The Museum and the Fury

The result of a commission from Film Polski, the Polish Film Production Agency, to make a film on the concentration camps, The Museum and the Fury was made with access to the Film Polski archive, out of which Hurwitz integrated wartime footage with images of the reconstruction of Poland and various works of art. Centering on the museum of the concentration camps at Auschwitz, it begins as a historical survey exploring the function of a museum, establishing the kinship of all art, and stating that “art is man’s way of remembering his experience.” Along with the use of archival actuality and enacted footage, Hurwitz used the technique of photo-animation — a moving camera over still images, now used in many films — for the first time in the U.S. This study of war, art, memory and genocide is one of Hurwitz’s most concise and powerful films.

This is a transfer from a 1-inch tape made in the 1980’s