The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
the b-side
Thursday, October 8, 2015 — 3B
By KARL WILLIAMS
Online Arts Editor
The
American
Jewish
experience
has
been
most
famously captured in great
novels such as Saul Bellow’s
“The
Adventures
of
Augie
March”
and
Philip
Roth’s
“American Pastoral.” However,
Aviva Kempner — who attended
the University and wrote for
the Michigan Daily from 1965
to 1969 and earned a Master
of Arts in 1971— took another
artistic route. During her time
at the University, she sold
tickets at the Michigan Theater,
where
her
co-workers
said
“maybe someday you’ll show
your films there.”
An Emmy nominee and
Guggenheim Fellow, Kempner
wanted to make “films that talk
about Jewish heroes.”
“I always grew up loving
cinema, and I had a lot of
friends that were doing human
rights in law school who were
documentary filmmakers, and
I really respected the format,”
she said. “I think the stories that
can be told in documentaries
can really make a difference.”
Along with her filmmaking,
Kempner is also the founder of the
Washington Jewish Film Festival
and the Ciesla Foundation.
Kempner’s
journey
to
documentary
filmmaking
wasn’t straightforward. After
her time at the University, she
attended law school, but failing
the bar exam (“I don’t do well on
multiple choice questions,” she
says), she decided to return to
her Jewish heritage: “I decided
I had to make a film about Jews
fighting Nazis.” She began work
in 1979, and in 1986 she produced
her first feature film “Partisans
of Vilna,” the story of Jewish
men and women who created the
partisan movement during World
War II in Vilna, Lithuania.
Her films are not just about
Jewish
heroes,
but
“Jewish
heroes fighting ‘isms.’ ” Similar
to the fight against Fascism and
anti-Semitism by the partisans
in Europe, her Peabody Award-
winning
second
feature,
“The Life and Times of Hank
Greenberg”
chronicles
the
life of Hank Greenberg who
battled against American anti-
Semitism. Greenberg, one of
the greatest Detroit Tigers and
baseball players ever, was the
first Jewish superstar athlete.
His story was a predecessor for,
and usurped by, that of Jackie
Robinson. Unlike the majority of
Major League Baseball players,
Greenberg welcomed Robinson
to the league, and he was one
of the first to do so. Nicknamed
“the Hebrew Hammer,” he was
the idol of young Jewish boys
across America. However, he
faced heavy hostility from a
predominantly white, working-
class audience, especially when
he refused to play on Yom Kippur.
After “The Life and Times
of Hank Greenberg,” Kempner
directed a documentary on
the life of radio and television
personality
Gertrude
Berg,
“Yoo-Hoo,
Mrs.
Goldberg.”
Berg, who created and starred
in the radio and television
serials “The Goldbergs,” faced
her own ’isms: sexism and
McCarthyism.
Like
a
former
ball
boy
who becomes a major league
slugger, three of Kempner’s
films have been shown at the
Michigan Theater, including
her latest “Rosenwald,” which
was screened in September.
After
hearing
famous
civil
rights
activist
Julian
Bond
— who features heavily in
the film — speak about the
intersection between Black and
Jewish communities, Kempner
thought, “My God! I have got to
do this movie.”
The film documents the life
of
millionaire
businessman
and
philanthropist
Julius
Rosenwald, who was both a
partial owner and leader of
Sears, Roebuck and Company.
He
founded
the
Museum
of Science and Industry in
Chicago, and the Rosenwald
Fund, which provided matching
donations to African American
communities to build more than
5,300 schools across the nation,
though
many
were
burned
down. He also worked closely
with famous educator Booker
T. Washington. By funding
the schools fully, he allowed
the
communities
to
work
together to finish the funding.
Furthermore, the foundation
gave out hundreds of grants to
African-American intellectuals
in various fields. Described by
Bond as a “who’s who of Black
America,” recipients of the
grants include Ralph Ellison,
Marian Anderson, W.E.B. Du
Bois, Gordon Parks, Dr. Charles
Drew, Langston Hughes, Jacob
Lawrence and Claude McKay.
Unlike 19th century industrial
giants
Andrew
Carnegie
and
John
D.
Rockefeller,
who have become American
folklore,
Julius
Rosenwald
has faded from history. It’s
doubtful many outside of the
Jewish community — or the
generations
after
the
fund
dissolved in 1948 — are aware
of the profound contributions
and
influence
Rosenwald
had on American society. As
Kempner notes, he was a poor
exemplar for the Gilded Age:
“He was very modest and doing
things without getting credit
for it.” Rosenwald himself, who
didn’t even finish high school,
comically dispelled the mythos
of the heroic entrepreneur. “Do
not be fooled into believing
that because a man is rich he
is necessarily smart. There is
ample proof to the contrary.”
Together
with
archival
footage
and
clips
from
American movies — “I don’t
just want talking heads” —
Kempner
interviewed
the
family members that have kept
Rosenwald’s legacy alive. The
documentary is a testament
to the importance of keeping
generational
histories.
“Go
through oral histories. You
never know when they’ll come
in handy,” she advised.
Despite
the
nearly
100
years that have passed since
Rosenwald’s
death,
his
story
remains
relevant
for
contemporary America.
“There’s
so
many
issues
and after effects from the
Jim Crow era, there’s a lot of
lessons to be told in this film
about what we need to do,”
Kempner said. “Communities
can work together. We can
make a difference, and all of
us have some J.R. in us. We’re
all responsible for improving
people’s lives.”
ARTIST
PROFILE
IN
COURTESY OF AVIVA KEMPNER
University alum Aviva Kempner’s latest document is about Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald.
