I Arts & hntertainment

Detroit
Revolutionary

During the McCarthy-era witch-hunts,
he was jailed for six months before his
conviction was overturned. Later, after
learning of Stalin's crimes, Wellman left
the Communist Party and focused on pro-
Saul Wellman, born in Brooklyn to
labor, anti-war and other causes, becoming
Russian Jewish immigrant parents, came
a•mentor to a new generation
to radicalism early. Expelled
of activists.
from high school in 1930 for
. A film about Wellman's life,
attending a massive march for
Professional Revolutionary:
the unemployed, he abandoned
The Saul Wellman Story,
academic learning, went to
produced by Wayne State
trade school and got into union
University Professor Ronald
organizing.
Aronsori and directed by
In 1936, at age 23, he joined
California-based, Academy
the Lincoln Brigade to fight
Award-nominated Judith
against fascism in Spain and
Montell, combines archival
was shot in the leg. At age 30,
Profess or Ronald
footage and extensive inter-
he joined the U.S. Army as a
Aronso n
views with Wellman, before
paratrooper and *was wounded
he died in 2003, and his ear-
in the Battle of the Bulge.
liest cohorts and other contemporaries.
He returned home and came to Detroit
Previously screened at the Lenore
(where he remained for the rest of his life)
Marwil Jewish Film Festival, the 65-min-
to become a Communist Party organizer.

ute film will be shown April 28-30 at the
Insight Screening Room, 24300 Southfield
Road, in Southfield. Screenings begin 4:15,
6:15, 8:15 and 10:15 p.m. Friday-Sunday,
with additional 12:15 and 2:15 p.m. show-
ingS on Saturday and Sunday. Aronson will
lead discussions at some of the screenings.
Also showing will be 1st Amendment
on Trial: The Case of the Michigan Six,
which chronicles the federal government's
reaction to dissent during the Cold War. On
Sept. 17, 1952, six leaders — five of them
Jewish — of the Michigan Communist
Party were arrested under the Smith Act for
conspiring to teach and advocate the over-
throw of the federal government.
The 30-minute film interweaves archi-
val footage, newspaper headlines and
interviews of defendant Saul Wellman,
prosecutor William G. Hudley and defense
attorney Ernest Goodman with commen-
tary by constitutional scholar and former
University of Michigan president Lee

.

Bollinger; Bernard Friedman, chief judge
of the Federal District Court of Eastern
Michigan; and Victor Navasky, publisher
of the Nation.
"The film seeks to situate the story in
the historical era and then consider it
from a distance of 50 years," says film-
maker Aronson. "It demonstrates that the
political system failed to protect dissent in
a time of national crisis, but that the judi-
cial system stepped in at the highest level
to clarify and confirm freedom of speech
and assembly"
Tickets are $10. Call (313) 577-0828.
Note: Detroit Public Television-
Channel 56 will broadcast Professional
Revolutionary 10 p.m. Monday, May 8,
and 1st Amendment on Trial 10:30 p.m.
Monday, May 29.

Dream Weaver

The Oak Park Library presents a free, fam-

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• Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

Jewish Idol

The comedy-drama American Dreamt,
opening Friday, April 21, begins with the
producer (Hugh Grant) of arfAmerican
Idol-type program trying to boost the
show's ratings by bringing in a multi-.
ethnic group of contestants. These
include a Jewish cantor-turned-rapper
named Sholem Glickstein and a Muslim
singer who, unbeknownst to Grant, is a
former terrorist.
Later, things get very complicated
when the president of the United States,
to boost his ratings,
asks to be a guest
judge on the program.
The film's writer-
director, Paul Weitz,
the son of the famous
Jewish fashion design-
er John Weitz, has
a track record in-cin-
Adam Busch

42

April 20 a 2006

ematic hits: American Pie, In Good
Company and About a Boy.
Playing Glickstein is actor-musician
Adam Busch, 28. As an actor,
Busch is best known as Warren
Meers, a character on TV's Buffy,
the Vampire Slayer. Busch also
is the co-leader of Common
Rotation, a well-known folk-pop
band that tours widely.
Matt Busch, Adam's brother
and the band's manager, tells me.
that Adam was a bar mitzvah and
that their father is a former rab-
binical. student turned jazz musician.
There is a very funny Web page
about the Glickstein character, includ-
ing video clips and raps like "Adonai."
Go to www.voteamericandreamz.corn/
sholem.php.

Chick Flick

Director-writer Nicole Holofcener
makes movies that are finely drawn
slices of contemporary life, with strong
women characters a.nd some humor.

Although Holofcener has a problem
finding a dramatic ending, perhaps
that's more our problem than hers. We
go to the movies
primed for a big
emotional payoff that
rarely exists in real ..
life.
Her first two
films, Walking and
Talking and Lovely
and Amazing, are
really good DVD finds
and feature major
Jewish characters.
Her new film, Friends with Money,
opening here Friday, April 21, stars
Jennifer Aniston as a woman who
has given up teaching to work as a
maid. She quickly feels inferior to her
more affluent old friends, played by
Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand
and Joan Cusack. English Jewish actor
Jason Isaacs plays Keener's husband
and screenwriting partner.
Holofcener, who describes herself as

"culturally Jewish," grew up in the film
industry. Her parents are both actors,
and her stepfather, Charles H. Joffe,
is a producer of Woody Allen films.

.Going To Towne

The Writers Guild of America recently
came. out with a list of the top 101
screenplays of all time and, no surprise,
more than half were written or co-writ-
ten by Jews. Ranking fourth on the list
was Chinatown (1974), a truly great
movie about greed and perversion in
1930s Los Angeles.
Chinatown was written by Robert
Towne, 71. Since Chinatown, he has
penned a number of films and directed
afew, but none has come close to
matching Chinatown's critical success
— although Mission ImposSible I and
II, which he wrote, were big hits.
Towne never spoke about being Jewish-
until the Mardi film release of Ask the -
Dust, which he wrote and directed.
It stars Salma Hayek as a Mexican-
American woman; Colin Firth; and