"Paperclips" is the story of a small town middle school in Tennessee. As a part of their attempt to work compassion into the classwork and fight a regional trend toward racism, they begin a holocaust study program. Early on the kids have a tough time getting their heads around the size of the numbers, 7,000,000 jews killed in camps, 5,000,000 gays, gypsies, teachers, writers and "deviants" killed. No one could imagine what those kinds of numbers looked like and so they began to collect paperclips, one for each life lost.
That is just the beginning of the journey for the kids, the parents, the teachers and administrators of this school. By the end I was crying, dazzled by the commitment and insights these folks had. The town and it's visitors have a life changing experience. No one in the film uses the term, but this is an installation piece with amazing documentation, performance and of course the film itself all growing organically from the process of trying to understand something too huge, too horrible and too long ago for these kids to grasp. They bring things down to a scale that makes the reality even more stunning and personal.
If you have a family or group moment and want to share an amazing film. Check this one out.
It is responsible on so many levels, inspiring and so much bigger than the individuals involved. In other words, it's art at the level I wish we saw more of.
Hope you like it. If you know of other installation, documentation films, please let me know.
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