May 10, 2015: Author Glenn Kurtz discusses his acclaimed book 'Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film'

Sunday, May 10, 4-6 p.m. UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

Author Glenn Kurtz will speak on his book, "Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film," which was selected as a Best Book of 2014 by The New Yorker, The Boston Globe and National Public Radio.

A few years ago, while visiting his parents in Florida, Kurtz discovered an old reel of 16mm home movies taken by his grandparents while on vacation in Europe-in the summer of 1938, just over a year before Nazi Germany would invade Poland, igniting World War II. In addition to more well-known tourist destinations, Kurtz's grandparents stopped in Nasielsk, a small, predominantly Jewish village in Poland, where their camera captured about three minutes of ordinary life. Of the pre-war town's 3,000 Jewish inhabitants, fewer than 100 would survive the war and the Holocaust.

Realizing that this film offered a glimpse of a world that no longer exists, Kurtz set out to learn everything he could about the town and the people captured in his grandfather's footage. "Three Minutes in Poland" documents Kurtz's search for clues from New York to Poland, from London to Tel Aviv, and the extraordinary lengths to which he went in order to recapture this lost world, and recall Nasielsk as a place of life.

Kurtz will show the three minutes of footage, talk about his research and explore what it means to preserve history through film.

This event is free and open to the public. Parking on campus is free on Sundays.

Sponsored by Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association (AMIPA), Congregation Beth Sholom, UAA/APU Consortium Library and the UAA Campus Bookstore.

For more information, contact Kevin Tripp at (907) 786-4980 or kevin@amipa.org.

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