Three Minutes: A Lengthening

The three minutes (and 53 seconds) are a home movie of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk, a Polish village near the Ukrainian border, shot in 1938 by visiting American businessman, David Kurtz, who was making a tour of Europe with his wife and three friends. On Thurs 4th August, they visited the place his family had emigrated from and shot Kodachrome footage, some in black and white, some colour, of around 150 of its population. Less than a hundred of Nasielsk's 4,000 Jewish inhabitants would survive the Holocaust.

The Lengthening is the hour (just over) Stigter's film spends exploring the images, trying to identify the people, draw out meaning and recount their fates. The poignancy of this footage is a given, but you may wonder whether some of Stiger's strategies - running the film in reverse, isolating individual faces - really add much to our understanding. I would, very respectfully, take issue with the assertion that the Holocaust is what makes Kurtz's film poignant. Any footage of people from the past has a desperate sadness. Time is the defining factor and its passing is the obscenity that gives it meaning.

Avoided the talking head regime of most documentaries and the flashbacks to coverage that is not relevant. Completely authentic and therefore powerful. Town of Nasielsk, Poland comes alive in this three minute documentary. I had a strong feeling for it because I have just written a new novel, The Girl Who Counted Numbers, Amsterdam Publishers, Out on October 12th on Amazon. Much of the book reflects to characters who lived in Rozvadow, Poland, a shtetl about the same size as Nasielsk, destroyed when the Nazis arrived. I visited Rozvadow and there is a resemblance to Nasielsk. Buildings around a town square. Farmers, Storekeepers. Children playing. A sense of the neighborhood is very keen and most of all life seems to be normal. In this documentary things appear and reappear, come back and leave, emphasizing the patterns of life in the village. This is true in Rozvadow, Poland, too. I wish that I could have seen a three minute film of Rozvadow,Poland.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but unless you have a personal connection to the Holocaust or unless you have professional interest in it, boredom is likely to wash over you as you watch this documentary. I won't recommend Three Minutes: A Lengthening to others. There is an obvious peril in taking three minutes of film and trying to stretch it into an hour-long documentary.

This documentary appeals to a fairly small number of people. I'm surprised by the generally positive reviews it has received if I'm being honest. Folks should be brave enough to characterize work like this as the underwhelming production that it is. You can take a pass on watching Three Minutes: A Lengthening without missing out on much.

Originally Premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the Spotlight Selection.

"Three Minutes: A Lengthening" is about a snippet of 16mm film offers an emotionally charged, meditative glimpse into the lives of the unsuspecting Jewish citizens of a small Polish village at the precipice of World War II. Director Bianca Stigter uses an entire 16mm film to offer a nostalgic experience about the topics of WWII and the Jewish people and it was an interesting take on researching and covering the topic from a cinematic lens. The presentation is well presented with really good uses of archival footage used throughout the entire film. The footage helps to add a feel of the past, the old days and what it must have felt like during the WWII years.

Helena Boham Carter's narration does provide the information nicely and her voice fits the scenario pretty well. However, the documentary does feel like it's a bit stale since the entire film is using footages, which does get a bit old at the end of the film. The pacing really really does drag and because of that, it made some parts unsatisfying and not as engaging as I was hoping for. Certain sound designs were noticeable that had some poor structures and some editing could be improved. In my opinion, this would have worked as a short film rather then being a feature limit film.

Overall, It's interesting to see a documentary about the Jewish people's lives in Poland from old archival footages but I feel like it was a little underwhelming by the end of the day. But I still recommend for those who are interested.

Rating: B-

As "Three Minutes: A Lengthening" (2022 release; 69 min) opens, we immediately get the entire 3+ min. Footage that was filmed in 1938 in a small village north of Warsaw, Poland. The footage is law quality at times, and high quality at times, and goes back and forth between B&W and color. The voice over (by Helen Bonham Carter) informs us that the footage was discovered in 2009 in Florida, by the grandson of the guy who filmed it. But what are we actually seeing in those 3+ minutes?

Couple of comments: this is directed by Dutch film maker Bianca Stigter. Here she assesses what we actually see in this historic footage. Glenn Kurtz, grandson of David Kurtz who filmed this while on a tourist trip across Europe, is intrigued and wants to know more: where was this filmed? Who is being filmed? Etc. So this is not unlike putting together a puzzle, albeit hampered by a 70 years delay, during which most (but not all) of these people have perished and much (but not all) if the small village has been torn down and/or rebuilt. Like revealing an onion's layer after layer, more information is revealed to us. The film makers do an excellent job putting it all together in a way that combines history and mystery, paying tribute to the erstwhile population of a small Polish village whose Jewish population was decimated by the Holocaust.

I readily admit I had not heard of this film, that is until I read NPR's list of the "50 Best Movies and TV of 2022" earlier this week, and I immediately knew I just had to see this. The fact that it is currently rated 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes certainly didn't hurt either. "Three Minutes: A Lengthening" is currently streaming on Hulu, where I caught it last night. If you have any interest in the Holocaust or Europe's pre-WWII era, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.