The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
Features  |  Reviews
Best2012Vote-1000x50

At Home in Utopia

A colorful, learned documentary
By GERALD PEARY  |  June 4, 2008
3.5 3.5 Stars
inside_UTOPIA_Coopfolks.jpg
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
Related: Before the Rains, Up the Yangtze, Pit bulls, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Movies
| More

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/18 ]   "Boston Facial Hair Fiasco!"  @ Church of Boston
[ 02/18 ]   Cuffs + Woollen Kits + Headband  @ Plough & Stars
[ 02/18 ]   The Ducky Boys + Hudson Falcons + Energy  @ Great Scott
ARTICLES BY GERALD PEARY
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: THE OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS 2012: ANIMATED  |  February 08, 2012
    One film stands out among the Animated Shorts, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby's Wild Life .
  •   REVIEW: THE OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS 2012: LIVE ACTION  |  February 07, 2012
    The Oscar nominees for Live Action Shorts come down to five conventional narratives.
  •   REVIEW: ALBERT NOBBS  |  January 26, 2012
    Lesbianism doesn't exist as a cogent category in 19th century Ireland, which could explain why Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close), a woman disguised for years as a man and employed as a Dublin waiter, has no personal understanding of who she is, her identity, or what she feels.
  •   REVIEW: SILENT SOULS  |  January 17, 2012
    This is probably the only film we'll encounter about the Merja culture of West Central Russia, a Finno-Ugric tribe in which even the most modernized people pay allegiance to ancient customs.
  •   REVIEW: HELL AND BACK AGAIN  |  January 05, 2012
    Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Hell and Back Again offers a potent documentary correlative to the narrative of The Hurt Locker .

 See all articles by: GERALD PEARY

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed