Documentary disinterment of a half-forgotten (or more than half), and deservedly remembered, radio and television trailblazer, Gertrude Berg, the writer and star of the approachably ethnic sitcom, The Goldbergs. Her warmth emerges even through the degraded broadcast footage (only the final 1955 season comes through sharp and clear), the degradation somehow underscoring the preciousness. Aviva Kempner, who directed The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg about another Jewish trailblazer, makes rather unscrupulous use of archive clips (Chaplin’s The Immigrants, the Marx Brothers in The Cocoanuts, Jolson in The Jazz Singer, and the like) to get away whenever possible from the talking heads (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Susan Stamberg, Gary David Goldberg, Norman Lear, biographer Glenn Smith, assorted collaborators and descendants). When the chronology runs into the subject of radio, shots of people listening to a radio will illustrate that invention. When the musical theme of the show falls under discussion, a shot of an orchestra will reveal where music comes from. And when a library gets mentioned, there will be shots of libraries for anyone unfamiliar with such institutions. The talking heads dominate, even so. (2009) — Duncan Shepherd
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