Side By Side

Keanu Reeves and Martin Scorsese in “Side By Side”

From swirling photo chemical film grain to the “ones and zeros” of the digital age, “Side By Side,” the new documentary by filmmaker Chris Kenneally, is a fascinating and important new work.  The  subject is the transition from movies being shot, edited and exhibited on film, to being shot edited and exhibited digitally.

Normally I use the term “film” to refer to any movie about which I am writing.  I do this knowing full well that many of these “films” have been shot digitally (meaning in a high definition video format) and have not used the photochemical process of film at all.  I use the term “film” as a convenient way to refer to these projects (the present one included) although, as any viewer of “Side by Side” will learn, “film” is a term that, more and more, is becoming less and less accurate.

My Interview with Larry Weinstein, director of “Inside Hana’s Suitcase”

Larry Weinstein, the director of "Inside Hana's Suitcase." Photo by Robyn McCallum

Two weeks ago I wrote about the new documentary “Inside Hana’s Suitcase” which opened at the Quad Cinema, 34 West 13 Street, on April 18.  The story is about Hana Brady, a Jewish girl in Czechoslovakia who was killed in a concentration camp during World War II.  One of the only remaining symbols of her life is her suitcase.  “Inside Hana’s Suitcase” is based on the best selling book “Hana’s Suitcase” by Karen Levine, published in 2002.

I had the opportunity to interview the film’s director Larry Weinstein, a Canadian filmmaker known primarily for films of a very different nature. “I was a filmmaker who, for the last 30 years, only made films about music but some of them are hybrid documentaries with dramatic techniques,” Weinstein told me.  To this end Weinstein used dramatic re-enactments to tell Hana’s story.

Inside Hana’s Suitcase

Hana Brady, the subject of "Inside Hana's Suitcase"

“Inside Hana’s Suitcase,” a new documentary about the Holocaust, will open at the Quad Cinema, 34 West 13 Street, on April 18.  Prior to seeing “Inside Hana’s Suitcase” I wondered, with the many Holocaust documentaries that have already been made, was there anything new to add to this extensive cinematic narrative.   “Inside Hana’s Suitcase” manages to do just that by presenting the Holocaust from the Japanese point of view and by telling the story of one Czechoslovakian girl, Hana Brady.