{"id":17,"date":"2010-03-13T17:35:17","date_gmt":"2010-03-13T22:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/worse-than-war\/?p=17"},"modified":"2010-04-15T12:19:39","modified_gmt":"2010-04-15T17:19:39","slug":"the-film-about-the-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/worse-than-war\/the-film\/about\/the-film-about-the-film\/17\/","title":{"rendered":"About The Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

With his first book, the #1 international bestseller Hitler\u2019s Willing Executioners <\/em>(Vintage, 1997) Daniel Jonah Goldhagen<\/strong> \u2013 then a professor of political science at Harvard University\u2013 forced the world to re-think some of its most deeply-held beliefs about the Holocaust.\u00a0 Hitler\u2019s Willing Executioners<\/em> inspired an unprecedented worldwide discussion and debate about the role ordinary Germans played in the annihilation of Europe\u2019s Jews.<\/p>\n

A decade later \u2013 and more than half a century after the end of World War II \u2013 Goldhagen is convinced that the overall phenomenon of genocide is as poorly understood as the Holocaust had once been. How and why do genocides start? Why do the perpetrators kill?\u00a0 Why has intervention rarely occurred in a timely manner?\u00a0 These and other thought-provoking questions are explored in a new documentary film, WORSE THAN WAR.<\/p>\n

A co-production of WNET.ORG<\/strong> and JTN Productions<\/strong> and funded by The<\/strong> Pershing Square Foundation, The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, and The Goren Family Foundation<\/strong>, WORSE THAN WAR, based on Goldhagen\u2019s book of the same title, which has been hailed as \u201cmagisterial\u201d by the New York Times<\/em>, \u201cconvincing\u201d and \u201cwholly original\u201d by Kirkus<\/em>, \u201cpathbreaking\u201d by Die Presse<\/em>, and \u201cmasterful\u201d by the Daily Telegraph<\/em>, is the first documentary to step back and focus on the general<\/em> phenomenon of genocide \u2013 offering viewers profound insights into its dimensions, patterns and causes, and tragic role in politics and human affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the most fundamental measure \u2013 the number of people killed \u2013the perpetrators of mass murder since the beginning of the twentieth century have taken the lives of more people than have died in military conflict. So genocide is<\/em> worse than war,\u201d reiterates Goldhagen. \u201cThis is a little-known fact that should be a central focus of international politics, because once you know it, the world, international politics, and what we need to do all begin to look substantially different from how they are typically conceived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Premiering on PBS during National Holocaust Remembrance Week on April 14 at 9 p.m. (check local listings<\/a>), WORSE THAN WAR documents Goldhagen\u2019s travels, teachings, and interviews in nine countries around the world, bringing viewers on an unprecedented journey of insight and analysis.\u00a0 In a film that is highly cinematic and evocative throughout, he speaks with victims, perpetrators, witnesses, politicians, diplomats, historians, humanitarian aid workers, and journalists, all with the purpose of explaining and understanding the critical features of genocide and how to finally stop it.<\/p>\n

In Rwanda, <\/strong>perpetrators of genocide speak candidly about their participation in mass murders, and Minister of Justice Tharcisse Karugarama<\/strong> discusses the perpetrators\u2019 willingness, the world\u2019s failure, and how we can prevent other countries from suffering the same fate.\u00a0 In Guatemala<\/strong>, Goldhagen explores the concept of \u201coverkill\u201d with the country\u2019s leading forensic pathologist, and in an extraordinary interview, he confronts former President Jos\u00e9 Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt<\/strong>, the person in power during the genocide of Maya in the early 1980s.\u00a0 In Bosnia<\/strong>, he attends the annual commemoration of the massacre at Srebrenica, the worst mass-killing in Europe since World War II, and has a candid discussion with the nation\u2019s president Haris Silajd\u017ei\u0107 <\/strong>about his efforts to convince U.S. and world leaders to intervene when it became apparent that \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d was underway.\u00a0 And in Ukraine<\/strong>, Goldhagen returns with his father Erich (also a scholar of the Holocaust) to the town where Erich was nearly killed during the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

Goldhagen also conducts probing and revealing interviews with Madeleine Albright<\/strong>, former U.S. Secretary of State; Francis Deng, <\/strong>UN Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide; and Clint Williamson, <\/strong>U.<\/strong>S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Directed by the award-winning Mike DeWitt<\/strong>, the film not will only leave viewers changed, it should have a galvanizing effect on the public and, most importantly on, our political leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With his first book, the #1 international bestseller Hitler\u2019s Willing Executioners (Vintage, 1997) Daniel Jonah Goldhagen \u2013 then a professor of political science at Harvard University\u2013 forced the world to re-think some of its most deeply-held beliefs about the Holocaust.\u00a0 Hitler\u2019s Willing Executioners inspired an unprecedented worldwide discussion and debate about the role ordinary Germans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[7493,299,814,254,1784,7494,984,2552,7495,3738,7492],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about","tag-daniel-goldhagen","tag-documentary","tag-film","tag-genocide","tag-holocaust","tag-mike-dewitt","tag-politics","tag-rwanda","tag-wnet-org","tag-world-war-ii","tag-worse-than-war"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Film ~ About 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