After the Fact

The Holocaust in Twenty-First Century Documentary Film

Brad Prager

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781623568337
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film History & Criticism

After the Fact studies the terrain of Holocaust documentaries subsequent to the turn of the twenty-first century. Until now most studies have centered primarily on canonical films such as Shoah and Night and Fog, but over the course of the last ten years filmmaking practices have altered dramatically. Changing techniques, diminishing communities of survivors, and the public's response to familiar, even iconic imagery, have all challenged filmmakers to radically revise and newly envision how they depict the Holocaust. Innovative styles have emerged, including groundbreaking techniques of incorporating archival footage, survivor testimony, and reenactment. Carrying wider implications for the fields of Film Studies, Jewish Studies, and Visual Studies, this book closely analyzes ten contemporary and internationally produced films, most of which have hardly been touched upon in the critical literature or elsewhere.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction The Holocaust Documentary: In Stages
• Chapter 1 Touring Sites: Revisiting the Concentration Camps in KZ and Martin
• Chapter 2 Mediated Memories: The Influence of Spielberg’s Hollywood Hit on Inheritance and Spielberg’s List
• Chapter 3 Forgiveness on Film: Resentment and Reconciliation in Forgiving Dr. Mengele and Landscapes of Memory: The Life of Ruth Klüger
• Chapter 4 Family Issues: Oedipal Confrontations in 2 or 3 Things I Know about Him and The Flat
• Chapter 5 Rescreening Perpetrator Images: Witnessing the Past in A Film Unfinished and Photographer
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Selected Filmography
• Works Cited
• Index