FROM SHTETL TO SWING: A MUSICAL ODYSSEY
2005, Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir, 58 min.
Narrated by Harvey Fierstein

Out of adversity, elegant and energetic new sounds in American black and Jewish popular music were born. Rooted in the gloomy ghettos of Eastern Europe, Jewish music underwent a transformation in twentieth century America. Jews brilliantly mixed traditions found in the synagogues, klezmer halls, and Yiddish theaters with the hot jazz and rhythms of their Harlem brothers and sisters to create a lush, extravagant new genre called swing. FROM SHTETL TO SWING is the story of how Lower East Side kids-turned-legends Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, the Marx Brothers, Artie Shaw, and numerous others forever changed the face of American popular music--from the Bowery to Tin Pan Alley to Broadway to Hollywood. Beta SP video. (Karen Cross Durham)

Monday, October 23, 6:00 p.m.

Ralf Sausmikat in person!
European Media Art Festival Tour:
Re-mapping Europe
2005-6, Various directors, Various nations, ca. 72 min.

The Gene Siskel Film Center in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, Chicago, presents a program of new experimental films from the 2006 European Media Art Festival, which takes place annually in Osnabrück, Germany. This selection references art history and trends in video art as the makers comment on personal and global situations, often from an ironic point of view. Included: VERTIGO, Regina Kelaita, Netherlands; LOOKING FOR ALFRED, Johan Grimonprez, Belgium; MIRROR MECHANICS, Siegfried Fruhauf, Austria; OPTINEN ÄÄNI, Mika Taanila, Finland; PAUL AND THE BADGER, Paul Tarragó, Britain; STILL, Tim Leyendekker, Netherlands; PATRIOTIC, Pascal Lievre and Benny Nemorovsky-Ramsey, France; AMERICA PUNISH CRIMINALS, Peter E. Bengtsson, Sweden; SEA CHANGE, Joe King and Rosie Pedlow, Britain; 10 YEARS IN RIVER, Audrius Kaspervacius, Lithuania; WIR SIND DIR TREU, Michael Koch, Switzerland; APPLE ON A TREE, Zeljko Vidovic and Astrid Rieger, Germany. DV video.

Festival curator Ralf Sausmikat will be present to discuss the work with the audience.