Rex Bloomstein
Film Screening in Advance of Holocaust Memorial Day: The Gathering, by Rex Bloomstein
Summary
In 1981, Rex Bloomstein learned about an event that was being organized called the World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors in Jerusalem. Thousands of survivors were coming from different countries to celebrate what the organisers described as survival and redemption. In his 2018 film, The Gathering, he documents his experience talking to survivors at the event. In honor of Holocaust Memorial Day Rex shares his film with the Lockdown University community.
Rex Bloomstein
Rex Bloomstein has produced films on human rights, crime and punishment, and the Holocaust. He pioneered the modern prison documentary with films such as Lifers (1983) and Strangeways (1980), which won two British Academy Awards. As well as other television productions such as Auschwitz and the Allies, and his three-part history of anti-Semitism, The Longest Hatred, he produced KZ, described as one of the first post-modern Holocaust documentaries. Other feature documentaries include An Independent Mind (2008), on freedom of expression, This Prison Where I Live (2010), on imprisoned Burmese comedian, Zarganar, and The World of Jewish Humor (1990), which traces the evolution of Jewish humor from New York’s turn-of-the-century Lower East Side to the present.
I must say that watching it for the first time in all these years, I felt really quite emotional. You know, I learned how to deal with these tragedies, and I’ve been doing this for over 50 years. Listening to some of the testimony brought back, my, the emotions of the time. You have to steal yourself to listen. I mean, they’re extraordinary stories, and I felt that the technique that I had to use was to be unblemished, unvarnished, no barriers between you and them. No music, none of these usual conventions. And I feel the utter desolation of those stories and the desperation of the actual gathering.
Yes, there were. There were, yes, quite remarkable. People found each other. You get a small glimpse of that. I saw that today, I mean, it’s over 40 years ago. And people did find each other. It was quite something actually and incredibly moving. And that, you know, with three, what did he say? Between four and 5,000, between three and 5,000 people. Yes, people did.
Interesting question. Why do some people affect you, and others affect you less? It’s the combination of being an observer, being, of making films, of getting used to. Some people are, their stories are compelling. Others are less compelling. And I think when I went through, and you’re quite right, there were dozens of interviews we did. These were the ones that stood out. These were the ones that made me think, and as I’ve just said earlier, affected me now 40 years later. Their stories were just extraordinary, and there are so many of them. So, difficult to say why. It’s an instinct. It’s to do with experience. There you have it.