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Visions, Images, and Dreams: Yiddish Film—Past and Present, revised edition

Eric A. Goldman
Visions, Images, and Dreams: Yiddish Film—Past and Present, revised edition
ISBN: 978-0-8419-1437-7
$25.00
2011/272 pages/LC: 2010026426
Distributed for Holmes & Meier Publishers

"No one interested in the nature and history of the Yiddish cinema can afford to miss this book. Meticulously researched, written without gush ... every reader will derive [pleasure and instruction] from Dr. Goldman's labour of love."—London Jewish Chronicle

"A foundational work in the history of Yiddish film.... With the tenacity of a detective and the acuity of a cineaste, Goldman tracks down and lays out the who, what, where, and how of this magnificent, incandescent, and all too evanescent facet of Yiddish culture."—Jeremy Dauber, Columbia University

"Steeped in tradition, rich in culture, laden with emotion [are] the films Goldman treats [in this] admirable study."—Los Angeles Times

DESCRIPTION

From the early Yiddish silent movies, to the innovative Soviet-supported productions of the 1920s, to the Golden Age of the 1930s, to the present revival of the genre, Eric Goldman traces the history of Yiddish cinema and the people who shaped its development.

Goldman viewed scores of films (some of them considered lost) and combed archives in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the United States to uncover details, facts, and background for his narrative. This new edition includes films of the past fifteen years, as well as interviews with Jacob Ben-Ami, Ira Greene, Joseph Green, and Molly Picon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric A. Goldman is adjunct associate professor of cinema at Yeshiva University and The Jewish Theological Seminary. He is founder and president of Ergo Media, a DVD publishing company specializing in Yiddish, Israeli and Jewish film.  He is also film reviewer for New Jersey's The Jewish Standard.

CONTENTS

  • Introduction: What Is Yiddish Film?
  • Precursors, 1910–1918.
  • Postwar Silent Pictures: Austria, Poland, and the United States.
  • The Soviet Yiddish Film, 1925–1933.
  • The American Yiddish Sound Picture, 1929–1937.
  • The Golden Age of Yiddish Cinema, Part I: Poland, 1936–1939.
  • The Golden Age of Yiddish Cinema, Part II: United States, 1937–1940.
  • After the War: Limited Success, 1946–1950.
  • Epilogue: A Rebirth of Interest.
  • Interviews.
  • Filmography, 1911–2010.