tv QA with Aviva Kempner CSPAN January 18, 2016 6:00am-7:01am EST
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connection to build businesses that in the previous area would've had to migrate to one of the coast wherewith withered on the fine. because of that connection, they are able to thrive. especially in the middle of america. next, avivaoming up kempner on q&a. at 11:30 a.m., a live debate on whether to bar donald trump from entering the united kingdom. ♪ announcer: this week, documentary filmmaker aviva kempner. she discusses her latest film, "rosenwald," about the late american businessman and philanthropist julius rosenwald.
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brian: aviva kempner, why did you do a documentary on julius rosenwald? aviva: i was lucky enough 12 years ago to be at martha's vineyard to attend a lecture that rabbi david saperstein, who is now our ambassador for religion at the state department, was speaking and julian baum. julian baum was my hero. i thought i was going to talk about the civil rights era. but i was very surprised to learn about julius rosenwald. as soon as julian talked about him, a light bulb went off in my head about under known jewish
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heroes. i have to say he was the most under known. brian: who was he? aviva: he was a midwesterner, the son of an immigrant. he was born in springfield, which i think was a lot to do with what he was going to do later. his home was right across the street from abraham lincoln. lincoln had, of course, died before jewish rosenwald was born. but his uncle had told him. lincoln wasacy of in the house. tikkun olam. we should do something in the world. later on, he settled in chicago. he was in the clothing business. his brother-in-law brought him this proposal, sears roebuck, which was having a little bit of financial trouble and maybe we should invest in that. so julius rosenwald did. they made the company the biggest -- it was like the amazon before its time. it was the biggest retailer. everyone could order in.
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he ended up becoming a multimillionaire. he wasn't comfortable with that. when he was young in his marriage, he told his wife, we should save a third and give a third away. he also had rabbi hirsch, who really priest -- who really preached you should do charity. he got involved in chicago. then he read a book of booker t. washington, "up from slavery." this slave narrative was very important. there are a lot of things that had to be changed. jim crowy in the
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south. he also read a book by baldwin who was in the railroad business who said we have a responsibility. so he invited booker t, who was coming to chicago, to a luncheon. they were very similar. with thoughts that we need to do something, very practical man, that we need to make a difference in the world. he invited julius rosenwald. theome to tuskegee, had started from scratch and were asked to be on the board. he came on the train with his family and his rabbi and he was totally enamored. he said, yeah, i need to make a difference. prior to that, he has already been asked by the ymca to give money. he gave the closing grants for ymca's for african-americans because, in the early part of the 20th century, blacks had
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migrated north. african-american coming first to establish themselves and then bringing the family up. he supported tuskegee and got involved in other charities. on his 50th birthday, he decided to give away a lot of money. the slogan was "give while you live." he said to booker t, what do you want? i guess he figured he would get another building on the campus. but booker t said to him, you know, we have college aged kids covered here in alabama. it's really the kids in the elementary schools that are suffering. african-american kids are getting poor education, horrible buildings. it is separate and not equal. he said, ok, let's build six schools in alabama. first, julius rosenwald says, oh
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thesers puts together kit houses. put togther just these. the best thing booker t. washington ever did was say no. i want the communities to build it. the best thing julius rosenwald said was, ok, a third comes from the african-american community, a third from the state, and lo and behold, the states did pitch in, and the third was julius rosenwald. at first, six schools were built. that was amazing. after that, it morphed into 5000 schools all over the south, including maryland. i never realized maryland was a jim crow-- state. and to way to oklahoma texas.
