Listen to actor David Strathairn and the directors of “Remember This” explain how they adapted the play for the screen.
Features
TRANSCRIPT
A lot have no idea who this man was.
So it is a kind of a gift to them.
Jan Karski -- he came from a different place.
It was a place of dignity and integrity.
And a place of true patriotism.
I was struck by that because it was a story of failure.
And I find stories of failure to actually be more generative than stories of success.
They teach us what we've done wrong in relationship to what's happening in the world right now.
Then descends on one point alone, a man -- medals on his chest -- light glowing around.
I felt like there was a way that we could translate it on film in a way that was, you know, going to feel like a cinematic adaptation.
The scale and vision grew from a live capture of David with maybe three cameras.
We decided, "No let's film this like a movie."
Turning the camera in a sense, into kind of the extension of an experience that we built for an audience and seeing the kind of complementary, but also different roles and opportunities.
You know, it was a very intentional choice to shoot a single camera.
So there's not a cutaway in the piece.
We have no alternate angles that we can cut to that we can work around if we find ourselves in a pinch with how we shot it or something.
So everything had to be worked out except precisely.
The camera follows David and get so close that you are just in Karski's world.
I understand my mission.
I am not supposed to have any feelings, I am a camera.
