Latest news with #PictureFromAuschwitz
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
New ‘historically accurate' digital replica will allow films to be set within Auschwitz
The Auschwitz Memorial has launched a 'historically accurate' digital replica of the former concentration camp for filmmakers to set their pictures in, breaking a long-held taboo around shooting features at the grounds where an estimated 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazi regime. At the Cannes film festival on Thursday, he organisers of the Picture from Auschwitz project said they have harnessed 'cutting-edge 3D scanning technologies' to build a digital model of the concentration camp that matches the site in its current state 'down to every single brick'. A second phase of the €1.5m project will involve 3D scanning the adjacent Birkenau site, which is roughly 30 times larger than Auschwitz, as well as building historically accurate digital replicas of the crematoriums and gas chambers that were destroyed by the Nazis in late 1944. 'We are responding to a growing need,' said Wojciech Soczewica, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial. 'More and more people are coming to visit Auschwitz because they are interested in history, and it's our responsibility to provide the film industry with resources that are credible.' Soczewica said the licensing model for Picture from Auschwitz had not yet been finalised, but that any fees would go directly to the memorial and thus support its mission to commemorate the victims. Currently, the memorial only allows documentaries to be made on its site, a ban that has been in place since the late 1980s. In 1963, the makers of acclaimed Polish film Passenger were still given permission to film at Auschwitz. In the early 90s Steven Spielberg was denied permission to film Schindler's List inside the concentration camp, setting one scene outside the infamous Auschwitz gatehouse and building replicas of the barracks just outside the camp. Italian director Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful, which is partially set in a concentration camp, was filmed in an abandoned factory near Papigno, Umbria, while Hungarian director László Nemes's Oscar-winning Auschwitz drama Son of Saul was shot on the outskirts of Budapest. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial said the feature-film ban was due to the need to preserve the site and prevent closures, rather than moral concerns. But some film-makers and artists have argued that setting films inside Auschwitz is outright unethical. Austrian director Michael Haneke condemned Schindler's List as 'unspeakable' for drawing suspense out of the question of whether gas or water would flow out of the shower heads at the camp. Oscar-winning 2023 film The Zone of Interest was filmed on grounds next to the camp, but British film-maker Jonathan Glazer made an artistic and ethical point about never allowing his cameras to swoop over its walls. Asked about what kind of films could use the Picture from Auschwitz resource, the memorial's spokesperson Pawel Sawicki said: 'When assessing proposals for film projects, we put historical accuracy above everything else: whether this is what happened at Auschwitz, or what could have happened at Auschwitz, given the knowledge coming from the testimonies, historical documents we have, and years of historical research.' As to whether this could in principle allow horror films, action movies or video games to be set inside Auschwitz as long as they were historically accurate, Sawicki said the rules around genre had not been finalised. 'The lines have not been drawn yet, as this is something very new for us, but there will certainly be boundaries. The camp should not be used as a stage in any way. If the proposal is to make a film that distorts history, dishonours the memory of victims, or serves purely as entertainment, that's a red flag for us.' One of the people who has advised the project is Ryszard Horowitz, 86, a photographer who was interned at Auschwitz as a five-year-old in 1944, and survived after his family were taken under the wing of Oskar Schindler. 'I'm for keeping this story alive, and I like the idea of authenticity,' he said. Polish film-maker Agnieszka Holland, who is acting as Picture from Auschwitz's director, said she believes opening up the site for film-makers of the future was necessary to allow a new generation to confront the darkest moment in European history. 'For a long time, the horror of the second world war and the Holocaust was a warning lesson that brought about important changes, such as the construction of a European identity,' Holland said. 'But the vaccinating effect of the Holocaust has evaporated, and now we are in a similarly dangerous situation to where we were 90 years ago.'
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Auschwitz Memorial Announces Project To Create Digital Replica Offering Virtual Film Location
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial is working on a project to create a certified digital replica of the preserved concentration and extermination camp which can be used as a virtual film location. The initiative is likely to draw considerable interest from the film world because the production of fiction feature films is not permitted at the memorial, situated on the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in southern Poland, where around 1.1 million people died in horrific conditions during World War Two. More from Deadline Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest, for example, was made in cooperation with the memorial and museum, which gave the production access to camp documents, survivors' testimonies, and expert guidance, and also allowed it to scan parts of the area of the former camp. However, none of the dramatic reconstructions were filmed on the site. Documentary films are allowed to film with permission, which meant the final sequences of the Oscar-nominated drama, showing the work of the museum and the objects that belonged to victims, could be shot on its premises. The groundbreaking digital replica project, bannered Picture From Auschwitz, will be presented in a panel at the Cannes Film Festival's Marche du Film as part of its technology and innovation focused Cannes Next strand. Polish director Agnieszka Holland and Polish American photographer Ryszard Horowitz; an Auschwitz survivor, who was one of the youngest survivors on Schindler's List, will join Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation CEO Wojciech Soczewica, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Deputy Spokesperson Paweł Sawicki and the project's creative producer Maciej Żemojcin on stage to talk about the project. Żemojcin and his team are using cutting-edge 3D scanning technologies to create a certified digital replica which preserves and protects the site's historical integrity. 'The certified digital replica offers filmmakers a revolutionary tool rooted in accuracy and ethical storytelling helping combat denial and distortion at a time when misinformation is on the rise,' read a release announcing the project and panel. 'Designed for a wide range of films – from documentaries to large-scale Hollywood productions – Picture From Auschwitz supports the telling of the true story of the camp as out of numerous reasons the historical site is not and will not be accessible for filmmaking.' The replica will feature every detail of the site from the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' entry gate to its fence posts, with every brick or roof tile of its buildings meticulously documented, to reveal perspectives and details invisible to the naked eye. The data will be preserved and reprocessed over time as new technologies emerge. Żemojcin's team has already completed a 1:1 digital replica of Auschwitz I using the most advanced spatial scanning tools available. Next steps in the project include completing the digital interiors of Auschwitz I, and the exteriors and interiors of Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp – securing the entirety of the Memorial site. Licensing fees for the virtual replica will directly support the Memorial, which is marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp this year, and its mission of commemorating all victims, fighting antisemitism and all forms of hatred as well as raising reflection about our contemporary moral responsibility. Partners on the project include the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial, Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, American Friends of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, Creative Media Europe, ATM Virtual and Leica Geosystems. Footage from the project will be showcased during the panel while a website for the initiative will go live on May 15. Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
