Hollywood & Holocaust: Imaginary Witness March 17, 2005

Panel:
Danny Anker, Director/Producer, Imaginary Witness
Walter Bernstein, Screenwriter/Director
Annette Insdorf, Professor and Film Historian, Columbia University
Martin Starger, Executive Producer, Sophie?s Choice

Additional panelists to be announced.

The American film industry played a crucial role in supporting United States and Allied military interests during World War II, but Hollywood never directly condemned Nazi anti-Semitism. It took decades after the war before American filmmakers began to offer a realistic, dramatic look at the horrors of Hitler?s ?final solution.? Using resonant archival footage, this provocative and revealing new film examines how only a few Hollywood directors reacted to the persecution and murder of millions of Jews, and how the Holocaust was finally brought to the screen in a meaningful way by independent filmmakers.

Cosponsored by the Center for Communication.