Aviva Kempner (born December 23, 1946) is a German-born American
filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
. Her documentaries investigate non-stereotypical images of
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
s in history and focus on the untold stories of
Jewish people
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
. She is most well known for ''
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
''The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg'' is a 1998 documentary film written, directed, and produced by Aviva Kempner about Hank Greenberg, first baseman of the Detroit Tigers, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. A Jewish player who ...
''.
Life and career
A child of
Holocaust survivor
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...
Helen Ciesla, a Polish citizen, and Harold Kempner, a
US Army officer, Kempner was born in
Berlin, Germany, after World War II.
Her family history inspired her to create her first documentary, ''Partisans of Vilna'' (1986). She grew up in Detroit and has a brother, Jonathan.
Kempner lives in
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
and is an activist for voting rights for the District of Columbia.
She was a member of the Class of 1976 at the progressive
Antioch School of Law
Antioch School of Law was a law school in Washington, D.C. which specialized in public advocacy. The school now operates as the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC-DCSL).
The school was located on 16th Str ...
. In 1981, Kempner founded The Ciesla Foundation to produce films that investigate non-stereotypical images of Jews in history and celebrate the untold stories of Jewish heroes.
In 1986, Kempner conceived and produced ''
Partisans of Vilna
The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye ( yi, ; "United Partisan Organization"; referred to as FPO by its Yiddish initials) was a Jewish resistance organization based in the Vilna Ghetto that organized armed resistance against the Nazis during ...
'', a documentary on Jewish resistance against the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
,
Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye
The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye ( yi, ; "United Partisan Organization"; referred to as FPO by its Yiddish initials) was a Jewish resistance organization based in the Vilna Ghetto that organized armed resistance against the Nazis during ...
. She co-founded the
Washington Jewish Film Festival
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
in 1989 together with Miriam Mörsel Nathan, and served as the festival's Founding Director.
Additionally, she was the executive producer of the 1989
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
-nominated record ''Partisans of Vilna: The Songs of World War II Jewish Resistance''.
She is the
scriptwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
T ...
,
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''Di ...
and
producer of ''
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
''The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg'' is a 1998 documentary film written, directed, and produced by Aviva Kempner about Hank Greenberg, first baseman of the Detroit Tigers, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. A Jewish player who ...
'', a film about first Jewish baseball star in the Major Leagues.
In 2009, she produced ''
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg'', a 90-minute documentary about
Gertrude Berg
Gertrude Berg (Born Tillie Edelstein; October 3, 1899 – September 14, 1966) was an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. A pioneer of classic radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce, and star in a long-running hi ...
, a popular American radio and television personalities who received the first Best Actress Emmy in history and paved the way for women in media and entertainment. Berg was the creator, principal writer, and star of the popular 1930s radio show and then the 1950s weekly televised
situation comedy
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
, ''
The Goldbergs''.
Kempner made ''
Rosenwald'' (2015), a feature-length historical documentary about businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, who partnered with Booker T. Washington and African American communities to build over 5,000 schools in the
Jim Crow South
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
. The Rosenwald Fund also provided grants to support a who's who of African American artists and intellectuals.
She is also the co-writer and co-producer of ''Casuse'', a film about
Larry Casuse, a young Native American activist who kidnapped the Mayor of
Gallup, New Mexico
Zuni: ''Kalabwaki''
, settlement_type = City
, nickname = "Indian Capital of the World"
, motto =
, image_skyline = Gallup, New Mexico.jpg
, imagesize = 250px
, image_caption ...
to draw attention to the plight of the Navajo people and to expose the hypocrisy of the establishment.
Kempner directed, wrote and produced ''The Spy Behind Home Plate'', the first full-length documentary about
Moe Berg
Morris Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, ...
