Visions, Images and Dreams: Yiddish Film - Past & Present

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.


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.