SINGLE REVIEW
Another heavy helping of nos-
talgia, lyrical madness and intri-
cate musicality has been served
up in the third
single, “Paul
is Alive,” off
the upcoming
collaborative
effort by The
National’s
frontman, Matt
Berninger, and
Brent Knopf of
Menomena and
Ramona Falls.
This artistically experimental
group, titled EL VY, is set to
explode at the end of October.
From the song’s very first
plucked notes and cleared throat,
“Paul is Alive” buries the listener
in waves of nostalgia. Berninger
sings of a “sugar-coated child-
hood” lying far back in the past
now, back there in a place where
his mother’s favorite band, The
Beatles, wasn’t broken up and
half dead. Despite the gloomy
narration of Berninger’s monoto-
nous vocals, a voice that sits us
down in the favorite jockey club
of his 16-year-old self where he
first found The Cramps and The
Smiths and cried into his 7-Up,
EL VY quietly, and elegantly,
juxtaposes this lyrical heaviness
to the light and layered nature of
the song’s instrumentations.
As the song progresses, lyri-
cally and sonically, the sedated
pleasure that Berninger has for
the past envelopes the song. The
music ebbs and flows upward,
building from the simple chord
progressions from which it
started as the lyrics concurrently
grow in depth and inner conflict.
Now that the older Berninger
is aware of the unchanging
velocity of the present, and the
constant nostalgia for the past,
he can remain aware (and numb)
in his current reality. “Nobody
stays above, out in the waves
of love,” he sings. The only
solace to be found was back in
with his 16-year-old self, hair
slicked back and teary-eyed
with a 7-Up in hand, where
“inside the jockey club, I’m
even with heaven.”
The depth of the lyrical sto-
ryline in EL VY’s new “Paul is
Alive” is so haunting and mov-
ing, but as Berninger’s syrupy
vocals glide from verse to verse,
pouring on the nostalgia until
the listener is drowning, the
uneducated or non-fan of The
National may lose interest. But
to them I say, build some taste
and emotional depth. But to the
highly talented men of EL VY, I
say, you’re depressing me.
- AMELIA ZAK
4AD LTD.
B+
Paul Is
Alive
EL VY
4AD Ltd.
An Evening of Scenes?
in this series, three daily arts writers in
varying states of mind visit the same
place and write about their experiences.
baked.buzzed.bored.
this week’s destination:
Honestly, I don’t remember a fair amount of it. Time seems to have compounded into itself. Funny how it
does things like that. “Evening of Scenes” is a collection of short comedy sketches written and direct-
ed by students in the Residential College. The first one was about a classroom of students who
are emotionally manipulated by a girl named “Samantha Jones.” Do they know that’s
the name of Carrie Bradshaw’s puny and sexually adventurous best friend on
hit ’90s sitcom “Sex and the City?!?” They moved on to a skit personify-
ing the characters from the board game Clue, showing the vapid
monopoly characters as people with financial motives. As
to be expected from the Residential College, the
play contained unsubtle hints of sarcasm
scoffing at a capitalist society.
Things are NOT moving in real
time right now. Readers, I have not been
this high in QUITE some time. In Australia,
where I am considering studying abroad, they would
say I am “off my head!” I have been doing a fair amount
of research on Australian slang. OK, third scene with the kin-
dergarteners was on point and that’s not just something I would say
because maybe I have some best friends in the scene. It really was very
funny and capitalized on the absurdness of a power-hungry child, while inter-
jecting the scene with short interactions of a father being excluded from a playgroup
clique based on his gender. Commentary! We ended with a couponing show sketch that was
positively overrun by gingers, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Red is a color of power
so technically red hair should actually be more sexually appealing to us than other hair colors. While
viewing the play, I was unaware of an actual couponing show, but apparently it exists. So while I believed
during the show that it subverted reality to create a film of echoey obstruction, it actually REINFORCED the
concepts of fatuous chaos that we have chosen to revel in as a society.
—DAILY ARTS WRITER
This theater is a lot smaller than expected. Someone’s
perfume smells like old lady. This is how I perish. Why is
theater so funny? Why can I not do that? Why did I not bring
a drink for the road? Apparently monopoly is the only Ayn
Rand endorsed board game. Cool. There’s this whole scene
about killing Caesar and literally all I can think about is in
mean girls when Gretchen Wieners (daughter of the inven-
tor of toaster strudel) freaks out and is like “WHY DON’T
WE JUST STAB CAESAR?!” I relate to this awkward, gawky
suburban dad way more than I should. Oh my sweet Jesus
they brought back the Harry Potter puppet song ... I am weak
... with joy. Seventy-five percent of the people in this sketch
are red heads. I wonder if they’ll make a joke about it. (They
did) All these people are so witty and talented. What if I
started doing a standing ovation every time I got an article
published. That would be too much. I’ll stick to what I know
and let the real ac-tòrs do what they do.
—DAILY ARTS WRITER
I had no clue where I was even going tonight before we
got here. I need to stop blindly committing to things,
but this one really paid off. We’re on the second
act and they’ve covered my three favorite things:
weird celebrity obsessions, Clue the board
game and the phrase “yas kween.” Not too
shabby for a sober Friday night. Maybe I
should do this kind of stuff more often.
Ahh now is the fourth act and one of
our Daily Arts writers is on stage. #Rep-
resent. The delivery has been fantastic,
a well-performed mix of slapstick and
sharp humor. The range in topics and
length of individual skits kept the eve-
ning moving along in a fashion that didn’t
allow for dips in engagement. Even the
intermissions were expertly played. Who-
ever chose to play “Harry Potter Puppet
Pals” during the intermission deserves end-
less high-fives because I am dying.
RC Players is something I will definitely be
attending again (you should too), and this time all
I can hope for is that if there’s another scene about
killing Julius Caesar (most likely, there won’t be) and
someone will make a Gretchen Weiners reference.
—CHRISTIAN KENNEDY