A video clips/lecture by Eve Sicular

Despite the taboo surrounding homosexuality, the topic was too intriguing to be left entirely out of the Yiddish picture. An exploration of lesbian & gay subtext in Yiddish cinema during its heyday, from the 1920's to the outbreak of World War II, reveals distinctly Jewish concerns of the time intertwined with a striking array of allusions to this highly-charged subject. From musical comedies such as YIDL MITN FIDL (Yidl With His Fiddle) and AMERIKANER SHADKHN (American Matchmaker) to classic dramas DER DIBUK (The Dybbuk) and DER VILNER SHTOT-KHAZN (Overture To Glory), queerness reached the screen in various guises, emerging as an alternate take on themes of conflicted identity, passing and same-sex attachments. Discussion of these and other gems of the Yiddish screen, as well as such features as RADIO DAYS, COLONEL REDL, CROSSFIRE, and GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT, will be accompanied by clips from selected films and period home movies.

Filmmaker/historian Eve Sicular has lectured throughout North America and Europe on Yiddish and Soviet cinema. A former curator of Film & Photography Archives at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, she has also worked for the Department of Film at New York's Museum of Modern Art on the series "Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds". She received a magna cum laude from Harvard-Radcliffe College for her thesis on the compilation film work of early Soviet documentary pioneer Esther Shub.

She has published numerous articles and anthology essays on the subject of queer subtext in Yiddish cinema, as well as lecturing on this topic at film festivals, scholarly conferences, media centers and universities across North America and Europe. Her 1994 study A YINGL MIT A YINGL HOT EPES A TAM: The Celluloid Closet of Yiddish Film, published in The Jewish Folklore & Ethnology Review, applies THE CELLULOID CLOSET author Vito Russo's research on homosexuality in the movies to examples found in Yiddish culture. In "Gender Rebellion in Yiddish Film" for Lilith magazine (1995), she examines the crossdressing careers of Molly Picon and other performers. In 1996, her "Outing the Archives" piece appeared in Davka magazine's special sexuality issue while "Found Footage, Hidden Meanings: On Queer Subtext, Yiddish Films & Subcultural Recycling" was published Toronto's Mix arts journal. Revised versions of these articles have appeared as two essays in the British anthology When Joseph Met Molly: A Reader on Yiddish Film (1999, Five Leaves Publications, Nottingham). She has also contributed a new essay to the Lambda Literary Award-nominated Queer Jews anthology (Routledge Press, 2002) describing her experiences spanning Jewish and queer cultural worlds as both a film scholar and klezmer bandleader.

In addition to her work as a film historian, Ms Sicular is drummer/leader of both Metropolitan Klezmer and the all-female Isle of Klezbos sextet, and has produced their award-winning CDs, Traveling Show, Surprising Finds, Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos, Yiddish for Travelers, and Mosaic Persuasion. The bands have appeared in broadcasts on Showtime's "The L Word," CNN "Worldbeat," PBS "In The Life," and the German network ARD's "Rhythms of New York," as well as on radio stations worldwide and at concert halls, nightclubs, college campuses and music festivals since 1994.

Her latest musical project, "J. Edgar Klezmer: Songs From My Grandmother's FBI Files," is a work-in-progress based on surveillance documents on Dr. Adele [Grandma] Sicular obtained through a Freedom of Information Act filing. This new work, for which she received a 2008 Manhattan Community Arts Fund grant from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, will debut at Dixon Place.

On "The Celluloid Closet of Yiddish Film":

"Eve Sicular's presentation is a well-researched and entertaining inquiry into the relation between ethnic identity and sexual identity. It is a great contribution to both cultural studies and cinema studies, in the finest tradition of Vito Russo's school of film appreciation."
- Gregg Bordowitz, Director: FAST TRIP, LONG DROP

"Eve Sicular's Opus, the Yiddish Celluloid Closet, is a rainbow quilt of all these discrete, but connected Jewish identities. Eve's talk, and the musical accompaniment mirrors, in microcosm, all the ways in which the celluloid closet has changed. It's not a closet anymore- it's a stage, a platform. A platform for LGBTQ identity to be explored and celebrated.

