Sorry for my previous post, "About to have a baby .
. ." = It was a misfire.
Ed
---- Original message ----
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 17:02:27 +1100
From= : Bubula Lardi <bubula@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [= ConstellationTalk] The Holocaust
Tourist
To: ConstellationTalk= @yahoogroups.com
Hi Thomas and Chris,
Thank you f= or referring me to The" Orders of
Love" and "The Holocaust
Touri= st" both have such a refreshing way of
seeing what gets taken for
<B= R>granted so often. Thomas, I used to be
frustrated by your provocations
to us on Constellation Talk but these days I've
become a huge f= an! So
thanks so much for your posted insights which
regularly l= iven me up
even if I remain attached to my own ways! You are
a t= rue resource to
us.
Sincerely,
Bub= ula Lardi
Australia
On 07/01/2007, at 7:19 AM, tma= sthenes13 wrote:
> If you think Jeremy "Jes" Benstock'= s short
film about The Orders of
> Love is good, you should se= e his follow up
film which is about to make
> its American deb= ut at the New York Jewish Film
Festival next week!
>
&g= t; It is quite the natural follow up to "The
Orders of Love" movie ---<B= R>
> just as Bert's Movements of the Soul grew out of
regular Fami= ly
> Constellations. Jeremy is really good at
"empathic satire= ," and now he
> takes on the Holocaust itself!
>
> You can view it here:
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/= dna/filmnetwork/A11445923
>
> It is a = ten minute short film called "The
Holocaust Tourist: Whatever
>= ; Happened to `Never Again'?" And it is all
about the "Disneyfication"<B= R>
> of Auschwitz, that is, the transformation of the
actual death= camp
> site into a Disney-style heritage-theme park,
complete= with the
> Judeo-istic kitschy trappings of bus tourism and
e= ssential creature
> comforts that we in the West have come to expect from any vacation
> spot or shopping mall we would visi= t.
>
> Here is a review of the film
>
http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.php?film_id= 11989
>
> with an excerpt:
>
&g= t; -------------------------------------
> "I d= idn't want to make a film about the
holocaust," says Benstock at
= > the outset, "but if you're a film-maker and
Jewish, it comes with t= he
> job description."
>
> It is the = nature of `holocaust tourism' that
interests -- or perhaps
> t= hat should be 'unsettles' -- Benstock. Is it
right that tourist shops<BR= >
> have sprung up to cash in on visitors to
Auschwitz? The town o= f Krakow
> is a bustling hub of tourism. Holidaymakers eat
in = Jewish-themed bars
> and restaurants before making a `pilgrima= ge'
to the death camp. But is
> pilgrimage the right word, or = is this just
another stop off on the
> tourist trail "blazed b= y Hollywood"?
> -------------------------------= -------
>
> Here is a 3-minute interview of Jes abou= t his
recent work.
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/fil= mnetwork/A12183699
>
> There is one incredi= ble scene where Jes had
come to Auschwitz for the
> 60th anniv= ersary celebration of the camp's
liberation in 2005. He
> want= ed to film the holocaust survivors leaving
the camp for what would
<B= R>> be their last time. The scene was at night
and it was snowing, an= d
> after the ceremony, everyone else but the camp
survivors h= ad arranged
> transportation out of the camp, but somehow, no
= one arranged for the
> camp survivors to leave. So there they = were
stranded once again at the
> Auschwitz camp, stuck in the= snow!
>
> "Never Again!" had become "Once Again!" O= r
maybe an astoundingly
> absurdist moment of "déjà vu all= over
again." For the very people who
> fought half a century = ago to have the camp
preserved. They get to be
> forgotten aga= in!
>
> The two signal events that turned Auschwitz into a "heritage theme
> park" were the fall of communism in 1= 989 and
the filming of
> "Schindler's List" there in 1992. Spi= elberg's
movie is as much a part
> of the history of the camp = now as any Nazi
brick oven used there.
> Jeremy films a tour g= uide at the camp pointing
out where Steven
> Spielberg had fil= med the scenes and even had
replicas of the gate
> constructed= as part of the movie set. "Arbeit
macht frei" indeed.
>
<B= R>> Other scenes of hilarious and painful
irony include the Jewish-th= emed
> restaurants that serve roast pork; even an
Auschwitz Ho= t Dog Stand!
