While narratives depicting the Holocaust present fixed versions of events, testimonial films tend to be more open-ended, and pose more profound questions.
history
How Movies Have “Witnessed” the Holocaust Over the Decades
Since cameras were first pointed at the concentration camps, filmmakers have faced challenges in how to respectfully and meaningfully depict atrocity.
The Forgotten “Black Woodstock” of 1969
Summer of Soul, Questlove’s directorial debut, seeks to resurrect the memory of the Harlem Cultural Festival, a vital touchstone of Black music.
“Don’t Fuck With the Jews” and Other Moments of Muscular Judaism on Film
Cinema’s thorny depictions of Israeli military action reflects the swift shift in Jewish identity around questions of oppression.
Raoul Peck’s Frustratingly Incomplete Treatise on Colonialism
For all its bluntness, Exterminate All the Brutes never once utters the words “rape” or “capitalism.”
Archaeologists Locate Site of Harriet Tubman’s Family Home
A small coin dated 1808 led archaeologists to identify the area as the former site of the plantation where Tubman lived before escaping enslavement in 1849.
Cupid Shoots Through Millennia of Art
The god of love and desire has fascinated and inspired artists since antiquity.
Two Women Fall in Love in 1800s Upstate New York
The World to Come distinguishes itself from the recent spate of historical queer romances with poetic dialogue and a dreamy tone.
A Funhouse Mirror Telling of Canadian History
The Twentieth Century is a surreal, irreverent anti-biopic of Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Let’s Preserve Acts of History, Not Racist Monuments
We do not need to physically preserve these objects to preserve history. The Toppled Monuments Archive seeks to reroute the impulse to preserve these objects altogether.
Satisfy Your Wanderlust With Captivating Globes From the 17th and 18th Centuries
The British Library uploaded 3-D scans of its collection of celestial and terrestrial globes.
A Database of Fugitive Slave Ads Reveals Thousands of Untold Resistance Stories
Freedom on the Move from Cornell University is the first major digital database of fugitive slave ads from North America.