The JCC held the first ever Faigele Film Festival last June, and the Yiddish Celluloid Closet was our grand finale. We were honored and thrilled to end our festival with such a special, dynamic evening which skillfully outlines perhaps the earliest winkings at the Queer-Jewish genre. The day the festival ended, I read that "in a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of a frightened and hopeful humanity." The JCC was excited that Yiddish was the language of our Faigele Film Festival's final event. And the very brilliant Eve Sicular was a wonderful translator."
- Sarah Kay Director of Community Programs (JCC Works & LGBTQ) The JCC in Manhattan

Double Identity
Eve Sicular explores the gay/lesbian subtext of some Yiddish films.
- George Robinson, Special To The Jewish Week

"Thanks again so much for a great presentation last night! It was a pleasure to work with you and a pleasure to get to hear/see your presentation!"
- Marya Slater, The Village Temple, NYC

"On behalf of Kulanu at Congregation B'nai Israel, we are most grateful for sharing this enjoyable and fascinating presentation with us."
-Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz, Bridgeport CT

"The delightfully rambunctious local klezmer octet inventively mixes Yiddish media at a show titled 'Music From the Celluloid Yiddish Closet: Outing the Archives,' which combines film clips such as the 1937 Polish hit Der Dybuk and Edgar G. Ulmer's C-movie classic, Americaner Shadkhn [American Matchmaker]."
- Richard Gehr, Village Voice

"Eve Sicular's imaginative decoding and highlighting of lesbian and gay elements demonstrate how Yiddish films can be viewed simultaneously through the eyes of the original audience and through the eyes of our own generation. With sharp analysis and wit, she evokes a Yiddish past more complex, more realistic, more freylekh than I've ever seen it. A provocative presentation."
- Irena Klepfisz, author of A Few Words in the Mother Tongue To read the full article on Metropolitan Klezmer's debut show at Galapagos with live band plus Yiddish Celluloid Closet film clips, click here!

Eve Sicular is quoted in a piece on "Queer Yiddishkeit" from The Forward newspaper, which mentions the Yiddish Celluloid Closet project in its summary; the Molly Picon drag references are slightly misconstrued: Click Here: Check out "And the Award Goes to... Queer Yiddishkeit - Forward.com"

VENUES & ANTHOLOGY PUBLICATIONS, 1994 TO PRESENT
The Celluloid Closet of Yiddish Film:
A video-clips lecture presentation by Eve Sicular

1994

• San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Festival (Frameline)
• Los Angeles International Gay and Lesbian Film & Video Festival
• The Association for Jewish Studies Conference (Boston: Queer Studies Panel)
  
  

1995

• The New Festival (New York City: Lesbian and Gay Film/Video Festival)
• The 14th International Conference of Gay and Lesbian Jews (NYC)
• Washington DC International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (One In Ten)
• Di Froyen: Women & Yiddish Conference (Jewish Theological Seminary, NYC)
• Living Traditions Yiddish Folk Arts Program (KlezCamp)
  
  

1996

• London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (National Film Theatre, England)
• Video In Studios (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
• Northwest International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (Olympia, WA)
• Nine-One-One Media Arts Center (Seattle)
• University of Oregon (Eugene, OR)
• Mame-loshn Yiddish Culture Program, Workmen's Circle (Arbeter Ring)
• Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival / Gershman YM-YWHA
• Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies/ Gerber-Hart Cultural Center (Chicago)
• Hamburg Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (Lesbisch-Schwule Filmtage Hamburg)
  
  

1997

• Columbia University Seminar on Homosexualities (NYC)
• Inside/Out Lesbian & Gay Film Festival of Toronto
• Lower East Side Tenement Museum (NYC)
  
  

1998

• PBS public television magazine,"In The Life": program segment about lesbian & gay Yiddishists
  
  

1999

• Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (NYC) Lehrhaus Yiddish culture conference
  
• Anthology publication (including two chapters by Eve Sicular), When Joseph Met Molly: A Yiddish Film Reader [Five Leaves Press, Nottingham, U.K.]
  
• Northwest Film Study Center/Portland Art Museum, The Guild Theater (Portland, OR)
  
  

2001 - 2002

• Queer Jews anthology published by Routledge Press includes "Outing the Archives: From the Celluloid Closet to the Isle of Klezbos"
  
• Temple Micah presentation, Washington DC
  
• Panel discussions on Queer Jews anthology; Congregation Rodoph Sholom, NYC
  
• Smith College, Northampton MA
  

2003

• National Yiddish Book Center's JEWISH STORIES ON THE SILVER SCREEN conference, Amherst MA
  

2004

• Ithaca College - Sponsored by Hillel of Ithaca College, the Diversity Awareness Committee, and the LGBT Alliance
  
• Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY
  

2005

• Makor NYC
  Yiddish cinema as you've never seen it, plus Metropolitan Klezmer's loving and live reinterpretations of movie music from the vintage soundtracks, from tango to tragic lullaby to tenement wedding dance. Drummer/leader Eve Sicular has toured her "Yiddish Celluloid Closet" film-clips lecture throughout North America and Europe. Now her eight-piece band joins the show for a multimedia retro treat in a fully 21st century approach to the archives. Screen excerpts and lush new arrangements include classics and lesser-known gems from The Dybbuk, Mamele, Uncle Moses, and many more, including rarities such as newsreel from the Moscow Soviet Yiddish Theater.
  
