VideoFest brings thought-provoking films to Dallas

    The importance of story telling has also been the biggest reason to create a movie and the films being shown this weekend at Dallas VideoFest.

This 23-year tradition is committed to showing films with powerful images which can affect our lives, and the diverse topics being covered in the movies this weekend are focused on doing just that: affecting their viewers.

One of the first films shown was "A Film Unfinished," which took footage the Warsaw ghetto shot as propaganda under command from the Third Reich, interweaving that with footage of survivors of that horrible period.

The footage was shot of Jews in the ghetto with two purposes in mind: convince Germany the Jews have a good life, and document their own evil. This accurate portrayal of what life was truly like is both harrowing and gripping.

Prior to the showing of this opening night feature was a short interview filmed by a graduate film student, with one such survivor named Max Glauben, in which he confirmed the horrors depicted in the film. 

Glauben was at the premiere of the film Thursday night and spoke to the importance of films that tell the stories of these horrors.

"It's very obvious how important films like this are," Glauben said. "It causes me to wonder what would have happened if the film had been finished and people at that time had seen it."

This film was made in a partnership with the Dallas Holocaust Museum and Three Star Cinema and created a ripple immediately after the screening. 

The Angelika Film Center in Mockingbird Station is hosting this unique event and Thursday night is only the first night of the four-day event. 

The films being featured Friday through Sunday nights range in topics from civil rights to documentaries about Ugandan coffee and the story of the punk band Fishbone. Each video offers a unique story from a fresh, current angle. 

Passes for the Fest are sold for each individual day, for either $25 or $35 or you can buy a pass for the entire weekend for $75.