Three Minutes – A Lengthening

dir. Bianca Stigter 2021 The Netherlands, UK 68 min.
2021 – Venice IFF; 2021 – Telluride FF; 2021 – Toronto IFF; 2021 – DOC NYC New York; 2021 – IDFA Amsterdam
The story of Polish village Nasielsk destroyed by the Holocaust recovered from a video footage dating back to 1938, found by accident over 80 years later in Florida


Home movies may be the most haunting cinema of all, taking on the lustre of loss and mortality with each passing year. The videos Glenn Kurtz found in his parents’ home in Florida were rarer and more precious still. Bianca Stigter transforms David Kurtz’s shimmering images from over 80 years ago into a remarkable meditation on what it means for a lost community to be captured on film. Instead of 8mm stock, Kurtz shot on colour 16mm film. His footage gives Stigter rich material to illustrate the detective work needed to recover the stories of Polish village Nasielsk, destroyed not soon afterwards by the Holocaust.

PDF materials

  • Pickup Three Minutes - A Lengthening – From curiosity to creativity - lesson plan “What is the memory of the Holocaust? Can a documentary film help to remember?”

  • Pickup Three Minutes - A Lengthening – From curiosity to creativity - lesson plan “What is the memory of the Holocaust? Can a documentary film help to remember?” in English