January 11, 2006 Holocaust Remembrance Film is Subject of Lecture on Feb. 7

Director Elliot Berlin will discuss the making of “Paper Clips,” a film about a Holocaust remembrance project, at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7, in Dining Room A on the sixth floor of the Library’s James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave S.E., Washington, D.C.

Sponsored jointly by the Library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division and the Hebrew Language Table, the lecture is free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

“Paper Clips” is a moving and inspiring documentary about how middle school students in the small, rural community of Whitwell, Tenn., responded to the lessons of the Holocaust—with a promise to honor every lost soul by collecting one paper clip for each individual who was exterminated by the Nazis. The result was a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips (representing 6 million Jews and 5 million gypsies, homosexuals and other victims of the Holocaust). The railcar stands permanently in their schoolyard as a reminder to respect diversity and a testament to how a committed group of children and educators can change the world one classroom at a time.

“Paper Clips” is a production of the Johnson Group, in association with Miramax Films and Ergo Entertainment. It was named one of the top documentary films of 2004 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and received much critical and public acclaim.

Elliot Berlin, a senior producer with the Johnson Group, has had more than 20 years of experience as a producer, director, editor, writer and cameraman. In addition to “Paper Clips,” his projects include “Musical Wizards,” a documentary about the inventors of new musical instruments, and “The Tale of Genji,” a film about the classicc11th century Japanese novel. Before becoming active in broadcast and theatrical documentary production, he spent more than a decade producing corporate and institutional videos for a variety of clients.