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Thursday, March 16th,
9:00 PM
Canada,
1995, 89 min.
Simcha
Jacobovici, Director
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Hollywoodism:
Jews, Movies and the American Dream
Based
on Neal Gabler’s best-selling book, Empire
of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, comes this briskly paced,
captivating documentary about the founding fathers of American cinema. The
Zukors, Warner Brothers and Mayers were East European immigrants who transformed
deep-seated personal dreams into shimmering public fantasies with the
technological novelty of film. Their films projected an American Dream filled
with picket fences, virtuous heroes and “White Christmas” carols.
Despite this assimilationist fanfare, they were called in front of the
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s. These business
“moguls” lorded over artists and studios, but
the hearings – driven by anti-Semitism -- reduced them in the public
eye. This is an unforgettable behind-the-scenes movie about the movie industry
as it has never been seen before.
Cosponsored
by the Weizmann Institute of Science
For a
list of related readings available at Tree of Life Books and Judaica and through
the American Jewish Committee, please visit our SJFF 2000 Reading
List.
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