Filmmaker of documentary “Nathan-ism” at EMU Jewish Center
The highly acclaimed 2023 documentary, Nathan-ism, examines the fraught relationships between art and life as well as memory and history. This film follows Nathan Hilu, the son of Syrian Jewish immigrants to New York, who, at the end of World War II, received a life-changing assignment from the U.S. Army: to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. Hilu spent the next 70 years obsessively recreating a visual narrative from his memories as a virtually unknown “outsider artist.”
Filmmaker Elan Golod proposes a documentary portrait of the aging 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.
The Eastern Michigan University Center for Jewish Studies will screen “Nathan-ism” on October 27 at 6:30 pm in the Student Center Auditorium. The filmmaker, Elan Golod, will be present to talk about the film and answer questions after the screening. This event is free and open to the public. Questions about the event can be directed to [email protected].
