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This entrancing documentary details the story of how the students of Whitwell Middle School, a little town in Central Tennessee, started with a school assignment that snowballed into a one-of-a-kind Holocaust memorial gaining world-wide attention.

Whitwell is a former coal mining town with only a handful of minorities. The small town is almost totally Christian. Faculty at the school wanted to teach their children about the Holocaust as a means of showing them how intolerance of others can be fatal.

To give them a visual idea of what six million looks like (the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust), students began collecting paper clips. As news of the project began to spread, paper clips began pouring into the little school. Students did research and projects. They began to understand the not everybody was just like them. Jewish Holocaust survivors came to the school to share their stories and were embraced by the community.

Today a rail car formerly used to transport Jews to concentrations camps houses the paper clip collection on the grounds of Whitwell Middle School. Students give tours for other schools and answer questions.

This story is told with grace, humor and sensitivity. It will give you renewed hope in today's youth and an understanding of how the Holocaust must never be forgotten, lest it be repeated.

Who would have guessed that a small school in rural Tennessee could have started project that ended with world-wide participation? I purchased the DVD from Blockbuster the day it became available (November 1, 2005). I had heard good comments about the movie, but was unable to find another retail or internet outlet that offered it for sale.

I found myself holding back tears as the movie documented death camp survivors telling their stories to the folks of Whitfield. This story is very heart warming and gives hope that todays jaded children can be inspired to make a difference and learn from the past. And the teachers themselves were effected by the project to self-introspection of their attitudes towards people "different" than themselves.

I hope to someday visit the exhibit that resulted from the paper clip project.

I was flipping through the channels one day and I came across this very interesting documentary called Paper Clips. This movie take place in the small Tennessee town of whitfall. In an effort to teach the middle school students more about tolerance they come up with the paper clip project. They will collect roughly six million paper clips in order to signify the amount of loss of life that happened during the Holocaust. The news of there little project is spread all over the world with people sending paper clips from everywhere. They also had people who had survived the Holocaust to come and speak with the students and the rest of the town. There stories of the camps are horrible and terrifying. I was horrified to hear what some of them went through at the camps. It was interesting to see how people would send a certain amount of paper clips for the amount of family that they lost from the Holocaust. However,the amount of response the students received was overwhelming when they collect an amount of over twenty nine million paper clips from all around the world. They decide with the help of several others to build a memorial by the school and have it set up in a rail way car that was used to transport Jewish people to concentration camps. The impact that it takes on everybody's emotions is interesting to watch. This movie is very good and everyone should see it. 9 out of 10

This amazing document merits a view because it shows how a school project got children involved in understanding the fate of millions of human beings that perished during WWII because of the evil doing of a mad man. In fact, "Paper Clips" should be required viewing in schools as it clearly shows how hate and prejudice is so wrong in this society, and in the world.

Whitwell Middle School's principal, Linda Hopper, tells us about the town's history and racial make-up. Whitwell is basically a white lower middle class community. In fact, this impoverish town could be the perfect ground where prejudice could erupt, based on ignorance and how they perceive other people of different background and religion than theirs.

It's a credit to the teachers and the young students that got involved in the project to come to the realization about the horrible fate the Jews suffered during a period of modern history that shouldn't have happened. By collecting paper clips, a Norwegian symbol about their opposition of the senseless killings, the children get an education about something most hadn't been exposed to.

Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab deserve praise for bringing this uplifting documentary about tolerance and acceptance. Ultimately, the people of Whitwell, and especially the teachers that motivated their students to participate in the project are the clear winners for having gained knowledge about how to respect races and other cultures.

I was so lucky to have seen this at the Seattle International Film Festival.

This documentary covers simple act of students trying to conceptualize the enormity of the six million people who were killed in the Holocaust by using paper clips.

Two teachers created a curriculum designed to teach their mostly white middle school kids about tolerance. In selecting the Holocaust they ended up teaching more than the kids, they changed themselves and their town. They also reached people around the world, many who shared stories about loved ones who were lost. Survivors also tell their stories and express their joy and appreciation of experiencing life.

