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At the end of World War II, Nathan Hilu, the son of Syrian Jewish immigrants to New York, received a life-changing assignment from the U.S. Army: to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. This experience fueled a lifetime of artistic inspiration for Nathan, a virtually unknown ‘outsider artist’, who spent the next 70 years obsessively creating a visual narrative from his memories. But what happens when those memories take on a life of their own?
Filmmaker Elan Golod presents a documentary portrait of the ageing artist, but what begins as a peek at a unique witness to history grows into an absorbing study of the function of art as archive and invention. Daring to question an artist’s stories, Nathan-ism is a fascinating look at one man’s need to share truths with a world that doesn’t always want to listen.CREW:
Director: Elan Golod
Producer: Melanie Vi Levy, Elan Golod, Caryn Capotosto (executive producer)
Cinematographer: Jason Blevins
Sound: Christopher Bowen (original music)
Awards
The Yad Vashem Award for “Cinematic Excellence in Holocaust Documentary Filmmaking” at Docaviv, the Albert & Judith Goldberg Award for Jewish Arts and Culture at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
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Director
Elan Golod
After first being exposed to filmmaking during his military service in Israel, Elan Golod has worked in the New York film industry as an editor on a wide range of projects and as a short-form documentary director. After being part of the editing team on Mike Birbiglia's film Sleepwalk with Me (Sundance, SXSW), Elan co-directed and edited the documentary short Mike Birbiglia: How to Make Whatever This Is. While working on his feature documentary Nathan-ism, he also co-edited Birbiglia's Don't Think Twice (SXSW, Tribeca) and Maya Zinshtein’s documentary ‘Til Kingdom Come (Docaviv, IDFA).Selected Filmography
Mike Birbiglia: How to Make Whatever This Is — co-director, editor