Gertrude Berg, Television Pioneer

Posted on July 3, 2009 at 3:58 pm

A forthcoming book and documentary about Gertrude Berg tell the story of this pioneering broadcaster, producer, and actress. According to a story in Flow Magazine,

Gertrude Berg was the founder of the family situation comedy on radio and television. She was Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz rolled into one, a business genius and negotiator as well as performer, writer, director and auteur of her own show — and this during an era when women in up-front power positions were rare. She was known as “Molly Goldberg” on her show The Goldbergs, which ran from 1929-49 on radio and from 1949-56 on television. Kempner’s film gives a fascinating multi-sided portrait of Gertrude Berg, the demons that drove her and the undeniable imagination and talent that made her such a prolific writer-producer and star of early television. Gertrude Berg had extraordinary powers of observation, love for her grandparents’ generation, and an innate drive to write and perform evident from her teenage years when she entertained the children of guests at her father’s Catskills hotel.

Berg came from the vaudeville-era tradition of ethnic comedy, but she avoided caricature and created a warm and affectionate portrait of a three-generation Jewish family living in the Bronx.

On one side of Molly Goldberg and her husband Jake was the first-generation “Uncle David,” with the characteristic shrug of the shoulders and Yiddish theater inflection that made him endearing. On the other side were the third-generation “kids” who were becoming fully American. But it was Molly Goldberg herself, placed squarely in the middle, still speaking the Yiddish-inflected language of the Bronx when she moved to the suburbs years later, who created the central vitality of the show as she opened it each week from her window in the Bronx.

In an era when women and Jews were seldom given opportunities in business of any kind and almost never in television, Berg was so successful that her radio program was broadcast simultaneously on all three networks. Kempner’s new documentary bills itself as the story of “The most famous woman in America that you never heard of.” Kempner, the creator of the award-winning 1998 documentary about Hank Greenberg, is the ideal film-maker to tell this story and I look forward to seeing it when it opens later this month.

Interview: Nati Baratz of ‘Unmistaken Child

Posted on July 2, 2009 at 8:00 am

As they have for hundreds of years, a Buddhist monk goes on a journey in search of the “unmistaken child” who is the reincarnation of his master. The quest is unchanged in its goal and its procedures. But this time the monk is sporting a very modern backpack, traveling in part by helicopter, and the journey is being filmed by an Israeli documentary film-maker.

I spoke to that film-maker, Nati Baratz, as he was traveling through the United States to talk about the film, “Unmistaken Child.”

Tell me how this project came about.

Back in 93 I fell in love with Tibetans, especially the people, and I felt a moral responsibility about the suppression by the Chinese. I went home to study cinema and I wanted for a long time to make a film abut Tibet, to bring to the audience the experience of the culture and the qualities. The Tibetans have this happy nature, they are calm and non-violent and they have developed a lot of wisdom over thousands of years. Most of all, they have this endless commitment to benefit others. You can read about it but to experience it is different. The Buddhist culture is the best thing I have found in my life until today. It is not formal but I am connected to it, more Buddhist than anything else, more than my Jewish background.

And how did you decide on this particular story?

I wanted to make a film about a hidden Tibetan tribe. In the course of this I went to Nepal and joined the meditation to deepen my understanding of Tibetan Buddhism. There I heard this talk about the life of the master who had just died. The lama Tenzin Zopa touched me with his huge heart when he asked us all to pray for the swift and unmistaken return of his master. I knew this is the movie I have to make.

Do you believe in reincarnation? Specific, individual reincarnation of the master’s spirit in one unmistaken child? Do you want the audience to believe in it?

That is a tricky question. I want people to contemplate and think, not just experience the film but engage with it. I tried to challenge the viewer. You see one part of the film and the child looks holy, in another he looks like a normal child. I want to make the audience decide for themselves. That idea is connected to Buddhist teaching. They should not believe anything you say but should examine by themselves.

How long did if take?

It was a 5 Â½ year film-making. I moved with my wife and two year old daughter to India, just to give you an example of my commitment. It was great for her to live in the monastery and to play with the reincarnated child. It was tough on my wife but she had a great experience. We were really fortunate that they agreed to allow us to enter into the most private and hidden part of their life and tradition.

How did you get their cooperation?

I told him I am not a formal Buddhist but I have a strong commitment to the Tibetans amd really want to make this movie. It was a chance to show the world the qualities of the master. The Dalai Lama is famous and so many people are benefiting from it. It is not a problem to be famous, it is what you make out of it.

I had to ask permission from a very senior lama. It was a three month journey that really tested my patience and insistence. I passed an astrology check. And it took Tenzin quite a while to really trust me. They are monks so they are not used to the camera, they are modest. He is an amazing example. For me, all the reincarnation is just a narrative motor to have enough suspense and interest in the film to experience Tenzin’s journey of maturity, from a servant to a leader, bringing the treasure back home to the Tibetan people.

As the father of a two-year-old while you were filming, how did that affect the way you portrayed the family asked to give up their two-year-old?

