Egon Humer

"The art of the stage actor and even of a stage director is evanescent. Nothing remains of it but a 'still' photograph or two (...) Not everyone can be a genius. Somebody has to be a Leon Askin - and that's me." Leon Askin, born in Vienna in 1907 , fled from the Nazis to the USA in 1940. The private Leon Askin is portrayed: his daily routine, his contact with those around him, at work. During quiet moments, he discusses his thoughts about persecution, emigration, work, discipline, success, the image one projects to the world, his identity as a Jew, loneliness, the struggle for recognition and health, life acting - and also about death.

"The art of the stage actor and even of a stage director is evanescent. Nothing remains of it but a 'still' photograph or two (...) Not everyone can be a genius. Somebody has to be a Leon Askin - and that's me." Leon Askin, born in Vienna in 1907 , fled from the Nazis to the USA in 1940. The private Leon Askin is portrayed: his daily routine, his contact with those around him, at work. During quiet moments, he discusses his thoughts about persecution, emigration, work, discipline, success, the image one projects to the world, his identity as a Jew, loneliness, the struggle for recognition and health, life acting - and also about death.

"The art of the stage actor and even of a stage director is evanescent. Nothing remains of it but a 'still' photograph or two (...) Not everyone can be a genius. Somebody has to be a Leon Askin - and that's me." Leon Askin, born in Vienna in 1907 , fled from the Nazis to the USA in 1940. The private Leon Askin is portrayed: his daily routine, his contact with those around him, at work. During quiet moments, he discusses his thoughts about persecution, emigration, work, discipline, success, the image one projects to the world, his identity as a Jew, loneliness, the struggle for recognition and health, life acting - and also about death.

"The art of the stage actor and even of a stage director is evanescent. Nothing remains of it but a 'still' photograph or two (...) Not everyone can be a genius. Somebody has to be a Leon Askin - and that's me." Leon Askin, born in Vienna in 1907 , fled from the Nazis to the USA in 1940. The private Leon Askin is portrayed: his daily routine, his contact with those around him, at work. During quiet moments, he discusses his thoughts about persecution, emigration, work, discipline, success, the image one projects to the world, his identity as a Jew, loneliness, the struggle for recognition and health, life acting - and also about death.

When Hitler's infamous "Anschluss" annexed Austria to Germany in 1938, the lives of 130,000 Jewish Austrians were placed at risk. Over the next three years, some 30,000 managed to emigrate to the United States, settling mainly in New York City. In Austrian filmmaker Egon Humer's brilliant and moving documentary EMIGRATION N.Y., twelve Viennese Jews -- seven women, five men -- recount their lives as children in Austria, as emigrants, as New Yorkers. Deceptively simple in style, the film gathers striking emotional power as its subjects (who include Amos Vogel, co-founder of the New York Film Festival) offer fresh and often surprising views on their experience of exile and assimilation.

When Hitler's infamous "Anschluss" annexed Austria to Germany in 1938, the lives of 130,000 Jewish Austrians were placed at risk. Over the next three years, some 30,000 managed to emigrate to the United States, settling mainly in New York City. In Austrian filmmaker Egon Humer's brilliant and moving documentary EMIGRATION N.Y., twelve Viennese Jews -- seven women, five men -- recount their lives as children in Austria, as emigrants, as New Yorkers. Deceptively simple in style, the film gathers striking emotional power as its subjects (who include Amos Vogel, co-founder of the New York Film Festival) offer fresh and often surprising views on their experience of exile and assimilation.

Industrial mass murder in the Third Reich, atrocities in other wars, cruelty perpetrated by "normal" citizens: "obedience" appears to be the key to this behavior.

Industrial mass murder in the Third Reich, atrocities in other wars, cruelty perpetrated by "normal" citizens: "obedience" appears to be the key to this behavior.

A flare shoots through the night. "Red brothers" against right-wing extremists; immigrant groups against right-wing "louts"; knives and tear-gas against baseball bats. "WADADENG, WADADENG, listen to my 9 mm go BANG" ... Rap and hip-hop in Vienna.

A flare shoots through the night. "Red brothers" against right-wing extremists; immigrant groups against right-wing "louts"; knives and tear-gas against baseball bats. "WADADENG, WADADENG, listen to my 9 mm go BANG" ... Rap and hip-hop in Vienna.

"Guilt and Memory" is a contemporary history about four former high-ranking Austrian Nazis. On the subject of "dealing with memory", Marcel Ophüls writes, "Memory cannot be artificially activated - neither by events nor by censorship ... It has to be a personal act of remembering."

"Guilt and Memory" is a contemporary history about four former high-ranking Austrian Nazis. On the subject of "dealing with memory", Marcel Ophüls writes, "Memory cannot be artificially activated - neither by events nor by censorship ... It has to be a personal act of remembering."

The Loiblpass is situated in the mountains between Austria and Yugoslavia: 12km from the village of Neumarktl and 10km from Ferlach in Carinthia. Between 1943 and 1945, political prisoners from the Mauthausen concentration camp drove a tunnel into the mountains at an altitude of 1200m. To this day, two people have been linked by this tunnel: Janko Tisler was an engineer in charge of the building site in 1944; today he lives in Krize, south of the tunnel. Dr. Sigbert Ramsauer, the SS doctor of the camp at the site then, at the age of 80 still practises in Klagenfurt. Janko Tisler fights against forgetting, Dr. Ramsauer wishes he were forgotten. The history of the tunnel has become theirs as well.

Documentary about a small town in Austria.

Documentary about a small town in Austria.

When the busses left, the nurse said to the children, 'Today you have to pray a lot, because today you go up the chimney and meet the good Lord.' The children of the area knew these vehicles and said, 'Look, there is another one of these killer busses.' And they said to one another, ' You are not very clever, you, too, are going to end up in the oven in Hartheim, you, too, will be hung up in the chimney.' Hartheim Castle near Linz was one of several places of destruction of 'unworthy life' within the framework of the euthanasia program of National Socialism. Over 30,000 mentally or physically handicapped, psychiatric patients and inmates of concentration camps were gassed in Hartheim between 1940 and 1945. Today Hartheim Castle is rented and inhabited. In a place where 40 years ago thousands if lives were destroyed by industrial methods, today life asserts itself in the trite daily function of living. The documentation is about Hartheim Castle, in the past and in the present.

When the busses left, the nurse said to the children, 'Today you have to pray a lot, because today you go up the chimney and meet the good Lord.' The children of the area knew these vehicles and said, 'Look, there is another one of these killer busses.' And they said to one another, ' You are not very clever, you, too, are going to end up in the oven in Hartheim, you, too, will be hung up in the chimney.' Hartheim Castle near Linz was one of several places of destruction of 'unworthy life' within the framework of the euthanasia program of National Socialism. Over 30,000 mentally or physically handicapped, psychiatric patients and inmates of concentration camps were gassed in Hartheim between 1940 and 1945. Today Hartheim Castle is rented and inhabited. In a place where 40 years ago thousands if lives were destroyed by industrial methods, today life asserts itself in the trite daily function of living. The documentation is about Hartheim Castle, in the past and in the present.

Renate is finishing her trainee year as a social service worker when she is assigned her first patient: The young Alfred Hauser, who was submitted to the psychiatric ward four years ago because of a psychosis. Alfred's anxiety condition is worsening while the hospital staff is lying to him about the possibility of an early discharge. Renate is commited to help him.