BrooklineHub In-depth Guest: Documentary Editor Robert Kirwan

This week on “BrooklineHub In-depth” host Harvey Bravman interviews celebrated documentary film and video editor, Rob Kirwan, who served as editor and co-producer of “Soul Witness, the Brookline Holocaust Witness Project. Kirwan also served as editor on “Brookline, Facing Civil Rights.”

With over 20 years in TV production, Rob Kirwan has worked on a variety of subjects: science, history, human rights, nature, culture, and food. Kirwan has collaborated with WGBH, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, DreamWorks Animation, History Channel, Harvard University, MIT, Museum of Science, Harvard Business Publishing, Ideo, Physicians for Human Rights, and many others including Harvey Bravman.

In this episode, Kirwan and Bravman talk in detail about the process of creating “Soul Witness” for the screen, and how they were affected working on 30-year-old Holocaust testimonies that had not seen the light of day since the early 1990s. “Soul Witness” is a documentary film, based on more than 80 hours of testimonies conducted over 25 years ago by one of the world’s foremost authorities on Holocaust testimonies, Lawrence Langer. The testimony tapes ended up in a closet for more than two decades. The tapes were uncovered for the making of the film. The film was produced and directed by R. Harvey Bravman.

“I could not have made “Soul Witness” without Rob, we share a common humanity and friendship that dates back to the early 1990s,” Bravman said. “Coincidently, we’ve known and worked together since about the time Lawrence Langer conducted his epic interviews. Like Langer, we listened to the testimonies with our own ears and our own hearts. We were vessels.”

Boston Globe film critic Peter Keough on “Soul Witness: “R. Harvey Bravman’s Soul Witness is a quietly devastating oral history. This film is a tribute to the survivor’s courage, resiliency, and an all too timely reminder that it always can happen again.”

Mark Skvirsky and Tracy O’Brien of Facing History and Ourselves on the film: “This film is important both for the stories that survivors share, but also for the way their voices are presented. The structure and tone of the film “humanizes” these individuals who might otherwise be perceived simply as victims.”

The interview with Rob Kirwan premieres on Monday, August 2. “BrooklineHub In-depth” is produced by BrooklineHub.com publisher R. Harvey Bravman and Danielle Myers, a producer from Bravman’s for-profit company, ADW Video Productions.

“BrooklineHub In-Depth” can be seen on all Brookline Interactive Group cable channels and on its

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