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

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