Destroyed Gdansk
Creator(s)
- Sam Bryan and International Film Foundation
- Julien H. Bryan (Camera Operator)
Biographical History
Julien Hequembourg Bryan (1899-1974) was an American documentarian and filmmaker. Bryan traveled widely taking 35mm film that he sold to motion picture companies. In the 1930s, he conducted extensive lecture tours, during which he showed film footage he shot in the former USSR. Between 1935 and 1938, he captured unique records of ordinary people and life in Nazi Germany and in Poland, including Jewish areas of Warsaw and Krakow and anti-Jewish signs in Germany. His footage appeared in March of Time theatrical newsreels. His photographs appeared in Life Magazine. He was in Warsaw in September 1939 when Germany invaded and remained throughout the German siege of the city, photographing and filming what would become America's first cinematic glimpse of the start of WWII. He recorded this experience in both the book Siege (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1940) and the short film Siege (RKO Radio Pictures, 1940) nominated for an Academy Award in 1940. In 1946, Bryan photographed the efforts of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency in postwar Europe.
Scope and Content
Reel 3A Winter 1945/1946 or 1946/1947 In Gdansk (Danzig), destruction to buildings along the river in the city, reflection in the water. Building EXTs with German-language signs (iron factory, restaurant, etc). [VQ- still frames in places where there are technical problems from Bryan's camera and poor processing.] Cut to elder couple walking toward camera among ruins. Three men digging in a pile of bricks. Repeat of earlier two sequences in black and white. August-September 1958 Village scenes (poor image color and quality) in Poland, geese in water, tractor and farming. Winter 1945/1946 or 1946/1947 Return to city (Danzig?) with shells of buildings. CU, inscriptions and signs. CUs, posters. In Gdansk (Danzig), destroyed buildings, Deutschebank, streets with ruined buildings.
Note(s)
Julien Bryan visited Poland and Russia in the winter of either 1945-1946 or 1946-1947. We believe it was the latter, as a photograph Bryan sent to his wife is labeled: "Taken in Kiev, Jan 2, 1947". This film of Danzig seems to be shot earlier and more immediately postwar.
Subjects
- BRYAN, JULIEN
- SIGNS/POSTERS
- BOMBINGS
- VILLAGES
- RUINS
- POSTWAR
- POLES
Places
- , Poland
- Danzig, Germany
Genre
- Unedited.
- Film