev Eisenberg, granddaughter Marcy Rosen and 
daughter Evelyn Rosen.

FILM FESITVAL continued from page 53

DETAILS 
To get a full list and 
synopsis of films, 
go to jlive.app/
organizations/118. To buy 
tickets, go to theberman.
org/on-sale/. Prices 
range from $5 (virtual) 
to $12 (in person). Masks 
are required at the JCC. 

