Inbal Jerusalem Magazine - Inbal Hotel Jerusalem

LegacyA Tale of a FilmRobin Zalben, Librarian and Systems Manager of theJewish Film Archives, relates a fascinating story, not onlyabout the theme of a movie, but about the history of themovie itself. Titled ‘Five cities’, “it was filmed in 1939,right before Germany invaded Poland. It is a remarkableproduction – a cultural gem. Filmed entirely in Yiddish,it tells the story of Jewish life in five cities in Poland.”The film on completion was sent to the United Statesto be shown, but as it coincided with the outbreak ofWorld War II, it was not picked up from the post officeuntil very much later. But by then, the Jewish worldso poignantly portrayed in the movie was no more,and the people in the movie no longer alive – victimsof the Shoah (Holocaust). Eventually ending up in theArchive, where it was ‘healed’ and reproduced, the‘revitalized’ film is now available in English and providesa contemporaneous window into Jewish life in pre-warPoland.An inspiring film about the rich cultural life of Jews inpre-war Poland, it has a dark cloud hanging over it. Whiley o uwatch,you knowthat all thepeople you see– men, womanand children hadno knowledge of theimminent horrors thatawaited them. Little couldthey have known that by thetime the first people saw them inthe movie, they would no longer bewith us.ran down my spine while watching “Married with a Star”- a film about a Jewish wedding in Amsterdam duringthe Nazi occupation. The film’s title alludes to the ‘Starof David’ yellow badge that the bride and bridegroom -as well as all their Jewish guests - had to wear during thewedding ceremony and reception. The film had beenlost for close to 50 years, before it was rediscovered andthe characters ‘brought back to life’.Like Married with a Star, there have been many filmsby Jews or with Jewish themes that have lain for years- sometimes for decades - under the bed of an amateurfilm producer, in the attic of a professional photographeror in the dusted and crumblingprivate archive of an agingfilm collector. Robin Zalben,Librarian and Systems Managerof the Jewish Film Archivessays that “here in the StevenSpielberg Jewish Film Archive,we preserve, document,study and reproduce Jewishdocumentary films from allover the world.”The archive was establishedduring the late 1960s by agroup of prominent historiansof the Hebrew University ofJerusalem. It is named in honorof one of its donators – thedirector and producer Steven Spielberg. The archivecurrently holds a remarkable and unique treasure ofover 18,000 titles, recorded on various formats whichinclude 16mm and 35mm film, VHS, beta, U-Matic andDVD, making it one of the largest collections, of Jewishdocumentary films in the world. Much of the materialgathered in the archive have been filmed prior to theestablishment of the State of Israel and some of the rarefootage stored at the archive unveils the life of Jewsduring the Holocaust and during the early years ofJewish settlements in the land of Israel.“We receive our films from organizations, private peoplewho find them possibly whilecleaning up their closets orattics and from film makers- those ageing or who havepassed on. Usually theirsurviving-spouses contactus after finding these cansof films underneath theirbeds,” laughs Robin. Whilethe archive possesses a largecollection of historicallyimportant films, such asDeborah Steinmetz, Director andClient Services Librarian andRobin Zalben, Librarian, SystemsManager, at the archive’s mainfilm vault.Spring-Summer 201334