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COURTESY OF MUSIC BOX FILMS

The
Great

Norman Lear

Suzanne Chessler | Contributing Writer

A new film tells the

story of Norman Lear,

from poor Jewish

kid to a still-spirited

trailblazer.

Directors Heidi Ewing
and Rachel Grady

details

Norman Lear: Just Another Version
of You runs Aug. 5-7 and 13-14 at
the Detroit Film Theatre in
the Detroit Institute of Arts.
$5-$9.50. (313) 833-4005; dia.org.

40 August 4 • 2016

T

he recognition of anti-
Semitism at the age of
9 impacted the work of
writer-producer Norman Lear,
whose life is explored in a new
film, Norman Lear: Just Another
Version of You.
While developing popular tele-
vision series that include All in
the Family, The Jeffersons, Good
Times and Maude, Lear brought
humorous characters into the
depiction of prejudice, flinging
taboo topics wide open and into
the homes of millions of viewers
every week.
He explains his outlook
— as a poor Jewish kid from
Connecticut whose father went
to prison and whose mother left
him in the care of already-belea-
guered relatives to becoming one
of the most successful producers
in the history of television — in
the documentary that recently
opened the Sundance Film
Festival. The film will be shown
Aug. 5-14 at the Detroit Film
Theatre.
Heidi Ewing, who grew up
in Farmington Hills and is not
Jewish, made the documentary
with her longtime directing part-
ner Rachel Grady, who is Jewish,
and found the 94-year-old enter-
tainment legend inspirational
and uplifting, particularly as he
remains professionally active.
He has been working on a
13-part Netflix series that reboots
One Day at a Time with a Cuban
American family, and he is trying

to sell a proposed sitcom about
seniors.
Ewing hopes people will watch
their film to learn about Lear’s
life-changing encounters, the
drama that filled his work experi-
ences and nonstop interests in
pop culture and today’s television
shows.
“This is an emotional and
surprising film in the sense that
you learn things about Norman
Lear that you likely didn’t
know,” Ewing says in a phone
conversation from California,
where she was traveling on
business. “We uncover a lot about
his personal story and how it
influenced his later work.
“It’s not a traditional biography
because it is layered and
complex, going deep into the
psychology of the man. Judaism
is a very big part of the movie.
He’s not a religious person, but
he is extremely sensitive about
anti-Semitism and intolerance.
He’s a cultural Jew who loves
Jewish humor and is Jewish in his
sensibility.”
Ewing, whose production
company (Loki Films) made
the documentary DETROPIA,
will answer audience questions
during the first local showing
of the Lear film. Last year,
she was a visiting instructor
for documentary production
workshops at Wayne State
University.
“I met Norman a couple of
years ago when Rachel and I were

working on a film, MAKERS:
Women in Comedy, for PBS,”
Ewing recalls. “I really wanted to
talk to him about the abortion
attitudes in Maude because they
represented such a controversial
moment done through the lens of
comedy.
“He would not talk to me
because he was writing his
autobiography, and I was very
disappointed. We continued to
harass him every few months.
Finally, he said he would talk to
us for a half hour.
“I got to his house in Los
Angeles about a year ago. We hit
it off and talked for three hours.
He was familiar with our work
and loved Jesus Camp, which is
about the Christian right. We
found we were kindred spirits
and started the project not too
long after that, although it was
not easy for him to give up
editorial control and turn over
his life to my co-director and
me.”
That control responsibility
included arranging film
appearances by George Clooney,
Jon Stewart, Rob Reiner and Amy
Poehler.
Ewing, who attended the
School of Foreign Service at
Georgetown University in the
nation’s capital, switched her
focus from the diplomatic
corps to cinema production
after becoming active with a
film society. She moved to Los
Angeles, worked at different

networks and became an
associate producer.
Hired to direct a film on the
Church of Scientology for the
A&E Network in New York, she
met Grady, associate producer on
the Scientology film that came
out in the late 1990s. The two
formed their own production
company in 2001.
“I’ve done two projects about
Evangelicals, who seem to be
fixated on Jewish people and
Zionism,” Grady told the Jewish
News when DETROPIA had its
Michigan showing in 2012. “I
also did a project on Catholics.
Through these other religions,
I got to explore my own beliefs
about being a Jew and what that
means.”
DETROPIA, which was
broadcast on PBS and won an

“He’s not a religious

person, but he is

extremely sensitive

about anti-Semitism

and intolerance.”

— Heidi

Ewing