source: Anne Frank: Parallel Stories

Yes this is a very busy documentary, but the whole point of it was to share the stories of these women who were Anne's age. They survived and Anne didn't. Anne could have lived a life like there's and accomplished everything she dreamed of, but because of hate she never did. Anne dreamed of publishing her writing and living after death through her influence. The whole point of the girl and social media was to illustrate how young people relate to Anne today. I thought that whole point of it was moving.

This was one of the worst WWII documentaries I ever saw, and I have seen a lot of it. I wonder why the copyright owners of Anne Frank agreed to this documentary because it only tells so little about Anne Frank while her name is being used in the title of this documentary. Marketing strategy perhaps? Her legacy doesn't deserve a half told story combined with stories of survivors of WWII. Don't get me wrong, the parallel stories told in this documentary need to be told, no doubt about that. But don't combine their story with a story of another legacy, perhaps even one of the most famous legacy of WWII victims, that of Anne Frank. In conclusion, there are much better documentaries about Anne Frank and about other parallel stories then this one. Better watch those then waste your time with this one.

This is by far one of the most informative and well-made documentaries that I have ever seen on Anne Frank and the Shoah.

But why the emo girl? She added nothing to the movie.

Anne Frank is so well known I hoped this documentary would focus at least in equal measure on the "parallel stories" in the title. Unfortunately, I didn't learn much about them. Also, the instagram girl gimmick was useless, with all her #lousyhashtags.

Is this a docu-drama or an exercise in cinematography? The camera work is superb! But it's overdone and too "artsy-dartsy" for a film of this type. It's also far too long. Nor do I understand how Helen Mirren fits in. She is a favourite of mine. But there seems little point in having her (or anybody else) do an on camera narration. Nor, unlike the original movie, this film would be a confusing mystery to anybody not familiar with Anne Frank's story or the grim history of the period.

"Anne Frank: Parallel Stories" takes a critically important topic and cheapens it with abrupt digressions to a hashtag-happy teenager and Helen Mirren's laughably melodramatic readings of Anne's diary. The narrative jumps all over the place, and the filmmakers rely on cliche montages of petals and puzzle pieces falling in slow motion as filler. Anne's story and those of the Holocaust survivors and historians interviewed for this documentary deserve more thoughtful treatment.

I just saw this yesterday and was privileged enough for the film to be introduced by a Holocaust survivor of our community and then followed up with a history professor leading a discussion and Q&A time afterwards. I wish everyone could experience this film in that way, but irregardless, it is an impactful story of not just Anne Frank, but also the multiple women who survived. This is a part of our history that we should never forget so that it will never repeat. I wish they would show this at all the schools since students would get more out of this than anything in a history book.

But this pandering to youth does not endear them any more to the subject. If it takes hashtags and selfies to bring this to the youth of the world, we're in trouble. If Mirren is this dense to think this was the best way to bring these stories to light, perhaps she would be best served with her in front of the camera. Willfully encouraging morons to snap selfies and slap filters on to these horrific reminders of an evil part of our past is disrespectful and ignorant. How about simply telling the best story you can without ridiculous bells and whistles?