“THE LYNCHBURG STORY” (1993)

A 52-minute film which documents the sexual sterilization of 8,300 children in Virginia state institutions between 1927 and 1972. The children were sterilized because the state judged them "unfit" to reproduce. "The Lynchburg Story" establishes for the first time on television the direct links that existed between American eugenic policy (thirty-six states had compulsory sterilization laws) and Hitler's 1933 sterilization law that marked the beginning of the Holocaust.

Produced in association with THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL (USA), CHANNEL FOUR (UK), FRANCE2, YLE-TV2 (FINLAND), TV2 (DENMARK), and licensed to ABC (AUSTRALIA), TVE (SPAIN), NCRV (HOLLAND), NRK (NORWAY), RTSR & RTSI (SWITZERLAND), CBC (CANADA), SVT-INTERNATIONAL (SWEDEN) and others.

·        Non-theatrical distribution in the USA by FILMAKERS LIBRARY INC.

 

Awards & festivals

·      CableACE Awards 1994, nominee 'Documentary Special'

·      San Francisco Film Festival Golden Gate Awards 1994, certificate of merit

·      Banff Television Festival 1994, Selection Hors Concours

·      Films du Monde, Montreal 1994, selection

·      British Film Institute Awards 1994, Archive Achievement Award, shortlist

·      MediaNet 1994, Munich, shortlist

 

Reviews

This was another masterly programme in one of the best documentary series on television. It made you look at the century in a new way by placing the Holocaust in the widest possible context and making you appreciate its historical origins.

the daily telegraph (uk)

 

This excellent documentary The Lynchburg Story uncovered an American scandal that resulted in the enforced sterilisation of more than 70,000 people whose poverty or lack of education marked them out as socially undesirable and a burden on the State.

daily express (uk)

 

Stephen Trombley’s chilling documentary tells how, in the ‘20s, America developed a programme of eugenics, sterilising the ‘feeble-minded’, which wasn’t so far from Hitler’s plan for Germany.

time out (uk)

 

The Lynchburg Story concentrated on Virginia and on the attempt by the American Civil Liberties Union to obtain some redress for those so casually violated. It was a powerful tale and a distinguished contribution to social archaeology...

the independent (uk)

 

The chilling documentary by Stephen Trombley looks at the supporters and the victims of the Lynchburg Colony. In the ‘20s, the sterilisation of ‘imbeciles and social misfits’ was practised on people in America’s largest asylum. It provided a vision of the future which inspired Hitler.

daily mirror (uk)

 

The Lynchburg Story reveals an extraordinary conspiracy to make enforced sterilisation legal....

radio times (uk)

 

Presented with admirable restraint, The Lynchburg Story exposes horrors one wouldn't dream of. Terrifying!

tele loisirs (france)

 

This probing report on the fate of 70,000 so-called 'feeble-minded' Americans is mind-blowing.

tele journal (france)

 

Shocking revelations, systematically exposed by this unrelenting documentary.

tele poche *** (france)

 

 

Outstandingly well put together, this documentary goes beyond the shocking testimony of the victims who have agreed to relive their experiences, in painstakingly revealing the mechanism which allowed such a conspiracy to succeed.

le monde radio-television (france)

 

A gripping documentary on this despicable - and secret - episode in American history which inspired Hitler. Spine chilling.

le nouvel observateur (france)

 

Stephen Trombley has brought us a terrifying film from the United States. This documentary is so staggering!

la croix l'evenement (france)

 

The Lynchburg Story is the second documentary in Stephen Trombley's trilogy (The Execution Protocol) was the first, a film on the Drancy concentration camp is to follow). Once again there is the quiet strength of the Anglo-Saxon investigative documentary, with just the right amount of mise en scene to better understand without sensationalising. Reinforces vigilance by bringing history up to date.

liberation (france)

 

This film disturbs with its revelations and leaves one with a profound sense of unease at the reluctance of Virginian authorities to take responsibility for what they have done. The survivors have kept silent for years - isolated and damaged - their memories kept secret, like shameful nightmares. Today they are speaking out...

telerama (france)

 

This powerful documentary reveals, through eyewitness accounts and a wealth of archive material, the full horror of involuntary sterilization as practised in the United States. It traces in detail the stages which led the Supreme Court to declare constitutional the law relating to this practice.

telestar (france)

 

This powerful film exposes the eugenic theory put into practice for decades in the United States with government approval. The testimony of the sterilization victims confronts us with the full trauma which tens of thousands of people have had to live through.

le figaro, tv magazine (france)

 

One is appalled by the cynicism of those who put into practice such a horrifying policy, in the country which likes to teach the world about human rights. This film is required viewing now that eugenic ideas are once again acquiring respectability.

tele 7 jours *** (france)