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I was fortunate to get a chance to speak with the director of the recently released documentary Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg, Aviva Kempner. We spoke about the film – natch, the perils of fundraising for documentaries and even played a little Jewish geography. Here’s an excerpt of our talk -

PopSyndicate: Good morning Aviva, First let me say that I was born and lived in the Tremont section of the Bronx – we even had a Tremont telephone exchange – so thanks for the walk down memory lane. Besides being so entertaining, the film was educational as well. As the curator of a Jewish film festival in Dallas, that’s exactly what I look for in a film when I program. It hit on all cylinders! Thank you…..

Aviva Kempner: Ah, my pleasure! Now do you think that folks in Dallas are going to go?

PS: Absolutely! I’ll tell them to go! Please tell me how you got involved with Gertrude Berg’s story?

AK: Of course, I knew about her and I was trying to figure out what to do next and I went to the Jewish museum. There was a great exhibit called, “Jews Entertaining America.” The museum had a recreation of the Goldberg’s living rom.

PS: And that was it?!

AK: That was it!

PS: At what point did you read her bio by Glenn Smith, Something on My Own?

AK: First I went to the family and they said, “Great”! Then I heard about Glenn Smith and this biography he was doing on her about six months in (to the project). I have to say that in my little film called Today I Vote for My Joey, where the Jews mistakenly vote for Pat Buchanan, I had the character yelling out the window, “Yoo-Hoo, Let’s go vote!”

PS: That’s a nice touch! What specifically interested you in Gertrude Berg? The fact that she was an early, visible feminist? 

AK: What was interesting to me was that she was so talented. She would get up every morning and write. She would then go and produce. She developed the most long-lasting positive portrayal of Jews – American Jews – that you’ll ever see, during the time of the greatest domestic anti-Semitism. It’s an absolute miracle. Plus, she developed that character that was beloved way beyond the Jewish community, and of a woman – a mother figure that she didn’t have in her own life. I just think she’s a genius – the right person at the right time. 

PS: I enjoyed your doc about Hank Greenberg. Many of your films deal with Jews who were heroes in their day and age, but have been somehow forgotten. Can you address that?

AK: My M.O. is making films about unknown Jewish heroes. For me, it’s bringing up these stories of heroic figures especially at the time of so much domestic anti-Semitism. This genius arrived in athletic form or in creativity, time passes and people don’t remember heroes past – that’s why I do these films. What’s interesting is there are four bio-flicks out this year about important women around that period – Amelia Earhart, Coco Chanel, Julia Child and Gertrude Berg. It’s wonderful that their stories are coming to the screen.

PS: In our film series we once screened a doc about Jewish mothers entitled, Mamadrama. It’s interesting that she played a stereotypical Jewish mother on the TV & radio, but she wasn’t one in real life.

AK: Exactly!

PS: Many of your films deal with famous folks who include the name Berg – who’s next – Ingrid Bergman?

AK: (she laughs heartily) Want to hear the best story? I went to interview Justice Ginsburg and the first thing I said to her was, “You know I’ve done Greenberg and now Goldberg. Maybe I should do Ginsburg?…Sounds like a Jewish law firm”.

PS: (now it was my turn to laugh) Seriously, what’s your next project??

AK: There is a very famous Jewish philanthropist named Julius Rosenwald who championed Booker T. Washington’s project and together they built over 5,000 schools in the rural South. It’s a great black/Jewish story.

PS: Sounds like a great story. Thanks for your time, Aviva. So glad I got to speak with you today! I look forward to learning about the next unsung hero.

Yoo-hoo readers! What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation perhaps? Go and see Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg as soon as you can!

For the review of the film, please click on: Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg film review

 

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