Dachau
Film Title: In Place of Death (2008), directed by Alan Marcus
The first of the project’s four films looks at the role of the witness and the way tourists engage with the former camp of Dachau, and the spatial relationships between the camp, the town of Dachau, and the city of Munich, of which it is a suburb. The single survivor witness to appear in the film is 90-year old Theodore Pais, who has largely lost his ability to communicate verbally. In the absence of spoken language, the interview problematizes the articulation of memory, and its embedded role in giving agency to collected memory. His position throughout the film is emblematic of the generation of witnesses who have now died or are fast disappearing. Watching some of the 800,000 tourists and visitors who annually come to the camp, certain forms of engagement are surprising - such as using it as a locale for a picnic or walking the dog, or posing with friends and family in front of the crematorium's ovens. Eschewing commentary and conventional forms of exposition, the film inherently poses questions about the role of memory and the way individuals transfigure a sense of place through their behaviour and form of engagement. Invited screenings have included a practice-based symposium in Edinburgh and the City in Film conference in Liverpool in March 2008.
