I Arts
int r a it n
C
Women And War
Jewish filmmaker of documentary on
Sri Lanka sees parallels in the lives of
her Holocaust survivor parents.
Curt Schleier
Special to the Jewish News
I
n 1989, human rights activ-
ist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama
was shot down by Tamil
rebels near her small village in
Sri Lanka. A medical doctor,
Rajani had lived in relative safety
in London with her daughters, .
yet decided to return home.
She felt safe. After all, she'd
been a loyal supporter of the
Tamils and had doctored their
wounded. But her crime was to
resign from the group and call for
an end to all violence.
Filmmaker Helene Klodawsky
tells Rajani's poignant story in
a P.O.V. dcicumentary, No More
Tears Sister, which debuts
•
nationwide on PBS stations June
27. P.OIV. is television's longest-
running documentary series.
Klodawsky, who has made a
number of social and political
films that have been screened
worldwide and garnered more
than 25 awards, is the daugh-
ter of Holocaust survivors
and sees similarities between
Thiranagama and the experi-
ences of her parents.
"Coming from a background
like my parents and going into
communities where people have -
suffered, the stories are never
the same, but there are certain
parallels: the importance of
remembering, the importance of
speaking out, the importance of
bearing witness," Klodawsky said
in a telephone interview from
Nate Bloom
Special to th e Jewish News
Might Click
Adam Sandler's new movie, Click, open-
ing Friday, June 23, has good advance buzz.
Sandler plays a workaholic architect who is
given a universal remote that allows him to
fast-forward and rewind to different parts
of his life. But things go haywire when the
remote starts to overrule his choices.
Click has a large cast
that includes Jewish actors
Henry Winkler, Julie
Kavner, Rachel Dratch and
Jake Hoffman.
Kavner is now best
Julie Kavner known as the voice of Marge
Simpson on The Simpsons,
but older readers will remember her as
Rhoda's sister, Brenda Morgenstern, on TV's
Rhoda.
Hoffman, 25, is the son of Dustin
Hoffman and his Jewish wife, attorney Lisa
38
June 22 2006
Canada.
•The filmmaker, 50, was asked
to make the film about women
and war by the National Film •
Board of Canada. "I could choose
any country, any subject. And, to
tell the truth, I had not thought
about Sri Lanka prior-to that," she
said. Formerly Ceylon, the nation
has seen decades-long strife
between the Tamil and Singhalese
people.
"There •are so many ethnic con-
flicts around the world; it's rarely
understood what was happening
to them. As I was about to start
filming, I heard about a peace
accord in Sri Lanka. I thought,
`Wow, this is interesting. I'll make
a film about how war is turned
into peace.'"
Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.
Dr. Rajani Thiranagama
Gottsegen. Jake appears in a Click rewind
segment as a younger version of Sandler. Late
last year, Jake was dating Henry Winkler's
daughter — no word on whether or not they
are still going out.
King, of course, went on to a successful solo
career as a singer-songwriter and is famous
for such tunes as "I Feel the Earth -Move" and
"You've Got a Friend."
Oldies To Broadway
Zach Braff, 31, the star of TV's Scrubs and .
the hit movie Garden State, is reportedly
going to travel to Israel next month with his
longtime girlfriend, actress-singer Mandy
Moore, 22.
Ynet News says Braff called the Israeli
consul general in Los Angeles and asked
for help with tour plan-
ning. Braff, who visited
Israel when he was 19; has
scheduled stops this time in
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, at the
Dead Sea and Masada.
Moore has a maternal
Zach Braff
Jewish grandfather and
while she was raised a
Catholic, she recently told a magazine she is
no longer a Catholic or Christian believer, but
The music of Carole King and Gerry Goffin
will be the centerpiece of a new play, titled
Natural Woman. it's
described as a contempo-
rary New York love story
and will feature hits co-writ-
ten by the pair or written on
their own. There will also be
some new music written by
Goffin and King. .
A staged reading was
held in New York this month, but no date has
yet been set for a Broadway opening.
King, 64, and Goffin, 67, were married
from 1959-1968 and together produced such
classics as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"
"Natural Woman" and "Up on the Roof."
But not everyone was con-
vinced the film was a good idea.
"When I started asking around,
[Sri Lankan officials cautioned
me],'Please, Miss Canadian
filmmaker. This is a very limited
peace:"
Although there Were no specific
threats, those early warnings are
"Rajani's sister told me,'We've
been waiting for you for 15 years,
and by that she meant Rajani's
family and the whole community
of Tamils, who were critical of the
movement and had been silent
[in fear for their lives]. They had
the feeling I could be a trusted
partner."
Braff Trip to Israel
is "spiritual." A Moore conversion to Judaism
seems possible if they finally do get hitched.
Sci Fi, Motown Style
-
Spike TV, the cable outlet, premieres Blade:
The Series Wednesday, June 28, at 10 p.m.
It's based the Blade film
series, which was based
on a Marvel comic book
character.
Blade is an immortal
half-man, half-vampire crea-
ture. He has super powers
David Gayer that he uses to battle evil
creatures.
The TV series opens with Blade, played
by Kirk "Sticky" Jones, coming to Detroit to
investigate some bad vampires. Blade quickly
forms an alliance with a woman (Jill Wagner)
who is also battling vampires.
Blade: The Series is produced and co-
written by David S. Goyer, who grew up in
Ann Arbor. His screenwriting credits include
Batman Begins and the Blade movies.