It was a middle school in tiny Whitwell, Tenn., that set out to collect 6 million paper clips to commemorate the 6 million
Jews killed during the Nazi holocaust. The irony of such an act coming from the rural South is not lost on Whitwellians in "Paper Clips," the documentary about their project. One school administrator admits his own father is quick with a racist remark, and he notes that Southerners are easily stereotyped and discriminated against, too. The school's principal, a tireless, indefatigable old woman named Linda Hooper, says Whitwell (population 1,600) has no Jews, no Catholics, and only a handful of blacks and Hispanics. The project is extraordinary anyway, but particularly considering it's being spearheaded by a school of white Protestant redneck children. (I use the term "redneck" affectionately, at least as far as you know.) The paper clip project, which spanned the years 1998-2003, honors lives and changes the lives of the honorers. The film, directed by Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab, neither of whom has any other previous credits, is constructed simply, even amateurishly, but the power of what's being done comes through loud and clear. It is a case of the material being far better than the movie.
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