Another week of embracing history and WWII on BEHIND THE LENS thanks to director ADRIENNE HALL talking about INTO FLIGHT ONCE MORE while director BIANCA STIGTER talks about THREE MINUTES: A LENGTHENING.
We open this week’s show with my exclusive conversation with writer/director BIANCA STIGTER who makes her feature documentary directorial debut with THREE MINUTES: A LENGTHENING. One of the most fascinating documentaries you will ever see, thanks to 3 minutes 33 seconds and 28/100ths of a second of denegrated Kodak film footage from 1938, shining a light on a small Polish community just one year before the start of WWII. Originally catching Bianca’s attention thanks to a Facebook post about this little home movie, three minutes gradually becomes 69 minutes as we see shriveled and barely discernible footage start to come to life through restoration and then analysis of buildings, signs, trees, architecture, clothing, fabric, buttons, caps, and faces by religious, cultural, historical, and even scientific experts, all the while keeping the film images on screen, constantly sharpening in focus with each new detail discovered. Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter we hear from some of the individuals who were actually filmed in 1938, as well as relatives of those we see. A fascinating documentary that gives voice to the people of this town, many of whom were taken to death camps not long after this home movie travel footage was shot. You can hear Bianca’s passion as she talks about her process in bringing this community to life for us today.
THREE MINUTES: A LENGTHENING is screening in select theatres in NY and LA with additional theatres being added.
Then we take to the skies with ADRIENNE HALL who is on hand live discussing her documentary directorial debut with INTO FLIGHT ONCE MORE which follows the “D-Day Squadron” — 15 groups of airplane and history enthusiasts who decided to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of D-Day by locating and restoring vintage DC-3 planes in order to recreate the original D-Day flight from North America to Normandy. It’s easy to get swept up in Adrienne’s enthusiasm for not only this project but for historic preservation of events that helped shape our world. Listen as she talks about how the project came to her (talk about being at the right place at the right time and shooting from the hip!), flying with the crews during legs of the journey, researching archival footage and then doing match editing with the past and recreations in the present, the experience itself, working with Gary Sinise who narrates portions of the documentary, and so much more.
INTO FLIGHT ONCE MORE is available on all digital platforms.