  
• JCC in Manhattan
  
• Yiddish film clips/commentary plus live band arrangements of soundtrack music performed by Metropolitan Klezmer, Galapagos Art Space; Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY
  

2006

• Tuesday, June 6th
  Yiddish Celluloid Closet show at the JCC in Manhattan (W 76th St & Amsterdam NYC)
  Feygele Film Festival
• Wednesday, October 11th (National Coming Out Day!)
  The Celluloid Closet of Yiddish Film
  at The Village Temple, 33 East 12th St, NYC.
  Eve Sicular presents her multi-media film clips/lecture at 7:00pm.
  Info: 212-674-2340 or www.villagetemple.org or email: info@villagetemple.org
• Seattle Queer Film Festival
  Sunday, October 22nd at 2pm
  in the Seattle Public Library's Microsoft Auditorium Central Library branch, 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle WA - free! sponsored by the Three Dollar Bill Cinema
  Seattle Queer Film Festival

2007

• Eve Sicular's Yiddish Celluloid Closet research is also a key topic in Jeffrey Shandler's new article
  "Queer Yiddishkeit: Practice and Theory"
  Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies - Volume 25, Number 1, Fall 2006, pp. 90-113
  Purdue University Press
• Congregation B'nai Israel, Bridgeport, CT
• Friday morning, July 6th at the World Fellowship Center in the lovely New Hampshire lake district. This clips-lecture will be part of the Jewish History & Culture programs, July 5th-8th (right after the Alternative 4th of July speakers). http://worldfellowship.org/pages/prog2007.html

2008

• Monday, January 28, 2008
  7:30pm -- Wesleyan University
  Middletown, CT
  http://wesleyan.edu
  
  
• Sunday, March 23, 2008
  Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival
  2pm -- Live clips/lecture presented at The National Yiddish Book Center
  Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building
  1021 West Street
  Amherst MA
  on the campus of Hampshire College
  Info: 413-256-4900
  http://bikher.org
  http://pvjff.org
  
  
  
• May 6th, 9:30 to 10:45 a.m.
  City College, NYC
  Sponsored by the Simon Rifkind Center for Jewish Studies
  
  
• Friday, September 19
  Music in Yiddish Film video clips/lecture
  JASA at the Riverdale Y
  10:30am
  To register, 718-548-8200 ext. 200 or 235
  lecture: $5
  Info:www.riverdaley.org

  Eve Sicular's lecture will reveal the fascinating power of music in vintage Yiddish soundtracks, from tango to tragic lullaby and beyond. The repertoire includes the tenement wedding scene from Maurice Schwartz's "Uncle Moses," the cabaret tango from "American Matchmaker," the rabbi's court from "The Dybbuk," as well as melodies from newsreels of the Moscow Yiddish Theater and swinging tunes from Molly Picon's Polish films. Sicular discusses the interchange between Yiddish and mainstream in popular culture.

2008

• Wednesday, March 11
  City College, NYC
  2pm to 3:15pm
  Sponsored by the Simon Rifkind Center for Jewish Studies
• July 6 & 7 (two parts)
  Circle Lodge - Workmen's Circle / Sylvan Lake
  Klezmer Women's Summit week, Hopewell Jct NY

2009

• Monday, November 16
  Workmen's Circle / Arbeter Ring
  6:30pm - 8pm
  45 East 33rd St, NYC
  $5 students/members and $8 non members
  For more information:
  Call 212.889.6800 x 319
  Email: ShelleyB@circle.org
  Online Registration
  
  Facebook event page
  
  
• Tuesday, November 17
  Poughkeepsie NY
  11:45am
  Eve Sicular presents "Music from Yiddish Celluloid" video clips/talk for Hadassah's Gloria Schlossberg Lecture for the Henrietta Szold Luncheon at Christo's on McCann Golf Course

  Couvert for the cost of the meal: $30
  Reservations are essential before Wednesday, November 4 Please make checks payable to Haddssah and mail to:
  Mrs. Lisa Kerchman
  6 Flower Hill Road
  Poughkeepsie NY 12603
  For more info, please call 845-462-6426

2010

• February 16, 2010
  Adelphi University, Long Island: Rob Linne's "Immigrant Experience in Fiction & Film" graduate seminar.
  
  
• March 24, 2010
  City College: Rifkind Center, NYC
  
  
• April 7, 2010
  Smith College, Northampton MA
  
  
• Wednesday, April 28
  7:30pm
  Chase Hall
  Haverford College
  370 Lancaster Avenue • Haverford, PA 19041 • 610-896-1000
  haverford.edu
  
  
  
• Friday, May 7, 2010
  Music from Yiddish Celluloid
  92nd Street Y (NYC)
  2pm - 3pm in Warburg Lounge