Currently Browsing: WomenArts

FIRE BIRDS: Review by Jan Lisa Huttner

Black Comedy from Israel about a man determined to crash “the world’s most exclusive club” of wealthy Tel Aviv widows who also happen to be Holocaust survivors. Trust me, this is a “laughing thru tears” experience worthy of Sholem Aleichem with finely-drawn characters and an infectious “tickle the ribs” plot. (JLH: 4/5) Review by FF2 […]

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MORGENTHAU: Review by Jan Lisa Huttner

In 1866, German-Jewish businessman Lazarus Morgenthau arrived in the USA, in tow. Alas, Lazarus never found fabled streets paved with gold in New York, but his son Henry (ten years old when he arrived), became extremely wealthy and then used that wealth for great humanitarian purposes. Through the generations, his son Henry  Morgenthau Junior and his […]

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PEGGY GUGGENHEIM (JLH)

Full Title = Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict For all the books written about her since her death in 1979–and even despite the two books she wrote about herself–Peggy Guggenheim remains an elusive subject. Filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s great contribution to PG’s legacy is twofold. First, she shows us the depth and breadth of the physical objects […]

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ROSENWALD

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Aviva Kempner’s triumphant new BioDoc Rosenwald introduces us to a Jewish-American philanthropist who used the fortune he amassed as the CEO of Sears, Roebuck and Company to make a permanent impact on African-American life for generations past and generations to come. Although many residents of Metro Chicago know the name Julius Rosenwald, most people outside Chicago have […]

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DANCING IN JAFFA

A tip of the hat to Pierre Dulaine! In 1994, long before ballroom dancing received mainstream acclaim through the wildly popular TV show Dancing With The Stars (which premiered in 2005 and is now in its 18th season after having received multiple EMMY nominations almost every year from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences), […]

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Cadillac Records

From April ’09 Spotlight: Cadillac Records is a musical history of Chicago Blues starring Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, Beyoncé Knowles as Etta James, and Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters. It’s tremendously entertaining, has great resonance, and was one of my favorite films of 2008. Last December, just before Barack Obama named Rahm Emanuel White […]

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