NEW YEARS
EVE

"The Pre Party"

First Seating - 7:30prn
S65 per person +4
4-Course Dinner

The Real Louisa

Jewish filmmaker dramatizes the life
of the author of Little Women.

discovered she had a secret literary
life writing pulp-fiction potboilers
anonymously, Reisen says.
"I have speculated but wasn't able
arriet Reisen, who can look
to prove Jewish heritage in Alcott's
back on a family history of
Yiddish literary acclaim, has background:' she adds. "Although the
family clearly practiced the Unitarian
written a film and book calling atten-
faith, one biographer talks about a
tion to an American literary icon.
Portuguese ancestor. The family name
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman
May is a Portuguese Jewish name.
Behind "Little Women" airs Monday,
"The May fam-
Dec. 28, as part of the .
ily settled in an area
American Masters
where Jews settled,
PBS series. The book '
and close friends were
of the same title
part of a very promi-
(Henry Holt; $26)
nent Boston Jewish
recently was released.
family. In the child-
"The whole story is
hood of Louisa May
told through primary
Alcott's mother and
sources:' says Reisen,
uncle, the children
64, whose production
stayed with the family
was shot in many
for long periods and
original locations.
called the parents
"The whole script is
from the words of the Louisa May Alc ott was a free aunt and uncle?'
Reisen's own lit-
people represented in thinker who led a literary
double life.
erary background
the film.
reaches back to great-
"Louisa May
uncle Abraham Reisen, a Yiddish poet
Alcott, played by Elizabeth Marvel,
and short-story writer. His brother,
only speaks words that have been in
her letters or journals or sometimes in Zalman Reisen, was a founder of
MO, the Eastern European Jewish
her writing.
"I hope this helps dispel the feelings Historical Institute now in New
York. Their sister, Sarah, translated
that viewers sometimes have about
dramatizations and documentaries — Shakespeare into Yiddish for the
Yiddish theater.
that they're kind of forced and untrue
"Their father had written erotic
because a story is being told?'
poetry
in Hebrew and was excommuni-
The program, which follows Alcott's
cated
from
Orthodox Judaism': Reisen
life through both dramatization and
says.
"The
next
generation expressed
commentary, tells of the author's quest
themselves
in
the
secular world?'
to rescue her family from poverty and
Reisen,
whose
career has had writ-
find wealth, fame and happiness.
ing
as
the
connecting
factor, worked
Raised in the center of 19th-century
as a journalist, film-history teacher
New England's transcendentalist and
abolitionist movements, Alcott learned and public-radio commentator. The
Alcott film, completed with producer-
about literature from Ralph Waldo
director Nancy Porter, was based on a
Emerson and went on nature walks
longtime idea that developed through
with Henry David Thoreau.
public grants. The book came about
As the Alcott family experienced
along the way.
hard times, the emerging writer lived
"We've shown this film at festivals
on a commune, used opium and tried
and won several awards, including the
hashish. She served as a Civil War
Cine Gold Eagle says Reisen, who is
military nurse and earned part of her
pleased with form innovation in the
living by writing for newspapers and
Alcott film.
pulp-fiction publishers.
"We don't have a narrator:' she says.
"[In the 1940s], two Jewish ladies
"We do have flash animation, green-
(biographer Madeleine Stern and
screen and digital effects?' 7_
rare-book dealer Leona Rostenberg)

"The Party"

Second Seating - 9:30pm
$85 per person ++
4-Course Dinner
Champagne Toast at Midnight
Party Favors
Live Entertainment

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

H

For New Years Eve
Reservations
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MOSAIC
2010

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Fresh Guacamole
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- -A, We -4"

CONTEMPORARY

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind "Little Women" airs 9 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 28, on Detroit Public Television-Channel 56.

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December 24 • 2009

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