Yiddish Film Project
Worlds within a World: Conversations with Yiddish Writers
Beyle Schaechter Gottesman: Song of Autumn
A VELT MIT VELTELEKH: SHMUESN MIT YIDISHE SHRAYBERS
BEYLE SHEKHTER-GOTESMAN: HARBSTLID
The League for Yiddish, publishers of the magazine Afn Shvel is pleased to
announce that the
film Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman: Song of Autumn (BEYLE SHEKHTER-GOTESMAN:
Harbstlid), the
second film in our series Worlds within a World: Conversations with Yiddish Writers
(A velt mit veltelekh: shmuesn mit yidishe shraybers) is ready and available for viewing and
purchase.
The film is available in VHS
or DVD format.
TO ORDER, send $30 plus $5 postage (in the US) or your credit card information to:
LEAGUE FOR YIDDISH
64 FULTON ST.
SUITE 1101
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10038.
Postage for Canada : $6.00 for either VHS or DVD.
International postage other than Canada : $5 for the DVD and $12 for the VHS.
You may also order at the League for Yiddish website : www.leagueforyiddish.org with a credit card or
paypal. For inquires, please contact the League for Yiddish at info@leagueforyiddish.org or call
212 889-0380.
THE FILM
Beyle Schaechter Gottesman: Song of Autumn is an edited interview
conducted with this remarkable Yiddish poet, songwriter, and singer by her son
folklorist/journalist Itsik Gottesman and enhanced by photo stills and
Schaechter-Gottesman’s music. The film is 72 minutes long. The interview is entirely in
Yiddish with very accurate and complete English subtitles. In it, BEYLE, whose
name has become synonymous with modern Yiddish song and who has played a
central role in revivng and inspiring interest in Yiddish song and poetry among a
whole new generation of artists, discusses her life and creative path: her
upbringing in the Yiddish cultural milieu of Tshernevits (then Rumania) as the
daughter of a remarkable traditional folk singer and a passionate Yiddishist,
the war years in Rumania, her development as a modern Yiddish poet and
songwriter in New York, and her views on Yiddish literature and creativity. What
emerges is a rich picture of the world of a woman who recited poetry to the great
Yiddish fabulist Eliezer Shteynbarg as a child, was part of a vibrant Yiddish
enclave in the Bronx, and is the only Yiddish poet ever to be awarded a
National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation’s
top honor for folk arts.
HIGHLIGHTS include Beyle’s reciting several of her poems as well as
singing several of her own songs, among them the favorites, “Mayn khaverte
Mintsye” (My Friend Mintsye) and “Borekh-habo dir, khaver” (Welcome, My Friend).
DIRECTOR
The film is directed and edited by Josh Waletzky, director and editor
of Image before My Eyes and Partisans of Vilna, and editor of Emmy
Award-winning “Itzhak Perlman: In the Fiddler’s House.” Among other awards, Josh is
the recipient of the Silver Ducat at the Mannheim International Film Festival
for Image and First Prize at the Anthropos International Film Festival for
Partisans.
THE PROJECT
Worlds within a World: Conversations with Yiddish Writers aims to
provide a visual and oral document of prominent contemporary Yiddish writers so that
present and future generations can “spend time” with these fascinating
figures and gain some insight into their work and milieu. Thus far, in addition to
Schaechter-Gottesman, we have filmed Itche Goldbergand painter/writer Yonia
Fain.
Our first film Itche Goldberg: A Century of Yiddish Letters (ITSHE
GOLDBERG: OYB NIT NOKH HEKHER) on Yiddish educator, essayist, literary critic, poet
and editor Itche Goldberg is also available.
PURCHASE
Both films make the perfect program for a Yiddish circle, class, or even
your local Jewish or documentary film festival.
The film is available in VHS
or DVD format.
TO ORDER, send $30 plus $5 postage (in the US) or your credit card information to:
LEAGUE FOR YIDDISH
64 FULTON ST.
SUITE 1101
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10038.
Postage for Canada : $6.00 for either VHS or DVD.
International postage other than Canada : $5 for the DVD and $12 for the VHS.
You may also order at the League for Yiddish website : www.leagueforyiddish.org with a credit card or
paypal. For inquires, please contact the League for Yiddish at info@leagueforyiddish.org or call
212 889-0380.