 If
you've ever wanted to to know about Jewish life in Poland
prior to the Holocaust, congratulations. Your wishes have
been granted. Welcome to Image Before My Eyes, the
documentary, an hour and a half of Jewish life in Poland prior
to the Holocaust.
Springing from a 1976 photo exhibit by the Jewish
Museum and the YIVO Institute For Jewish Research in New York
City, this 1980 documentary gives us a look at a time gone
by, and at a people who just a scant few years later would
be subject to one of the history's most brutal genocides.
The film is made up of old photos, old footage, and old people
telling their stories.
One woman shares a charming story about how she
wasn't allowed to play with the non-Jewish children. It was
a "lonely life," she said, and the other kids made fun of
her. Her family proudly put the Star of David on the roof
of their house, proud to be Jews. But her parents still forbid
her from spending time with kids who weren't Jewish.
Another older fellow had a different attitude.
He said he was proud to be Jewish, "but otherwise I'm like
everybody else." He didn't see any point in setting himself
apart from others. He enjoyed maintaining friends from all
walks of life. He said he boasted friends of all sorts.
Yet
another Jewish old timer expresses a small degree of scorn
for Orthodox Jews, calling them dirty and mocking their dress,
while also sheepishly admitting, "They are my brothers." This
is nice. A man shouldn't love his people? So what, he doesn't
like what with the hats and the black. He embraced!
 The Polish Zionists, on the other hand, didn't
want to stay in Poland. They wanted to establish a nation
of their own in Palestine - which I suppose they eventually
succeeded in doing. There are all sorts of Zionists, though.
They disagree on this and that. If you want maybe they should
explain all this, eh, another time maybe. I'm not all so clear
on it all.
Polish Jews are Polish citizens, Image Before
My Eyes, the documentary, tells me, but were also minorities,
both forced and by choice, often with their own local governments.
War comes. Poverty. And disdain for the Jews from non-Jewish
Poles. Anti-Semitism. We know how that ended.
 Image
Before My Eyes, the documentary, has many wonderful sights
and sounds from years ago. The pictures of giant, wooden,
Asian-looking synagogues were very nice and I enjoyed looking
at them. The awkward old songs in Yiddish sung by old people,
not as much.
There are a lot of those songs, actually. This
film is full of them. So many! It's okay, though. I'll listen.
Some folks tells stories about their marriages,
and friendships, and jobs, and relationships. Sometimes these
stories are very, very boring. Some other times, they're not.
Punctuating these stories are an array of ancient,
beaten old photos of people Jewish people, specifically
and places and so on. Old footage, too. When people aren't
talking about themselves, a pleasant sounding woman provides
narration to give some historical context to it all.
The story here is, of course, about Jewish life
in Poland before the Holocaust. In fact, the subtitle of this
film is, A History of Jewish Life in Poland Before the
Holocaust. That says it all, eh?
Video
Presentation
This film was released
in 1980, and is dominated by photos and footage that even
then was more than four decades old. The source is the source
is the source is the source, which is to say that this is
a grainy, shaky, unattractive film. But that's a given when
you consider what it's made up of. Entirely forgivable, and
for what it is, entirely watchable. Like paging through an
old family photo album.
The sound is fine. It's nothing more than 25-year-old
recordings of people telling their story and a narrator, so
to say it's nothing special is an understatement. Always clear
and understandable, though, which is all you can ask for.
 Disc
Extras
Our main extra is a commentary track by director
and producer Josh Waletzky. You'd think a commentary on a
documentary like this might be a tad boring. Not so. Waletzky
is a little dry a speaker and he's prone to silent spots,
but he has interesting stories to share, enlightens the listener
on what it was like to create a documentary of this sort,
and expresses a great affinity and love for the subject matter.
It very much gave me a greater appreciation for the film.
A few text extras round out the disc. These include
a filmmaker bio, a piece about the YIVI Institute,
and a bit about Docurama.
Finally, this 25th Anniversary release features
a wonderful 20-page Study Guide which serves as a fantastic
side-by-side companion to the documentary. Well-written, informative
and interesting, I ADORE extras like this. Big thumbs up.
The Bottom
Line
I want I should be more
interested in the subject matter. Image Before My Eyes deserves a good home to love it, because it's a heartfelt,
heart-warming presentation that belongs not just in any Jewish
home, but any home with an appreciation for oral histories
and eras long since passed. It lacks thrills, chills and spills,
but what do you expect? It's an oral history. And a fine one
at that.
This is the 25th Anniversary Special Edition
release of the film. Stop your kvetching and go get it already.
You'll like.
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