Hello Steemians!
Do you wanna hear the fascinating story behind the soon-to-be-released film 'The Lesson'?
Only few months after I met Elena, the doors of the BBC headquarter opened to welcome our first successful documentary and to interview me. Here you find the interview to the 23 years old version of me:
Elena and me started off with a bang, therefore I decided to stick around her! 'She is an amazing, visionary filmmaker' I thought '...and she brings good luck!'
When we met in London during the MA in Documentary 4 years ago, she was pretending to be British because she was ashamed of his German nationality. I couldn't disguise her, because she had picked the British accent very well. After a few days, I was impressed by the way she shamefully moan ‘Actually, I am not British...I am German’.
I lately found out that the reason why she lied to me is that she was feeling guilty for the Holocaust. I encouraged her to find out when and how this sense of guilt (in German Schuldbewusstsein) manifested itself. So we went back to her school - in a small village close to Dortmund - and started to film the kids during history class.
Elena and me are now creating the film around the harshest topic of the German educational system and we are aware that we need support from you Steemians to develop the film to its full potential. Ah, a little call to action:
Upvote this post if you want to see the film on Steemit soon! We need your support to finish the post-production! It's a self funded project and it's becoming a bit of a burden for us...
When we went filming in the school, the teacher Herr Korinth explained to the kids for the first time how a gas chamber functions, and then asked them to reenact one of Hitler’s speeches. The teachers often pursuit a high-shock strategy and discuss with each other which concentration camp would be the most disturbing for the students to visit. This rigid, strict and in parts traumatising lessons can result in the opposite of what is intended.
Exposing the flaws in the educational process is just as important as showing up the limits of where school education can reach. In fact, after school, other lessons are taking place, overall in soccer stadiums. If you happen to be a young girl like Nele (one of our contributor), if your grandpa is hiding a swastica medal in the kitchen drawer, and if the ultras of your football team are chanting nazi slogans, there is another lesson waiting for you. Nele is conflicted between what she learns at school and what her grandfather and football coaches are instilling in her mind in the confusion of puberty.
This film must be completed as soon as possible. For two reasons mainly.
First and foremost, the last contemporary witnesses of World War 2 are disappearing at a tearing pace and within few years memories will have to be passed down exclusively by the teachers. The lesson is not going to come from the parents. The film shows how families until today drop into silence when it comes to discussing the Holocaust. Soon, the War generation will have vanished from German society - equally on sides of the victims, perpetrators or normal soldiers. In the film, the children challenge their own grandparents about their role in the war. If they don’t find the courage to ask them now, they will lose this chance forever.
Secondly, in times of social turmoil and revitalisation of Anti-Jewish and Anti-Muslim movements, we discover that children get in touch with Neo-Nazi imagery and propaganda at a very young and vulnerable age. Ultranationalism, xenophobia and race-supremacism are still deeply ingrained into soccer fan culture or the shooting clubs in the village where this film takes place. These are the places where this toxic ideology keeps on breeding.
When Donald Trump’s grandfather left Germany, it was the time of segregation and religious prosecution in German society. It seems to me that the dominant ideology of the time is still prevalent in the ideas of the family today.
In addition, we have found unpublished archive material from 1933 in the Landesarchiv Muenster.
The footage shows the everyday life of school children in a similar age that experience the early militarisation in the class room - and shockingly we discovered various similarities to methods of pressure and fear being used today.
The film has a unique angle on German educational system and the memory of the Holocaust.
With this film, in general, we want to address the whole educational sector and raise awareness on the risk that some delicate historical periods are charged with an over accusatory tone and can radicalise opinions in a way that history should have warned us enough to avoid. In particular, we want to show how the roots of the recurring racist behaviour amongst young Germans are to be found in the space between the rigid school classes and the aggressive hooligan culture.
More screenshots from the film...
If you like the project please Upvote! With the help of Steemit, we can really bring the post-production to another level! If you are so generous to make a donation, rest assure we will put every Steem dollar into the film...
Steem on!