Cohn to Coens -- What's "Jewish" about American movies?

Professor Donald F. Larsson, Mankato State, will lead a discussion of how individual Jews and Jewish topics have—and have not—influenced American movies. Participants should leave with a better understanding of the contributions of Jews to American films over the last century and also why those movies have rarely addressed Jewish history and culture directly until recent times. The program is free and open to the public and will highlight the early years of the Hollywood film industry, including entrepreneurs like Adolf Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldfish and Harry Cohn who created what critic Neil Gabler has called “an empire of their own” in the motion picture studios whose names are still with us today (including Paramount, MGM, Samuel Goldwyn Films, and Columbia Pictures). The discussion will ask why—with so many Jewish producers, directors, writers and actors in Hollywood—so few of their films directly touched on Jewish life and topics, even including the Holocaust, and will consider how contemporary filmmakers, including Minnesotans Joel and Ethan Coen, have brought Jewish culture and topics back to the movies.

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This event will take place in the library on the second floor of the Talmud Torah building, 763 Hamline Ave. S., St Paul. There will be a brief social time with bagels and coffee at 10 AM.