Distributor Contact: SEVENTH ART RELEASING 1614 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90046 phone (323) 845-1455 fax (323) 845-4717 [email protected] www.7thart.com SYNOPSIS JEWS AND BASEBALL: AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY brings to life the contributions of Jewish major leaguers and explores the special meaning that baseball has had in the lives of American Jews. More than a film about sports, it is a story of immigration, assimilation, bigotry, heroism, the passing on of traditions, and the shattering of stereotypes. We meet Andy Cohen, a diminutive second baseman brought to the New York Giants to attract Jewish fans; the powerful slugger Hank Greenberg, who transformed the nation‚Äôs perception of Jews; the enigmatic catcher and WWII spy Moe Berg; the fiercely proud all-star third baseman Al Rosen; Sandy Koufax, the greatest left-handed pitcher in the history of baseball and a hero to generations of Jews for not pitching on Yom Kippur; players‚Äô union leader Marvin Miller, who profoundly changed the economics of baseball; and modern-day stars like Shawn Green and Kevin Youkilis, who many fans do not even know are Jews and may be the best evidence of how fully Jews have assimilated into the American mainstream. An articulate and passionate group of interviewees includes former ballplayers Yogi Berra, Ron Blomberg, Bob Feller, Shawn Green, Sandy Koufax (who consented to a rare interview), Elliott Maddox, Al Rosen, Marv Rotblatt, and Kevin Youkilis, as well as executives, writers, and especially fans, including filmmaker Ron Howard, author Roger Kahn, and journalist Larry King. Their stories will be intercut with dramatic and never- before-seen film clips and photos of great Jewish players, unforgettable games, and the broad sweep of American history during the past century. The script is by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Ira Berkow. Academy Award-winner Dustin Hoffman narrates. CAST AND CREW LIST Directed by Original Music PETER MILLER MICHAEL ROTH Produced by Cinematographers WILL HECHTER ANTONIO ROSSI PETER MILLER STEPHEN MCCARTHY ALLEN MOORE Narrated by DUSTIN HOFFMAN Associate Producers CAROLINE BERLER Edited by AMY CAREY LINTON AMY CAREY LINTON ANNE-MARIE SMITH Writer and Chief Creative Co-Executive Producers Consultant LINDA SELIG IRA BERKOW LYNDA WALKER Executive Producer WILL HECHTER Interviews MARTY ABRAMOWITZ MAURY ALLEN ADAM GREENBERG RABBI REBECCA ALPERT MELANIE GREENBERG YOGI BERRA STEVE GREENBERG RON BLOMBERG WENDY GREENBERG CHARLES BRONFMAN RON HOWARD BEN DANNING ROGER KAHN BOB FELLER KEVIN YOUKILIS SANDY KOUFAX MARV ROTBLATT PETER LEVINE BUD SELIG ELLIOTT MADDOX NORM SHERRY MARVIN MILLER STEVE STONE MURRAY OLDERMAN FRED WILPON RABBI MICHAEL PALEY AL ROSEN FILMMAKER BIOS PETER MILLER, DIRECTOR/PRODUCER Previous films include A CLASS APART: A MEXICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS STORY for PBS American Experience, 2009; the critically acclaimed SACCO AND VANZETTI, released nationally in theaters in 2007; and THE INTERNATIONALE, shown on PBS, screened at over thirty film festivals, and short-listed for an Academy Award nomination. He has been a producer on numerous documentaries by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, including the epic PBS series THE WAR and JAZZ, as well as the Peabody Award-winning FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT. Peter has also been a producer on many other acclaimed documentaries, including THE UPRISING OF PASSIN’ IT ON (winner of twenty film festival prizes), and the Academy Award-winning AMERICAN DREAM. PETER MILLER FILMOGRAPHY: Producer/Director, JEWS AND BASEBALL: AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY, 2010 Producer/Director, A CLASS APART: A MEXICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS STORY, produced and directed with Carlos Sandoval, 2009 Producer/Director, SACCO AND VANZETTI, 2007 Co-producer, THE WAR, directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, 2007 Producer/Director, THE INTERNATIONALE, 2002 Co-producer, INTO THE FIRE: AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, Directed by Julia Newman, 2002 Co-producer, JAZZ, directed by Ken Burns, 2001 Producer, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick,1998 Co-producer, THE UPRISING OF '34, directed by George Stoney and Judith Helfand,1995 Producer, PASSIN' IT ON, directed by John Valadez, 1994 Coordinating Producer, AMERICAN DREAM, directed by Barbara Kopple, Academy Award, Best Documentary Feature,1990 WILLIAM HECHTER, PRODUCER/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER A native of Winnipeg, is a lawyer by profession, graduating in 1974 with his Masters of Law from Harvard. He is a member of the Bar Associations of Manitoba, Ontario, Minnesota, and Massachusetts and worked extensively in the area of criminal law as both a prosecutor and defense counsel. As well he taught law as an Assistant Professor at Hamline Law School in St Paul, Minnesota. In 1977, Will founded and published Canadian Lawyer Magazine, the leisure magazine for the Canadian legal profession, reaching over 30,000 persons. Over the years, Will has produced concerts with many accomplished