act of digging: archaeology, photography and forensics in 'Birthplace' and 'Holocaust by bullets'

A film such as 'Birthplace'; like 'Shoah' takes part from its very beginning, in the practice of excavation. The survivor at the centre of this documentary combs through bystanders' and perpetrators' memories of the past in search of the truth. 'Birthplace' was filmed in Poland in 1992, and witness interrogation is an essential part of its cinema-archeological approach. The documentary 'Holocaust by bullets' deals with a project headed by Father Patrick Desbois, and in that film, a team of researchers goes to the Ukraine and conducts interviews with elderly witnesses, many of whom were bystanders. The film assembles testimony about mass executions by shooting. Desbois describes what motivated him to undertake this task, specifically to give dignity to the Jewish dead