Name: Ziva Postec: The Editor Behind the Film Shoah
Director: Catherine Hébert
Genre: Documentary, History
Released: 2018-07-29
Duration: 92 min
Rating: 6.6
Cast: Ziva Postec, Claude Lanzmann, Henry Rousso, Jean-Pierre Lledo, Kevin Fallis

The woman who turned 350 hours of Holocaust testimony into cinema's most devastating masterpiece.

quietly radicalbehind-the-scenes heroismmeditative

Overview

Documentary History

This film tells the life story of Ziva Postec, emphasizing the period when she was editing Shoah from 350 hours of footage.

Content warning

woman director film editor

Standout Aspects

Direction

Catherine Hébert lets Postec's modesty speak louder than any hagiography could.

Editing

Meta-mastery: a film about editing, brilliantly edited itself.

Best for:Solo·Streaming

Heads up:Emotional·Disturbing

Director

Catherine Hébert

ReleasedJul 29, 2018

Runtime1h 32m

StatusReleased

Vibe

Paceslow

Intensityhigh

Tonedark

Feelheavy

Top Cast

Claude Lanzmann

Self (archive footage)

François Mitterrand

Self (archive footage)

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Deep Dive

Trivia, insights & behind the scenes

Trivia

Postec personally logged all 350 hours with a handwritten card system—no digital database, just her memory and intuition.

Cultural

Shoah's release in 1985 coincided with new Holocaust consciousness in Western media; Postec's invisibility mirrors how women's labor shaped that cultural moment uncredited.