Making Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women (DVD).

Making Trouble tells the story of six of the greatest female comic entertainers of the last century--Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner, and Wendy Wasserstein.

Hosted by four of today's funniest women--Judy Gold, Jackie Hoffman, Cory Kahaney, and Jessica Kirson--it's the true saga of what it means to be Jewish, female, and funny. 

The American Jewish Story Through Cinema, by Eric A. Goldman.

(University of Texas Press)

Like the haggadah, the traditional telling of the story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt that is read at the Passover seder, cinema offers a valuable text from which to gain an understanding of the social, political , and cultural realities of Jews in America. 

This groundbreaking study analyzes select mainstream films from the beginning of the sound era to today to provide an understanding of the American Jewish experience over the last century.

In the first half of the twentieth century, Hollywood's media moguls, most of whom were jewish, shied away from asserting a Jewish image on the screen for fear that they might be too closely identified with that representation. Over the next two decades, Jewish moviemakers became more comfortable with the concept of a Jewish hero and with an overpowered, yet heroic, Israel. In time, the Holocaust assumed center stage as the single event with the greatest effect on American Jewish identity. Recently, as American Jewish screenwriters, directors, and producers have become increasingly comfortable with their heritage, we are seeing an unprecedented number of movies that spotlight Jewish protagonists, experiences and challenges. 

Smart Chicks on Screen: Representing Women's Intellect in Film and Television, edited by Laura Mattoon D'Amore. (Roman & Littlefield)

While women have long been feautured in leading roles in film and television, the intellectual depictions of female charaters in these media are out of line with reality. Women continue to be marginalized for their choices, overshadowed by men, and judged by their bodies. In fact, the intelligence of women is rarely the focus of television or film narratives.

In Smart Chicks on Screen, Laura Mattoon D'Amore brings together an impressive array of scholarship that interrogrates the portrayal of females on television and in movies, asking the questions:

In what ways are women in film and TV limited, or ostracized, by their intelligence?

How do female roles emphasize standards of beauty, submissiveness, and silence over intellect, problem-solving, and leadership?

Are there women in film and TV who are intelligent without also being objectified?

The thirteen essays by international, interdisciplinary scholars offer a wide range of perspectives, examining the connections and disconnections between beauty and brains in film and television.

The Modern Jewish Experience in World Cinema, edited by Lawrence Baron. (Brandeis University Press)

Most people have seen Exodus, Fiddler on the Roof, Yentl, and Schindler's List--well-known films with obvious Jewish subjects. But the Jewish experience in film is far richer than this. Over the past century, Jewish-themed films have emerged from the Americas, Europe, Israel, and North Africa. This remarkable anthology brings together 54 new and classic essays by 49 scholars in 8 countries to analyze the Jewish presence in world cinema. 

Essays include:

"From Hollywood to Hester Street: Ghetto Film, Melodrama, and the Image of the Assimilated Jew in Hungry Hearts," by Delia Caparoso Konzett,

"Ethnic and Discursive Drag in Woody Allen's Zelig," by Ruth D. Johnston, and

"From Black to White: Changing Images of Mizrahim in Israeli Cinema," by Yaron Peleg.