Metro

SNIPPETS OF HISTORY

Close Up And

Personal

Filmmakers take on the story of Jewish Detroit.

Above: "We [Sue Marx, right, and Allyson Rockwell]

start dumb. You learn a lot every time you make a
documentary."

-

Oscar winning filmmaker Sue Marx

-

Right: "It's important to be aware of our past. I didn't

know that not that long ago, a Jew couldn't be a doctor

in certain hospitals or a lawyer in certain firms or buy a
house in certain subdivisions."

- Emmy-winning filmmaker Allyson Rockwell

Judith Doner Berne
Special to the Jewish News

W

rapping the history of
Detroit's Jewish community
into the 40-minute documen-
tary Detroit Remember When: The Jewish
Community "is the hardest thing I've ever
had to do:' says Oscar and Emmy-winning
filmmaker Sue Marx.
The film will premiere at 8 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 9, on Detroit Public
Television. The broadcast will feature live
in-studio interviews with Jewish histori-
ans and contributors who made the film
possible.
"It is particularly frustrating for me
says Marx on a lunch break in an editing
room of the DPTV studios in Wixom. "The
story is so big — and I want to tell every-
thing. I feel like this is my family."
Indeed, "We usually fight" about what
stays in and what hits the cutting room
floor, she says fondly of the 14-year part-

16

December 3 2009

nership she enjoys with fellow filmmaker
Allyson Fink Rockwell, a double-Emmy
winner in her own right.
The two see the age difference
between them as an advantage. Marx, a
Birmingham resident whose husband,
Hank, died two years ago, has three daugh-
ters and three granddaughters. Rockwell
lives with her husband, Alex, and son
Zack, 7, in Grosse Pointe.
And the fact that Rockwell grew up in
Metro Detroit and Marx moved here as an
adult allows different perspectives when
making Detroit-based "docs" as they call
them.
"I was one of five Jewish kids in my
Indiana high school',' says Marx. "When
I moved here, I was really jealous" of the
large, close-knit Jewish community to
which she now belongs.
On this day, Rockwell is editing and
Marx is headed out to pick up one of the
remaining puzzle pieces — a photograph
to illustrate Jewish high school students

in the late 1940s, perhaps from a Detroit
Central High School yearbook.
The film spans Detroit's Jewish history,
which officially began with the arrival of a
Jewish fur trader in 1762 and culminates
in the importance of Jewish leadership in
the political, civil rights, arts, cultural and
educational life of today's Detroit.
Members of the community, some of
whom are still helping to fashion a 21st-
century reinvention of this region, tell
their stories against a backdrop of photo-
graphs and film taken over their lifetimes.
"We wanted to interview the role mod-
els and the new leadership and take kind
of a wide swath:' Marx says. "We ended up
with so many great interviews."
"None of it is about material things:'
Rockwell says. "Everybody had the same
traditions:' which revolved around getting
together with friends and family for meals,
often accompanied by heated political dis-
cussions. "And the children remembered
sitting and listening to their conversations.

"None of this is the comprehensive
story:' she cautions. "It's snippets of his-
tory. We wanted to present to the whole
community how we [the Jewish commu-
nity] has enriched the city of Detroit."
In a more prosperous era, Rockwell says,
it might have been a longer piece. "But in
these times, people need homes more than
a documentary. So you do what you can:'
It was DPTV's new general manager,
Rich Hornberg, who came up with the
idea about a year ago after viewing the six
hours of David Grubin's nationally tele-
vised documentary, The Jewish Americans.
"The stars lined up," Hornberg says.
"PBS had aired The Jewish Americans.
We had a series, Detroit Remembers, that
needed reviving. And we had these local,
established documentarians.
"Our hope is to expand this into other
communities:' says Hornberg. "Talking
about people's history is enriching. People
want their story told."
The film couldn't have been made in