Community Lecture and Film Screening with Eric Bednarski, director of “Warsaw: A City Divided” on Zoom

The creation of the Warsaw Ghetto as seen from both sides of the Ghetto wall, and its legacy in today’s city. New light on a tragic time of division, destruction and mass murder, incorporating unknown amateur 8mm found footage and survivor testimony.
In 1941, soon after the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis, a Polish amateur filmmaker shot a remarkable 10-minute 8mm film from both sides of the Ghetto walls. This never before seen footage is woven into “Warsaw: a City Divided”, acting as a silent witness to the tragedy of the wartime division of the city and the murder of its inhabitants. Ghetto survivors and witnesses recount their extraordinary memories, while architects and urban-historians examine the chilling Nazi vision for Warsaw. By interweaving rich material from the past with glimpses of present-day Warsaw, both its human face and its urban fabric, “Warsaw: A City Divided” affirms the importance – and the difficulty – of remembering.

“Warsaw: A City Divided” is a 70-minute documentary film directed by Eric Bednarski.

Eric Bednarski
Eric Bednarski is a film director/writer born in Halifax, Canada. He lives and works in Warsaw, Poland. Bednarski studied history and filmmaking in North America and Europe. His documentary film work with the National Film Board of Canada has garnered him a Gemini Award and a Writers Guild of Canada Award nomination, and he was awarded the Decoration of Honor “Meritorious for Polish Culture” by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in 2015. Bednarski’s films have been broadcast across the world and have also screened at international festivals, at the United Nations, the European Parliament and the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau.