The Second World War is considered to be one of the most filmed and photographed conflicts in history. There were photographers attached to the armies, recording every battle. They filmed and photographed destroyed cities, piles of bodies, scared and shaken citizens and starving Holocaust survivors.
Recent studies show that there were many individuals filming the conflict, but that most of those films were either lost during the war or were not developed in the years following.
Photographer Levi Bettwieser discovered an amazing set of rolls in 2014. After developing the images, he decided to create the ‘Rescued Film Project,’ paying tribute to the unknown photographer who had created the film during the war.
The Rescued Film Project is a short documentary about the processing of these mysterious film rolls. The process itself was an exhilarating experience for him, but when he developed and saw the pictures, he was astonished by his discovery.
Levi says that he always had a curiosity about old photographs and that he often tries to get hold of old rolls and process them. However, the discovery that he is most proud of occurred a few of years ago when he found 31 rolls of film.
From that point onward, he embarked on a journey to painstakingly develop these rolls of film and free the history hidden in them. Levi was very surprised to see the amazing photographic skills of the Unknown Soldier. It seems as if he took his time and was completely focused on capturing these amazing events of history with his camera.
When he developed the first image and had a good look at it, he was extremely happy with this achievement. Those images, he says, took him back in history to the battlefields with the soldiers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I4o_afITKg