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john lewis is in the film. maya angelou went to a school. it made such a difference for these young african-americans because they had these teachers, beautiful buildings that had light coming in, and the great, great grandfather of valerie jarrett who is the advisor to barack obama, robert taylor designed the schools. it was green architecture. there were such great pride in the schools. maya angelou is great talking about it. of course, it was separate, but it made a big difference. 16-years-old, julius had left
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school but he became this great children. he gave a lot not only to tuskegee but to historical black colleges. in chicago, whenever he went to europe, he got an idea. he takes his family to munich and his kid loves the science museum and he says, ok, i am going to go back to chicago and build a science museum. your producer went as a young child. then he realized, even in the north, when families were coming up during the great migration, the housing was so crowded for african-americans. the conditions were awful. he had seen this apartment complex with commercial buildings along the side and decided to build apartments. of course, they were called the rosenwald. that is actually valerie
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jarrett's grandfather. jesse owens lived in it. anyone who was important would stay there. from housing to education to museum, he was a great philanthropist. brian: i want to run so people can see what it looks like, from your documentary. it came out originally when? aviva: august of this year. it is still going around in one-shot deals in different cities. people are booking it every day we get calls. now i am working on the dvd to come out in the spring. brian: let's look at julius rosenwald from your documentary. >> most people are of the opinion that, because a man has made a fortune, that his opinions on any subject are valuable.
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don't be fooled by believing because a man is rich that he is necessarily smart. there is ample proof to the contrary. brian: what did you learn about him as a person? aviva: it is so interesting. that interview was one of the very few we were able to find. and it comes in about three fourths through the film. one of the nicest thing about him was his -- one of the nicest things was his modesty. he didn't want his name on things. hisough it had really been thatrness and tenacity sears, he really was a modest man. that expression right there hits it on the nail. in contrast to someone running for office today. what it really shows is that, for him, being the silent philanthropist is really the most important.
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it isn't so much getting your name on things, which of courses -- of course is the rule of thumb. it is making a difference of helping people. i found that he lived it in his life as well as in his giving. he also established the rosenwald fund that helped african-american artists. like marion anderson. the great migration series was totally funded by this. bunch wasson, ralph funded. the list goes on and on and on. it is sort of a who's who of black artists and intellectuals. it resonates today in the following way. the national trust for historic preservation realized, after the segregation, they still should've disbanded.
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desegregation, these abandoned.e but they have gone back. at least a hundred schools have been earmarked as landmarks, historical landmarks. clearly, just as they built the schools to begin with, there are historians and community centers and museums. apartments are being restored because were abandoned in chicago. they are beautiful makes use income, apartment buildings and called the rosenwald courts. i read in the paper that there is a great major show in -- great migrations years at moma. the new york times front cover, they talked about all these artists, black artists, and half of who they listed are people in the film. they also funded woody guthrie. the great troubador.
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i think the lasting affect to support education and culture is really his legacy. but he also did something else. it's called stepping down in philanthropy. that you stop. he wanted only to give money away in his lifetime and give it all away. you see atlantic philanthropies doing that now. you've heard about mark zuckerberg? it is wonderful what he and his wife want to do in terms of education. i want to send them the film just as an example of what you can do. again, there is a story in chicago where parents of a school or on a hunger strike. if someone could step in and thosehat school money, parents would get involved to keep it open. he always says, learn from the past to see what you can do in the future.
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and that is what i try to do with all my films. brian: in your film, you have some film of the tuskegee students helping to build took -- build tuskegee. i want to show about 45 seconds and give a comment on this. [some clip] >> booker t. washington insisted that they do this because it would instill a sense of pride. >> there was no mean feat to get this place established. within a city that was very much segregated. >> my grandfather, robert taylor, when he finished m.i.t., became the architect and first teacher of architecture there in tuskegee. >> when we think about one architect being responsible to take a group of untrained craftsman and rally them together and he built our campus of over a thousand acres and 34 buildings.
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brian: back to the fact that they made their own bricks? aviva: that is exactly why i say it was so important when booker t said to julius rosenwald, no, no, we are going to build it. they did everything from scratch. and, if you go to the oaks which is the historical building, the president's building, the most beautiful woodwork, everything. i'm from detroit originally. the first dead city and america. but, it is coming back. if you go to detroit and you talk about these abandoned houses, if we have some philanthropists to give money to rebuild houses and give jobs, we could get a lot of immigrants, who are working undocumented, help them rebuild detroit and given papers. -- and to give them papers. we would cede each white, back
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faster. that: what were the years julius rosenwald -- aviva: by the way, washington carver had the formula, if i remember correctly. brian: what were the years that julius rosenwald lived and when he ran sears roebuck? aviva: at the turn-of-the-century, he bought into sears. he continued on those years. skegee but itt tu is another thing that the film ends with. i am the daughter of a holocaust survivor. i thought, this film ends to -- too early. there is no way i can get world war ii in there.
