The Danube Exodus: the Rippling Currents of the River May 14, 2009

In 1939, Captain Nandor Andrasovits ferried a group of Eastern European Jews fleeing Nazi persecution down the Danube River to a ship on the Black Sea that would carry them to Palestine. The following year, Captain Andrasovits evacuated emigre German farmers from their adopted homeland of Bessarabia (modern-day Ukraine and Moldova) after Soviet re-annexation, and transported them to the "safety" of the Third Reich. Remarkably, as an amateur filmmaker Captain Andrasovits documented both journeys. 1998, the innovative Hungarian artist and filmmaker Peter Forgacs adapted Captain Andrasovits's 8mm footage as the basis of his film 'The Danube Exodus.' Four years later, Forgacs teamed up with The Labyrinth Project, an art collective at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, to re-edit Forgacs's film with forty hours of additional footage, transforming it into an interactive, multimedia experience.