History Documentary hosted by Dana Westberg, published by Arte in 2012 - English narration
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"Images tell stories, we tell the stories of images." Mysteries in the archives, ten investigations into ten events of the twentieth century that have marked our memory and our imagination. In the French series, we learn about the historical events of the 20th century by closely investigating archive films. Who is in the picture, who is missing? Why was the camera pointed right here? Who is sitting next to whom?
By looking at the pictures again and more closely, the series reveals how history has been processed, told and manipulated in the pictures. Each image is carefully studied and analyzed until its secrets are revealed. The series explores the power of pictures to tell otherwise. It raises the question: do we see what we know or can we know more with the help of the image?
"Mysteries in the Archives" is a collection aiming to uncover and rediscover known or unpublished images that bear witness to our history. The audiovisual document becomes a piece of evidence that it is up to us to question, to make people talk. The image is scrutinized, dissected, and often, Mysteries in the Archives takes our gaze away from what the camera operator had seen or expected. Each episode is constructed as an investigation. Some are about cheerful and amusing topics, others are about more solemn, momentous events.
Serge Viallet, a true detective of the image, reveals a multitude of new elements and significant anecdotes hidden behind the story as it was shown to us in cinemas and then on television. Meticulous investigations are undertaken - film is rummaged, sifted through and sorted, examined frame by frame and analyzed until it finally reveals its secrets. This collection includes all 10 episodes of season 3.
Series idea & director Serge Viallet ; A Co-Production of ARTE France and INA-Institut National de l'Audiovisuel in Association with YLE Teema and RTSI-Televisione Svizzera
5) 1945: Concentration Camps Liberated in Germany
Germany, April 1945. When the Nazi camps were liberated during the final offensive launched against the German Army, the Allies discovered with horror multiple mass graves and a few starving survivors. A few days before the end of the war, Allied troops advancing on the western front liberate numerous labor and concentration camps - and show the whole world the horrific evidence of Nazi terror. The discovery of the Polish death camps of Majdanek and Auschwitz by Soviet soldiers in July 1944 and January 1945 had hardly caused a stir among the Allies. It was only when the Americans discovered the German camps in Ohrdruf, Buchenwald and Dachau that the full extent of Nazi cruelty was revealed. As an immediate reaction, the three Allied generals made the following three decisions: the immediate and comprehensive documentation of the atrocities the confrontation of the German population with the Nazi crimes the inspection of the camps by other politicians.
Photography played a very special role: in just a few weeks, the former death camps became popular locations for films and photo spreads. For what reason and with what goal? What reality could and should these pictures show?
