NO TRAILER CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
First, the Recap:
Dedication to the past. While most people tend to desire to push the past into the far corners of their minds, more than content to simply focus on the now and perhaps what lies ahead, there are others who seek to purposefully bring about as much reminiscing to events long over so that there might be a revitalized appreciation of the significance an era holds for those who were most affected by it. Yet, when it comes to certain annals of history, it might be a quite sobering reminder of times many would wish never happened, where a constant air of tension and mistrust ruled the day, and no one truly felt any sense of real safety.
Hence to we find, however, that recreating said memories of hardship can likewise bring about closure, a healing that transcends words and moreso brings peace to still-troubled souls while allowing those who diligently seek to meticulously piece together an people’s heritage and experiences of tyranny and subterfuge during the tail end of an environment known as The Cold War. Documents, or specifically their tattered, fragmented remains fill bags upon bags in the Frankfort-based regional office of the Stasi Records Agency and the Fraunhofer IPK in Berlin. The goal of a stalwart few is to relentlessly pick, prod, and reform once “eyes only” materials from an age of suppression in 1989 under the Stasi regime, hoping to gain knowledge, history, revealed secrets, and, ideally, a part of their people’s spirit back from the brink.
Next, my Mind:
Conspiracies, collaborators, convert intelligence, spy games, veiled threats, and who knows what actual actions never yet uncovered took place under the overly watchful eyes and intrusive presence of the secret police order known as the Stasi, who formed in 1950 and didn’t fully cease operations until 1990, near the end of The Cold War Era. Known for their high level of efficiency paired with an equally ruthless repressive aura, they represented a time of unsettled fear in the GDR (German Democratic Republic aka: East Germany). However, with these years now long since passed, there has come a renewed interest in learning about exactly what information and politically motivated agendas the Stasi were involved in, and this is the intent showcased with a wonderfully detailed and deeply impactful narrative styling in director/cinematographer/editor Sven O. Hill and editor Constanze Altmann’s 25-minute documentary short film, part of the 2019 High Coast Film Festival sponsored by and/or in association with Illambra, Kramfors Kommun, Film Vasternorrland, Europeiska Unionen, Region Vasternorrland, Lansstyrelsen Vasternorrland, and NBV, that sheds such in depth light on one group of people who’ve chosen arguably one of the most daunting tasks ever devised–literally go through countless bags of shredded Stasi documents and put them back together again–primarily by hand!
Think of it as massive jigsaw puzzles, with no original pictures to go by, all created by sorting through thousands of “puzzles” with hundreds of pieces each, hoping to find and complete each document to the fullest extent possible in order to reveal what truths, lies, deceits, deceptions, and discrepancies the Stasi harbored during those formative days gone by. Of course, ultimately, to actually forge through and bring into being all the documents in question, it would take hundreds of years to compile if manual processing is the only way to go. Hence, over time, new methods of digitizing the scraps of paper via newer and developing technologies that allow for a certain level of virtual reconstruction, but still require labor-intensive study and fortitude, have been utilized. Still, perfecting these techniques and means to bring Stasi secrets into contemporary times in order to ascertain how a people stood up to their oppressors and what the Stasi stood for would be that much more vilified in the span and scope of time. The film’s visual presentation is smartly executed to fully bring forth the sheer magnitude of what these men and women striving to discover that which has been hidden have committed themselves to, gladly, voluntarily, and with enthusiasm mind you, so that their cultural legacy will not be lost or lose importance.
In often standard, practical, and most effective documentary fashion, the film thrives on interviews with many of these individuals so that they can share their own personal stories of what it has meant to them to conquer the seemingly insurmountable document-made mountain they tackle each and every day they arrive that the office, contemplating each and every shred of paper with a level of attention that, let’s be frank, most of us wouldn’t dream of achieving given the task at hand. But it is this exact love for country and chronicling a society’s struggles that makes what they’re accomplishing so meaningful and admirable, just emanating from the Frankfort office’s staff which includes Office Manager Rudiger Sielaff, Document Reconstructor Elke Kinzel, Archive Assistant Swen Hubscher, Head Archivist Jana Florczak, or Stacks Manager Joachim Lieske. Then, there are those involved in the Berlin-based Fraunhofer IPK, like Head of Security Tech Dr. Nickolay or Project Manager-Virtual Reconstruction Jan Schneider who likewise aim to find every potential means to improve and expand the ability of their machine’s capabilities so as to speed up the process of re-creating the documents, still looking at a 20-year timespan regardless. But, again, it is the startling, surprising, wholehearted resolution through which they push forward that simply remains just this–amazing.
Therefore, in total, “Schnipsel (Scraps of Paper)” is a highly worthy indie documentary film that takes a subject one might dismiss offhand, makes it fascinating and engaging, and presents that side of the human soul that we so desperately need in this current age-one that stresses the value and validity of re-encountering time, history, preservation, and the maintaining of our understanding of who we are, where we come from (even when there’s been plenty of ugliness), and how we can find peace in finally putting a past like this one presented here to rest for the benefit of all.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
