Big Band Dance Party Starring The Jivin' Lindy Hoppers and The Uptown Big Band Sun., Mar. 2 at 3 pm golden circle $25 adult $20 • stu./sr.cit. $18 Sponsored by RadioF1RST ER — are for projects that are notably different than The First Year. How do these different directorial experiences figure in to who you are? DG: It's kind of a double life. I like the fact that I do different genres — genre" isn't even the right word different types of disciplines, because I think they inform each other. I just finished an episode of The Shielo4 which is pretty violent, about dirty cops in Los Angeles as opposed to idealistic teaching. The tools with which you tell the story are completely different. You start with a script, and you've got the cranes and the cameras and the dollies and the crew to tell your story. I like going between [the disciplines] because they challenge different parts of you, different muscles. It's like being an athlete and cross training. There's sprint, there's long distance, things for stamina, things for strength. Some people start with technique. But I think that's back- wards. I think you start with "what is the story and how do you tell it?" " JN: I've read that your work was greatly influ- enced by your father, Charles Guggenheim, who chronicled the Arkansas school integration crisis in But he saw it and loved it. It's one of the great moments of my life, seeing him appreciate a film I'd made. He was really proud of me. COMCAST BRAVO SERIES London City Opera presents JN: Speaking of the "voice of God," did you grow up with a religious background? How would you . describe your Jewish identity? DG: My mother is not Jewish. My father was Jewish. [His family] immi- grated to Cincinnati in the 1840s. So they were the type of German Jews who celebrated Christmas. They went to synagogue on Sunday. It was the first wave of Jews who assimilated. They were intensely proud of their culture, and not in denial of it. But — emphasis on assimilation. No emphasis on religion. [My father] made movies in Israel. We lived in Israel for a short time while he made them. He knew everything about the history of Israel and he was proud to be Jewish. But there wasn't an ounce of religion in him. Until just before he died. He said he wanted to be buried in a Jewish ceme- tery. It was the only thing he wanted. He said to me, 'I want to be remembered as a Jew. He was 78 — that's kind of his generation. Very anti-religion or religiosity. But very proud to be a Jew. Madame Butterfly Fri., Mar. 7 at 8 pm golden circle $45 • adult $40 • stu./sr.cit. $36 Ticket Office 586.286.2222 www.MacombCenter.com TICKETS P-L-U-S- Inc MEIER. a l/c/a Tickets PLUS 800.585.3737 At all Tickets PLUS outlets, including Meijer Stores Designer Rugs &Furniture At last...a Design Source in your neighborhood! Up To 70% OFF SELECTED ITEMS Let Us Transform Your Floors & Walls Into A Masterpiece... 248.735.9204 Nine from Little Rock (1964), for which he won Davis Guggenheim an Academy Award. Can JN:. Did that affect your you tell me a bit about his own interest in religion? influence on your filmmaking? DG: I'm similar to my dad, although DG: Yes, my father died 'two months I'm searching. I'm very open. The most ago. He was my first great teacher. He attractive thing about it is the question- won four Academy Awards, and was ing, which is unique to Judaism. ❑ nominated 12 times. He made great documentaries. I grew up watching him work and then working for him. "Best of Full Frame" runs Feb. 28- And learning. March 2 at Madstone Theaters, He asked me to make a film with him located in Briarwood Mall in Ann (Norton Simon: A Man and His Art, pro- Arbor. The First Year will be duced for the Norton Simon Museum shown 2 and 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. in Pasadena) [after I went away to school 28; 4 p.m. Saturday, March 1; and and developed my- own career]. noon Sunday, March 2. By then I had found my own turf. Other documentary films to be We did [the film], and it was really screened are Two Towns ofiasper, beautiful. We got a chance to be equals. Return with Honor, Startup.com It was really a coming home in a way. and The Life and Times of Hank That was five or six years ago. I real- Greenberg, which will be shown 8 ized what was so great about my father's p.m. Friday, Feb. 28; and 12:15 life. His documentaries. Documentaries and 11 p.m. Saturday, March 1. take you to places and you meet peOple. Tickets: Madstone member, They expand your mind. $8; nonmember, $10; festival But The First Year is very different pass, $39.99. from anything he had done. 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