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Producer – Michal Goldman
Co–producer – Ellen Brodsky
In Distribution, 2008

The Story

A home of one’s own: that’s the American dream. But what happens when the dreamers are immigrants, factory workers, and Communists?

In the mid-1920s, thousands of Jewish immigrant garment workers managed to catapult themselves out of urban slums and ghettos by pooling their resources and building four cooperatively owned and run apartment complexes in the Bronx. They believed that owning one’s home went a long way toward controlling one’s fate.

At Home in Utopia focuses on the United Workers Cooperative Colony – aka the Coops – the most grass-roots and member-driven of the Jewish labor housing cooperatives, where many of the residents were Communists or sympathetic to the communist movement. Beginning as a stalwartly secular East European Jewish working class enclave, they were part of an international movement the power of which blows minds today.

In the 1930s they opted to bring their passion for racial justice home, by racially integrating their own cooperative house, with unexpected consequences. An epic tale of the struggle for equity and justice across two generations, the film tracks the rise and fall of one community from the 1920s into the 1950s, paying close attention to the passions that bound them together and those that tore them apart. Along the way, At Home in Utopia bears witness to lives lived with courage across the barriers of race, nation, language, convention, and sometimes even common sense.

Key credits
Producer/writer/editor: Michal Goldman
Co-Producer: Ellen Brodsky
Story consultant: Andrew Hazelton
Narrator: Linda Lavin
Director of Photography: Boyd Estus
Original Music: John Kusiak
Consulting Editor: Peter Rhodes

At Home in Utopia is a co-production of ITVS and Michal Goldman, made in association with WGBH. The production received funding from the Puffin Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Humanities, Righteous Persons Foundation, Littauer Foundation, LEF Moving Image Fund, Klarman Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Sonya Staff Foundation, National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Driehaus Foundation, along with other foundations and individuals.

Press
New York Times
In These Times
Bob Edwards Podcast – 2009-05-01

Past Screenings

Portland, Maine
Maine Jewish Film Festival
Screenings on April 1 & April 3, 2008
Panel discussion on April 4
The festival this year is exploring the Jewish Labor Experience.
See www.mjff.org for details.

Amherst, MA
Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival
Screening at 4:30 PM, April 6, 2008 at the Yiddish Book Center.
See www.pvjff.org for details.

Detroit, MI
Labor Notes April 2008 Conference
The conference runs from April 11-13; screening time TBA.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Rebuilding Labor’s Power.”
See www.labornotes.org for details.

Toronto, Ontario
Toronto Jewish Film Festival
May, 2008
See www.tjff.ca for details.

Boston, MA
Boston Jewish Film Festival’s Encore series
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 2008
June 12, Thursday at 8:00 pm with The Yiddish Community Chorus of the Workmen’s Circle
June 15, Sunday at 2:15 with Matt Thall, Housing and Community Activist
June 19, Thursday at 1:00 pm with Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Psychiatrist, Media Consultant, Author
June 22, Sunday at 12:20 with Author Vivian Gornick
July 3, Thursday at 6:30pm with Jeff Crosby, President, IUE-CWA Local 201
July 6, Sunday at 2:15 pm

New Orleans, LA
U.S. Federation of Workers Co-ops
Thursday, June 19, 2008
for conference attendees only

Truro, MA
Provincetown Film Festival
Friday, June 20 at 7 pm, 2008
See www.ptownfilmfest.org for details.

Martha’s Vineyard, MA
Martha’s Vineyard Jewish Film Festival
Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 7:30 pm
See www.bjff.org for details.

Palo Alto and Berkeley, CA
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
July 28, 2008 and August 3, 2008
see www.sfjff.org for details.

Haiffa Film Festival, Israel
October, 2008
see www.haifaff.co.il for details.

Utopia Film Festival
Greenbelt, MD
October 24 and 25th, 2008
see www.utopiafilmfestival.org for details.

Woods Hole Film Festival
Woods Hole, MA
November, 2008
see www.woodsholefilmfestival.org for details.

Washington Jewish Film Festival
Washington D.C.
December 11, 2008
see www.wjff.org for details.

New York Jewish Film Festival
New York City, NY
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
1:30pm and 6:15pm
see www.thejewishmuseum.org for details.
NY Premiere at The New York Jewish Film Festival, presented by The Jewish Museum and Film Society of Lincoln Center

Copenhagen Jewish Film Festival
Copenhagen, Denmark
January 15-18, 2009
see www.cjff for details.

Tucson Jewish Film Festival
Tucson, Arizona
January 16, 2009
see www.tucsonjewishfilmfestival.org for details.

