Isn't This a Time!

On November 29, 2003, thousands of people descended on New York’s Carnegie Hall for a Thanksgiving weekend concert billed as "Arlo Guthrie in concert with special guests in a tribute to Harold Leventhal." For the past half century, Leventhal managed the leading icons of folk music. His pivotal role is evidenced by the artists performing, including Pete Seeger, the Weavers (with the Bay Area’s own Ronnie Gilbert), Theodore Bikel, Leon Bibb and Peter, Paul and Mary. The event sold out before advertising ever hit the press. Isn’t This a Time! vividly captures the magnitude of this historic moment with the intimate feel of a family reunion. Between songs that have helped define contemporary American culture and testaments of the musicians, Leventhal appears front and center, expressing the vision that motivated him and the artists he represented. The child of Orthodox Jewish immigrant parents, Leventhal grew up impoverished during the Depression, partly on the Lower East Side. Like many Yiddish-speaking Jews of his generation, he was brought up on the promise of American democracy and developed a passionate commitment to the pursuit of social justice, expressed in the political activism of the American Left. Finding kindred spirits in Pete Seeger, the Weavers and Woody Guthrie, he built an audience hungry for music that reflected progressive, universalist social values--an audience that he nurtured during the most repressive years of the Cold War and Blacklist. During this time, Leventhal also presented Theodore Bikel, who introduced Yiddish and other international folk songs to a mass American audience. When Leventhal’s mother heard Bikel, she understood the importance of what her son was doing. See this film, and you will too. -Ellie Shapiro, Jewish Music Festival

Three-time Emmy-award winning producer/director Jim Brown is responsible for some of the most popular and critically acclaimed programs on American music in the last three decades. These include: "The Weavers: Wasn’t That A Time!" (Emmy Award and numerous international awards, theatrical release by United Artists and televised in 16 countries); "A vision Shared: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly" (Emmy and Ace Award nomination, produced for Showtime, televised in over 12 countries); "American Roots Music" (a 4-part series for PBS, as well as a DVD, CD box set and book tracing the development of uniquely American music genres- including blues, gospel, country, bluegrass, Cajun, zydeco, tejano and Native American- during the 20th century, nominated for two Emmy Awards; First Place Music Documentary, US International Film and Video Festival; Best Historical Recording, Association for Independent Music); "Peter, Paul and Mary, Carry it on: A Musical Legacy" (a musical portrait of the 43-year history of the group and a record-breaking fundraising special for PBS as well as a DVD release by Warner Brothers); "Three Pickers with Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs and special guest Alison Krauss" (broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances and resulted in a best-selling bluegrass CD and DVD on Rounder Records, nominated for two Grammy Awards). His films also include "In The Hank Williams Tradition" (co-produced by The Country Music Foundation) for PBS; "Woody Guthrie: Hard Travelin’" (Emmy nomination) for PBS; "An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends for PBS" (First Place International Film and Video Festival); "In The Spotlight: Mary Chapin Carpenter" for PBS; "Child of Mine: Songs for Our Children" (Ace Award for Best Music Special) for the Disney Channel; "Pete Seeger Family Concert" (Parent’s Choice Classic Award) for PBS; "Songs of the Civil War" (co-produced with Ken Burns for PBS; "We Shall Overcome" (Emmy Award) for PBS; "Musical Passage" (Blue Ribbon American Film Festival), theatrical release by Films Inc., televised on PBS and ABC; and "American Guitar Heroes" (in association with Alligator Records), The Playboy Channel. Brown has produced and directed projects for Columbia Records, Sony Music, Polygram, Island Records and Palm Pictures. He has also done Emmy Award-winning work for Sesame Street where he produced segments on cultural diversity for children. As a teenager, Brown was influenced by the late Lee Hays and Pete Seeger, and he has frequently collaborated with Harold Leventhal, a leading impresario and the focus of Brown’s latest feature documentary "Isn’t This a Time." In the early 80s, he worked with Alan Lomax, filming folk music across the United States for the American Patchwork series. Jim Brown is an Associate professor at New York University’s Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at Tisch School of the Arts. He is currently at work on a biography of Pete Seeger for theatrical release as well as a feature documentary on the life of Harry Belafonte.