Post Film Discussion: Speer Goes to Hollywood
When: March 9, 3-4:30 PM, EST
Where: Virtual
With Director Vanessa Lapa and Producer Tomer Eliav, Moderated by Avi Ben Hur
Speer Goes to Hollywood offers an intriguing look at the inner workings of a man responsible for the deaths of millions, yet who consistently strove to be portrayed as an innocent amongst the guilty. This new film by director Vanessa Lapa, award-winning director of The Decent One (2014), is a cautionary tale of how media such as film can be manipulated easily to shape the way that history is remembered.
Albert Speer is an enigma. The highest-ranking Nazi in Nuremberg to be spared the death sentence, Speer was one of Hitler’s closest confidants and his chief architect, tasked with rebuilding Berlin as the capital of a global empire. As Reichsminister of Munitions, Speer was responsible for 12 million slave laborers. And yet, even now, he has the reputation of being “the good Nazi” – a myth he carefully constructed himself. “Speer Goes to Hollywood” meets its protagonist in 1971, while Speer was working on a screenplay for Paramount Pictures, based on his bestselling wartime memoir “Inside the Third Reich”. Based on months of audio cassettes, recorded by screenwriter Andrew Birkin, it features Speer’s callous attempt to whitewash his past in a feature film. The audio narrative is supplemented by rare archival footage, taken before and during World War II and later, during Speer’s retirement as a semi-reclusive country gentleman.
Link to watch the movie will be sent 4 days before the program.
In partnership with:
Exhibits and programs presented in part with the generous support of the following:
