“I’ve seen ‘Weapons of the Spirit’ several times. But what is striking about re-watching it, is that the questions it asks—both of its subjects and of its viewers—always feel profoundly relevant. Today, as you will see, is no exception.”
Samantha Power, then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, introducing a screening at the American Mission to the U.N.
FROM THE CHAMBON FOUNDATION:
BELOW, FREE SNEAK PREVIEW
DEPORTATIONS SPECIAL!
Weapons of the Spirit
—remastered 2024 edition (93 min.)
A Jewish filmmaker returns
to the Christian haven of rescue
where he was born and sheltered from deportation.
Awards include:
DuPont-Columbia Award—shared with Ken Burns’ The Civil War series.
Below:
1) promo (02:00);
2) Bill Moyers introduces the film (02:35);
3) Weapons of the Spirit—elections special! (93:00)
Below, introduction by Bill Moyers to the PBS broadcast in 1990 of Weapons of the Spirit
Link to Bill Moyers’ interview of Pierre Sauvage, and additional videos
Below, full, FREE sneak preview of the remastered 35th-anniversary 2024 edition!
Five minutes in, your email address and name will be requested in order to continue;
this will be strictly for the Chambon Foundation's information only.
The nonprofit Chambon Foundation welcomes donations.
While the U.S. averted its gaze,
one rural community
in Nazi-occupied Europe
engaged in a conspiracy of goodness…
—“An inquiry into the nature of goodness and a personal odyssey. Moving and provocative.
Enormously uplifting. What an extraordinary story.”
David Ansen, Newsweek
"The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time."
Rep. John Lewis, in an essay sent to the New York Times two days before his death in 2020.
—"I have shared the link on Facebook and with anyone I can think of. If the worst comes to pass and an enemies list is constructed, I hope I'm on it. I'm not an especially brave man, but I'm not sure I could live with the shame of remaining silent."
T.B., Clawson, MI
—"Astonishing. Olympian. Emotionally wrenching. Bulging with profound questions of morality, responsibility and religion."
Desmond Ryan, Philadelphia Inquirer
—"A rare glimpse of the true spirit of Christianity in action. A fascinating chapter of history intersecting an unsurpassingly personal saga."
Todd McCarthy, Variety
—"An absolutely extraordinary story about matter-of-fact heroes. In a hundred years, it is likely to be timely still."
Tom Shales, Washington Post
Weapons of the Spirit recounts the saga of the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, during the Nazi occupation—the mountain Huguenot community that provided the most dense, long-lasting and successful haven of refuge from the Holocaust anywhere in occupied Europe.
This is a story veteran Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Pierre Sauvage was born to tell: born and protected in Le Chambon, he returned just in time to chronicle and probe the event—with the help of those, Christians and Jews, who lived it.
In that village and on the surrounding plateau, some 5,000 Jews were sheltered―by some 5,000 Christians!
It was while stranded in the area of Le Chambon at that time that writer Albert Camus worked on his profoundly relevant allegorical novel The Plague.
—"Your work continues to transform lives. Your film is one of the most beautiful human achievements I have had the privilege of encountering.”
Rev. Dr. David P. Gushee, Professor of Christian Ethics, Mercer University.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
WEAPONS OF THE SPIRIT
Upon its original release, the documentary received rave reviews, a dozen awards, theatrical bookings in over fifty cities (seven weeks in New York, Los Angeles, etc.), and two prime-time broadcasts on PBS hosted by Bill Moyers.
While the film is about a collective experience and gains additional resonance from being seen with an audience—hopefully in the not too distant future!—the nonprofit Chambon Foundation, producer and distributor of the film, will soon be making the newly remastered 2024 edition of the film available for online virtual screenings with interested groups, churches, synagogues, educational institutions and other organizations.
For information, please email sales[at]chambon.org.
AS POLARIZATION, AND DEMONIZATION
OF THE “OTHER,” CONTINUES,
—as a great yearning for renewed solidarity remains unfulfilled,
—as antisemitic incidents become more numerous,
—as many Christians seek to build on their faith,
while religious faith recurringly proclaims itself in violence,
—as the power of nonviolence is increasingly recognized,
—as we begin focusing at last on the responsibility of bystanders,
IS IT NOT ESPECIALLY VALUABLE TODAY…
TO PROBE THE WEAPONS OF THE SPIRIT ?
—“A very fine documentary about some people who managed, miraculously, to overlook their tribal and religious differences and just see their common plight as human beings.”
R. Crumb, cartoonist
—“Incroyable—as compelling and exciting as fiction. A film that will be around for a long time.”
Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times
PIERRE SAUVAGE’S
OTHER DOCUMENTARIES INCLUDE:
—the Emmy-winning Yiddish: the Mother Tongue;
—the challenging Not Idly By—Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust;
—the paradoxical We Were There: Christians and the Holocaust;
—the upcoming And Crown Thy Good: Varian Fry, Peter Bergson, and the Holocaust
—the upcoming A Year That Mattered: Varian Fry and the Refugee Crisis, 1940-41.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
ABOUT WEAPONS OF THE SPIRIT
—"Perhaps the most extraordinary display of moral choice in [the 20th] century. One jaw-dropping tale after another. A great moral adventure."
Robert Koehler, Los Angeles Times
—"The astonishing story it tells and the memories it preserves are beyond value. Captures the goodness and faith that radiate from these people."
Caryn James, New York Times
—"A personal and modest masterpiece that can be compared to the best achievements of the monumental Shoah and The Sorrow and the Pity."
André Pierre Colombat, The Holocaust in French Film (Scarecrow Press, 1993)
—"Luminous. It seems an anomaly to speak of an exhilarating Holocaust film, but [this] is just that, and more."
Jay Carr, Boston Globe
—"As moving—and tough-minded—a film about efforts to save the Jews of Europe as has been made."
Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall Street Journal
—"Flawless. The best kind of filmmaking, both intensely personal and of universal interest."
Tom Jacobs, Los Angeles Daily News
—"A film-making triumph."
David Bianculli, New York Post
—"Saw [the] film the other evening and admired it."
Elia Kazan, director, author
—"Sublimely understated and unsentimental. Deserves to be called the do-good movie of the past 40 years."
Eleanor Ringel, Atlanta Constitution
—"Inspiring. Told with a restraint that may make you weep. Suggests the work of John Ford."
Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times
—"First-rate. Incisive, moving, and morally instructive."
David Denby, New York Magazine
—"Riveting. A poignant reminder that good people don't have to surrender their beliefs even in the terror—or lethargy—of the times."
Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle
"The remastered version of the film is even more moving than the earlier one. The Chambonnais’ humanity, sincerity and nobility are even more evident. Truly a masterpiece dealing with the extraordinary faith of simple people."
Renée Silver, Jewish survivor from Le Chambon
—"If you wish to learn what more men and women could have done to save Jews, watch Pierre Sauvage's poignant documentary. It is superb!"
Elie Wiesel, witness, author, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
—"Reveals a luminous episode in the otherwise somber story of France under the Nazi occupation. The inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon took for granted that one lives by the commandment to love one’s neighbor. The story of Le Chambon still matters profoundly today, for, as one of its citizens observes, our neighbor is just down the street."
Robert O. Paxton, historian, author of Vichy France and The Anatomy of Fascism