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the way they got the money to build the field at tuskegee, rosenwald went down and promoted the fact that african-american pilots was something they really had to establish. and it was the rosenwald fund that gave the money. brian: let's talk about you for a moment. you live in washington, d.c. aviva: since 1973. brian: i have the four different documentaries you have done. people that are my age remember the goldbergs. there was a radio show to start. it started in the 1930's. she went to write a commercial
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and then was offered a show. it was something that was so much about family and a very positive figure of the mother. but it had accents. think about it. back in the 1930's and 1940's, everybody had accents. brian: we have some video from "mrs. goldberg." let's watch it. >> say hello with all the letters of the alphabet. >> before martha, before opera, there was gertrude berg, the creator of "the goldbergs." >> gertrude berg in vented the she wrote it. >> you get on the first station and you get on the last station. don't forget, there are local stops in between. >> gertrude berg is the most famous in america that you have never heard of. >> issue is no shrinking violet. no shrinking violet.
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>> she was dubbed the first lady of radio. >> one of the first people i know that write and act. which do you prefer? >> act. brian: how did you get justice ginsburg to talk about this? aviva: another heroine of mine. not only did i interview her. i also have a little cap -- clip from her on yom kippur. i came here to go to law school. thanks to the d.c. bar and me not doing well, i flunked the bar and did very well in law school. so now the world has these four films. but the day i interviewed her, , people said aviva finally made it to the supreme court. i interviewed her but she didn't her way.
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it her way. brian: you are the daughter of a holocaust survivor. aviva: my 501(c)(3) is made chcla. that is my mother's maiden name. she was from poland. she had blonde hair and green eyes. and the reason i say luckily is she looked very much like a non-jew. my grandfather was able to get her and two other young girls, jewish girls, false papers. they made their way to germany and worked in the postwar camp -- the polish war camp pretending they were not jewish. my mother said that she would say prayers. unfortunately, my grandparents, and my aunt did not survive schmitz.
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auschwitz. uncle is a successful man in heart heard. -- in hartford. david chase. he is the one who gave me my first grant. when i did not pass the bar, i needed a reckoning of what i was going to do. and a lot of it has to do with growing up the child of a holocaust survivor. also, my dad's mother had been murdered by the nazis. i decided i had to go make a film "jews fighting not seize." my father came from lithuania. he went to write a story about a brother and sister being reunited. i am technically the first american war baby in germany. there are survivors born earlier than me, but my dad was in the u.s. army. madether wore a parachute into a wedding dress, i was born nine months later in berlin. i am technically the first jewish war baby in germany.
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there are survivors born earlier than me, but my dad was in the u.s. army. i was growing up being obsessed reading noah 18, exodus, anne frank. i think a lot of children survivors think what can i do to show what had happened. i just wrote my distributor saying we have to do a big splash. i was just in berlin where they restored the film. on dcp, which is the what it did new wave of four film. what it did was not so much talk about who fell where, but the moral dilemmas of fighting. you know, when carson was saying, if jews had guns. i mean, we were not a nation. we were subjugated very early. there was no access. as they say in the film, it was
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really a choice. the ones that did survive. it is very important to other children of survivors. documented when these partisans were still alive in the 1980's. it was our u.s. dollars that paid for it, our taxes. it was paid for principally by the national endowment for the humanities. brian: do you have brothers and sisters? aviva: i have one brother and three nieces. brian: here is a clip from the hank greenberg documentary. aviva: i did hank the day i heard he died in -- i heard he died september 4, 1986. the next day, i decided to do the film. i went to meet his daughter after this. brian: let's watch. [video clip] >> i can recall bigoted people in the stands saying, hey, you kike. you're not supposed to be able to play ball. you're just a kike. hank stood proud and tall.
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hank: it's a constant thing. there is always some level in the stands yelling at me. i felt it was the spark to make me do better because i could never fall asleep on the ball field. as soon as you struck out, not only you were a bum but a jewish bum. brian: what was the reaction at that time? aviva: it was my most successful financially. because i think a lot of people like myself, my dad always talked about hank greenberg. i grew up in detroit. my dad is a big baseball fan. which a lot of immigrants have become, not just jewish. mywould call it probably most religious holiday, my dad would talk about hank to my brother and i when young -- on yom kippur.