Miami Jewish Film Festival
Miami, FL
Thursday, January 28th, 2009
6:00pm
see http://caje-miami.org/mjff for details.

San Diego Jewish Film Festival
Feb 8th, 2009
see http://sdcjc.lfjcc.org for details.

Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival
March 8th, 2009
see www.sabesjcc.org for details.

Westchester Jewish Film Festival
March 21 and 23, 2009
see www.burnsfilmcenter.org for details.

New Jersey Jewish Film Festival
West Orange, NJ
March 25th and 29th, 2009
12:30pm
see www.njjff.org for details.

The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival
Philadelphia, PA
Monday, April 6th, 2009
7:00 pm
see www.pjff.org for details.

L.A. Jewish Film Festival
Los Angeles, CA
Monday, April 27th, 2009
6:30 pm
see www.LAJFilmFest.org for details.

Seattle Jewish Film Festival
April 27, 2009
see www.seattlejewishfilmfestival.org for details.

Detroit Jewish Film Festival
May 4, 2009
see www.djff.org for details.

Westbeth Home to the Arts
New York, NY
June 13, 7:00pm
see http://westbeth.org for details.

St. Louis Jewish Film Festival
St. Louis, MO
June 15, 2009
5:30pm
see http://www.jccstl.com/content/177/jewish_film_festival.aspx for details.

New Haven Public Library
New Haven, CT
133 Elm St.
July, 2, 2009
6:00pm
see http://www.g-h-c.org/ for details.

Roc Summer Institute
Boston Public Library/Connolly Branch
433 Centre Street
Jamaica Plain, 02130
Thursday, July 16
6:30pm

Brecht Forum
New York, NY
Screening on September 2
7:30
Panel discussion to follow
see Brechtforum.org for details.

Lawrence, MA
Lawrence Community Works
Saturday, October 3, 4:00pm
See http://www.lcworks.org/Calendar-of–Events.aspx for details.
To be followed by a panel discussion with Filmmaker Michal Goldman and others.

New York, NY
King Juan Carlos center at NYU
Presented by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives
see http://www.alba-valb.org/news-events for details
Wednesday, October 7, 6:30pm
Filmmaker Michal Goldman will be in attendance.

Washington, DC
Washington DCJCC Screening Room and the DC Labor Film Fest
Wednesday, October 14, 7:30pm
See http://thejdc.convio.net/site/Calendar/847229824?view=Detail&id=116601 for details

Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Jewish Film Festival
Monday, October 19, 7:30pm
See http://www.clevejcc.org/FilmFest.asp for details.

Brookline, MA
Brookline Library
Tuesday, October 20, 6:00pm
See http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/bigmonth.cfm?curOrg=brookline
for details.
Filmmaker Michal Goldman and co-producer Ellen Brodsky will be in attendance.

Dobbs Ferry, NY
Greenburgh Hebrew Center
Wednesday, October 21, 7:30pm
See http://www.g-h-c.org/index.php?src=events&srctype=detail&category=Film&refno=592 for details.

Morgantown, WV
West Virgina University – Pi Lambda Phi
Wednesday, October 21, 8:00pm
See http://calendar.wvu.edu/index.php?eventid=70823&month=Sep2009 for details
Filmmaker Michal Goldman and co-producer Ellen Brodsky will be in attendance

Bronx, NY
New York Public Library – Allerton Branch
Saturday, November 7, 2:00pm
See http://www.nypl.org/calendar/index.cfm?timespan=single&d=d20091107&series=All_Series&aid=All_Audiences&cid=All_Types&lid=All_Locations for details.
Filmmaker Michal Goldman and co-producer Ellen Brodsky will be in attendance.

Nashville, TN
Nashville Jewish Film Festival
Thursday, November 12, 4:30 pm
see http://www.templenashville.org/_njff/detail.php?id=69 for details

Lowell, MA
Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center
Tuesday, November, 19, 6:30 pm
See http://www.lowell.com/eventlistings/1258673400-26076-At+Home+in+Utopia+.html for details.
To be followed by a panel discussion with Filmmaker Michal Goldman and others.

Belmont, MA
Beth El Temple Center
Saturday, January 23, 2010 6:30 p.m.
See http://www.betheltemplecenter.org/component/content/article/23-adult-education/58-movie-night for details.
To be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Michal Goldman.

Radio Show
WVOX Z Travel and Leisure Show
February 8, 2010 8:00 p.m.
Listen online at: http://ztravelandleisure.com/listen_to_the_show_online!.html

Athens, GA
Athens Jewish Film Festival
February 21, 2010 2:45 p.m.
See http://athensjff.org/athomeinutopiaspecifics.aspx for details.
To be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Michal Goldman.