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Metro Times
June 18, 2003

Family Matters

Gourmet Magazine

"One of America's Best Restaurants"

In 'My Uncle Berns," Lindsay Crystal documents
the life of a special relative.

Metro Times

Rated best dessert of the year

Complimentary valet parking with $30 purchase
at City Cellar Wine Bar & Grill

NAOMI PFEF FERMAN
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

I

MARTINI

.{.1.1imitudirant

Style Magazine

Voted Best
Cocktail Lounge

DINING ROOM AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE PARTIES

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201 HAMILTON AVE.

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868370

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Reservations Recommended

863480

f Michael Moore has popular-
ized the sardonic, polemical
documentary, a gentler kind of
nonfiction movie is also gracing the-
aters: the family quest film.
Pearl Gluck sought her Chasidic
forbears in Divan (screening Aug. 30
at the Detroit Film Theatre);
Nathaniel Kahn pursued his
estranged father in My Architect; and
now Lindsay Crystal unearths family
stories in My Uncle Berns, a quirky
portrait of her wildly eccentric great-
uncle, which premieres 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 5, on HBO.
For the 26-year-old director —
Billy Crystal's daughter — the sub-
ject isn't surprising. "Family is every-
thing to us," she said recently at her
father's Beverly Hills office.
Seated next to the computer where
she finished editing Berns, she said
she practically grew up on dad's sets
and played his daughter in both City
Slickers films. She noted the passion
with which he reunited with Russian
relatives for his TV special, Midnight
Train to Moscow, and commissioned
L.A.'s Museum of Tolerance exhibit
"Finding Our Family, Finding
Ourselves" in 2003.
His hunger for family comes, in
part, because when he was 15, his
father, Jack, unexpectedly died of a
heart attack. "It was a subject we
didn't really talk about because it
was so painful," his daughter said.
Then, in 2001, his mother died,
and Uncle Berns had to be evacuated
from a nursing home two blocks
from Ground Zero. "I suddenly real-
ized that Berns was almost the only
relative left from that generation,
and if I didn't capture his stories,

they would be
gone," Lindsay
Crystal said.
So the NYU
film school
graduate
focused her
digital camera
on Berns, an
impish artist
and jokester
who wore
Billy Crystal and
outlandish
Liadray Crystal with
masks to
Uncle Berns"

Thanksgiving
celebrations, among other stunts.
"My initial intent was just to create
a family document," she said. But
then she learned of the death of his
sister, in his arms, when he was 14;
his horrific experiences aboard a tor-
pedoed World War II transport ship;
the encounter with Gen. Eisenhower
that turned him into an artist; and
how he used laughter to heal the
family after Jack Crystal's death.
He was the uncle you could play
with," as Billy Crystal says in the
film. "He was hats, coats, costumes,
masks, wigs. I always felt he was
incredibly responsible for me becom-
ing a performer."
Lindsay Crystal credits her father,
Berns' executive producer, for help-
ing to mentor her directorial debut,
which he calls "a great love story
between a young woman and her 88-
year-old uncle."
It's also Lindsay's valentine to her
father: "It's a way for me to honor
our family," she said. II

My Uncle Berns premieres 7:30
p.m. Thursday, Aug. 5, on HBO.
Check your local cable listings.

Jeffley L. Rosenberg of Adat Shalom Synagogue presents

M An Evening of Sweets, Fruit, and the band called "Schmaltz" m m
E
Sunday, August 1, 2004 at Adat Shalom Synagogue
R
7:00 pm Concert • 8:30 pm Afterglow

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E

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Complimentary Concert & Afterglow sponsored by
Jeffrey L. Rosenberg Kosher Catering Company

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Call 248-626-5702 for Reserved Seating

t 714 17, o a

The keepsake to remember it by! A CD slideshow of over 160 beautiful
photographs from Detroit's Miracle Mission 4.
It's easy to order, just call Pam at

248-254-6060, ext.219

863300

2004

54

Kids are heading off to college soon...keep them in touch with their community...order their very own subscription of JN 248-351-5174