\”In the old Hollywood movies, the underdog always won. I\’ve got to believe that can still happen,\” says Joseph Cedar, sitting in the lobby of a cheap hotel in the mid-Wilshire area frequented by young Israelis and artistic types of various nationalities.
\”Don\’t be deceived by the simplicity of the art,\” Judy Chicago admonishes a group of reporters gathered for a preview of her \”Resolutions: A Stitch in Time\” exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center.\n
\nPlaywright Arje Shaw\’s first memory was crawling across the floor, finding a piece of black, moldy bread and dipping the crust in water in order to chew it. He was 18 months old. \”I looked like a Biafran baby,\” he says.
One of Hitler\’s first fiats in 1933 led to the dismissal of all Jewish professors from German universities.\n
Screenwriter Henry Bean was riveted by the story the instant he heard it 25 years ago.
It was the first time in U.S. history that the cast and producers of a play were hauled down to police headquarters and convicted on obscenity charges.\n
Move over Sundance, Slamdance, Digidance and Nodance. The two-week showbiz schmoozefest in Park City, Utah, traditionally a launching pad for Jewish indie cinema, is now home to SchmoozeDance, a forum for Jewish filmmakers, journalists, observers and studio execs to celebrate Jewish film.\n
In Sandi Simcha DuBowski\’s searing new documentary, \”Trembling Before G-d,\” about Orthodox gays and lesbians, David, a handsome L.A. doctor, describes struggling to change his sexuality.
Glamour, betrayal, influence and heartache, all in a day\’s work. In her first book, \”Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? Women\’s Experience of Power in Hollywood,\” Rachel Abramowitz, a former writer for Premiere magazine, lays out in impressive detail what the first significant wave of women in the film trade, a wave that hit the studios in the 1970s, had to go through to get women to be taken seriously by the industry.
When Harry Blitzstein decided to open up his Blitzstein Museum of Art (facetiously subtitled \”Formerly Moe\’s Meat Market\”), the neighboring merchants on Fairfax Avenue had a unanimous reaction. \”They thought I was just kidding,\” the painter said.
