Aviva Kempner Movies

For more than 25 years, Gertrude Berg was one of the most prominent women in American broadcast media and popular culture, as the creator, writer, producer, and star of The Goldbergs, first on radio (where it was originally known as The Rise of the Goldbergs) and then on television. Berg -- who was best-known to the public in the identity of her character Molly Goldberg -- occupied a unique niche in the fabric of American life, and throughout the 1930s, she and Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the president, competed annually in polls for the title of most prominent woman in America. Berg was even called "The First Lady of Radio" at a time when radio was king. Later on, in the television era, she invented the family sitcom as we came to know it, and did battle against the Red Scare and the blacklist. Director Aviva Kempner's documentary gives an intimate and detailed a look at the life of Berg, who died in 1966 virtually forgotten by the executives of the industry that she helped build. In the process, she and the other participants, and their widows and children, as well as admirers such as United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, explain how this woman, an articulate and intelligent first-generation Jewish American with little formal background in writing and no knowledge of the media, rose to such success in just a few years -- and why she was forgotten and swept aside almost as quickly at the other end of her career. Participants and interviewees, in addition to Justice Ginsberg, include producer/writer Norman Lear, actor Edward Asner, and writer/producer Gary David Goldberg. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Hank Greenberg was the first great Jewish star in baseball; at a time when the game was still racially segregated, Greenberg became a first-class hitter for the Detroit Tigers (a host city not always known for its tolerance, as the career of Father Charles Coughlin will prove), nearly beating Babe Ruth's home run record and becoming one of the game's best loved figures (he was also a friend and confidant to Jackie Robinson as he was breaking baseball's color barrier). Hank Greenberg became a powerful role model in America's Jewish community, and this documentary follows his life and career up to his death in 1986. Director Aviva Kempner includes extensive interview footage of Greenberg filmed in the year before his passing, as well as newsreel footage of Greenberg in action, reminiscences from his teammates and testimonials from his family, friends and fans, including Alan Dershowitz and Walter Matthau. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Over forty different holocaust survivors are interviewed in this informative documentary about resistance fighters in Vilna (or Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania). Supplemented by archival footage that visually expands the testimony of the survivors, their story comes alive as they recount how they formed a commando unit to go on the offensive against the Nazi army (through sabotage). Some of the misguided aspects of the resistance's hard-and-fast rules are also brought to the fore. One survivor notes how his mother came to one operation asking how she could help, and even though she was also risking her life in doing that -- she was turned away because this was not accepted procedure. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide