「然后他们来抓我时——已经没有人替我说话了」，是如今被广泛引用的诗作《起初他们先来》（First They Came）的最后一句，作者是一位德国牧师，他曾热情支持纳粹政权，直到该政权开始攻击他所属的新教教会。生活在威权统治下的每个人都不安全，最终都会被其压迫所触及——除非人们团结起来抵抗，共同保护弱者——这一理念是今年威尼斯电影节纪录片单元中多部作品的直接主题。当今世界正应对控制型统治者上台与法西斯主义回潮，纪录片创作者们争相站到历史正确的一边，而不愿成为沉默潮流的一部分。
“Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me,” is the final line of the now much-quoted poem, “First They Came,” by a German pastor who once enthusiastically supported the Nazi regime until it started attacking his own Protestant Church. The idea that everyone living under authoritarian rule is unsafe and will eventually be touched by its repression, unless people come together to resist and collectively protect the vulnerable, was a theme directly underpinning a number of documentaries in this year’s Venice Film Festival program, as the world contends with the rise of controlling rulers and resurgent fascism, and documentarians scramble to be on the right side of history and not part of the silent tide.