Documentary Film Review: Paper Clips

Rated: G ; 82 minutes
Copyright 2004, Miramax Films
Directors: Elliot Berlin and Joe Farb.

Whitwell, TN is a small rural mountain town of 1,600 citizens; it is so small that I, who only lives 90 miles away, had never heard of it. At one point of my life, I lived about 25 miles from it and I still hadn't known of Whitwell existence. Thanks to this excellent documentary "Paper Clips," I learned of its existence and of its people, who have hearts that are bigger than their bodies. This former coal mining town has managed to catch the attention and hearts of people from around the world. From watching "Paper Clips," I learned that this is a town that has hope and a lot of compassion. As I watched this powerful and emotional documentary, I went through a lot of emotions: I cried, smiled, laughed, cried some more, got goose bumps and chills that went through me at times. I felt proud of the children, of the teachers, of that school, and of the community.

It started with one woman, Linda Hooper, the principal of Whitwell Middle School. Ms. Hooper had a simple goal; she wanted to have diversity taught at her school. The population of Whitwell, being mostly white and Protestant, is not diversified and thus didn't have much experience of other cultures. The goal was to teach the children the horrors of intolerance and the evil that can grow from bigotry and being narrow-minded.

Everything got rolling when Ms. Hooper sent 8th grade teacher, David Smith to Chattanooga to learn about diversity. He came back and recruited Sandra Roberts another 8th grade teacher at Whitwell Middle School to work on the project. They decided to teach the kids about the Holocaust. Schools everywhere are teaching children about the Holocaust and about the 6 million Jews that died. So what is so special about Whitwell? It is the way the children reacted to the information. The scope of their instruction changed when a student commented that they didn't know what 6 million looked like. The teacher challenged them to find something they could collect that would help them visualize what 6 million looked like.

The kids decided on paper clips because people wore them during WWII to represent the victims of the Holocaust. The kids then wrote letters to family, friends, and celebrities asking for paperclips. They were visited by two German reporters from Washington, DC, Peter Schroeder and Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand, who in turned told a reporter at the Washington Post about their project. After the write up, they started receiving letters, paperclips and memorabilia from around the world. At the time this documentary was being filmed they had received 29 million paperclips.

Then Ms. Hooper got the idea of having a German railcar to be used as container for the paperclips; thus the Children's Holocaust Memorial was born. The students and their teachers, family and friends and the community of Whitwell all pitched in to create the Memorial with help from others all around the world. Whitwell started getting a lot of visitors including Holocaust survivors.

If I could change anything about this documentary I would have more of the children involved interviewed and I would have liked to have seen more of inside of the railcar itself once it was made into a memorial.

I recommend that "Paper Clips" be shown to every child from 6th grade on up. Adults would also benefit from watching this documentary. This documentary not only teaches us about the horrors that can be created from ignorance and prejudice, but it also shows us that children can reach out and touch the lives of people in their community and across the globe in a positive manner that changes lives.

Amazon.com is selling copies of this documentary on DVD for $14.99. If you want to show this documentary in a group you need a special license. Contact: Barbara Nelson of Swank Motion Pictures at 1-800-876-5577, to ask for permission. There is a special educational version that has lesson plans that you can buy from www.paperclipsmovie.com.