Saturday, February 22, 2025

Disposable Humanity (2025) Slamdance 2025


This is a look at the actions of the doctors and nurse under Nazi order Aktiont 4T which allowed them to euthanize psychological patients and those with severe medical issues.

Director Cameron S Mitchell's film does a great deal to fill in the wholesale murder that was not sanctioned under law but a back dated document that was written during the war. It was a program that was so shameful that the hospitals didn't keep records of the patients that they killed.

A vital and important as the subject matter is I'm a bit mixed on the film. The mixed feeling comes from two areas. The first is that the film is a tad too focused on Mitchell's family. While the trips of his family into Europe to explore the history of being handicapped and how the Holocaust murdered millions of people,  there is a point where we could have used more focus on the past instead of the present. 

The other problem  is that the film could be better organized. The problem is not what is here, it's more that the information doesn't feel as though it was put together in order. While the film has a massive amount of great information it doesn't feel it organized, as one long historical deep dive goes into the trip or something that only tangentially related. It's not fatal but it doesn't quite have the emotional kick it should. 

My quibble aside the film is a must see, the information is too important, especially with the weird shift in current political thinking in America and the rest of the world.

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