22 short films world premiere

I brought copies of the 22 short films to my cousin's bar mitzvah for a few relatives who'd seen the stills here and on Facebook and expressed interest in it. At the event, the rabbi conscripted me to play violin (no violin-playing Jew is safe in such a situation, even if he leaves his instrument back in New York, as I had - invariably there's a spare), and when I told him about the film he offered me the use of a projector. Thus did the 22 short films - actually the first six, based on the 1941-1950 footage - have their world premiere in White Plains, NY, at the reception after the bar mitzvah. Let's all give it up for Reform Judaism, for letting me run a DVD player on Shabbos. And let's give it up for Mom, who narrated the film and identified cast members in absence of a credits sequence.

 

Mom - star and narrator of 22 short films

I enjoy bar mitzvahs because they are attended by my family. Tolstoy wrote that all happy families are alike, but is that really true? Take my Great-Aunt Sylvia - 91 next month - who said to me within ten minutes of our reunion, "I wish you were as successful as your Cousin Michael in Columbus." I think the joy that stirs in me is fairly personal, if not unique - it may even be perverse. But maybe Tolstoy would give me an argument.

Great-Aunt Sylvia and Mom, 2011

Great-Aunt Sylvia and Mom, 1941

Sylvia with her grandson, my Cousin Ian

The bar mitzvah itself was the most beautiful and moving I've ever attended. My cousin Gabe has a developmental disability and the last thirteen years have presented him and his parents with a fairly continuous series of challenges in terms of his education and therapy. The bar mitzvah showed equally what his challenges are, and how determinedly and successfully he's met them with his family's help. When he finished his chanting and his speech, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Gabe before the service

Gabe after the service - all grown up

Be sure to tune in next week, when we celebrate the 74th birthday of Philip Glass with the blog's inaugural video, and an unpublished interview I did with the composer in 1993.