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At Home in Utopia

A colorful, learned documentary

By GERALD PEARY | June 4, 2008

3.5 Stars

At Home in Utopia

Local filmmaker Michal Goldman, who founded the Boston Jewish Film Festival, has toiled for many years on this excellent, learned documentary about New York City’s historic United Workers Cooperative Colony. Left-wing Jews in the 1930s, mostly from the garment industry, bought up apartment buildings in the Bronx where they might live out their egalitarian Communist dreams. Through superb interviews with colorful, articulate ex-Coop members, Goldman gives a vivid, breathing history lesson of a time when many American Jews defined themselves by their radical politics (as opposed to, in the future, by standing strong for Israel). One issue she never addresses: did any of the Coop Jews she met find a need in their lives for shul? 57 minutes | MFA June 12 + 15 + 19; JULY 3 + 6

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