Our fall film series concludes with From Darkness to Light on Monday, December 1, at 6:00 p.m. ET. Join us for an in-person screening at 617 Kent Hall, introduced by IIJS Film Programmer Stuart Weinstock and followed by a Q&A with IIJS’s own Jeremy Dauber.
In 1972, movie legend and comedy auteur Jerry Lewis gambled his career and his own money to direct and star in a Holocaust film called The Day the Clown Cried. A series of troubles ensued and the film never saw the light of day, becoming an object of fascination for 50+ years. The documentary From Darkness to Light chronicles the doomed production comprehensively (including new interviews with Lewis before his death) and breaks new ground in film history by including fully-edited scenes from The Day the Clown Cried -- the first time they have ever been publicly seen. Was Lewis' film ahead of its time or a fool's errand? See From Darkness to Light and decide for yourself.
(108 minutes; English and French with English subtitles)
Jeremy Dauber is the Atran Professor of Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture and, for a decade, directed the Institute of Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University, where he also teaches in the American studies program. For twelve years, he co-edited Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History with Barbara Mann. His books include Antonio's Devils: Writers of the Jewish Enlightenment and the Birth of Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Literature (Stanford University Press, 2004); In the Demon's Bedroom: Yiddish Literature and the Early Modern (Yale University Press; 2010); The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem (Schocken Books, 2013); Jewish Comedy: A Serious History (W.W. Norton, 2017); American Comics: A History (W.W. Norton, 2021); and Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew (Yale University Press: 2023). His most recent book, American Scary: A History of Horror from Salem to Stephen King (Algonquin: 2024), was named a best book of 2024 by the Boston Globe.
*Guests must register by Wednesday, November 26 to be approved for campus access; unregistered guests will not be permitted on campus. Each guest must register individually using a unique email address.
Supported by the generosity of the Radov and Kaye families.
While all IIJS events are free and open to the public, we do encourage a suggested donation of $10.