I tried to give an intimate and close look at the story to give people the option to experience a different way of thinking. When the parents give up the child, this is the most touching part of the film for me, because they do it for the benefit of others. It is very inspiring that people give up their most precious thing for the benefit of others. That is what makes the film a feature-like experience. It is a documentary with an amazing character on an amazing journey that is very spiritual, a transformation.

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Documentary Interview

Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience

Posted on June 30, 2009 at 8:00 am

Jonas Brothers fans will feel like they are on stage with Joe, Nick, and Kevin in this immersive 3D concert film from the recent “Burning Up” tour. Brief backstage glimpses of the JoBros waking up, having breakfast, filming a music video in Central Park, visiting a record store for the release of their new CD, and, in a brief tribute to A Hard Day’s Night, running from their fans, punctuate performances in New York and Los Angeles, in cavernous arenas filled with ecstatic fans waving glowsticks.

Seasoned pros at 21, 19, and 16, the brothers started performing as children, with Nick and Joe appearing on Broadway as children and their first tour as a group in 2005. They are natural showmen, obviously having fun on stage, with an appealing easy athleticism and infectious enjoyment. Parents can feel comfortable with their strictly G-rated lyrics and resolutely G-rated off-stage personas. Their father is a is a former Assembly of God pastor and they are open about their commitment to their faith. A shirt may (briefly) be off, but their purity rings stay on.

The concert benefits from guest appearances by fellow teen pop-stars Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift (whose brief romance with Joe Jonas inspired her new break-up song “Forever and Always”). Both young women sing female empowerment anthems that add a bit of balance. But even when they are on stage, the brothers are always at the forefront, the guest stars another in a series of precisely timed show-boosters that include fireworks, cartwheels, lifting the boys on pedestals, spraying the fans with firehoses, and — this is a 3D movie after all — a number of objects being thrown at the audience including guitar picks and drumsticks.

The shots of the fans — hyperventilating, weeping, smiling so widely their braces seem to take over the entire screen, jumping over police barricades — may be there to promote the Jonas Brothers brand but they will also be reassuringly validating to the movie’s primary audience. They may come to enjoy the music and the behind-the-scenes glimpses of the teen idols, but they will appreciate the sense of community and good spirits as well.

Parents should know that this is a G-rated film with no bad language, sex, or violence. One of the boys briefly has his shirt off and the brothers spray their fans with firehoses in a manner some may find suggestive.

Family discussion: What is it that makes the Jonas Brothers so popular? Which one is your favorite and why?

If you like this, try: Camp Rock, Burning Up: On Tour with the Jonas Brothers, and Music from the 3D Concert Experience

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3D Documentary Musical

Do the Right Thing

Posted on June 29, 2009 at 8:00 am

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	R
Profanity:	Very strong language including racial epithets
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, drug use, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	Some violence
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	1989
Date Released to DVD:	June 30, 2009
Amazon.com ASIN:	0783227949

Twenty years ago, Spike Lee made a tough, smart, and very provocative film that included an electrifying moment when the character played by Lee himself held up a trash can and aimed it at the glass window of a pizzeria owned by an Italian named Sal (Danny Aiello). People are still arguing about what happened next. The Root has a superb collection of resources and reflections on the film’s 20th anniversary, including thoughts on Lee’s sometimes-troubling portrayal of women by the always-insightful Teresa Wiltz, an update on the Bed-Stuy community’s current challenges, and a consideration of one couple who memorably saw the film on their first movie date and are now living in the White House.

It takes place on the hottest day of the year in in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, where there is an uneasy alliance between the old-time residents like Sal and the more recent but majority residents who are African-American. In general, they get along because they need each other but there is a lot of frustration on all sides. Tempers get hot as the weather gets hotter.

Watch for Samuel L. Jackson, John Turturro, Rosie Perez, and Martin Lawrence very early in their careers and legends Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee giving, as always, performances of endless subtlety and grace. And watch to see what has and has not changed since the movie was released two decades ago.

Secret Ballot

Posted on June 28, 2009 at 3:58 pm

Those who are interested in the Iranian election and protests should see this superb Iranian film that is one of the finest explorations of freedom, elections, democracy, and the rule of law I have ever watched on screen.

It begins with a surreal image as a solitary soldier patrolling an Iranian island coast sees a box dropped by parachute from a plane. Soon after, a boat arrives and a woman disembarks. She informs the soldier that she is there to collect as many votes as possible before 5 pm and he is to accompany her. They travel the island debating the legitimacy of the voting process and the ability of the law to ensure fair treatment. The woman is a stickler for the letter of the law, even when the result is difficult to justify. That is, until they get stopped by a broken red light and she must decide whether to stop at the deserted intersection, missing her boat and invalidating the votes she has collected, or break the law by running the light. The film, made by Canadian-Iranian Babak Payami works brilliantly as allegory and as quasi-documentary. We never learn the names of the characters; they are just “the soldier” and “the girl.” But they and their predicament are immediately involving and distinctive. Highly recommended for high school and college civics classes and for anyone who appreciates superb film-making.