thenationofartists.com

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival

Director & Writer: Hilary Helstein
Starring: Maya Angelou (narrator), Samuel Bak, Yehuda Bacon, Dina Gottliebova, Karl Stojka, Simon Wiesenthal, Frederick Terna, Ela Weissberger, Judith Goldstein, Alfred Kantor, Tony Kushner

Opening with poet Maya Angelou’s authoritative whispers as she recites “I know why the caged bird sings,” As Seen Through These Eyes bears witness to the art of the inspired souls whose compulsion to create art in the most dire of circumstances sometimes saved their lives, but also aided thousands of others to touch upon their experiences from within the most oppressive man-slaughter in recent history.

Art is indeed a liberation song. And while Picasso’s famous “Guernica” – one the last great history paintings – was painted in reaction to the blood shed by the children, women and men of a Basque village bombed by Nazis, the art featured in Hilary Helstein’s harrowing documentary was created by fame-less numbers who refused to accept their gas-chamber fate without a fight to preserve the legacy of their predicament.

Interestingly, the film begins with reference to Hitler’s failed applications to Vienna’s Academy for the Arts, highlighting the aggressive assault against the many artists labeled “degenerates” by the crazed Austrian. It then shifts to recognize the Phoenician rise of “defiant witnesses” who had the courage to artistically express the atrocities to which they bore witness. And finally, the film stands as some sort of testament (amoral or otherwise) to the appreciation some Nazi officers openly showed for artists and musicians, the absence of which would, most definitely, have resulted in an even more comprehensive extermination of Jews, Gypsies and other minorities.

In illuminating the teachers who not only lacked supplies but risked their lives to provide children with an alternative to their reality, the film imbues in its audience the sense of sorrow and respect that Roberto Benigni’s masterpiece, Life is Beautiful, brought to the screen. Helstein’s feature holds out the hope that, in some way, these artists were able to protect the minds and preserve the memories of the Holocaust’s young victims.

Art is also revealed to have served its official purpose: entertainment for the enjoyment of officers and guards, camp orchestras forced to play joyous marches to drown out the screams of the dying, painters to faithfully record the true visions of the victims’ appearances prior to Mengele’s medical experimentation, and graphics artists utilized to design Nazi paraphernalia and propaganda. Unofficially, however, these artists created their own expressions of life, recording the horrors for as long as they went undiscovered.

With many artistic figures from whom to draw, Helstein does well to avoid a mere static series of talking heads. As Seen Through These Eyes is a living, moving representation of the art and the time during which the art was produced. Unfortunately, it also marks the passing of many of these inspiring figures, including towers of humanity like famed artist and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, Gypsy artist Karl Stojka and artist Willi Groag.

As Darfur and Bosnia indicate, this world seems not to have learned its lessons from the concentration camps of Terezin, Vilna and Auschwitz-Birkenau, to name a few. However, with the ever-expanding reach of independent film at festivals worldwide, a greater education and enlightenment can be achieved by sharing documentaries like this, and exhibiting the art of the film’s subjects.

After seeing this art, and hearing these stories, it is fundamental to remember that we, too, have the responsibility of witnesses.