As Seen Through These Eyes

Hilary Helstein's compelling but flawed documentary illustrates how visual arts and music played a role in the survival of many prisoners in Europe during World War II. The film spends too much time covering well-worn territory—including Hitler's rejection from the Vienna Art Institute, his later attempts to reinvent Germany's popular culture as a nationalist political statement, and the Nazi looting of museums and private collections—before getting to the heart of the story, and suffers from overly dramatic narration by Maya Angelou, who tries and fails to achieve resonance with florid phrases (“no one was safe from [Hitler's] sweeping paintbrush of death and destruction”). But on the plus side, Helstein displays a number of extraordinary paintings and drawings by Holocaust survivors (including celebrated Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal), some of which were commissioned by concentration camp leaders, while others were created in secrecy by individuals who risked their lives to express themselves artistically. First-person accounts are interspersed throughout, including the comments of a woman who describes living in Terezin, the “model” ghetto that the Nazis used in a vain attempt to fool the world into thinking that Jewish culture was being allowed to flourish in an isolated setting. Although the focus is primarily on Jewish artists, attention is also paid to Karl Stojka, a Gypsy painter who survived by serving as an errand boy to Josef Mengele. Despite its shortcomings, As Seen Through These Eyes is a powerful viewing experience. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)