The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is the largest film festival in the United States, with nearly 140,000 people attending each year. The 25-day event held each May is renowned for presenting over 400 features, short films, and documentaries gathered from more than 85 countries.
Since the 1970s, SIFF has been promoting cross-cultural exchange through cinema by bringing people together to discover extraordinary films from around the world. This year, Seattle International Film Festival kicks off for the 45th time.
Goethe Pop Up Seattle and the Honorary Consulates of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are partnering with SIFF to present the festival’s official selection of German-language films. Watch an array of recent releases covering various genres, including documentary, comedy, and drama, and experience how much German cinema has to offer.
The documentary
Lest We Forget follows the German-Italian photographer and filmmaker Luigi Toscano as he works on his exhibition project under the same title. The film offers the viewer insights into his work with Holocaust survivors whose portraits and stories Toscano has been collecting and displaying for many years. As the artist reminds its audience, the portrayed survivors are the faces and voices of the culture of remembrance. His project is not simply a look back at the past. Instead, it demands a confrontation with history to ensure that something like the Holocaust never happens again.
Luigi Toscano’s exhibition
Lest We Forget was first displayed in his hometown of Mannheim, Germany, in 2015, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. In 2018,
Lest We Forget was brought to the United States. The exhibition was shown at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. It was also on display along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. where over 150,000 visitors could see the world’s largest exhibition of this kind in a public space. It is currently on display at the Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco. Further exhibitions are being planned in cities around the world, including Chicago, Pittsburgh, Vienna, Mainz – and Seattle.
The current collection includes over 300 portraits of Holocaust survivors. 16 of them were recently taken in Seattle.
Join us for the SIFF premiere on May 23. A second screening of the documentary takes place on May 24 at 12:45pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown. Luigi Toscano will be present at both screenings for a Q&A.
For more information and tickets, check
www.siff.net/festival/lest-we-forget
Back
