Part of Freedom of Expression Award: Péter Forgács

Director Péter Forgács in person at the Castro.

Found-footage master Péter Forgács makes extraordinary use of a cache of home movies shot in the Netherlands before and during World War II to tell the story of the Peereboom family, a clan that we meet first at weddings, at the seaside and in intimate moments captured by the talented amateur photographer among them, Max Peereboom. Our foreknowledge of the gathering cloud of the Holocaust casts a grim shadow over the footage, which records even their seemingly cheerful preparations for a trip to a “work camp” in 1942. Underscored by a haunting soundtrack by Tibor Szemzö, The Maelstrom interweaves newsreels and contemporaneous home movies shot by the Nazi governor-general of Holland into a devastating firsthand account of one family’s tragic fate.

—Peter L. Stein

Presented with The Danube Exodus

Co-sponsored by George & Sejong Sarlo

Co-presented by Contemporary Jewish Museum and Contra Costa Jewish Community Center