Singing in the Dark US Premiere Press Release Jan14
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The Lown Building 102, MS 053 Telephone: (781) 736-8600 National Center Brandeis University Fax: (781) 736-2070 for Waltham Massachusetts Email: [email protected] Jewish Film 02454-9110 www.jewishfilm.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lisa Rivo, NCJF Associate Director 781.736.8600 or [email protected] SINGING IN THE DARK North American Premiere - New 35mm Restoration Rare USA 1956 Holocaust musical drama starring Moishe Oysher New York Jewish Film Festival January 23, Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center WALTHAM, MA (10 Jan 2011) -- The National Center for Jewish Film (NCJF) announces the new 35mm film restoration of Singing in the Dark. NCJF's newly-restored 35mm print will have its North American Premiere on Sunday, January 23, 2011, 1:30 pm at the New York Jewish Film Festival, screening at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, 165 West 65 Street, New York City. Sharon Pucker Rivo, Co-Founder & Executive Director of The National Center for Jewish Film, will present the film. This musical drama stars Moishe Oysher as a concentration camp survivor suffering from traumatic amnesia who becomes a singing sensation. A quirky combination of 1950s movie conventions-the musical, gangster and mystery movie-this virtually unknown independent film is one of the first American features to dramatize the Holocaust. Directed by Max Nosseck, Singing in the Dark stars the popular entertainer Moishe Oysher in his only English language film. Borscht belt comedian Joey Adams co-stars and produced. Academy Award-winning cinematographer Boris Kaufman (On The Waterfront) shot the film on location in New York City and in Berlin. While most of the action takes place in New York, the film includes extremely rare and poignant film material. Kaufman shot amid the remains of the Levetzow Synagogue in Berlin which was badly damaged during WWII and razed shortly after Singing in the Dark was shot. Built in 1914, the Levetzow Synagogue sat 2000 people. On Yom Kippur 1941, the Gestapo converted the synagogue into a collection point for deportations. From there, more than 37,500 Jews living in Berlin were deported to extermination camps. Singing in the Dark will be available for festival and public performance screenings and DVD purchase exclusively through NCJF. DVD screeners, press kit and photos are available. SINGING IN THE DARK - SYNOPSIS Moishe Oysher plays Leo, a German Jewish concentration camp survivor suffering from traumatic amnesia. In America, Leo works as a hotel clerk next door to Luli's Gypsy Paradise, a nightclub where he is befriended by comedian Joey Napoleon (borsht belter Joey Adams). One night the two get tipsy and Leo bursts into song. "Leo the Fabulous" becomes Luli's headliner, although he can only sing when intoxicated. Meanwhile, the love of a good woman and visits to a psychiatrist bring forth memories of his cantor father (Oysher plays his father singing cantorial music in Hebrew). When gangsters looking for Napoleon knock Leo unconscious, his memory finally returns and Oysher is shown singing in the bombed-out ruins of Berlin's Levetzow Synagogue. Page 1 of 2 SINGING IN THE DARK - BACKGROUND This important and little known film is one of the first American features to dramatize the Holocaust and only the second to depict a holocaust survivor (called "refugee" as the film predates the use of the term "survivor") as the main protagonist. The film represents an early attempt to integrate the Holocaust into mainstream popular culture, using American movie conventions of the period and the period's fascination with psychiatry. While "Jews" are not discussed directly, Jewish content is profound and explicit, especially in the popular Yiddish songs (sung in English) and liturgical Hebrew songs. Singing in the Dark stars Moishe Oysher, the enormously popular entertainer and star of the Yiddish film classics The Cantor's Son, Overture to Glory (also directed by Max Nosseck), and The Singing Blacksmith, films previously restored by NCJF. Singing in the Dark, Oysher's last, was his only English-language film. Director Max Nosseck, a lauded German Jewish silent film director who immigrated to the US in the 1930s, helmed more than 30 films in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and the US. Singing in the Dark's producer and co-star Joey Adams, was a Jewish comedian and television personality. Singing in the Dark was shot by Academy Award-winner Boris Kaufman, one of cinema's revered cinematographers. The younger brother of Soviet cinema innovators Mikhail Kaufman and Dziga Vertov, Kaufman shot groundbreaking films for Jean Vigo in Paris in the early 1930s and, later, such American classics as Splendor in the Grass, 12 Angry Men, The Pawnbroker and On The Waterfront, for which he won an Oscar. For Singing in the Dark, Kaufman shot magnificent material on location in post war Berlin and of the remains of Berlin's Levetzow Synagogue, a significant Jewish landmark. The film also includes great footage of New York's Rivington Street Synagogue. SINGING IN THE DARK - FILM CREDITS SINGING IN THE DARK USA, 1956, 86 min, B&W, 35mm 2010 Film Restoration: The National Center for Jewish Film Director: Max Nosseck Director of Photography: Boris Kaufman Executive Producer: Joey Adams Musical Direction: Abraham Ellstein Words and Music: Moishe Oysher Screenplay: Aben Kandel, Ann Hood & Stephen Kandel Starring: Moishe Oysher (Leo), Joey Adams (Joey Napoleon), Phyllis Hill (Ruth), Lawrence Tierney (Biff), Kay Medford (Luli), Mickey Knox (Harry), Dave Starr (Larry), Cindy Heller (Fran), Al Kelly (La Fontaine), Henry Sharpe (Dr. Neumann), Stan Hoffman (Stan), Paul Andor (Refugee), Abe Simon (Thug) THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR JEWISH FILM www.jewishfilm.org The National Center For Jewish Film is a unique, independent nonprofit film archive, distributor, resource center and exhibitor, housing the largest archive collection of Jewish-content film in the world, outside of Israel. NCJF exclusively owns 12,000 reels of feature films, documentaries, shorts, newsreels, home movies and institutional films, dating from 1903 to the present. NCJF's first priority is the preservation and restoration of rare and endangered film materials. To date, NCJF has restored 100 orphan films that document the diversity and vibrancy of Jewish culture, including 41 Yiddish and silent feature films, rescuing these invaluable cultural and artistic artifacts from oblivion. NCJF is also a major distributor of films with Jewish content. In all, more than 300 restored classics and contemporary independent feature films and documentaries are available for public exhibition and DVD purchase. In the scope of its collections and the range of its activities, NCJF is the only organization of its kind and provides programming consultation and research assistance to 5000 filmmakers, educators & curators annually. Page 2 of 2 .