Miramax purchased this documentary, and hopefully they will release it soon.

As the number of people who can tell the Holocaust story from the first person perspective dwindles, this film is a gift to those of us learning about WWII and the Holocaust from text books.

Inasmuch as I believe that stories like this should be told, I tend to agree with other "negative" reviewers in saying that this should be considered more of a congratulatory promotional video for the Paper Clips project than a "documentary." This one could have been a 22-minute TV special and covered everything adequately.

This movie tells of the outpouring of support and affection a small town in Tennessee gets after they receive national coverage of their project to collect 6 million paper clips to see "what 6 million looks like." They receive an outpouring of national and international letters and eventually the project becomes even bigger than they had ever expected.

While it has its slow parts, my chief complaint was that the syrupy violin music which permeated the *entire* movie (I kid you not) began to feel, ah, just a LITTLE manipulative. If you want to cry your eyes out both because of the tenderness and sadness of the disgrace that was the Holocaust, in addition to the fact that "these simple southern kids, man, these kids are honoring them ... sniff" then this is a movie for you.

The characters 1-dimensional, the kids are all positive, the teachers are reformed bigots, the holocaust survivors stories are touching and moving, and everyone is just so bloody positive about the whole thing.

If you're looking for anything hinting at controversy, the biggest is - (drum fill) Southern kids aren't all complete racists. Wow.

I suppose the greatest failure of the movie is that it truly leaves absolutely no room to actually have the viewer make up their own mind about anything... this would be a much more powerful piece if it provided any sort of counter-point to the constant smiley-faces, and actually challenged the viewer to use a brain cell.

Instead, it's a tear-jerking, overtly manipulative story which leaves little room for nuance.

This is an amazing movie about amazing people and an amazing project. It moved me to tears, especially because I had relatives die in the Holocaust. The people of Whitwell, Tennessee, deserve world-wide recognition as humanitarians and for their outstanding efforts. This film restores faith in human kind and the goodness in people. The story starts out simple enough, but soon it escalates and we witness an enormous undertaking that is highlighted by dedicating a memorial to the 11 million people that died in the Holocaust. It was thoughtful to give recognition to the 5 million other victims that also perished. Bravo to the film makers, bravo to the people of Whitwell!

I have a couple of nits to pick with Paper Clips. As commendable as the actions of the students and teachers were, the movie was simply not very interesting. I would have preferred that the film at least try to challenge the viewers, considering the complexities of modern race matters.

Instead, we receive a brief introduction to what the school set out to do, and then we are treated with 45 minutes of teary eyed commemorative speeches and dedication ceremonies. The movie feels like 10% journey and 90% destination celebration.

Also, the movie is described as an experiment about the Holocaust, leading to a miracle. There wasn't really any experiment (more of a project), and what happened was hardly a miracle. What was achieved was the product of hard work, dedication, and perseverance of all involved. Calling it a miracle actually cheapens their work.

I ask you chiphaubrock, would you stand face to face with all the students, teachers and citizens of Whitwell, Tennessee who gave their time, their hearts and their all to this project and tell them that everything they have done was just ridiculous busy work? Would you tell Peter Schroeder and Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand, White House correspondents, that their interest in what these children were trying to achieve was misplaced and their efforts to assist in the success of the project was wasted? The quantity of paper clips was to give the children a tangible visualization of just how many six million was. This was a life changing experience for many people and hopefully for many more that will watch this documentary. However, there will always be people like you who will try to find something bad to harp about and try to discredit the good. It's also people like you who discourage and belittle the pride and the efforts of our youth who are trying to learn from the past in order to change the future and striving to send the message out to everyone in hopes of reaching someone who was not afforded the chance to learn what they have learned. I wonder how, if you watched the documentary, can you spew such hurtful and unnecessary comments when hatred, ignorance, awareness, change and hope are the most important points in the message of the film. Awareness and change can only be achieved from within, one person at a time and I think it would be a wonderful idea for you to begin with yourself. To the students, teachers and citizen's of Whitwell as well as everyone else the world over that contributed to this amazing project, my new awareness and appreciation which I will pass on to my children is thanks to your unselfishness, time and hard work. Thank you