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so when he died, i thought, i have to do this. -- for my dad. ironically, my dad died when i was 30-years-old. my dad never even saw this movie. i teased that i should put on my grave "she made men cry." a lot of people came out very emotionally. one thing great about my film is three generations, four generations can come. fans of hank greenberg, baseball fans who say this is the golden age of baseball. molly who used to listen. and with rosenwald, people say, listen, this is where i grew up in the apartment buildings in chicago. this is where my grandfather went to school. so i am very proud of that. what is interesting, when i do these films, there are always surprises. i did hank because of what he had done with baseball.
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but i didn't realize he had greeted jackie robinson. the one opposing player. because he had been so unfairly treated. for rosenburg, actors had been blacklisted. not only unfairly taken off the shelf. although she fought for him, he committed suicide. so, that is the tv blacklist or you don't know. with rosenwald, you know about the schools, but i did not know about the fund. so even i go into it thinking it is one story and it morphs into an even greater story. i think these are the kind of role models we need today. i guess part of my instincts are that my family was so devastated by fascism and death that we need to establish role models. i think it is really important to have positive stories. especially today's -- i am in the middle of writing an essay
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on how i think hollywood and especially the blockbusters perpetuate too much glorifying violence and we need simpler, wonderful stories that really celebrate the human experience and more positive role models for kids. week i really worry. -- because i really worry. especially with videogames and people only looking at their iphones in the ear things, are we still talking to each other? are we generating something positive that we can all follow? it concerns me about today. brian: can people buy those first three documentaries? aviva: yes. you can go to hankgreenbergfilm.org. you can go to mollygoldbergfilm.org. we have posters for all three films.
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not partisans. i did not make enough. we have aprons for molly goldberg. we now are making t-shirts for rosenwald that say "rosenwald" on the front and, on the back, "history matters." one thing that people have come up to me time and time again -- i had an older white woman come up to me and said i learn more about african american history watching this film than i ever did in school. i had an african-american professor come to me and said, you know, there are films about the civil rights era. there are films about slavery. but there are no films that span between that. and then a young jewish man came up to me in the first screening and said i know what i am going to do with my life now. i've been inspired. you can't can that you can't even make that up. it's so wonderful to hear those responses. brian: he never put his name on any of the schools? aviva: they started calling them the rosenwald schools.
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but he did not ask for that. and then they started putting -- goes inwhen history circles. not only in the schools, where they had pictures of booker t. washington and abraham lincoln and julius rosenwald. and i have one of my interviewees who grew up in a school that had burned down. grew up going to school. one day he said to his teacher, i want that on the wall. -- brecht went on the wall? -- what went on the wall? and then they would teach about it. it was because the people who are building the schools in tandem with the fund and also the state, the school superintendent said, hey, we want pictures of this man. he is the one who made it possible. brian: in the film, you show where the schools were located. we are going to run a clip from that. those watching need to look closely for the little dots in
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the map. let's watch this. [video clip] ♪ >> julius rosenwald and booker t. washington combined, this plan for building schools, they were engaging in a radical experiment. it's a wonder they were able to experiment. it is a wonder they were able to achieve it but achieve it they did. in the end, 5000 plus schools were built all over the south and thousands of children get an education who otherwise would have had none at all. >> schools left it up until the civil rights era. entire generations of black children who got their first chance at an education in rosenwald school. host: who qualified for a school? guest: it was southern, including maryland, texas, and oklahoma. almost always rural. a couple of exceptions.
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north carolina had the most. people heard about it more and more and would ask about it. brian: what is the total not a money he gave to the schools? aviva: i can tell you how much he gave in his life. $62 million which in today's world's $1 billion. it is funny that you ask that as i decided that i can let you know -- i can let you know in the spring. we will have research by the. -- by the spring. brian: how did somebody qualify for -- who decided who got a scholarship? aviva: first the tuskegee and in the established an office in nashville. it had to go through the rosenwald fund. they would incorporate the help of local school boards.
