Arts & Entertainment

Southern Inhospitality

PBS documentary revisits story of Leo Frank.

Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News

M

ore than 90 years later, the Leo
Frank case is still a touchy
topic in the capital of the
South. The ugly saga of the Jewish pencil-
factory superintendent who endured sev-
eral miscarriages of justice is not a subject
for polite conversation.
"When I was doing research, the only
resistance we got was from Jews of a cer-
tain generation in Atlanta," recalls writer-
director-producer Ben LoetermanAnd
this was after receiving a major produc-
tion grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities, which endows a cer-
tain Good Housekeeping Seal of approval
as being an important story to tell."
The experienced, Boston-based produc-
er of numerous Frontline and American
Experience programs understood their
reluctance, but he was not to be denied.
"What I love about history," he says, "is
our ability to learn from it and our obliga-
tion to look at it."
In 1913, Frank (a New York transplant,
which proved crucial) was arrested for the
grisly murder of a 13-year-old employee,
Mary Phagan, in the factory basement.
He was convicted with the testimony of a
well-coached African-American witness
and sentenced to death. After two years in
jail and 13 rejected appeals, the governor
did his own investigation and commuted

the sentence. But that was not the end of
Frank's suffering.
Drawing on trial transcripts, newspaper
- accounts, Steve Olney's 2003 book and
contemporary interviews with descen-
dants of many of the principal figures,
Loeterman has crafted a deliberate, even-
handed and ultimately disturbing film
that sweeps the dust off an uncomfortably
relevant slice of American history.
The filmmaker discovered that many
Jewish families, including that of the late
historian and Librarian of Congress Daniel
Boorstin, moved out of Atlanta imme-
diately after the nasty end to the Frank
saga. Those who stayed craved a return
to normalcy, and rarely if ever mentioned
the dark period to their children. In fact,
Atlanta native and future playwright
Alfred Uhry didn't learn about Leo Frank
until he went off to college at Cornell.
"It was so painful, frankly, that it was
swept under the rug and it was kept there
tightly and successfully for generations,"
Loeterman says. "[Windows] were bro-
ken and storefronts were painted — it
was a mini-Kristallnacht. That whole
proud notion of being Southern and
Confederates and Jews was called into
question. Those three used to go along
happily together."
The People v. Leo Frank includes a men-
tion of the case's role in fueling the revival
of the Ku Klux Klan as well as focusing
the efforts of the young Anti-Defamation

League. But
larger forces
were involved
that go beyond
the scope of the Leo Frank: Victim of a lynch
Mary Phagan was a child
case and the
mob.
laborer in a pencil factory
film.
supervised by Frank, who was
"There is a sense of Jewish mythol-
accused of the crime.
ogy that attaches to the Leo Frank case
Loeterman notes. "I didn't want to over-
Loeterman was born in Los Angeles
play it. The film is a piece of journalism
and moved to Boston more than 20 years
and history, not a piece of advocacy, and I
ago to pursue a career in public television.
didn't want that confused."
His son works in the office of Rep. Barney
The fact is, Loeterman explains, the
Frank, D-N.Y., and his college-age daugh-
ADL was not founded as a result of the
ter just moved to Israel. His films typically
Leo Frank case. "It was started years
spotlight an injustice, and he chuckles
before in Chicago as a kind of not terribly
when he's asked if The People v. Leo Frank
effective organization responding to the
is his first Jewish-themed film.
winds of change sweeping globally. What
"That's a Socratic question or a
became clear [in my research] was that
Portnoyian question. I think in some way
this nascent organization suddenly had a
all my films are Jewish. We are who we are.
raison d'etre, a lightning rod" in the Frank
I made a film [The Triumph of Evil] that
episode.
was a major turning point in my career
In The People v. Leo Frank, descendants
about the genocide in Rwanda, which
of one of the prosecutors and other key
began with footage of Elie Wiesel and Bill
figures visibly struggle with the legacy
Clinton lighting the torch at the Holocaust
they inherited. "They were brave to speak
museum in Washington, D.C."
on camera," Loeterman says. "They were
He pauses, and adds, "If you work in the
not easy interviews to get or to do. It
area of social justice and human rights,
seemed to me a moment of truth and rec-
how can that not touch you as a Jew?" D.
onciliation that made it the right moment
to tell the story and the right moment
The People v. Leo Frank airs 10 p.m.
to catch people when they're vulnerable
Monday, Dec. 21, on Detroit Public
enough, and empowered enough, to talk
Television-Channel 56.
about it."

w s

41111 Nate Bloom
• IMO I Special to the Jewish News

n

Hoping For Harry

44

December 17 • 2009

i

oh

On Thursday, Dec. 17, at 8 p.m.,
Il lar NBC will air a two-hour special, SNL
was
is Christmas 2009, a compilation show
MO of the best holiday skits since the
tail show began in 1974.
It's pretty likely
two Chanukah-
themed classics will
be included.
The first is
Adam Sandler's
"Chanukah Song."
(Actually, Sandler
Adam Sandler
appeared three
times on SNL to sing
three different versions of the song.)
The other is "When Hanukkah Harry
Saved Christmas," a very funny sketch

starring Jon Lovitz
in the title role.
The basic plot:
Harry normally just
delivers Chanukah
presents to Jewish
kids; but when
Santa gets sick on
Jon Lovitz
Christmas Eve, his
Jewish friend Harry steps in to save
the holiday for "all the little gentile
boys and girls." Harry drives a fly-
ing cart pulled by three donkeys.
The donkeys wear blankets with
their names on them, which also are
mentioned in the very funny "Harry"
theme song played during the skit.
Here are the lyrics: "On Moishe!
On Herschel! On Schlomo! / It's
Hanukkah Harry eight nights a year! /
On Moishe! On Herschel! On Schlomo!
/ Means that Hanukkah Harry is
here! / Delivering toys / For Jewish

girls and Jewish boys / We dance
the hora around the menorah / When
Hanukkah Harry is here!"

Film Notes

Avatar, opening
Friday, Dec. 18, is the
latest big-budget,
special effects spec-
tacular from direc-
tor James Cameron
(Titanic, Aliens,
Stephen Lang
Terminator).
Set in the future, the complex
plot has Earth humans – genetically
engineered to live on a planet called
Avatar – invading Avatar and displac-
ing the native, more primitive people.
Jake, a former U.S. Marine, starts off
as an invader but falls in love with an
alien girl and helps lead her people's
resistance. Jake's main antagonist
is Col. Miles Quartrich, played by

Stephen Lang, 57.
It's a rare event,
today, to see a new
romantic comedy
featuring a middle-
aged couple. But
Hugh Grant, 49,
and Sarah Jessica
Sarah Jessica
Parker, 45, both
Parker
have enough star
power to get a studio to make their
new flick, Did You Hear About the
Morgans? The film opens on Dec.18.
Meryl and Paul Morgan (Parker
and Grant) are an almost perfect
Manhattan couple whose marriage
is dissolving. Then they witness a
murder, and the Feds whisk them
away to a small Wyoming town for
their own protection. The question
is whether the Morgans can rekindle
their romance in their slowed-down,
Blackberry-free Wyoming existence. E