Q&A With Yael Hersonski

It took her four years to expose an incomplete Nazi propaganda film. But after a successful premiere at the 2010 Hot Docs film festival, Israeli director Yael Hersonski finally made her debut on May 2. The finished product received a good reception from the audience and Hersonski revealed that she will be screening the documentary around the world. In July, the film will premiere in Israel in time for the Jerusalem Film Festival. She also admitted that her next project would not be about the Holocaust. But for now, she sat down with Shalom Life to discuss the process of completing A Film Unfinished.

This is your first time in Toronto. How are you enjoying it so far?

I am amazed at how welcoming this place is and how relaxed it is. I can actually enjoy the festival, which is something I’ve never done in other festivals. I actually get to watch films, which is something that filmmakers who screen their own work don’t usually get to do.

How did you decide to enter A Film Unfinished in Hot Docs?

I have Israeli and U.S. distributors and they are more in charge of doing that. I’m less involved in this aspect of the business. I was more concentrated in making the film.

Speaking of the film, I know it won Achievement in Editing at the Sundance Festival. What was your thought process in terms of editing and combining real footage versus the reactions of the Holocaust survivors?

The footage is the main core of the film. Everything goes around it. I was looking to find multiple points of view in the filmmaking, which included finding survivors. I didn’t think I would actually find ones who would remember so well what happened in the Ghetto. When you think about what these people went through, it’s quite amazing that they do remember. And then I really hoped and finally successfully found the opposite point of view, which was the cameraman. It happened that there were also diaries. People were writing everyday about what was going on, with the notion that they were documenting this last part of their history. They did it being fully aware of the historical impact of these texts in the future. I really had a circle of gazes in the filmmaking from such different points of views. The survivors were children or teenagers at the time. The filmmakers were mostly grown up. The Nazi cameraman, his point of view was really unique because you can sense how he’s more keen to tell the technical part of the filmmaking rather than what he actually saw through the lens. I can only assume that was his way of protecting himself. In one of the most horrifying scenes in the film, which he remembered shooting, he said it was very difficult for him to shoot this scene because they didn’t have enough lighting equipment.

How did you try to include all of the storylines to make sure you gave a full scope?

That was the main editing challenge we had in this film, mainly who we are going to expose first. We peeled it like an onion, layer after layer. The cameraman is shown quite late in the film but that’s the place he had to be exposed. The 35-millimeter film was divided into four reels. I immediately decided that I will also divide the film into four chapters. Each will show another layer of this multi-layered reality. First we exposed the Ghetto, and then the filmmaking. Then we exposed the view about the filmmaking. Finally we concluded that all the people who were shot in this film were taken into the gas chambers just two months after the filming. So we are really seeing the people in the last breathing snapshot of this place.

The first time that you saw the film in its entirety, what was your reaction to it?

I was in shock.

When was the first time that you saw the whole thing?

Nearly five years ago. I was paralyzed. First of all I was surprised that I didn’t know about this footage, which was really the main footage inside the Ghetto. Sixty-two minutes, that’s a lot of material….Bits and pieces were shown as illustrations in other documentaries. But the footage was always in the background. I wanted to take it to the foreground. I analyzed the nature of the testimony. I was amazed how wicked the filmmaking was. There was no doubt after seeing 62 minutes that many scenes were staged. But they were not only staged, you also had the sensual feeling of someone standing there and taking these pictures. I rarely have that feeling when I watch other documentaries, realizing that someone was dying in front of someone’s camera. They were not only seeing it, they were focusing their lenses on these events.

In your post-screening Q&A you did mention that the real horror was outside the camera. How did you incorporate that so the audience can understand it?

The outtakes helped when you can actually see the filmmakers doing their jobs… that the larger picture was outside. It was the tension that existed between the uniformed enemy and its victims.

You mentioned that there was footage you didn’t include

There were some scenes of sickness. I didn’t find it could add anything essential to the film. Whatever I can’t watch, I won’t put in my film. I don’t have an interest for viewers to lower their heads and not see it. It’s not important that they see every single frame. It was important that they understand the intention of this documentation. I also didn’t want to duplicate the humiliation these people experienced while being filmed. They were naked. They were starved. They were dirty. They lived in inconceivable conditions. On top of that, uniformed people came with their cameras to document it. When I show the film, in a way I’m doing the same to these people…. The biggest effort was to show what they filmed but not to humiliate the people.

When did the decision to include survivors come in and how long did it take to find them?

It didn’t take as long as I thought it would. It took a couple of months. We dialed everyone we knew was alive. I explained to them the scene they were about to enter. That they would be in a dark cinema room and they would see 62 minutes of a place they’ve been trying to forget. I wanted them to think if they were able to do it. Not everyone agreed. Even those who were tempted to do it but hesitated, I told them not to come. These people are over 80 years old and their bodies and souls are so fragile. I didn’t want something to happen to them while the screening was on.

Where are you taking this film after Hot Docs?

We are going to New York and Los Angeles. I know there are many festivals…. I’m going to try to show up at more festivals for this film but I’m also very keen to continue into the next project and be outside the Ghetto after a while. It was an intense four years.