SFC –Shoah Film Collection Interview Project
As a multi-facetted initiative, Shoah Film Collection would like to be the cause and the occasion for discussing the questions, how the memory of the Holocaust can be kept vivid and transferred to future generations via “art”, in general, and “art & moving images”, in particular.
The film collection is not just intending to collect the best art works, but representing a source and starting point for discussing how artists use “moving images” for transfering their ideas to an audience.
Events like “A Virtual Memorial Riga 2012” and “A Virtual Memorial Vilnius 2013”, placing SFC in the focus of a symposium and artists meeting, were pointing to the problem that a conceptual basis for a further reaching discussion is missing. Future meetings need to be prepared conceptually in a different way, this is not only good for me as their initiator, but for the participants as well, in order to avoid, that each meeting is repeating itself. The focus has to be directed to the future and not to the status quo of the Present or Past.
The participants of SFC are requested to answer 10 questions by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne to give detailled info about the fil, the concept behind and additional beackground information for contributing to the discussion how to keep vivide the collective memory via art.
Interview: 10 questions
1. Tell me something about your life and the educational background
2. When, how and why started you filming?
3. How do you develop your films, do you follow certain principles, styles etc?
Tell me something about the technical equipment you use.
4. What was the reason to start your film included in Shoah Film Collection. Tell me the story behind your film? Why did you choose the given form of representation? Is your film included in Shoah Film Collection the first one dealing with the Holocaust?
5. What kind of meaning has the Holocaust to you personally? Are your family or friends affected or did the topic come by chance?
6. Besides the historical relevance related to the persecuted Jews and other people, the Holocaust has a universal relevance. Why is the Holocaust affecting all humans anywhere?
7. Now, nearly 70 years after World War II, unfortunately the last Holocaust survivors will be dying soon, and no authentic witness is left to transfer the memory of the Holocaust. The Holocaust is about to be marginalized and dehumanized to any other historical incident, whereby it is measured by its final result and less as an escalating process, countless human individuals were undergoing. What do you think might be ways to re-humanize, touch people again emotionally and keep vivid the memory this way?
8. As a phenomenon, the Holocaust is blasting human imagination, which makes it nearly impossible for people to identify themselves with. What needs to be done, that people many find ways for self-identifying? What can do art for it?
9. After the Holocaust and World War II, the traditional (static) visual art media were failing in transferring the memory of the Holocaust, while literature, theatre, music and film were much more successful. On the other hand, due to the new technologies, the boundaries between the “arts” dissolve nowadays and the doors are open to a new interdisciplinary approach. What are the chances for this new (interdisciplinary) perception based on socializing concepts for keeping vivid the memory of the Holocaust? In which way have they to influence the manifestations of Shoah Film Collection via the interventions like a symposium, artists meetings, workshops, exhibitions, performances, screenings, artists talks, discussions etc.
10. What are your future artistic plans? Do you plan to work on new projects dealing with the Holocaust or related topics like “collective trauma caused by totalitarianism”?