Historical media, more specifically cinema, have existed since the beginning of history. The recounting of past events to a new audience to describe the feelings and emotions of the times is usually conveyed through conversation, but modern technology allows the mass production of not only the recounting of historical events on big screens, but also possible reconstructions of these events. When something is recreated, the new product simply cannot, by definition, properly put into perspective the overall effects of historical events. Captivating and understanding the death of one man for another on a movie screen makes my head hurt just looking at it. One of the first American films, The Birth of A Nation, by DW Griffith, innovates in terms of filming techniques and narration, but also in terms of historical representation; horribly portraying black Americans while positively admiring the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith attempted to reshape America's collective memory, and more directly history itself, by depicting 19th-century America in this way. Slavery and the Civil War are stains on the proverbial American flag, just as the Holocaust is on German identity. Alain Resnais, Claude Lanzmann and Wim Wenders, through cinema, delineate what it truly means to represent, both historical and personal, while reframing their respective portraits to better understand the significance of an event in relation to those who participated in it. participated. participants.Nuit et Brouillard, directed by Alain Resnais, is a historical documentary about the Holocaust that delivers a distinct underlying message, questioning representation. The film begins as a typical investigation would with the narrator trying to come...... middle of paper ......my human, he begins to experience life from a participatory perspective. Wender's use of black and white sepia tone contrasting with the perspective of the living angel occurring in color signifies a literal and figurative awakening from viewer to participant. The story is possessive. It is impossible to truly represent prior experiences to a new audience, both outside of the context in which they were first experienced and under different circumstances. The three films mentioned, Night and Fog, Shoah, and Wings of Desire, all demonstrate how difficult and complex historical representation can be. In the case of La Nuit and Le Brouillard, Alain Resnais asks the question of how to arouse representation while in Shoah and Wings of Desire, by Claude Lanzmann and Wim Wenders respectively, show that those represented have points of view and alternative perspectives that still remain to be seen..