In August 1938 an American visitor appeared in a Polish village outside Warsaw, bearing an object of considerable novelty to the townspeople: a 16mm motion picture camera.
David Kurtz filmed for not much more than 180 seconds, his shutter opening onto village life in Nasieslk, home to a Jewish population numbering several thousand people.
Kurtz, who had been born in Nasielsk but immigrated to America at the age of 4, seemingly preferred to focus on the buildings, shops and synagogue of his birthplace, yet young people, especially, began to crowd into the frame, fascinated by the cinematic device.
Kurtz hoped to make a travelogue; children intuitively understood it as an opportunity to be seen, to be somehow preserved on celluloid.
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