The Labyrinth documentary to show at Arclight during DocuWeek

If you like documentaries, and live in New York or Los Angeles (or nearby) be sure to check out The Labyrinth during DocuWeek, July 30-August 19, 2010.

For more information on the films and screening dates, visit DocuWeek 2010

The Labyrinth Director/Producer: Jason A. Schmidt
Memory, art and hell collide as an Auschwitz survivor finally confronts the horrors of his past after 50 years of silence. Marian Kolodziej was on one of the first transports to enter Auschwitz. He survived five years imprisonment and never spoke of his experience until after a serious stroke in 1993. He began rehabilitation by doing pen-and-ink drawings depicting his horrific experience. His drawings and art installations, which he called The Labyrinth, fill the large basement of a church near Auschwitz. Through the blending of his testimony and graphic drawings, this documentary explores the memories and nightmares that were buried for years.

Producer: Ron Schmidt, S.J.
Executive Producer: Arthur Schmidt
December 2nd Productions
38 min. USA/Poland

I have seen the film three times and it is a powerful and moving personal experience of Auschwitz by a Catholic partisan who was only a very young man when transported there; he was consigned to building the camp and worse. This is a testament to the power of art to transcend horror, even decades later. It is a film for all audiences who care about the human person, the human family, the human experience.