Wednesdays, March 31, April 7, and April 14, 2021 @ 6:30 pm-8:00 pm

Although Jewish women have always been part of making American films as actresses and screenwriters, their entry into the ranks of directors has been slow.  Several notable Jewish female directors emerged on the scene in the 1970s who brought both a Jewish and feminist perspective to their films.  This lecture will profile these directors starting with the pioneers Joan Micklin-Silver (Hester Street and Crossing Delancey), Claudia Weil (Girlfriends), Barbra Streisand (Yentl and The Prince of Tides), and Susan Seidelman (Desperate Seeking Susan) to a new generation of Jewish women directors like Lena Dunham (Girls) and Jill Soloway (Transparent) who have pushed the sexual and religious boundaries of how Jewish women are depicted. 

Lec.1, The Pioneering American Jewish Women Directors from Elaine May to Barbra Streisand

Lec. 2  Masters of the Mainstream. The Second Generation of American Jewish Women Directors from Amy Heckerling to Nancy Meyers

Lec. 3  “The Transgressive Third Generation of American Jewish Women Directors from Lisa Cholodenko to Joey (Jill) Soloway

Professor Emeritus Lawrence Baron held the Nasatir Chair of Modern Jewish History at San Diego State University from 1988 until 2012 and directed its Jewish Studies Program until 2006. He received his Ph.D. in modern European cultural and intellectual history from the University of Wisconsin where he studied with George L. Mosse. He taught at St. Lawrence University from 1975 until 1988. He has authored and edited four books including The Modern Jewish Experience in World Cinema (Brandeis University Press: 2011) and Projecting the Holocaust into the Present: The Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema (Rowman and Littlefield: 2005). He served as the historian and as an interviewer for Sam and Pearl Oliner’s The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe. In 2006 he delivered the keynote address for Yad Vashem’s first conference devoted to Hollywood and the Holocaust. His contribution to Holocaust Studies was profiled in Fifty Key Thinkers on the Holocaust and Genocide (Routledge: 2010). In the fall Semester of 2015, he served as the Ida King Distinguished Visiting Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Richard Stockton University of New Jersey.

There is no fee, but please RSVP for planning purposes. This event is held virtually on Zoom. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the event. For more information, contact Program Director Ilene Tatro at itatro@cbisd.org.