Free (DRM-free PDF) Seven Minutes in the Warsaw Ghetto and… [Academic Film Studies]

[ATDrake]

Seven Minutes in the Warsaw Ghetto and With Raised Hands by Richard Raskin, a New York expat turned Associate Professor in the Aesthetics and Communications department of Aarhus University in Denmark, is his short but lavishly photo-illustrated academic film studies examination and resource guide to the two titular award-winning short films separately involving young boys during the Holocaust in Poland (IMDB for the former for which he wrote the screenplay, and legal YouTube full film of the latter, uploaded by its director), free courtesy of Aarhus University Press.

This was their English-language free e-book of the month selection for September, and should still be available for the rest of the day. (In case you were wondering, you didn't miss any over the past few months since the last one, since apparently the program shuts down over the summer holidays.)

Currently free, probably just until whoever's in charge of the program wakes up tomorrow and rotates it directly @ the university press' website (DRM-free PDF available worldwide).

This is an 81-page, 20+ meg file which you might prefer not to grab via whatever device you might have which happens to be on a plan with data limits.

If you happen to be interested in reading more coverage of the 2nd film, there's an interview with the director by the author of this book over and other coverage in English @ the now-defunct P.O.V. Danish journal of film studies (mostly English-language articles), along with a whole bunch of other similar filmmaker interviews and media analysis, apparently all freely downloadable in PDF format.

And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because not only is it really nice to see the Aarhus University Press' generous bilingual monthly (minus summer holidays) free ebook offerings continue, but the confluence of academia, history, subculture, animation, behind-the-scenes creators' insights, and popular(-ish) film study is like a wonderful combination of a few of my favourite things, so

Enjoy!

Description
Seven Minutes in the Warsaw Ghetto is a short stop-motion puppet film that has won awards at international film festivals in a number of countries and has been included in the official selection of more that 120 festivals around the world, from Buenos Aires to Hiroshima. Dealing as it does in less than eight minutes with a subject that is meaningful both in a historical perspective and in relation to present day horrors, Seven Minutes in the Warsaw Ghetto would be an ideal resource in such courses as media studies, history and English.

Included in this e-book are:

• a shot-by-shot breakdown of the film, with at least one still from every shot;

• notes of intention by screenwriter Richard Raskin and director Johan Oettinger, as well as producer Ellen Riis's informative description of the production process;

• the brief written record of the actual event which inspired this film;

• a chronological overview and fact-sheet concerning the Warsaw Ghetto, from 1939 to its destruction in 1943;

• a presentation of a well-known iconic photograph that played a role in the making of this film.

This e-book also provides a basis for comparing Seven Minutes in the Warsaw Ghetto with another prize-winning short film also portraying a boy trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto: Mitko Panov's unforgettable With Raised Hands.

In addition to providing the resources mentioned above, the e-book also proposes a number of questions for close study of the film, and which are designed to inspire reflection rather than pointing to one correct answer.