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the educational boards, superintendents. host: how big were the schools? aviva: often times one room or two. they had sort of a model. an architectural model. in today's world it is not that much. what was important was the land itself. often times the local churches or even people who were adjacent to it would donate the land. brian: on wikipedia there is a bunch of still pictures. see this is one that does not look like it is being used today. alternate kinds. -- all different kinds. aviva: that must've been one of established -- the national trust is just wonderful. i will have something about shiloh on the dvd. as i was saying, not everything
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in the film is what i filled. med. more stories of people that went to schools and what it meant to go to schools and what it means to restore the schools. brian: how much of it is being restored? aviva: right now, 100. i'm hoping from seeing the movie -- i wase being more lucky because steven spielberg foundation gave me money for the film. they got so excited about the schools they even gave more money to restore the schools. home depot was another supporter. brian: anybody use the schools anymore? aviva: now they are museums, senior centers, or community centers. brian: when did they stop funding them? aviva: when desegregation came. brian: 1954?
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aviva: yes. that is the next film. it is really an incredible story of not only philanthropy but really the african-americans who -- the community members, building the schools, maintaining it and now restoring it. a wonderful story of building. brian: you mentioned when you started talking about julius rosenwald, a man named emile hirsch. rabbi hirsch from your documentary. [video clip] >> bistro nurse scholar and rabbi who attract hundreds of without -- >> julius rosenwald found it stimulating. he said hirsch was one of his mentors.
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>> hq had to be reserved for the pew had to be reserved for the press. hirsch was on the board of every professional -- it was hirsch who pointed out the rosenwald the importance of the kind of giving which truly made the lives of people who had so little better. brian: background on the rabbi. aviva: he was born in europe. he went to the university of pennsylvania. i found out he played football. he went into becoming a rabbi. i think he is one of the great unknown rabbis. -- atn see how he was ont time they had services
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sundays because a lot of jewish storeowners have their stores open on saturday. he called out one of his doing reallyho was bad things to his workers and the congregant walked out with his wife. you don't see that kind of leadership coming from religious figures except for maybe like when the pope is calling out global warming and what we have to do. i am glad to be able to talk i thinkm and of course there is a great role. one of the original signers of the naacp. brian: put this into perspective. 1939, after julius rosenwald had been dead for best since 1932. -- since 1932.
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they talk about him. they say in a , we could not understand why the sears roebuck stores at which he made his money were intentionally discourteous to color customers. why, in his enterprises employing 65,000 persons, only a few of them were colored. aviva: several things on that. it might be sense -- people have and said the only job they knew they could get in the summer in chicago was working at sears. i cannot speak to all practices but i know in everything else he did -- i know he also employed women, pretty much equal basis. one thing he said, people that work for me, they work with me. i would have to look more into that. brian: this article goes on to talk about the fact that his
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coworkers did not want -- people that work for him did not want colored, and that is the word workingd back then, with them. he took this money and funded the schools. aviva: i do not think that is a correlation at all. three things that happened. the catalog only showed whites in the catalog but everyone could buy. i had john lewis in my angelo in the film. angelou in the film. sears practices later were known to be open to employing african-americans. brian: this article -- they talk about the fact that richard -- they hadhad erecte a reputation, he was black. this article said sears.
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aviva: it was robot. oebuck. that is supposedly an urban legend. this may sound -- what did you learn about jews in these documentaries you done? clearly you are jewish but what did you learn? aviva: i consider my three films, hank, molly, and rosenwald, to be my american jewish trilogy. involved in popular culture from toeball to television business. i think we brought the kind of principles -- the positive principles of judaism.
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i think all three characters i totally admire. can you imagine going to work every day and being yelled -- he stood up to that and was a role model. later on he could even the tough as a manager. in and doinging the first sitcom, standing up to the blacklist, being a positive jewish mother. i say my films contradict the stereotypes. i grew up with this strapping jewish man as a role model, not rosenwald, i'm sensitive to the fact were they -- there was talk that jews could be stingy businessman. this man was so generous and
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involved with what was happening. i guess all of my films i'm trying to accomplish the counter negativity.o the those are role models for everyone. brian: how did you find the funds for all of this? aviva: there is a line in the end of streetcar named desire when she says, i depend on the kindness of strangers. -- it is a 501(c)(3) .oundation some of the film cost family members were very generous. for some it was different philanthropists in their own right. as well as five dollars contributions made a difference to make the film.
