short takes (4)

Since the Holocaust, the Jews of Poland are more remembered for the ways they perished than for the ways they lived.Image Before My Eyes, a deeply life-affirming documentary, returns to Jewish Poland before tragedy struck -- between the late 1800s and 1930s -- and weaves a vivid tapestry of social and cultural detail. The materials include photographs, interviews with survivors now living, and home movies made by immigrants who revisited their homeland decades ago. A production of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, directed by Josh Waletzky, this is an uncommonly solid and responsible effort.