From the 1930s to the present, American filmmakers’ varied depictions of Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and the genocide of European Jewry have always involved a coming together of art, commerce, politics and history. In turn, these representations have exerted a profound influence on popular culture as well as public perception of and opinion about these events.
To mark its 20th anniversary year, The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHE) will offer a public film series one Tuesday evening each month from Jan. 15 through June 11. The six-film series will showcase full-length American-made narrative films related to the Holocaust that have been nominated for or have won an Academy Award. Collectively, the films illustrate how depiction of the Holocaust in American cinema has changed over five decades as America’s own relationship with this history has evolved.
The series will begin on Jan. 15, with the documentary film “Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust.” Released in 2007, directed by Daniel Anker and narrated by Gene Hackman, it examines the treatment of the Holocaust in Hollywood films over a period of 60 years. It looks at the impact of those films on public perception and thinking, as well as the impact of public perception and thinking on Hollywood filmmakers. It will provide both context and background for the five narrative films that follow it, dating from 1942 through 1989.
Each film will be preceded by an introduction at 7 p.m., facilitated by Fran Sternberg, Ph.D., MCHE’s director of university programs and adult education, and members of the Holocaust Education Academic Roundtable (HEART), MCHE’s consortium of university educators. The comments will provide insight into how to view these films for their artistic and historical value. All films in the series will be shown in the White Theatre on the Jewish Community Campus, except in February, when the film will be shown in the Campus Social Hall.
Funding for “Hollywood and the Holocaust” is generously provided, in part, by grants from the Earl J. and Leona K. Tranin Special Fund and the White Theatre Grantor Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
Tickets are available at $10 per individual film or $50 for a series pass. Sponsorship opportunities are also available for individual films and for the entire series. For more information, visit www.mchekc.org/filmseries or call 913-327-8194.
Schedule of featured films
The films will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Campus on the following Tuesday evenings:
Jan. 15 — “Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust” (2007, 92 minutes, White Theatre): Directed by Daniel Anker and narrated by Gene Hackman, this documentary film examines the treatment of the Holocaust in Hollywood films over a period of 60 years. It looks at the impact of those films on public perception and thinking, as well as the impact of public perception and thinking on Hollywood filmmakers.
Feb. 12 — “To Be or Not to Be” (1942, 99 minutes, Social Hall): Directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Carole Lombard, Jack Benny and Robert Stack, this is a comedy about a troupe of actors in German-occupied Warsaw, who use their abilities at disguise and acting to fool the occupying troops. In 1983, Mel Brooks remade the film, featuring himself and Anne Bancroft in the Benny and Lombard roles.
March 12 — “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947, 118 minutes, White Theatre): Directed by Elia Kazan and based on Laura Z. Hobson’s 1947 novel of the same name, it features Gregory Peck as Schuyler Green, a journalist who goes undercover as a Jew to expose anti-Semitism and John Garfield as Dave Goldman, his childhood friend, newly returned from fighting in World War II and trying to find a house for his family in New York. It also starred Celeste Holm and Dorothy McGuire.
April 23 — “The Pawnbroker” (1965, 116 minutes, White Theatre): Sol Nazerman (Rod Steiger) is a Holocaust survivor living in the Bronx who has lost all faith in his fellow man and who realizes the tragedy of his actions only when it is too late. Directed by Sidney Lumet and based on the novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, this is the first American film to deal with the Holocaust from the point of view of a survivor.
May 21 — “The Man in the Glass Booth” (1975, 117 minutes, White Theatre): Arthur Goldman (Maximillian Schell) is a rich Jewish industrialist living in luxury in Manhattan. He banters with his assistant Charlie (Lawrence Pressman), shocking him with his outrageous and irreverent views about Jewish life. Then, one day, Israeli secret agents burst in and arrest Goldman for being a Nazi war criminal. Taken to Israel for trial, he forces his accusers to face not only his own presumed guilt, but also their own. Directed by Arthur Hiller, the film is based on a screenplay adapted from Robert Shaw’s 1967 novel and the 1968 play of the same name.
June 11 — “Enemies: A Love Story” (1989, 119 minutes, White Theatre): In 1949 New York, Herman Broder (Ron Silver), a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust in hiding and who now works as a ghostwriter for a rabbi (Alan King), finds himself involved with three women: his current wife, the Polish non-Jew who hid him during the war; another survivor (Lena Olin), who is married; and his first wife from Poland (Anjelica Huston), who he thought was killed in the Holocaust along with their children, but who suddenly reappears. Directed by Paul Mazursky and based on the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, this film focuses on a group of Holocaust survivors, who question religion and a God who could let the Holocaust occur.
Tickets are available for purchase for individual films and for the entire series. Sponsorship opportunities are also available for individual films and for the entire series. For more information, visit www.mchekc.org/filmseries or call 913-327-8194.
