Paper Clips

This well-meaning, if hardly inventive and sometimes a little cloying, documentary recalls an unusual project instigated in 1999 by teachers at a school in God-loving, Darwin-fearing Tennessee. Concerned by the lack of diversity at Whitwell Middle School (no Jews, no Catholics, five African-Americans, one Hispanic), two teachers decided to inform their pupils of the Holocaust as a means of alerting them to the dangers of social and racial prejudice.

The kids responded with interest, and one bright spark decided that it would be a neat idea to collect six-million paper clips – one for every Jewish victim of the 1940s pogrom. Cue media attention, and an impressive two-year project that saw Holocaust survivors visit the school. The film has simple aims: to record and celebrate the school’s efforts, and to document the pupils’ wide-eyed responses. Straightforward, if a little drawn-out, ‘Paper Clips’ should serve interested youngsters well.