Papirosen (2011)

Masterfully edited from nearly 200 hours of footage, PAPIROSEN represents a decade of filmmaking, and four generations of Argentine director Gastón Solnicki's family history, culled from 8mm home videos, a VHS bar mitzvah, and original observational material. His father, Victor, emerges as the lead figure, but Solnicki highlights the entire clan. Beginning with the birth of his nephew, Mateo, and punctuated throughout by interviews with his grandmother, Pola, a Holocaust survivor, the film's scope is simultaneously epic and intimate. PAPIROSEN is a meditation on family, history, the importance of storytelling, and the power of cinema itself.