, a Jewish baseball player, who caught and fielded in the
Major Leagues from the 1920s through 1939 during baseball's Golden Age and his activities with the US
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(OSS). When asked about lessons she hoped viewers would take away from the film in a 2019 interview with ''Sporting News'', Kempner said:
I think we need to know our history of how at a time when the world was in peril, and how a sports hero, someone in baseball, wound up being a real American hero. You know for me also, having done a Hank Greenberg film but also knowing about Ted Williams and Joe Dimaggio going off to war, their stats are not what they would have been if they hadn't sacrificed for their country. Moe would have probably ended up being a manager afterward. They not only sacrificed their lives, but also their sports standing.
She writes film criticism and feature articles for numerous publications, including ''The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Crystal City Magazine, The Forward, Baltimore Jewish Times, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Legal Times, New York Times, The Wrap, Washington Jewish Week'' and ''The Washington Post.''
Kempner said in a 2009 interview with FF2 Media's Jan Huttner: "In ''The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg'', we use this line: 'When America needed a hero, a Jewish slugger stepped to the plate.' I think you can also say: 'When America needed a hero, a Jewish mother was there for you.'"
Kempner is currently co-producing and co-directing ''Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting'', a full length documentary exploring the history of using Native American images in mascoting and the fight to change the name of current professional sports teams.
Kempner is also producing and directing a short film, ''Pissed Off'', exploring the under-publicized struggles faced by female lawmakers in Congress who advocated for equal access to restroom facilities in their place of work, the United States Capitol, and a full length documentary on Academy Award winning Hollywood screenwriter, Ben Hecht. Ben Hecht was a Jewish screenwriter as well as novelist, playwright, journalist, and activist. He worked to rescue European Jewry and helped to expose the nature of the Holocaust and the need for a Jewish homeland to the American public.
Awards and accolades
Source:
* Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
* 1996 Guggenheim Fellowship
* 2000 DC Mayor's Art Award
* 2001 Women of Vision Award, D.C.’s Women in Film and Video chapter
* 2001 Media Arts Award, The National Foundation for Jewish Culture
* 2009 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival's Freedom of Expression Awardee
* 2017 Bernardo O'Higgins Award
* 2018 Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of the District of Columbia
Publications
Filmography (director/producer)
*''Partisans of Vilna'' (1986) (producer only)
*''
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
''The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg'' is a 1998 documentary film written, directed, and produced by Aviva Kempner about Hank Greenberg, first baseman of the Detroit Tigers, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. A Jewish player who ...
'' (1999), awarded the Audience Awards at the
Hamptons International Film Festival
The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is an international film festival founded in 1992, by Joyce Robinson. The festival has since taken place every year in East Hampton, New York. It is usually an annual five-day event in mid-October a ...
and Washington Jewish Film Festival; Spirit Award for Best Sports Documentary, International Sports Video and Film Awards; top honors from the National Society of Film Critics, the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics Circle and Broadcast Film Critics Association; CINE Golden Eagle and George Peabody Award.
*''Today I Vote for My Joey'' (2002)
*''
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg'' (2009), winner of CINE Golden Eagle and festival audience awards; Women's Film Critics Circle posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award winner for Gertrude Berg.
*''
Rosenwald'' (2015)
*''Casuse'' (work in progress)
*
The Spy Behind Home Plate' (2019)
Book chapters
* ''God, Faith and Identity in the Ashes: Perspectives of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors''
* ''Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg: Call Him the Hero of Heroes''
* ''When You Need A Little Lift: But Don't Want To Eat Chocolate, Pay a Shrink, or Drink a Bottle of Gin''
* ''Jews and American Popular Culture''
* ''What Israel Means to Me''
* ''Daughters of Absence''
References
External links
The Ciesla Foundation website*
''Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg'' website''The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg'' website*
''The Spy Behind Home Plate'' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempner, Aviva
1946 births
American documentary filmmakers
American people of German-Jewish descent
20th-century German Jews
Living people
Filmmakers from Michigan
Film directors from Washington, D.C.
Jewish women
University of Michigan alumni
Jewish American screenwriters
Jewish film people
Film directors from Berlin
People from Detroit
American women documentary filmmakers
Jewish American community activists
Activists from Washington, D.C.
American film critics
American women film critics
American women screenwriters
Screenwriters from Michigan
Screenwriters from Washington, D.C.
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women