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workingears i have been , and i think at least a third if not half i did not even pay myself. i can now say that this legacy that i was able to show, i would have loved to have been a good immigration lawyer like i was in law school. i can say i'm showing examples of american jewish history or european jewish history, broader history. people should rise to the occasion. brian: it was not too long ago that there was an article about you in the washington post about your house. that you inherited some money from your uncle. tell us about the house. 30va: my dad died when i was and i inherited some money. my brother and i both had little
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inheritances from a father's untimely death. i bought one house and i moved to another neighborhood and made money on the house. my 501(c)(3) in it so no one could kick me out for rising rent. after my mother passed away my uncle bought them a big house and i combined the old house -- combined selling the old house and inheritance with this new house. very close to the avalon theater. i have a masters in urban planning so i love antonio gaudi . i do not think i will have time to make a film on him but i decided to create -- a lot of broken tile put together by wonderful craftsman. -- moved here with my
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parents, very talented. designer, landscaper, who helped housea park like in my and bright colors inside. my mother, through all of the work she went through, she really found she could paint. a wonderful abstract expressionist painter. she took -- maybe that is where i got my affirmation life. a lot of the painting goes with that. i often host book parties or film parties. not only during the day i have my foundation -- my 501(c)(3) team in my house, but i also host a lot of gatherings. something that i learned from my , i think itd also
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.s how i learned either heard from my dad about politics or about art and culture and i am trying to continue the discussion in beautiful surroundings. brian: i saw another article about you and the copyright office. -- you canat describe what happens when you need to go there. a song or something? i have this great copyright lawyer who is also an expert on copyright. the whole thing is to be able to find the listings. you need to organize better copyright. that was the article. one more thing you have not brought up. one thing i always like to say wherever i speak and i consider this speaking. at the end of the last three
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toms they are all dedicated several things. i have lived in the district since 1973. we are being filmed right now by congress. a representative has no vote. we should have two senators. beenast two films have to newspapers. i have been traveling. -- if you reads online you miss something. i do not know how you do it. brian: read newspapers. the making of documentary. can you give us a figure what it costs to put a documentary together? ,viva: because i take so long partisans took seven. hank, 15. rosenwald, 12. wheelsf spinning my
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raising money. about one million per documentary. since my editors and i spend a lot of time weeding and i use a lot of feature footage -- a lot in, i use a lot of feature footage. i have seen from dr. quinn medicine woman and frisco kid, scenes from gentleman's agreement. molly goldberg chose her own shows. often time hollywood gets it right and you have to worry about that. i worry about music but it is also -- i never have deadlines. .aybe to get in the festival it is all about when the film is ready. often times it is trying to find the footage -- the further back
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you go the harder it is to find the footage that fits in with what people are talking. people have told me -- one thing i believe, docs can be as entertaining as feature films. second of all, if it makes people laugh and cry they will remember your movie. brian: i know you are one of the 100 party five documentary ends -- one of the 125 documentarians submitted for the oscars. includencluded did not ros rosenwald. in order to be considered your to be reviewed by the new york times and l.a. times? aviva: we had great reviews and all of them. rosenwald, i make sure i raised -- and alley of them i hired bookers to take the movie as far as i could.
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they would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with television ads or ads to come see the movie. i cannot afford that. brian: why did the oscar group l.a.ll of the focus on the times and new york times to decide what documentaries could be considered? aviva: those are the rules they came up with. those are the two cities were most of the filmmakers live. a lot of us do not live there. for theios are producing entities are there. i did send out a notice last week to people and said, the film did not get shortlisted. i cannot help but be disappointed. to me, those things i listed where people came out and said us is what the film and for me, saying i never knew about him.
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that to me is a hospice. what are the chances you get your money back in this kind of business? aviva: in each city, my 501(c)(3) had to pay for a publicist, a dcp for ads. brian: what is a dcp? aviva: it is so new i do not even remember. --t is great is it is much hank was shot on film. four reels of film. as well as a staff to get the word out to mail everything. we tried to do a lot of outreach especially in the african-american, jewish, religious communities. the schools. we lost money taking it around. to me, it got reviewed and known all over the country.