> Then an interview with an old Jewish woodcarver lamenting the
> inaccuracies and downright fraudulence of the cheap Jewish-peasant
> figurines made to sell to the tourists= .
>
> It's clear that this commercial exploitation i s just a phenomenon of
> our modern electronic and technologic= al age.
Strangely enough, it
> feels like a natural and social= ly acceptable
form of "holocaust
> denial" that occurs precise= ly by making a
pilgrimage to the very site
> of the holocaust.= Yet the tourists are not
denying that the event
> happened; r= ather, the event was so horrible
and gruesome that, out of
> s= ocial etiquette alone, we must deny its cruel
reality, lest we either<BR= >
> faint, throw up on each other, or else make
continual primal s= creams
> of empathic agony. It's really quite a necessary
numb= ing down of our
> visceral reactions to the events.
>= ;
> From the FC perspective, Jeremy's movie really
raised an u= nsettling
> question for me. I began to recall all the
constel= lations where I had
> been selected to lie on the floor (somet= imes
for hours in a drawn-out
> epic "cast-of-thousands" Heinz= Stark
Constellation!!!) as a
> representative of some gr= oup of holocaust
victims. Or else to
> represent the mass murd= erers, (which seems to
come more naturally to
> me, by the way= .)
>
> In the last two years, I have lain on the flo or to represent:
>
> --> Jews and Nazis in the ho= locaust
>
> --> Russian prisoners in the Russo-Ja= panese
War of 1905
>
> --> slaughtered members of= a Syrian clan
connected with the Armenian
> genocide of 1917<= BR>
>
> -->Brazilian peasants massacred by rich lando wners
>
> -->dead American soldiers killed by Ger= man
soldiers in WW II.
>
> My question became: might= we be "re-packaging
history" even in
> constellations, in the= same spirit of
"necessary numbing denial" that
> Jes shows us= so clearly happening at Auschwitz?
>
> On the other= hand, I thought, how else could it
be? Since we are only
> re= presentatives, doing our best to reflect the
horrors and unspeakable
> cruelty that happened to people we are not
related to, we can o= nly
> represent them and their traumas to the limits
of our ow= n "mirror
> neurons."
>
> On a positive no= te, I think that all the crass
commercialism, all the
> Walt D= isneyfication of history, even of
Auschwitz, is simply a part of
= > our unfolding Greater Field of all us human
beings and actually may= be
> orchestrated by all of our dead ancestors to
awaken us t= o what
> actually transpired in the past and still lives
in th= e Greater
> Epigenetic Field of us all.
>
>= ; So, maybe we are not re-packaging history;
so much as we are newly
> packaging our inner soul reactions to that
history, delivering = and
> opening those packages in constellations.
><BR= >
> After all, constellations do not represent
actual literal hist= orical
> events; but the underlying emotional and
epigenetic i= nheritance of the
> effects of those historical events.
<BR= >>
> I think this commercialization and reduction to
kitsch= iness is simply
> the price we have to pay now in order to ina ugurate and continue the
> process of bringing the perpetrator= and victim
energies into balance.
>
> Thomas
<BR= >>
> PS Here is the website of the Jewish Museum in
New Yor= k, where
> "Holocaust Tourist" is opening in week or so.
<B= R>>
> http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/site /pages/page.php?
> id=291&live_stats=NY= JFF2007
>
> "Jes Benstock takes viewers on a whistle= -stop
tour of kitsch Judaica
> in Krakow and tour buses in Aus= chwitz."
>
> What is greatly ironic --- and I'm sure= planned
that way --- is that
> "The Holocaust Tourist" opens = for the full
length "gripping
> documentary" called: "Nurember= g: The Nazis
facing their Crimes," a
> serious treatment of th= e trials of 1946.
>
> You know, Alison & Max, yo= u had scheduled a
workshop together in New
> York City at the = Anthroposophical center on
15th St. on January 21
> about the = healing the Holocaust. I'm sorry to
hear it's being
> canceled= . Too bad you couldn't have
coordinated with Jes because 50
> = blocks north up at Lincoln Center, his
Holocaust Tourist film is
= > making its première run. From January 10
through Jan 25.
&= gt;
>
>
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