Just People

In 2011, Humanity in Action partnered with the acclaimed Dutch filmmaker Annegriet Wietsma to produce the organization’s first film. Just People: A Quest for Social Souls with Independent Minds is a film essay that investigates the challenges and complexities of being an independent individual while cooperating in a social group. After the Second World War, generations have asked themselves: What would I have done, living there and then? The film reframes the haunting question and looks for answers in the present rather than in the past: How do I behave today, now and here, in a group, and as an individual?

Humanity in Action has partnered with the acclaimed Dutch filmmaker Annegriet Wietsma to produce the organization’s first film—one that would reach a large audience and share Humanity in Action educational concerns, messages and goals.

“Just People: A Quest for Social Souls with Independent Minds” is Wietsma’s filmic essay. It explores the challenges and complexities of being an independent individual while cooperating in a social group—how not to be a bystander, how to dare to stand out from the crowd. After the Holocaust, postwar generations have asked themselves: What would I have done, living there and then? The film reframes the haunting question and looks for answers in the present rather than in the past: How do I behave today, now and here, in a group, and as an individual?

“Just People is a great film,” says the journalist Michael Soussan. “Enlightening, artistically rendered for maximum thematic impact – a game changer in the field of historical documentaries. A documentary that challenges the audiences to be more than passive witnesses. This work has a lot to give its audiences and is of enormous relevance.”