Aviva Kempner

Aviva Kempner (born December 23 , 1946) is the child of a Holocaust survivor and a US Army officer. A filmmaker, her documentaries investigate non-stereotypical images of Jews in history and focus on the untold stories of Jewish heroes. She is most well-known for The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg. Kempner was born in Berlin, Germany. She moved to Michigan with her parents and attended university there. She has made her home in Washington, DC, where she plays a prominent role in the artist and film community. She started the Washington Jewish Film Festival in 1989. She attended the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, McDowell and Yaddo artist colonies in 2002-2004. She is also an activist for voting rights for the District of Columbia.

Films

Kempner creates her films under the auspices of The Ciesla Foundation. Created in 1981, the Foundation's original task was to promote educational materials on issues relating to the Holocaust and the occurrence of Jewish resistance to it. The Ciesla Foundation has expanded its' mission to, more generally, produce and distribute films to educate the public on social issues of the past and present.

In 1986, Kempner produced and co-wrote Partisans of Vilna, a documentary on Jewish resistance against the Nazis. Additionally, she was the executive producer of the 1989 Grammy-award nominated record, Partisans of Vilna: The Songs of World War II Jewish Resistance.

She is the scriptwriter, director and producer of The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, a film about the Jewish slugger who fought anti-Semitism in the 1930’s and 40’s. It was awarded top honors by the National Society of Film Critics, the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The film received a George Peabody Award and was nominated for an Emmy.

She wrote the narration for Promises to Keep, the Academy Award-nominated documentary on the homeless.

She is currently producing and directing Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, a ninety-minute documentary on Gertrude Berg, one of America’s favorite radio and television personalities. Berg was the creator, principal writer and star of the popular 1930’s radio show and then the 1950’s weekly televised situation comedy, The Goldbergs.

She is also co-writing and producing Casuse, the story of Larry Casuse, a young Native American activist. Growing up in Gallup, New Mexico, he witnessed the rampant alcoholism, racism and poverty imposed upon his Navajo people. Attending the University of New Mexico, Casuse worked hard to organize his fellow students and fight to improve the lives of his tribe. Frustrated by his inability to affect change through the system and influenced by the tumultuous political climate of the early 70’s, Casuse kidnapped the Mayor of Gallup to publicly expose the hypocrisy of the establishment.

Awards

Aviva Kempner is a recipient of the following awards, grants, and fellowships:

*2008 National Endowment for the Arts

*2001 Women of Vision award from D.C.’s Women in Film and Video chapter

*2001 Media Arts award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture

*2000 DC Mayor’s Art Award.

*1996 Guggenheim Fellowship

*1995 Individual Artist Grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts

*1993 NEA Mid-Atlantic Region Media Arts Fellowship

*1992 NEA Mid-Atlantic Region Media Arts Fellowship

*1991 Individual Artist Grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts

*1990 Individual Artist Grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts

*1988 Individual Artist Grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts

*1987 NEA Mid-Atlantic Region Media Arts Fellowship

Additionally, her films have received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and state humanities boards.

Contributions

Kempner writes film criticism and feature articles for numerous publications, including The Boston Globe, The Forward, Washington Jewish Week and The Washington Post. She also lectures about cinema throughout the country. She wrote chapters for the books, "Daughters of Absence", "What Israel Means to Me", and "Jews and American Popular Culture".She has served on the board of CINE, DC VOTE, Forum for the Psychoanalytical Study of Film, District of Columbia Jewish Community Center, and Women in Film and Video. [ [http://www.cieslafoundation.org/ciesla.php#aviva The Ciesla Foundation] ]

Filmography

*Casuse (work in progress)

*Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009)

*Today I Vote for My Joey (2002)

*The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1999)

*Partisans of Vilna (1986)

References and External Links

[http://www.cieslafoundation.org The Ciesla Foundation]
[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0447476/ Aviva Kempner] at the Internet Movie Database
[http://www.mollygoldbergfilm.org/news.php Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg]
[http://www.hankgreenbergfilm.org/ The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg]