Night Will Fall

Night Will Fall, directed by André Singer, is a meta-documentary about the story of German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, an unfinished 1945 documentary about Nazi camps initiated by British official Sidney Bernstein, narrated by Helena Bonham Carter. Bernstein brought in Alfred Hitchcock as a structural advisor for the project, with the narration script written by Richard Crossman. As the edit neared completion, the British government shelved the documentary, with postwar priorities shifting toward rebuilding Germany and concerns that the film could generate sympathy for Jewish refugees seeking entry to Palestine. The materials were transferred to the Imperial War Museum in 1952; the museum began restoration in 2008 and completed the unfinished sixth reel, and the original documentary screened for the first time at the Berlin Film Festival in 2014, 69 years after it was shot. Night Will Fall won a Peabody Award and a News & Documentary Emmy in 2016. Who it's for: anyone curious about a meta-documentary telling the story of a 1945 documentary, advised by Alfred Hitchcock, that was only completed and screened 69 years after it was shot. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a light, comfortable history documentary, since the film addresses both concentration camp footage and the political story of why a government suppressed it.