I saw this film at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in early 2004, and am thrilled that it is finally being released. It moved me to tears with its touching realities, and i tell everyone i know to see it as soon as possible. It is informative, inspiring, and breath-taking...and, for you Hollywood types, it has a "happy ending". I seldom want to travel anymore, but were the wanderlust bug to bite me again, i think that i would head to that little own in Tennessee, to witness this miracle first-hand. Go see this film. Don't think about going or analyze whether it is for Jews-only. Just go...and be a better person for the experience.

Paperclips is a documentary about a school in Tennessee where the students decided to collect 6 million paper clips as a symbol for the 6 million Jews that were killed in the holocaust. The initiative in itself was very heart-warming. Parts of the documentary moved me and the whole idea did touch me. I find the holocaust itself a very interesting topic, but this film about the schools project didn't feel interesting enough to cover a whole 80 minutes. For me it would have been a better movie if the main topic was the holocaust and they used the schools project as an extra element to tell the story. It did make me happy to see a group of good minded people working on such a beautiful idea.

I think the children were cool for doing this project but the film itself was very poor and boring. My mother who was watching the film with me could not keep her eyes open, she missed most of the film no doubt dreaming of half decent documentary films. Paper Clips could have been made 100% better. The camera quality was crap, there was no structure and the whining sounds of American children pretending to cry became more and more disturbing. Let the holocaust survivors have their say. Every time the survivors began to speak in the film, the whining of children would start and interrupt. Such a shame, the story is beautiful but the film didn't do the story justice. Inspiring story but very uninspiring film-making... God bless America

Most IMDb commentators have justly praised this beautiful, inspiring movie. But two commentators have downgraded this movie because it supposedly focuses on the murder of the Jewish people only - as if this were not a worthy enough focus in any case. This "criticism" would be a joke if it were funny (the joke being the one about the mother-in-law who gives her son-in-law two ties, one brown and one red, and when he wears the brown tie to dinner she complains: "What's the matter, you don't like the red one?")

According to one "critic," the movie fails to address the anti-homosexuality that the critic claims is rampant in Southern Baptist towns like the one where the paper-clip project took place. According to another "critic," the movie fails to address the fact that the Nazis also exterminated millions of non-Jews, who were considered either enemies of the State or racial inferiors. The main problem with such criticism is that the movie does in fact specifically address these facts. The movie does in fact memorialize the millions of non-Jews also killed by the Nazis, such as homosexuals, Slavs, gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, mental defectives, socialists, communists, etc. The movie specifically refers to some of these groups, including homosexuals. I wonder what movie these "critics" were watching.

In addition, these "critics" failed to understand the message of this movie, which was the conscious teaching, learning, and practice of tolerance, not only towards Jews - as if this would not be a good enough lesson, in any case - but towards any community of people different from one's own, any community that one might otherwise be inclined, out of fear and ignorance, to stereotype, degrade, hate, and even try to destroy.

Everyone who participated in the paper clip project at Whitwell Middle School is to be commended--the students, teachers, administrators, and many other volunteers. However, the movie pitches their efforts in a way that is too self-congratulatory, and this detracts from this otherwise wonderful story. The movie tries too hard--from the theme music to the frequent footage of participants tearing up--to make the case for a "miracle" in this small Tennessee town. A more objective and unemotional presentation would have let the events speak for themselves. As it was, I really wanted to like all of the participants, but I found the syrupy presentation almost constantly getting in the way. Rather than being a movie about the enduring significance of the Holocaust and its relevance for people even in very distant places, it became a movie about how darn great the whole paper clip project was and how special its participants were. So, great idea--I really mean that--but flawed execution.

