Has anyone seen this documentary? It's a story about a high-school project in Tennessee where kids try to gather 6 million paper clips in order to realize the magnitude of the Holocaust.

The movie opens in Philly this weekend, and I was wondering if anyone could comment on whether it's worthwhile and whether it would be a good idea to go see it with my parents (our family is Jewish).

Thanks.

If you family is Jewish, I tink that it could be worthwhile to watch. I heard many good words of it......

It's very unlucky that Miramax drops this movie.... (The producers of this movie finally release this movie themselves).

Even if your family wasn't Jewish, I think it would be a worthwhile project to see. Mostly because I wonder how it affects the kids psychology. Some of them, no doubt, will become traumatized at the sheer number. Its an interesting way to help kids conceptualize the mass, and high school is appropriate. I couldn't picture 3rd graders doing this without having a nervous breakdown.

I've never heard of this movie. I looked it up on rt and it had a decent approval rating, if that helps at all. Some of the rotten reviews critiqued the movie more than the content, saying a "nobel idea doesn't necessarily make for a good movie." So even those had no issue with the actual project.

I went to check if it is playing here in NYC and its not. Something tells me its part of a travelling reel. I would recommend you check it out, since it'll probably only play in Philly for a week or so before getting shipped off to another city.

Let us know what you think, please?

It could be something you connect with, I would give it a go.

Thanks guys. I'll try to check it out on Sunday and will let you know if I like it.

I hope it comes here soon too. It looks interesting.

Actually, what would have been a smarter project though is to equate the paper clip collecting to everything going on today as well. To ensure the Holocaust didn't remain too distant an experience in the past to relate to contemporary errors.

Would have been interesting if by the time they reached 800,000 (no small task in itself) the teachers point our Darfur. Or when they hit the amount killed in Serbia under Milosevic, or when they reach the number of Armenians persecuted, etc. That way the entire process of collection could be a timeline of human atrocities, instead of just too goal-oriented of an end point in a war 60 years past.

I hope there are some comments along those lines in the documentary or by the students? That would be brilliant.

Well, considering they're little kids, it might end up backfiring if they did it like that.

6 000 000 is a big number. If they keep reaching .... "milestones" along the way, they probably do not want the impact of smaller number of deaths to diminish in comparison to what happened in the concentration camps .... You don't want kids saying What happened to the Jews is far worse than 800000 people dying cause frankly .. life is life ...

High School. That's not so little anymore. Look at the 15 and 16 year olds on this site alone. Its not like they live in a sheltered bubble. If they do, maybe someone should pop it. Its unfortunate, but one's most informative, and forming, years are their youth. So if they're not exposed to these questions by this age, chances are they're not going to give a shit when they're 30. High School seems just the right age for a project like this. That's when we started taking World History classes and learning about WWII anyways.


I agree with you it might set up a "comparison" equating quantities, but a smart teacher would know how to handle that and make all the bench-marks along the route of high significance. I think its better than isolating the Holocaust as a single event. Which many people do, and don't realize how genocide has continued through the decades.

Sheesh .. I think I'm developing dyslexia .....

I thought I read 3rd graders somewhere.

dolce, from what I read, in the project they wound up not just counting up the paperclips for the Jews, but also including all other victims of the Holocaust (gays, Roma, etc.). Granted, it still had to do with the Holocaust, but it shows that the teachers did try to explore the subject.

Bravo! Good for them because that is exactly where I think genocide discussions need to go. There comes a point where if there's no gesture at pan-suffering, its not going to force us to learn from our mistakes.

This documentary sounds better and better. I have half a mind to jump a train and see it in Philly if it doesn't come here! I'm going to check the official site and see what it's traveling schedule is. maybe it'll be in Boston soon too?

Eh. This was in Washington, like, last December. No joke.

In one theatre. I think it might still be playing...

Yes. It had a 2004 release date. It seems to be slowly circling. Alot of movies (like Moolaade, heh) did that. Its too bad because its a tough distribution pattern to make any money on. Basically its what smaller independant distributers have to resport to doing because they can't financially or through name recognition pull even a limited-release weekend.

Another movie I saw last year that did that was Power Trip. $10 I saw Kremmy in one of those scenes.

Its playing nowhere in 25 miles of here except for some place in Jersey. If its any good, maybe when I take a break after wrapping up classes next week I'll see if its accessable by commuter rail and I'll check it out? Depends on if I here its worth the trip.

Ive wanted to see this film ever since i watched the trailer. It looked quirky, emotional and engaging. Qualities quite rarely found together in a docu-film.

If someone can enlighten me .. cause my friend is polish and he always talks about it.

How many non Jewish Polish were killed during this same time? I heard the number was staggering

Germany and es[ecially Poland were the bulk. I remember reading somewhere that about 1/2 of all Jews (in the world) lived along a shtetl strip in Poland and Russia. That's why Yiddish was under contemplation as the national language when Israel was first formed. I'd guess at least 1/2 of the 6 million came from that strip. But someone else may actually have more detailed information.

Baba - you can't ever get accurate figures on WW2 casualties. But from the figures I know, about 6 million Poles were killed in WW2, with half of them being Jews.

thanks for the info guys : )