SEPTEMBER 8 • 2022 | 53
PRICELESS FOOTAGE
As a sobering reminder of the life that
was before the Holocaust, Three Minutes:
A Lengthening is a crucial snapshot of the
good — and the sense of normalcy — that
made up every-day Jewish life in Central
and Eastern Europe.
“That kind of glimpse of time is such
a private thing,
” Ohren says, “yet such a
normal thing that we all relate to. It’s this
voyeuristic look. When we think about
the Holocaust, we think about atrocity. We
don’t always think about the joy that was
interrupted.
”
This glimpse, Ohren continues, elevates
and puts punctuation on a life that was
fine and good, until an unspeakable trage-
dy took everything away and changed that
life forever.
In Three Minutes: A Lengthening, view-
ers go on a journey through a priceless his-
torical artifact that was originally shot by
David Kurtz in 1938 on 16mm film. Kurtz,
who traveled from his home of Brooklyn,
N.Y., to visit Nasielsk, where he was born,
just happened to bring a camera — a small
act that years later would prove extraordi-
nary.
Decades passed and, in 2009, David’s
grandson Glenn Kurtz found three min-
utes of delicate footage that was restored
for the purpose of this film. The 2022
release is written and directed by Bianca
Stigter, narrated by award-winning actress
Stills from
Three Minutes:
A Lengthening
Perry
Ohren
continued on page 54