Return to Vienna
Ruth Beckermann: Keep the Camera Rolling • 1h 32m
Dir. Ruth Beckermann, Josef Aichholzer - 1983 - Austria
A master storyteller remembers his youth in Vienna. Franz West (1900 –1985) recalls his Jewish family, his commitment to the workers' movement in Red Vienna along with the rise of Austro-Fascism and National Socialism. His memories of the diverse Jewish population of the so-called “Matzah Island” combined with impressive archive material illustrate and elucidate the complexity of Austrian history between the two world wars.
"Docus dealing with historical personalities often suffer from a sheer lack of shooting time to allow the one being interviewed to unspool his biographical story at his own leisure and in his own manner. Ruth Beckermann and Josef Aichholzer’s Return to Vienna is a welcome exception to the norm for the subject, Franz West (Weintraub), is not only highly literate (he’s a professional journalist), but also a truly gifted storyteller with a balanced view of history as it unfolded a half-century ago in one section of Austria in the Viennese community of Leopoldstadt. Beckermann and Aichholzer score as exemplary historical documentarists." - Variety, 1983
Up Next in Ruth Beckermann: Keep the Camera Rolling
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Paper Bridge
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1987 - Austria
Ruth Beckermann’s exploration of her own family past is both the story of the Central European Jews and a history of the region. Her journey takes her from Vienna, where her grandmother lived in hiding during the war amongst the Nazis by posing as a deaf-mut...
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Towards Jerusalem
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1990 - Austria
What became of the dream of the Jewish homeland? A still relevant documentary road movie shot along the highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Trucks, gas stations, construction workers, soldiers, Russian immigrants, taxi drivers, security guards: encounter...
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East of War
Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 1996 - Austria
White-tiled rooms, neon lighting, on the walls the black and white photographs of the exhibition “War of Extermination”, which documents the atrocities committed by the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Against this background, Ruth Beckermann films for...