To those who say they are tired of "only Jews" being pointed out as victims of genocide: reformulate your criticism. There cannot be too much about the Jews being exterminated. The problem is that other genocides don't get enough press, not that the Jewish Holocaust has received too much. But this isn't the fault of those who pay attention to Jewish suffering. The presumption that there is some sort of competition among genocides, a zero-sum game for genocide coverage (as if there were some set amount of coverage to be carved up) is ludicrous. In general, we need to pay more attention to the atrocities people have committed and continue to commit against each other. So it's "both/and" not "either/or." There should be paper-clip-type projects in schools throughout the world to remember the victims and survivors of other slaughters in modern history as well as the Holocaust (NOT "instead of" the Holocaust). What about the Atlantic slave trade's Middle Passage, the Congo Free State, the WWI Armenian genocide, Ukrainian mass starvation in the 1930's, Cambodian killing fields in the 70's, Rwandan genocide, Bosnia, Darfur? I agree with those who criticize the tendency to turn a blind eye to American atrocities, but don't ever allow this to lead you to dismiss the importance of mass killing. Stick to the principle that mass killing is evil regardless of who commits or enables it, and you won't go wrong.

I have seen this picture and it helps restore faith in human nature. It is a documentary about what started as an 8th grade project in a small town middle school,then developed a world wide appeal and the response was enormous. What made it more unusual is that there was not a single Jewish person living in this town.

The Principal, Vice Principal, teachers and parents learned as much as the students. And all of them seemed to learn that bigotry and hatred should have no place in a civilized society. And what starts as simply not knowing anything about a person, or if the person is different, such should not lead to stereotyping.

When the students met the Holocaust survivors, there was an immediate appreciation of life on the part of the children as well as their teachers and parents. The people in the film are real people, not actors. The ___location almost seems illogical, but the emotions are real and each viewer should bring a hankie.

This film should be part of every 8th grade curriculum.

Paper Clips is one of the most inspirational times I've ever had at the movies (and I've seen my share). It's a documentary detailing a middle school project in Tennessee to teach kids about the atrocities of the Holocaust. The kids are collecting 6 million paper clips to represent the 6 million Jews who died. The framework of the film sounds simple, but the ideas and values behind it are complex. These children who were raised as Protestants in a poor southern town are exposed to the harsh reality of the world and deal with it with tolerance and understanding. They interact with actual Holocaust survivors and in the end team up to erect a monument more moving than anything in Washington, D.C. This film should be shown to all school children. It has taught me that education is the only way to really change the world significantly. If enough children are taught to work together and be peaceful to each other, then we will create a whole new generation of children who love and reason and think. What a beautiful world it would be. - Scott Gingold, 2004

To think that a group of 8th graders thought of the idea for this project and made it happen is amazing! It is a project that changed all of their lives as well as the lives of everyone who heard about it. I grew up respecting Holocust survivors and knowing about the Holocust, yet this movie succeeded to change my perspective on it (for the better) and understand different aspects of it. This project turned an entire town into a supporting community who worked together to achieve this amazing outcome. The children ended up with a lot more paper clips then they originally anticipated and found a great way to display them all. Each one of the paper clips has a story and came to them from someone who deeply cares about their cause and, in most cases, has lost someone during the Holocust. A must see!

"Paper Clips" is not only a film that school children throughout this nation should see, but also one that shows clearly how stupid it is to maintain stereotypes. Here are southern school children, kids from Whitwell, Tenn. Middle School, who decide to do something significant when they learn about the Nazi Holocaust.

What begins as a simple plan, to collect six million paper clips, turns into a project of several years. And it helps the teachers and students open their eyes to the outside world, learn about what happened and also helps outsiders learn more about these kids.

This is an absolutely fascinating film. It celebrates the tenacity of these children, but never tries for anything maudlin. Yet, it's completely moving. There are scenes here - especially when survivors of the Nazi concentration camps speak to the townsfolk - that will move you to tears.

There isn't a single dull or dishonest moment in this film. We see one of the teachers admitting to prejudices and then get to witness how this project helped him. We see children acknowledging they knew nothing about the Holocaust when they started the project and how much it has helped their worldview and how they see other races.

