Waldheim Waltz – TJF – Jewish Film Series
Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/16/2019
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location
All Saints Cinema
Categories
The Tallahassee Jewish Federation is pleased to announce our next film in the 2019 Jewish Film Series, The Waldheim Waltz on Aug.16 and 18. 
“Waldheim no, Waldheim no” shouts a crowd in the center of Vienna in 1986. Ruth Beckermann was one of the activists trying to prevent the election of Kurt Waldheim and documented the political events with her camera. More than 30 years later she goes back into her own archive and additionally uses international TV-material to analyze this turning point in Austrian political culture. The film shows the tangled web that former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim became ensnared in by concealing two years of his wartime biography. It shows the swift succession of new allegations by the World Jewish Congress against him, the denial by the Austrian political class, the outbreak of anti-Semitism and patriotism, which finally led to his election. Austria was highly successful in practicing the deception on itself and the world that it had been the first victim of the Nazis. Despite the fact that a whole generation knew the truth, this image of innocence was serially reproduced in official speeches, books and Heimatfilms. This film shows how deeper-lying levels of consciousness slowly carve out a path to the surface. Narrated by Ruth Beckermann, THE WALDHEIM WALTZ sets the Waldheim affair in a bigger international political context, yet 30 years on, it is dauntingly timely.
The Waldheim Waltz will be shown on Friday August 16 at 6 pm and again on Sunday August 18 at 2:30 and 5:00 pm at All Saints Cinema – 918 Railroad Avenue.