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Herbert Kline’s two extraordinary World War II documentaries, about an authoritarian state rapidly devouring its smaller neighbors, remain shockingly resonant today. Made on the ground in Czechoslovakia and Poland, respectively, as the Nazi campaign unfolded, Crisis: A Film of the Nazi Way (1939) and Lights Out in Europe (1940) evoke the coming of war with an almost unbearable immediacy, from summer camps for political refugees in the Sudetenland to German troops pouring across the Polish border.
Long available only in incomplete 16mm prints, both films have been fully restored by The Museum of Modern Art and are presented here in pristine visual quality.
Organized by Dave Kehr, Curator, Department of Film.
Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.
Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by Debra and Leon D. Black and by Steven Tisch, with major contributions from The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Karen and Gary Winnick, and The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston.