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1998 Best Short Documentary—IDA Awards: Human Remains

By IDA Editorial Staff


HUMAN REMAINS
Co-produced by Locomotion Films and The Danish Film Institute Workshop
Creative Consultant: Jennifer Frame
Script and Editing Consultants: Ellen Bruno, Caveh Zahedi and Harvey Schwartz Associate Producer, Optical Printing and Assistant Editing by John Turk
Written, Directed, Edited, Photographed and Produced by Jay Rosenblatt

Human Remains illustrates the banality of evil by creating intimate portraits of five of history's most infamous dictators: Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Francisco Franco and Mao Tse Tung. A dark poetry pervades the film as the intimate and mundane details from the daily lives of these monsters are revealed. Instead of the horrors for which these men were responsible, the film's focus is from a different, more obtuse angle, while reminding us that there are always new monsters among us.

JAY ROSENBLATT has been making films for more than 18 years. He is a recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his films have won numerous awards and have screened throughout the world. The Smell of Burning Ants won Grand Prize at the 1995 Hamburg Short Film Festival and went on to win 22 additional awards, showing at the Locamo, Sundance, Tampere and London film festivals, among others. Short of Breath has been shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival, New Directors/New Fil s and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Originally from New York , Rosenblatt has lived in San Francisco for the past 15 years and has taught at San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Art Institute and the College of San Mateo.

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