''Number Our Days'' is a 1976 American

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about a community of elderly

Jews 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""The ...

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed b ...

. It was directed by

Lynne Littman Lynne Littman (born June 26, 1941) is an American film and television director and producer. Her best known work is '' Testament'' (1983) and she has won several awards including an Academy Award for her documentary short film '' Number Our Days' ...

and aired on

KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV ...

's news show ''28 Tonight''. The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

preserved ''Number Our Days'' in 2007.

Reception

Lee Margulies of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' called ''Number Our Days'' "beautiful" and "a very human film, full of expressive faces and heartfelt emotion. It is full of compassion but never pity." John J. O'Connor of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote that ''Number Our Days'' was "a moving portrait of loneliness, pride, humor, bitterness and dignity". ''Number Our Days'' won an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

at the

49th Academy Awards The 49th Academy Awards were presented Monday, March 28, 1977, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. The ceremonies were presided over by Richard Pryor, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, and Warren Beatty. ''Network'' and ''All ...

, held in 1977, for Documentary Short Subject.

Cast

* Harry Asimow as Himself (archive footage) *

Barbara Myerhoff Barbara Myerhoff (February 16, 1935 – January 7, 1985) was an American anthropologist, filmmaker, and founder of the Center for Visual Anthropology at the University of Southern California. Throughout her career as an anthropologist, Barba ...

as Herself *

as Herself (voice) (uncredited) * Eddie Gurnick as band leader

References

External links

''Number Our Days''
at

Direct Cinema Limited Mitchell Block (born c. 1950) is an American filmmaker, primarily a producer of documentary films. He was executive producer of the 2000 short documentary film '' Big Mama'', which won Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 73rd Academy Awards ...

*
''Number Our Days''
at the

American Archive of Public Broadcasting The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The AAPB is a national effort to digitall ...

{{Academy Award Best Documentary Short , state=collapsed 1976 films 1976 documentary films 1976 independent films 1970s short documentary films American short documentary films Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners American independent films Jews and Judaism in California Documentary films about old age Films shot in Venice, Los Angeles Documentary films about Jews and Judaism in the United States 1970s English-language films 1970s American films