ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

SMALL COMMUNITIES can make a big impact. That is one of the messages to emerge from the documentary ‘Paper Clips’. It may not be the most sophisticated or polished film ever made but it does tell a heart-warming tale of how a simple school project grew into a national phenomenon that had lessons to teach everyone.

If it never appears in a cinema close to you it would still make a great educational item for schools across the country.

Whitwell, Tennessee is living in the afterglow of a once thriving coal mining industry. It has a population of just 1,600, two sets of traffic lights and one motel. The local school has no Jews, no Catholics, no Asians and just five African-American students.

In 1998, the school began the Holocaust project, an initiative to teach the pupils about diversity and tolerance. At one point the class decided to collect a paper clip for each of the six million Jews who died in the concentration camps.

The project grew as they collected paper clips from actors and politicians, received an emotional visit from Holocaust survivors, and built their own distinctive memorial. In time, they collected close to thirty million paper clips.

‘Paper Clips’ almost feels like a home movie at times; it is very American and extremely sentimental. The more cynical among us might also argue that the good pupils of Tennessee didn’t have to look as far as Nazi Germany to learn about intolerance and prejudice. Still, it is a film with a strong message about a community that has its heart in the right place.

Selected nationwide release
Directors: Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab
Screenwriter: Joe Fab
Certificate: U
Running time: 83 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2005

© Allan Hunter, 2006