This documentary centers on Whitwell Middle School, in Whitwell, Tennessee (or, the way they pronounce it, TENNessee). This tiny town is almost entirely white, with only several thousand residents. One year, the principal, Mrs. Cooper, decided that the 8th grade should have a consciousness-raising project to promote diversity understanding and tolerance. One of the teachers, David Smith, attended an educational conference, and returned with the decision that this project should be about the Holocaust. All the teachers read up on the Holocaust, and started teaching the kids about it. Upon hearing that 6 million Jews were murdered in the concentration camps, one student admitted that he really didn't have a good grasp of 6 million - he had never seen 6 million of anything. So they decided to collect 6 million somethings...and started researching what would be the most meaningful thing to collect. They discovered that paper clips were invented during WWII, by Norwegians who used them in solidarity against the Nazis, wearing the clips on their collars as a testament to the atrocities that were being committed daily in German-controlled areas.
I won't spoil it for you, but this film is so touching, I literally had goosebumps for the entire first half, and most of the rest of the movie. I so much want to go to Whitwell and see their work for myself!
Highly recommend.
Availability: DVD and Streaming
Released: 2004
Added to my queue: 1/10/2011
Reason Added to my queue: Netflix recommended, based on my enjoyment of: March of the Penguins, Schindler's List, and Dear Zachary.
Note: Dear Zachary is so sad and so disturbing, I can't even. Amazing, though.
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