Documentary “Paper Clips” Free Essay Example

Paper Clips is a documentary about a specifically white Protestant neighborhood, living in the rural location of Tennessee mountains. In 1998, the students of the regional Whitwell Intermediate school, while studying the history lesson on holocaust, pertained to learn more about the extermination of 6 million Jews. Nevertheless, they might not precisely conceive how big a figure 6 million was and looked for the teacher’s help. The instructor was not able to describe the enormity of the figure, and what a stupendous death it had been.

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So, a job was initiated by the Principal of the school Ms Linda Hooper, to teach the trainees about the magnitude and value of the occasion in human history, and designated the students to gather 6 million paper clips about the holocaust. During the course of the task, the trainees had not just cross their target however they might also gather some much more valuable hand written memoirs of people who had lost their near and dear ones during the holocaust.

Along the course of this task, which spanned from 1998 to 2003, trainees found out some long-lasting experiences which till then they were not knowledgeable about.

Apart from learning about the darker sides of the holocaust, they likewise developed genuine human qualities like empathy, generosity, and generosity when they communicated with the Jews during the task. At the end of the job, the students and the Whitwell community members, with the support from global community, constructed a memorial in remembrance of the holocaust victims. In the school yard, the authentic railway car of the Nazi age was kept, which had actually been used to transport the Jews and others to the prisoner-of-war camp.

The railway cars and truck was creatively displayed with specific handwritten stories and all the paper clips gathered throughout the course of the job were kept inside the car. The memorial railcar was filled with 11 million paper clips, representing 6 million Jews and other 5 million victims of the holocaust. This mentally effective documentary depicted something genuinely excellent and after seeing it, one can not help but feel the goodness transferred to them. It was heartening to see these town people’s immediate bonding with holocaust survivors who visited their community.

The bonding of Cassie Crabtree with holocaust survivor Sam was intensely moving. It was immensely painful listening to the accounts of the holocaust survivors, at the same time it was touching to see the hugs and tears between the two groups and to feel that there were inherently good and compassionate people in this world like the students, teachers, and the community members of the Whitwell community. It was deeply touching to see the student community getting immersed in the holocaust fact finding mission with a single minded passion and zeal.

However, in the documentary, many smaller but important details had been overlooked by the filmmaker. For instance, in spite of the fact that there was great scope for highlighting the speeches of the survivors, the filmmaker had cut the speeches short in order to highlight the reactions of the children more. The creation of the memorial which had taken place just after the terrorist’s attack of the twin tower could have been proved to be advantageous had the documentary linked the central theme of tolerance to the volatile political situation prevailing at that time.

The documentary was nice to watch but it could have been something greater, with some more insight and professionalism on the part of the filmmakers. The scripted narration in the film was not up to the mark and at times was rather distracting. After watching the documentary, one has a feeling that it could also have been a short subject documentary, rather than a full feature length documentary. However, it was a remarkable story and worth watching simply for the depiction of genuine human emotions and to watch those people with hearts of gold.

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