GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS FACTUAL SURVEY Documentary to Debut in NYC

After being shelved by the British Government in 1945 and following a decades-long residency at Britain's Imperial War Museum, German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, a feature-length documentary film commissioned by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) and produced by the late filmmaker Sidney Bernstein, will have its first theatrical run in NORTH AMERICA beginning January 6, 2017, at Cinema Village in New York City.

This lost masterpiece of British documentary film was intended to definitively refute potential denials of the extent of the brutality in Nazi death camps. Opening night will feature an introduction and Q&A by Bernstein's children, award-winning filmmaker Jane Wells (Tricked, The Devil Came on Horseback) and lawyer David Bernstein.

With the input of Alfred Hitchcock, German Concentration Camps Factual Survey consists of six reels of footage shot in 1945 as Allied troops liberated Nazi-occupied Europe. Restored by the Imperial War Museum and distributed by 3 Generations in association with First Run Features, the film provides shocking, uncensored images of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.

Intended to be shown to German prisoners of war in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, production on German Concentration Camps Factual Survey was halted due to a change in the British government's post-war priorities. An unfinished cut of the film was screened on September 29, 1945, but the British government actively suppressed it from that point on. The film was not completed and released in full until seven decades later in 2014 at the Berlin International Film Festival.

"We distributed several reels of this film 31 years ago," said Seymour Wishman, president of First Run Features, "and we've struggled since then to gain the rights to the complete film. We are privileged to finally have that opportunity now. This coincides with the release of the feature film Denial being shown around the country about the despicable people who have tried to disgrace the memory of those who died in the Holocaust by denying that it happened."

3 Generations, a nonprofit organization founded by Jane Wells in 2008 to record and share stories of survivors of human rights abuses from around the world, has been granted theatrical and non-theatrical screening rights to German Concentration Camps Factual Survey for NORTH AMERICA and Puerto Rico.

"I am honored that the Imperial War Museum has at last permitted me to show my father's film to American audiences," said Jane Wells, Founder of 3 Generations. "It brings the work of 3 Generations full circle and fulfills a family legacy. My father told me the greatest regret of his life was not being able to finish this film. Arguably, there has never been a more important time to see this film in the United States of America."

Wells is exploring educational partnerships to begin screening the film at universities and community organizations across the United States.

About 3 Generations
Founded in 2008 by filmmaker Jane Wells, 3 Generations is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City that uses the power of storytelling to amplify the voices of survivors, create witnesses and inspire change. 3 Generations uses film, video and written testimony to record and share stories of survivors of human rights abuses from around the world. For more information visit www.3generations.org.

About First Run Features
Founded in 1979, First Run Features is one of America's largest independent distributors of documentaries and art films. Recent releases include Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker's Unlocking the Cage, Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker's Welcome to Leith, Jillian Schlesinger's Maidentrip, Michael Apted's 56 Up, and Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's Academy Award-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.