Silent Song brings new life to a remarkable piece of 1945 footage found by chance in an archive. Silent Song completes a deeply personal trilogy on family history and Holocaust memory. The first two films of the trilogy, Zyklon Portrait (13min. 1999) and The Walnut Tree (11min. 2000) have been seen in 20 countries around the globe, garnering numerous awards.
In the pandemonium of the liberation of Nazi concentration camp Dachau, a U.S. army cameraman filmed a young boy playing the accordian. This strangely poetic moment offers an unusual contrast to the all-too-familiar WWII liberation images of emaciated prisoners in striped uniforms.
Silent Song is a contemplation on the ephemeral nature of life, images and history. This fleeting moment was recorded and thus became an object - the film that is now part of the United States national Archives. The intrinsic human need to photograph and archive is brought to light - the boy’s dark eyes and his gentle smile become palpable.
“Elida’s film Silent Song can be used in a class with Zyklon Portrait to further explore the role that archival images play in recalling events and preserving history... Silent Song displays excellent filmmaking values. Both her films can be used separately or together to stimulate discussion and creative writing in both high school and college classes. Librarians and archivists will also appreciate the message of preservation, which this film extols. Highly recommended.” - Debra Mandel, Educational Media Reviews Online