Peter Spence’s ‘The Archive’ nominated for Best Documentary Short Film at the Moscow Jewish Film Festival

The short film The Archive – directed by Peter Spence, Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Production at Sheffield Hallam University – has been selected for screening at the Moscow Jewish Film Festival where it is also in competition for Best Documentary Short Film.

The Festival was founded in 2015 as the first of its kind in Russia and being held annually ever since. It holds screenings of the most important and resonant Jewish films, complementing its competition program with screenings and discussions. Running from Sunday 23 June – Sunday 30 June 2019, The Archive is scheduled to screen on the final day of the festival.

The Archive is created with traditional documentary techniques – it is compiled from archival documents that include audio recordings by David Drucker, son of the Russian Jews who escaped before the Revolution, and Susan, his daughter. Drucker suffered not during the Holocaust, but later during the McCarthy years, when he became a victim of the witch hunt and was suspected in collaboration with the communist regime, from which his family had run away. Together with Drucker, we witness the paradoxical paranoia that used to infect America in those days.

Peter Spence is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Production at Sheffield Hallam University.