I saw "Born Into Brothels" and it's a very good film. But how could "Paper Clips" have been ignored by the Oscars? I wish the idiots who claim the Holocaust was a myth, that the Nazis did not exterminate six million Jews and five million invalids, homosexuals, gypsies and others during the Third Reich would see this film, along with Alain Resnais' "Night and Fog" (1955) and James Moll's "The Last Days" (1998).

If the students at Whitwell Middle School are any indication of America's future, they give me hope.

A couple nights ago I watched the documentary 'Paperclips'. It was truly an inspirational viewing. It was about a Middle School in the VERY small town of Whitwell, Tennessee- who in trying to grasp the massiveness of the Holocaust attempt to collect 6 million paper clips to symbolize those who died.

In this small town of Whitwell, home 100 miles away from the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan, and a 'hop skip and a jump' from Dayton, Tennessee and the famous Monkey Trial of State vs. John Scopes for teaching the Theory of Evolution, here lies a community who's school has only 5 black children and 1 Hispanic. No Jewish population at all. Suffice it to say this town would be the farthest from anyone's mind to take such an interest in the Jewish tragedy. But their journey- that spans over 5 years, becomes the most enlightening one of their lives.

Over these years, they received donations of over 27 million paper clips from all over the United States and the world- each that represented a life lost. Through a website advertising their goal and intentions- they garnered worldwide exposure. This tiny town, made a home for all the souls to rest- not in Germany, not in Israel, not in a major city.

With the help of 2 Germans that work at The White House, they were able to acquire an actual German rail car that transported the Jews to the concentration camps. This rail car now in Whitwell, holds 11 million of those paper clips (6 million for the Jews, 5 million for homosexuals, sympathizers, and other victims). This monument is in their schoolyard.

A town of people regarded as stereotypical rednecks with the worst of prejudices, came together and made their hearts one with the Holocaust victims. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.

The film is touching to say the very least. It will make an impression on you as no other film ever could. Schwindler's list and all the other movies of this genre pale in significance. To see these kids collecting the paper clips and comprehending how many six million individuals really are helps the average person to understand that amount. The interviews with the survivors were touching, to say the least, and the only more memorable thing the producers could have done would have been to have the kids interview many more of the six million survivors and capture their full stories for posterity.

A 'must see' film for everyone that has an interest in the history. As the historian George Santyana stated, "Those that do not study history are doomed to repeat it".

I viewed this film by accident on HBO. I was very much surprised by the amount of people that were involved in this "Paper Clip" Project. This is truly a must see for all. It brings people to an understanding that people really are just people. There should be NO boundaries in which we all exist as human beings.

I was brought to tears throughout this film. The people of Whitwell, TN. need to be honored and commended. They are all very compassionate and took great time, and love creating this project for all to see, learn and experience as a whole. In my final notes, I wish to thank these people personally. For me, the 6 million people that suffered and died during the Holocast will never be forgotten. I truly will never look at a Paper Clip the same way again.

One of the best documentaries in years regarding students and staff of Whitwell, Tennessee who embark upon a school project regarding the holocaust. The area is located in a homogeneous Protestant town where not one Jewish person resides.

Kudos to Principal Linda Hooper and her assistant principal and 8th grade language arts teacher for devising this project. Over 29 million paper clips were collected, the latter representing the holocaust victims. We learn that paper clips came originally from Norway and was meant to unite. How appropriate.

Holocaust survivors visit the town and relate their harrowing experiences to students, staff and town residents.

Principal Hooper is certainly a hands-on administrator. She was directly involved in the project and shows her emotional vulnerability as she learned about what took place in Europe over 60 years ago.

Through this project, the school was able to obtain a train car where victims were shipped to concentration camps. The ceremony was memorable when the car made its way to this rural Tennessee town.

This magnificent documentary shows that we have the ability to learn tolerance and eventual acceptance of all people.

It should definitely be shown in all public schools and the likes of Mel Gibson should be made to see it.

Congratulations for a memorable experience. Thank you.