Julien Hequembourg Bryan (1899-1974) was an American documentarian and filmmaker. Bryan traveled widely taking 35mm film that he sold to motion picture companies. In the 1930s, he conducted extensive lecture tours, during which he showed film footage he shot in the former USSR. Between 1935 and 1938, he captured unique records of ordinary people and life in Nazi Germany and in Poland, including Jewish areas of Warsaw and Krakow and anti-Jewish signs in Germany. His footage appeared in March of Time theatrical newsreels. His photographs appeared in Life Magazine. He was in Warsaw in September 1939 when Germany invaded and remained throughout the German siege of the city, photographing and filming what would become America's first cinematic glimpse of the start of WWII. He recorded this experience in both the book Siege (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1940) and the short film Siege (RKO Radio Pictures, 1940) nominated for an Academy Award in 1940. In 1946, Bryan photographed the efforts of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency in postwar Europe.
Detailed preservation notes from the film lab are available in Film and Video department files. Additional photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives.
Warsaw street scenes. VS of architecture; street cars, newspaper kiosks, people milling about, but more of a focus on the bustle of the city, traffic cops, buses, cars, etc. 01:13:35:00 MCU of a woman and two boys, the woman most likely runs the kiosk, sitting on the ground reading the papers with the two young boys. MCU of a woman purchasing something at the kiosk. Large group of young women on an outing, all are wearing overcoats and berets, VS of new building construction, Julien Bryan's notes mention shots of the Parliament building and the higher army court; an open truck full of men in suits drives up to this new building, they all go inside. Street scenes in Warsaw- MS of a black man talking to another man on the street- in a shopping district. More shots of this new looking, yet classically inspired piece of architecture with rounded façade, columns, and bas relief designs. Polish police officers walk past the building. VS of a bridge between two buildings, workmen finishing the plaster work, the sign in front of the building advertising the construction company confirms the location as Warsaw. 01:16:25:00 More scenes of construction, however this building is not as large as the other building, this is a wood frame structure, and workmen unloading cement block materials from the truck; cut back to the other building featured a few shots earlier. 01:16:49:00 LS, busy street corner with several advertisements for Polish products- it is raining, people carrying umbrellas in the BG, cars, horse drawn carriages, people waiting for the street car in the rain, several shots o the rain on the umbrellas. Sign at 01:17:04:27 reads:"Najwyzsy Sad Wojskowy; Prokurator Przy Najwyzsyzm Sadzie Wojskowy". MS well- dressed women, some in fur coats, looking in a shop window- display not visible from exterior. 01:17:14:00 MLS a memorial procession through the streets of Warsaw, wreaths, a horse drawn carriage with a coffin inside- the shot is too quick to catch the name on the banner, the pall bearers are dressed in very elaborate uniforms.
Daily life in Warsaw, Poland 1936