LOVE STORY
Many Jewish families are all too
familiar with the conflicts that can
accompany intermarriage. But what
happens when the struggles go beyond
the personal decisions about how to
celebrate the holidays, raise the chil-
dren and gain family acceptance.
Imagine being a couple who for 30
years also have struggled against racial
stereotypes and societal pressures.
Television viewers will have the
chance to meet such a couple when
PBS airs a new 10-hour documentary
series, An American Love Story, 9-11
p.m. Sunday-Thursday, Sept. 12-16.
The five-part program uses cinema
verite footage, frank interviews, a
wealth of film and television images
and an original musical score to
chronicle the life and love of an inter-
racial couple and their children in
Queens, N.Y.
Filmmaker Jennifer Fox, an award
winner for her acclaimed documentary
Beirut: The Last Home Movie, lived for
a year and a half with Bill Sims, Karen
Wilson and their daughters, Cicily and
Chaney. For more than five years she
interviewed them, as well as three gen-
erations on both sides of the family.
"This wasn't fly-on-the-wall film-
making," Fox says. "This was a living
and creative partnership that allowed
us to create a much truer portrait of
who they are, how they feel and how
they live." In the process, she adds,
we were able to explore the nature of
family and race relations at the end of
the millennium."
An American Love Story will air on
Detroit Public Television-Channel 56.
Check your local listings.
His previous book, Art
more than 6 million people
and Physics, was one of
worldwide have seen it. Bill
the first serious studies to
Whelan won the 1997
show the correlation
Grammy Award for "Best
between scientific discov-
Musical Show Album" for
eries and advances and
his original music and lyrics
their counterpart in the
for the production.
fine art world.
Riverdance — The Show
His latest, The Alphabet
returns to Detroit's
Versus the Goddess: The
Masonic Temple Theatre
GAIL ZIMMERMAN
Conflict Between Word and
with performances 8 p.m.
Arts l Entertainment
proposes that
Image,
Thursday-Saturday and 1
Editor
alphabetic
literacy rewired
p.m. Saturday and Sunday,
the
brain
and
changed reli-
Sept. 16-19. Tickets are
gion,
culture
and
history
— and that
$35-$63, and available at the Masonic
the current resurgence of feminine val-
Temple and Fisher Theatre box offices
ues and holistic thinking marks a
and at all Ticketmaster outlets. For
return to the image.
more information, call (331) 832-
When culture elevates the power of
2232 or (313) 872-1000.
the word at the expense of the image,
patriarchy rules; when the image is
omnipotent, feminine values reign,
SHLAIN EXPLAINS
asserts Shlain.
Detroit-born and raised Dr.
As we rely more on film, advertis-
Leonard Shlain currently resides in
ing, television, video and computers,
San Francisco, where he not only
he explains, we are balancing our left-
practices medicine as a renowned vas-
brained linear word-based knowledge,
cular surgeon but writes books as well.
"
IRISH INSPIRATION
Riverdance — The Show had its
world premiere at the Point Theatre,
Dublin, in February 1995, where it
opened to unanimous critical acclaim.
The show is a celebration of Irish
music, song and dance, focusing on
Irish dancing's evolution — as well as
its similarities with and influences on
other cultures.
There presently are three companies
of Riverdance touring the world. To date,
Robert
Zeichner:
"Colonel
Work."
which has dominated for the last
5,000 years, and are moving toward a
right-brained, creative, concrete and
image-based culture.
Shlain's other claim to fame? He is
the father-in-law of comedian Albert
Brooks, who married his daughter
Kimberly.
Leonard Shlain presents an infor-
mal talk and autographs copies of his
book 7-9 p.m. Monday, Sept. 13, at
Boot Beat, 26010 Greenfield, Oak
Park. For more information, call
(248) 968-1190.
THE LOST IMAGES
Robert Zeichner is a former cine-
matographer/editor for public televi-
sion who's always had a passion for
black-and-white landscape photogra-
phy. Although never a Civil War buff,
he recently had his first opportunity
to participate in a re-enactment of
one of the bloodiest battles of the
Civil War: Antietam. The battle was
staged for an upcoming film.
The Southfield resident was invited
by one of the filmmakers — a fan of
Zeichner's landscape photography —
to take stills of the shoot. The photog-
rapher aimed to emulate the style of
19th-century photography, which like
landscape photography has a more
composed look than the journalistic
style of pictures that were made dur-
ing World War II.
"I tried to reinvent to the degree
it's possible the action of the battle
but with modern materials," says
Zeichner. "Nineteenth-century pho-
tographers virtually had to carry
their darkrooms with them and the
exposure time for shots was so long,
they couldn't shoot moving objects.
They would have been blown to bits
trying to take a combat shot."
Twenty of the photographer's seleni-
um-toned photographs will be on dis-
play in an exhibit titled "Robert
Zeichner: The Lost Images" through
Oct. 16 at the Woods Gallery, located
on the lower level of the Huntington
Woods Library, 26415 Scotia,
Huntington Woods. A "meet the artist"
reception and lecture will be held 7-9
p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16. For more
information, call (248) 548-0560.
For Arts and Entertainment related events that you wish to have considered for Out & About, please send the item, with a detailed description of the event, times, dates, place, ticket prices and publishable phone number,
FYI:
Notice must be received at least three weeks before
JN Out & About, The Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034; fax us at (248) 354-6069; or e-mail to gzimmerman@thejewishnews.com
to: Gail Zimmerman,
the scheduled event. Photos are appreciated but cannot be returned. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.
9/10
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12 Detroit Jewish News