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
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 
