A tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it, but a watched pot never boils.

The Deaf Lumberjack, The Blind Potboiler

The Deaf Lumberjack, The Blind Potboiler is a video assembly of interviews with witnesses of the holocaust appropriated from the USC Shoah Visual History archive, falsely subtitled with the written accounts of dreams of others. This video asks, what is the difference is between the narrated memory of an actual experience and the narrated memory of a dreamed experience for someone who hasn't experienced either firsthand?

The statement of "Never Again" is a call to arms for all those who hate genocide, but it is also the foundation of a justification for any means necessary.* The call to 'Never Forget' isn't as simple an imperative as it appears - it begs the question, how should I remember?

*"Hatred of the Jews has changed form but it still remains...The only thing that has truly changed is our ability and our determination to act to defend ourselves and prevent another Holocaust. This truth is a source of heavy and constant responsibility - to ensure by any means necessary the future and security of the State of Israel against those who seek our destruction. This is the last will and testament of the six million, our brothers and sisters who perished in the Holocaust and it is our duty - and we will carry it out."

- Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at Auschwitz-Birkenau in June 2013, my italics

25 minutes, 2015