36 August 15 • 2019
jn
celebrity jews
arts&life
WOODSTOCK 50TH
Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a
Generation is a new offering in the PBS
American Experience series.
It premieres Saturday, Aug.
17, at 8 p.m. (KQED). The film
is directed by and co-written
by Barak Goodman, 56, who
helmed several very good
documentaries and has been
Emmy- and Oscar-nominated.
Goodman uses interviews
with concertgoers, musicians,
festival producers and staff to
tell the story of Woodstock’
s
“miracles,” including finding
a venue and that nearly
half a million concertgoers
remained peaceful and
helped each other in trying
conditions. The film makes
the point Woodstock emerged
as a tangible manifestation of
the ’
60s counterculture ideals
of peace, love and cooper-
ation.
Still, I wish Goodman had
mentioned the word “Jewish”
just once. Four guys, all
Jewish, came together to
create the festival and all are
interviewed: Artie Kornfeld,
now 76, Michael Lang, now
74, Joel Rosenman, now 77,
and John Roberts, who died
in 2001 at age 56. It’
s clear,
after speaking to Kornfeld in
2009, that being mensches
guided them.
The film chronicles how the
festival lost its original venue
when the town of Walkill, N.Y.,
shut it down. Only a month
before the date, Lang and
Kornfeld rented the dairy farm
of Max Yasgur (1919-1973).
Yasgur appeared at his town’
s
zoning board. His son, the late
Sam Yasgur, told me in 2009
that his father, a conservative
Republican, lectured the
board on freedom and how
freedom included hippies, and that hippies
had a right to be in town. Max ended with
what Sam Yasgur called his knock-out
punch, “Facing the [board] directly with
something that had long rankled him
about them, Max said: ‘
What are you
planning to do next? Are you going to try
to throw me out of town because I am a
Jew?’
” The board backed off.
AT THE MOVIES
The Art Of Racing In The Rain is based
on a best-selling novel of
the same named by Garth
Stein, 54. The screenplay is
by Mark Bomback, 47.
Enzo, a dog, narrates the
film. Enzo is not a dog in the
sense we usually perceive
a dog to be. He is witty,
philosophical and aware,
via TV watching, of a legend
“prepared” dogs will be
reincarnated in their next life
as a human. He prepares
for the next life by carefully
watching his owner, Denny.
He learns much about
Formula One race car driv-
ing because Denny is an
aspiring driver. Enzo realizes
many aspects of race driving
apply to navigating life. Enzo
is very attached to Denny,
his wife and their daughter.
I won’
t spoil it by disclosing
the tough turns in Denny’
s
life or Enzo’
s role in helping
him during those hard times.
The Red Sea Diving
Project, a Netflix original, is
now streaming. This drama
tells the true efforts of the
Israeli Mossad to rescue
thousands of Ethiopian
Jews in 1981. Many hid in a
Sudan resort (near the Red
Sea) before being transport-
ed. The film was directed
and written by Israeli Gideon
Raff, 46, who shared an
Emmy for best writing, dra-
matic TV show (Homeland).
Most of the film’
s char-
acters are Jewish, but only
two major cast members
are really Jewish (Israeli
actress Alona Tal, 35, and
Israeli actor Mark Avnir, 52,
who was born in the Ukraine
and came to Israel when he was 4 years
old. Avnir plays the head of the Mossad.)
Chris Evans, Ben Kingsley and Alessandro
Nivola have co-starring roles. Nivola’
s
paternal grandmother was Jewish. ■
NATE BLOOM
COLUMNIST
Alona Tal
VIA TOL FACEBOOK
Barak Goodman
VIA GOODMAN TWITTER
Michael Lang, 1969
VIA LANG FACEBOOK
Garth Stein
SUSAN DOUPE PHOTOGRAPHY/GARTHSTEIN.COM
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