The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

As Hitler was invading Europe, a handsome, young Jewish baseball player was challenging Babe Ruth's home run record. Aviva Kempner's award-winning documentary reveals how Detroit Tiger Hank Greenberg transcended American religious prejudice, shattered stereotypes, and became an American hero. Part social history, part humorous Americana, this compelling and entertaining movie cross-cuts thoughtful and sentimental interviews with family, friends and celebrity fans like Walter Matthau and Alan Dershowitz with rich archival footage from the 1930s and ‘40s. Twelve years in the making, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG delivers thrills and chills, edge-of-your-seat scenes of Hammerin' Hank in action, and the only rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in Yiddish sung by Mandy Patinkin!

Aviva Kempner has studied law and received her J.D. from the Antioch School of Law 1976, received a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan 1971, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, 1969. She has devoted the past twelve years of her life to complete the compelling documentary on the Jewish baseball slugger "Hammerin Hank" Greenberg – a film she wrote, directed, and produced. In the eighties, she co-wrote and produced Partisans of Vilna, a feature-length documentary film on Jewish resistance against the Nazis. Ms. Kempner is a recipient of the 1996 Guggenheim Fellowship for filmmaking. She also consulted on a documentary on Shimon Peres, wrote narration for Promises to Keep – the Academy Award nominated documentary on the homeless, and is currently writing a feature script, No Good Bagels in Israel – a work-in-progress comedy feature. Ms. Kempner writes film criticism and feature articles for numerous publications, including The Boston Globe, Washington Jewish Week and The Washington Post. She also lectures about cinema throughout the country. She is a Board Member of The Babe Ruth Museum, the Anti-Defamation League, and Friends of Hebrew University, to name a few, and she is the founder and past Director of the Washington Jewish Film Festival.