Paper Clips [2 Discs]

Elliot Berlin

Overview

Directed by Joe Fab and Elliot Berlin, this documentary chronicles a rural Tennessee middle school's unique class project: finding a meaningful way to honor Holocaust victims. Brought up in a heavily fundamentalist Christian environment, most of the students had never seen, let alone spoken with, a member of the Jewish faith; nonetheless, the children of Whitwell found a poignant method of honoring the slain. Using individual paper clips to represent each life lost in the Holocaust, the students were inundated with contributions from around the world. Eventually, they managed to procure an authentic German rail car, which would become container to the millions of paper clips collected.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/07/2006
UPC:	0829567032220
Original Release:	2004
Rating:	G
Source:	Virgil Films
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:24:00
Sales rank:	2,419

Special Features

Bonus scene; Interviews with Holocaust survivors; Bonus interview excerpts; Extended scenes

Editorial Reviews

This modestly produced documentary packs an emotional wallop unlike practically any other in recent memory. It takes place in the rural, blue-collar Tennessee community of Whitwell, where a middle-school class embarks upon a simple but ambitious project: In an attempt to gauge the magnitude of World War II's Holocaust, students begin collecting paper clips, each of which represents a human life lost in the Nazis' systematic slaughter of Jews. They are to amass 6 million paper clips, imagining each tiny piece of metal to be a human being. Thanks to the tremendous skill of directors Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab, we see how the enormity of this task transforms not only the children but their parents; indeed, the entire community. As the paper clips pile up, the people begin to understand the comprehensiveness of that long-ago manifestation of intolerance and hatred. There is, we must admit, a bit of theatricality and heavy-handedness to the film's presentation. But its message is so clearly delineated and profound that its minor directorial excesses can easily be forgiven. Viewing this powerfully moving motion picture would benefit every family in the country, if not the world.