Alice Dancing Under the Gallows
Extended trailer for a new documentary about the oldest Holocaust survivor in the world:
Directed by Malcolm Clarke
On November 26th, Alice Herz Sommer will be 107 years young. She’s still bright-eyed and joyful. Every day is filled with visits from cherished friends and family… and with music, always music. She says that music is what kept hope alive for her during her imprisonment in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, and the secret to her longevity is optimism. “I never hate, and I will never hate,” she tells us. “Hatred brings only hatred.” She says she is grateful for every single day.
November 8th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Isn’t it a bit of a contradiction to post something like this when you’ve celebrated photographers in this blog that promote Nazi paraphernalia as being cool?
November 8th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
This is beautiful. Thanks for sharing it — and beyond the specific: thanks for making Coilhouse a place where something like this fits right into what you’re doing, comfortably at home amidst the bellydancing and weird science and style and genderfucking and and startling creations and sex furbys. That’s a pretty extraordinary mix. And somehow it’s all brought together in this relentless insistence on being alive to art and to the world. I won’t gush on, but I just hope you guys know how meaningful it is, this thing you’ve built.
November 8th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Karen! You just made my day, dear. *hugs*
@Res I completely understand what you’re saying, and why, but please bear in mind that Coilhouse isn’t a Borg collective/hive mind where we all have the exact same tastes and beliefs. At this point in time, something like twenty different writers with their own unique aesthetics, perspectives, opinions and agendas have posted stuff here. And, I’m sure, over the past three years, all of us have experienced moments where we had to respectfully “agree to disagree” on the relevance, taste or value of one of our fellow blogger’s offerings. That’s part of the nature of a community like this. It’s mutable and multifaceted, not rigid, not set in stone. We like it like dat. :)
Also, I think context is very important! Can you provide a specific link to the photographer/photographers in question? I’m pretty sure I haven’t personally blogged anyone who matches that description, but if I have, I’d like to revisit it. Thankee.
November 10th, 2010 at 1:13 am
In another life, when I was trying to be an actor, I had the good fortune to participate in several movement workshops with Helen Lewis, who also survived Terezín and moved to Northern Ireland after the war. Watching this tiny woman move through the sunlight in a dilapidated Belfast gymnasium was one of the most moving experiences of my life. Like Alice, there was frailty there, but also unbelievable strength.
Helen died earlier this year at the age of 93: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/mar/17/helen-lewis-obituary, and also http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/survivor-of-auschwitz-death-camp-helen-lewis-dies-at-93-14619241.html.
November 10th, 2010 at 11:47 am
[…] your own heart and consider quietly before you can share her. Trailer for the documentary Alice: Dancing Under the Gallows (Video 12:11) More on Alice and […]
November 11th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Mer, thanks for posting this! A little late to the party – as always during our deadlines. By this time, the video has been mysteriously removed from YouTube by the author for copyright reasons, but you can still find it here:
http://www.aish.com/ho/p/Dancing_Under_the_Gallows.html