A documentary about life in the Polish Jewish ghetto Łódź (aka Litzmannstadt Ghetto) from 1939 to 1945. It uses the same basic approach as the films by brilliant documentarians Nicole Rittenmeyer and Seth Skundrick, completely chronological, no third person narrator (but diary entries that were written at the time, serving as narration), and archive footage, not to say found footage. It doesn't follow this approach as rigorously as the documentaries by the aforementioned team (there's some contemporary footage of the streets and buildings in there and apparently also some diary entries that can't be accounted for), but that all those written accounts and this footage from inside the ghetto exists is amazing and especially the photographs (taken by ghetto resident Henryk Ross) have a real artistry to them. With its atmosphere of funereal quiet it's a compelling watch not only as a historical document but also as a mood piece. If you want to know what it was like to live in a ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe this is the real deal.
Alan Adelson's short postscript 'Sequel to Lódz Ghetto' (1992), which usually comes as an extra with home video releases, is both a making of and an extension of this documentary that unlike the feature film uses interviews with survivors. Serving as a companion piece to 'Lodz Ghetto' it does a lot in its brief 14 minutes and also is very much worth seeing.
Alan Adelson's short postscript 'Sequel to Lódz Ghetto' (1992), which usually comes as an extra with home video releases, is both a making of and an extension of this documentary that unlike the feature film uses interviews with survivors. Serving as a companion piece to 'Lodz Ghetto' it does a lot in its brief 14 minutes and also is very much worth seeing.