The man and the myth are both re-examined in “Oskar Schindler: The Man Behind the List,” which will air on the A&E network’s “Biography” series at 9 p.m. tonight.
Though the hourlong documentary does not change our basic perception of the man portrayed indelibly in Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List,” the new production certainly broadens our perspective.
While the movie focused on the six years of World War II, the documentary serves as both prologue and epilogue by tracing Schindler’s life from his birth in 1908 to his death in 1974.
For his portrait of the young Oskar, Martin Kent, the documentary’s producer, director and writer, drew on the family albums and recollections of a hitherto undiscovered Schindler niece, still living in Germany.
The postwar Schindler evolves partly through a rare interview on German television, but mainly through the words of the “Schindler Jews” he saved and who stood by him through his last decades as an unsuccessful entrepreneur, largely shunned by his fellow Germans.
Although the documentary dwells perhaps more than necessary on Schindler’s sexual conquests, it is dotted with striking black-and-white photos and intriguing bits of information.
There is an unforgettable photo of Amon Goeth, the sadistic SS labor camp commandant, as a shirtless fat slob — in no way resembling the trim figure of actor Ralph Fiennes in the Spielberg movie.
Long before Spielberg, we learn, MGM optioned the rights for a feature film on Schindler in 1963. Fortunately (in retrospect), MGM dropped the project after paying $50,000 to Schindler, who promptly squandered the money on fancy hotels and women.
Filmmaker Kent is the son of Holocaust survivors from Poland. Like many of similar family background, he distanced himself from his parents’ tragic experiences for many years.
“I thought I could deal with the Schindler project on an impersonal level, but once I got into it, it affected me more and more,” he said.
So strong was the impact that Kent and his partner Pavel Vogler recently formed Kunstler Films (derived from the family name of Kent’s parents).
The new company will devote itself to producing “documentaries on Jewish topics, but with universal appeal,” said Kent, who hopes to form a “strategic alliance” with a large Jewish organization or institution.
Kunstler Films’ first project is “The Last Jews of Poland,” about how the country’s 35,000 remaining Jews struggle to survive and retain their identity.
Kent is a prolific documentary filmmaker whose first production, 1983’s “Carl Reiner: The Light Stuff,” won an Emmy. “I was raised in the cable industry, where the motto was, `Keep the costs down, but make it look good,'” he said.
Two other Kent documentaries, one on famous kidnapping cases, the other the quest for a sunken Spanish galleon, will air on A&E during the last two weeks in May.
Kent expects that the Schindler documentary will in the future air internationally, including in Britain and Israel.