artists including Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, and Neil Diamond. In 1980, Will collaborated with Andy Warhol, and together published the artist's first Canadian work of art: the prima ballerina of the National Ballet, Karen Kain. Currently, Will manages Excalibur Capital Management, an investment firm in Toronto, and is the founder of Clear Lake Historical Productions, a not-for-profit documentary film production company. He is no stranger to film, having run an art house cinema in his hometown of Winnipeg. DUSTIN HOFFMAN, NARRATOR Dustin Hoffman is an American actor who has had a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He first drew critical praise for the 1966 Off-Broadway play EH? for which he won a THEATRE WORLD AWARD and a DRAMA DESK AWARD. This was soon followed by his breakthrough movie role as Benjamin Braddock in THE GRADUATE (1967). Since then Hoffman's career has largely been focused in cinema. Some of his more important films are MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969), LITTLE BIG MAN (1970), PAPILLON (1973), LENNY (1974), ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976), MARATHON MAN (1976), KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979), TOOTSIE (1982), RAIN MAN (1988), HOOK (1991), SLEEPERS (1996), WAG THE DOG (1997), MEET THE FOCKERS (2004), and LAST CHANCE HARVEY (2008). Hoffman has won two ACADEMY AWARDS, six GOLDEN GLOBES, three BAFTAs, three Drama Desk Awards, and an EMMY AWARD. Dustin Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999. AMY CAREY LINTON, EDITOR Amy has edited numerous award-winning filmsincluding Julie Dash's landmark DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST, a Sundance winner which had the honor of being selected for the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 2004. Amy has continued her collaboration with Julie Dash on projects for Showtime and PBS. She has worked on dozens of documentaries, feature films, and music videos in her 25-year career, including GOIN' TO CHICAGO, THE ADVENTURES OF OCIEE NASH, Academy Award nominee BUILDING BOMBS and David Zeiger's P.O.V. film, THE BAND. She first worked with Peter Miller as editor of THE INTERNATIONALE. Amy was editor and producer of SACCO AND VANZETTI. Amy recently completed editing a documentary on the life of Johnny Mercer, produced by Clint Eastwood. IRA BERKOW, WRITER AND CHIEF CREATIVE CONSULTANT Ira Berkow was a sports columnist and feature writer for The New York Times for 26 years, from March of 1981 to his retirement from the paper on February 1, 2007. He shared the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2001 with his article, "The Minority Quarterback," later published in "The Minority Quarterback and Other Lives in Sports," a collection of his feature stories for The Times. Ira's work has appeared in many sports and literary anthologies, and he is the only writer to be represented for five decades in the prestigious annual "Best Sports Stories" and its successor, "Best American Sports Writing." Ira is the author of 18 books, including the 2006 memoir: "Full Swing: Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer's Life," and the best-sellers "Red: A Biography of Red Smith" and "Maxwell Street: Survival in a Bazaar." "The Man Who Robbed the Pierre‚Äù was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best True Crime Book of the Year. His 18th book, "The Corporal was a Pitcher: The Courage of Lou Brissie," was published in 2009 by Triumph Books, a division of Random House. His book for the upcoming musical, "A Chicago Story‚ From Daley to Daley," is scheduled to premiere in Chicago. He has been a guest on such television shows as Face the Nation, Nightline, The Lehrer Report, Charlie Rose, Larry King Live and The Sports Reporters. His magazine articles have appeared in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Art News, Seventeen, Chicago Magazine, The Chicago Tribune Magazine, National Strategic Forum Review, Readers' Digest and Sports Illustrated, among others. In the New York Magazine's "Best of New York" annual, Mr. Berkow was named one of the "treasures" of New York City. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT When I tell people I’ve made a documentary about Jews and baseball, many respond that it must be a very short film. But among the one hundred sixty Jews who have played in the major leagues are some of the most talented and compelling figures in the history of the sport. At its heart, JEWS AND BASEBALL is a film about overcoming stereotypes. The story of a once marginalized people finding their way into the American mainstream offers lessons for a country that continues to grapple with its ideal as a place where talent should overcome prejudice, where we can retain our differences while still being American, where anyone who can hit or pitch or run can be a part of the magic and drama of our national game. The stories we tell - of the improbable Jewish hero Andy Cohen and the titanic slugger Hank Greenberg, of the fiercely proud Al Rosen and the incomparably brilliant Sandy Koufax, of present-day stars like Shawn Green and Kevin Youkilis - embody something much bigger than baseball.