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i know a lot of universities want it. schools. we will make one that has all these extras. there are certain scenes i did not put in the film like julius rosenwald and the mayor of chicago prevented birth of a nation from being shown in chicago. roosevelt -- rosenwald was frank, the leo jewish owner who ran the pencil accusedhad been wrongly and lynched over a murder, one of the young women who worked in his factory. the stories go on and on. the rosenwald family -- i will have more on that brian:. more fun stories about the film brian:.
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-- more fun stories from the film. brian: this is a clip on julius rosenwald's family. [video clip] >> essentially two sets of children. when the set were born family was still living a comfortable middle-class existence. marion and later william were born. by that time the family had enormous wealth. william and mary and were essentially brought up by governesses who they almost universally detested. >> with a very big heart. up in thery swept social and philanthropic responsibilities that she had. brian: what is your take on the family? aviva: we tried to be honest and say often times when people become very successful sometimes
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they are not as around and have time for their children. there was that split. involved with the suffragette movement. grandchildren are speaking from what they heard their parents say. i will say that these same children that felt their parents -- cookieround -- new talks about orleans was very involved. she followed her father's footsteps. william rosenwald followed very much in his father's footsteps. involved in jewish causes. another daughter was one who purchased half of the jacob
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lawrence collection. another daughter was very involved with schools in chicago . if you go to the library of congress today you will see either the great rare books he donated or the national gallery, some of the greatest prints ever. he ran it out of philadelphia but then someone else was selected over him. for what theble fund goes after her i'm not responsible afterwards. brian: if you are able to interview julius rosenwald, what kinds of things would you ask him? aviva: i asked everyone after i filmed them if you were in the room with the julius rosenwald, what would you say.
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conwell, the main curator at the new african american museum. she says, why were you interested and thanks for doing it. i think i would say, what kept you going? i think the film answers it. i think it is more eating appreciative. i learned so much. but we were showing the film in poetry schoolsad do not have enough storybooks. alwaysected them and i give checks at the end of the year. inspired conceit just from doing the film. i think that happened with a lot of people going out of the movie. brian: what is next? in the theme of jewish
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-- new seven languages and had spied for us. doing my two years in new mexico i had cowritten a script with ben west whose father started the museum of american indians. another one i do not want talk about. a couple other script ideas and book ideas. it's all down to where i can get the money up front. i do not have another 12 years hoping one of these gets supported. i'm already working on my book ideas. brian: the rosenwald documentary
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will be available on dvd. aviva: you can go to rosenwaldfilm.org to find out where it is still showing around the country. you can still order a poster and mid-december. just like the song at the end of the rosenwald says going to build me a school. inventoryuild me an of films. brian: correct way to pronounce your name? aviva: aviva. my father said he wanted a brisk. . obviously he had a girl. he wanted to put a hebrew name on a birth certificate in germany. my mother said my late
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grandmother loved hebrew. i love having the name. brian: thank you very much for joining us. aviva: i am a big fan of c-span. thank you for having me. ♪ >> for free transcript or to give us your comments about this program, visit us at q&a.org. programs are also available at c-span podcasts. >> if you liked this program, here are some others you might like.
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robert gordon and morgan neville on their documentary, best of enemies. the televised debates between william s buckley and corbett all. vidal.e th , the square.ry here on c-span washington journal is next with your calls and a look at this morning's headlines. that is followed by david cameron speaking to members of a parliamentary committee about u.k. foreign policy. at 11:30 we take you live to the u.k. for debate on whether to bar donald trump from entering the country. up, rachael bade on
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hillary clinton's e-mails. later on, daryl kimball on the iran nuclear agreement which was officially implemented over the weekend. ♪ morning, it is monday, january 18. it is martin luther king jr. day across the country. we won't talk about the state of the civil rights movement to along with the latest on this weekend's prison exchange with iran and the iran nuclear deal. later this afternoon, debate over a proposal to ban donald trump up from the united kingdom. input your
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