The Archives
Documentary Feature

Project Type: Documentary Feature
Project Status: Production
Director/Producer: Bernadette Wegenstein
Producer: Henrique Landulfo

“I made The Archives because I have a deep-seated family history of witnessing the Holocaust happen. The only existing archival record of my Austrian Jewish great-grandmother’s execution is a half sentence on a page in an obscure genealogy that she shares with another victim.

With The Archives I want to honor the importance and indisputable facts of history and archives that preserve the truth. I want the viewer to realize that these archives, whether collected by family archivists or dedicated institutional archivists, will be our only link to the lives that are gone. I also hope to inspire future generations to search through boxes in dusty attics just in case the secret traces of a long-lost life lies hidden, waiting to be brought to light.”

- Bernadette Wegenstein, Director

LOGLINE

The Archives tells the story of Holocaust archivists, quiet warriors who preserve and uncover the truth of history. Their domains are the archives, hallowed places of stored history that are the searching grounds for the victims’ descendants, family archivists excavating the trauma of the past to build a better future.

SYNOPSIS

With the truth under constant threat of erasure in today’s post-truth era, The Archives shines a light on Holocaust memory through the site of the archives. The film accompanies family archivists and institutional archivists on their journeys as they collect, organize, exhibit, and donate the historical archives that prove the gruesome facts of the Holocaust in writing and through artefacts.

From cemeteries in Eastern Europe to State Archives in Austria and Brazil, from YIVO to Yad Vashem, from never-opened letters sent from concentration camps to Nazi Aryanization files, these archives will be the only witnesses of the Holocaust once the last direct eyewitness is gone. The film takes us on an emotional and international journey of encounters between family archivists and institutional archivists around the world.

Together these archivists are looking for the missing links in interrupted family stories, while bringing erased and hidden pre-Holocaust histories back to life.The Archives shows not only that the documents preserving the history of the Holocaust are alive, but also how crucial it is that they be maintained and safeguarded for eternity.

MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Archives shines a light on the important, and overlooked role that archives, and archivists, play in safeguarding historical truths. The film will illuminate and stimulate dialogues about source documentation, history, and identity using the lens of archives, cemeteries, and preserved ephemeral (home movie) footage.

Following several protagonists, both family and institutional archivists, The Archives shows them in various archives around the world from Jersulem to Rio de Janeiro digging for facts and connections about their family histories. The film exposes a deep and ongoing longing for the truth for recovering family histories, personal identities, recognition and even restitution.

The Archives also explores the pressing question in a post-truth era of “what is an archive and why does the preservation of history matter in the present day?” It visually develops several archives around the world. With that we hope to set other descendants and people interested in global history and human rights on similar journeys of truth-seeking.

In today’s climate of rising anti-semitism, Neo-Nazi movements have incorporated other targets of hatred beyond Jewish people, such as people of Islamic faith, trans-people, LGBTQIA+ communities, and immigrants in general. The Archives is now all the more relevant in our political climate of hate.

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Meet The Filmmakers

Bernadette Wegenstein

Director and Producer
Bernadette Wegenstein is an Austrian-born linguist, author, and documentary filmmaker living in Baltimore. Her work brings together feminist thought and her interest in the construction of minoritarian identities. Bernadette has produced and directed several award-winning documentary features and shorts.
Most recently Devoti tutti (2023), which premiered at Biografilm Bologna and won several film awards, including Best Documentary at this human world in Vienna, Austria, and the Audience Award at the Ortigia Film Festival. The Conductor (2021) premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, played at over 100 festivals, and won five Best Documentary awards, including the Focus on the Arts Award at Naples International Film Festival, as well as several Audience Awards. It aired on PBS “Great Performances” and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary in 2023.
The documentary music short about human isolation during COVID pandemic, See Me: A Global Concert, won numerous Best Music Film and Best Editing awards, including the Firenze Corti Premio Rive Gauche. Her intimate breast cancer documentary, The Good Breast, premiered at the Geena Davis Gender Institute’s Bentonville Film Festival.
In addition to The Archives documentary, she is currently working on developing her first narrative feature film, A Sweet Secret, based on the story of a forgotten Jewish comedy from 1927.
Henrique Landulfo

Producer
Henrique Landulfo started his career in cinema production in Brazil in 2004. He is the Producer and Co-Director with Sandra Kogut of the documentary feature No Céu da Pátria Nesse Instante (2023) about the Brazilian political division during the 2022 elections, which premiered at the 56th Brasília Film Festival and won the Best Editing and Special Jury prizes.
The film screened at IDFA (Netherlands), the Málaga Film Festival (Spain), DOK.fest München (Germany) and many others. Henrique participated as a field producer in the film Pelé (Netflix, Pitch International, UK, 2020), which retells the story of one of the greatest Brazilian idols of all time.
He was a co-producer for The Conductor, by Bernadette Wegenstein, a documentary about the renowned conductor Marin Alsop, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for an Emmy for Best Documentary, as well as having participated in more than 100 film festivals.
Annette Porter

Co-Producer
Co-Producer Annette Porter is an Award-winning documentary filmmaker, was drawn to the world of documentary filmmaking to explore ideas and to tell stories - to give voice to the unheard and challenge the status quo. She is drawn to and compelled to fight for stories of the disenfranchised, forbidden, forgotten, or ignored in hopes of making the world a more fair place. Creating a safe place for expression, where contributors can explore their innermost thoughts and feelings to an empathetic film crew with the talent and creativity to capture their unique identity on film is a hallmark of her producing.
Through her company, Nylon Films, she produces and directs films from a female perspective for cinematic, broadcast, and corporate audiences on topics ranging from contemporary arts and culture to social and historical issues. Her work has been featured by broadcasters including PBS, BBC, ITVS, and NBC, by clients such as Estee Lauder, the World Economic Forum, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and in publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times and Vogue.
In addition to filmmaking, Annette serves as the Director of the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund and a Filmmaking Instructor for Baltimore Youth Film Arts and Johns Hopkins University.
John Benam

Cinematographer
Cinematographer John Benam, a two-time Emmy Award-winning DP brings extraordinary stories to the screen. In 2023, his latest documentary project came as a 2-part Hulu special, "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields." It's a look at actor, model and icon Brooke Shields as she transforms from a sexualized young girl to a woman discovering her power. As a Producer and DP, 2023 also saw the premiere of his ITVS Open Call film called "The Body Politic," about the young black Mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, trying to heal his City in the shadow of unprecedented violence.
In 2021, John worked as the Lead Cinematographer on the PBS film, "The Conductor," Directed by Bernadette Wegenstein. The film was nominated for an Emmy Award. John's passion for diversity and social justice is evident in his critically acclaimed films like “Charm City,” which was shortlisted for the Oscars, earned worldwide theatrical release in 2018, revealed the complex world of community-police relations.
As Director of Photography on Netflix’s 2017 Emmy-nominated series “The Keepers,” John created an authentic connection with the courageous survivors of abuse. John works with National Geographic, Netflix, HBO, PBS, and Oprah Winfrey's "OWN' and has a rich network of spirited collaborators and colleagues.
Stefan Fauland

Editor
Editor Stefan Fauland is an award-winning film editor living and working in Vienna, Austria. He studied Information Design and started out as an assistant editor working on documentary and narrative films such as “Little Joe” by Jessica Hausner. Stefan teaches post-production at the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. His editing is influenced by his background in music; he also plays the violin in various ensembles and orchestras in Austria.
Stefan’s documentary films include features like “Devoti Tutti” (2023) and “The Conductor” (2021) by Bernadette Wegenstein, “Because they know what they are doing” by Igor Hauzenberger “Omsch” (2013) by Edgar Honetschläger and narrative films like “Ordinary Creatures” (2020) by Tom Marschall and “Roads not taken” (2022) by Kat Rohrer. He also works on numerous TV films among which most lately, “Eine Familie. Zwei Welten” by Peter Mahler (2023).
Käthe Erichsen

Researcher
Researcher Käthe Erichsen is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Modern Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University with a dual focus in Yiddish Literature and Film and Media Studies at the Center for Advanced Media Studies. In her research, she examines questions of 20th-century exile, heritage, identity and the body, examining poetry composed in Yiddish, German and Russian. 
Her current research extends beyond literary and philosophical inquiries of exile literature and into the materiality of Holocaust documentation, exploring the site of the archive through her work as a production assistant for the documentary film The Archives.
Previously she has worked on the subtitling for Wegenstein’s Devoti tutti and Aiman: A Soloist on the Steppes.