Fall Film Series Beginning Nov. 14

Jewish Film Series: Jewish Life in America

1.) The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

Sunday, November 14
6:30 p.m.
Whittenberger Auditorium, IMU

The Life and Times is an unabashedly celebratory, yet historically sophisticated film, locating the life of “the baseball Moses,” a secular Jew from the Bronx who became one of the greatest stars in baseball, in relation to crucial events in the 1930s and 1940s.

2.) Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Thursday, November 18
7:00 p.m.
Location TBA

Kempner’s award-winning documentary feature on the life of comedian, performer, and businesswoman Gertrude Berg employs a combination of archival footage and contemporary interviews (including Ruth Bader-Ginsburg), to paint a portrait of Berg that moves beyond biography to speak powerfully about her moment in history. A discussion with director Aviva Kempner will immediately follow the screening.

The Pawnbroker (1965), The Plot Against Harry (1970/1989), and The Chosen (1981) are scheduled for the spring at the IU Cinema.

The DEFA DIALOGUES: 5 Film (Re)Discoveries

1.) Locked Up Time (Germany/GDR 1991, Dir. Sibylle Schönemann)
Sunday, November 14, at 3pm in the Whittenberger Auditorium, Indiana Memorial Union

The New York Times called this film about the filmmaker's reckoning with the STASI, East Germany's secret police, who locked her up and expelled her to the West in the 1980s, "an eloquent film that shows what an abstraction like 'politics' did to one woman and her family."

Schönemann was, at the time, one of the very few female directors in the state-run studio system.

At times comical, at times bitter and moving, this fascinating documentary charts Schönemann's quest to overcome her past, the past of a nation that spied on its own citizens...

1991 German Film Award in Silver
1993 New York Film Festival

Not shown in Bloomington in nearly 20 years, the film will be presented in 35mm and introduced by Helmut Morsbach, the direcor of the Berlin foundation charged with the critical preservation of East Germany's cinematic legacy. The film was re-released in Germany this year.

2.) Carbide and Sorrel (GDR 1963, Dir. Frank Beyer)
Monday, November 15, at 7pm in the Fine Arts Auditorium 015

A classic (and rare comedy) of East German cinema set in 1945, starring German acting legend Erwin Geschonneck (Mother Courage and Her Children, Naked Among Wolves, Jacob the Liar) as the nonsmoking worker Kalle, who sets off on an adventure through postwar Germany in search of carbide for a cigarette factory. A popular film in the 1960s, Carbide and Sorrel gave generations of GDR film enthusiasts a pleasurable departure from overt state propaganda. The film will be followed by a Q & A with DEFA 4th generation filmmaker Peter Kahane and RadioEins Berlin star and film journalist Knut Elstermann.

3.) Vorspiel [Foreplay/Acting/Prelude] (GDR 1987, Dir. Peter Kahane) on
Tuesday, November 16, at 7pm in the Fine Arts Auditorium 015

1980s' youth in the East German provinces. A touching and funny coming-of-age film that will celebrate its U. S. premiere here in Bloomington. The film will be followed by a Q & A with DEFA 4th generation filmmaker Peter Kahane and RadioEins Berlin star and film journalist Knut Elstermann.

Subtitled for the first time thanks to the request of Indiana High School Students.