L ifestyle /C ulture
GPJFF Season Concludes, Spotlights Kurt Weill
FI L M
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
FILM PRODUCER Stuart
Samuels describes his long-time
friend Ruth Perlmutter as a
“cultural jeweler” for her ability
to discover cinematic gems.

Perlmutter, 93, who founded
the Philadelphia Jewish Film
Festival in 1980 alongside
her late husband, Archie,
will be honored through the
Gershman Philadelphia Jewish
Film Festival’s final program of
the season.

The program, Ruth’s Reels
and Archie’s Archives Double
Feature of “The Threepenny
Opera” and “September Songs:
The Music of Kurt Weill,” will
run virtually until Aug. 16.

The program pays homage
to Kurt Weill, a 20th-cen-
tury German stage composer
whose music is emblematic of
Germany’s Weimar Republic
and who shaped the creation of
opera in America.

The first of the two films,
“The Threepenny Opera,” is
director G.W. Pabst’s interpre-
tation of the compositions of
Weill and the writing of Bertolt
Brecht from 1931. The story of
criminal Mack the Knife and
his pursuit of Polly Peachum,
whose father controls London’s
beggars, is Brecht’s socialist
critique of capitalism. As the
Ruth’s Reels selection, the film
will make its GPJFF debut at
this program.

“The Threepenny Opera”
is complemented
with “September Songs: The Music
of Kurt Weill,” a 1995 film
by Larry Weinstein, which
features an eclectic and
eccentric collection of inter-
pretations of Weill’s music by
Nick Cave, Lou Reed and Elvis
Costello, among others.

The program also includes
an interview with Weinstein
moderated by Samuels, a
former history professor at the
University of Pennsylvania.

Weill was ambitious in the
content of his music, writing
about his grievances toward
Shell Oil, a controversial
subject matter in the 1920s,
Weinstein said. Unlike modern
composers who write but don’t
arrange their music, Weill also
orchestrated all of his pieces, a
time-consuming process.

“I love that he was a
European artist who could
evolve, who could adapt,
who could reinvent himself,”
Weinstein said.

Weinstein had always been
interested in writing films about
composers and musicians and
was first introduced to Weill’s
An image of Kurt Weill projected in the warehouse where “September
Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill” was filmed 
Courtesy of Larry Weinstein
music in 1985 after hearing Hal project about Weill, pitched
Willner’s “Lost in the Stars: as a different director —
The Music of Kurt Weill,” a Federico Fellini, Orson Welles
tribute album.

Willner was planning a new
See Weill, Page 19
Teacher Completes Summer C-SPAN Fellowship
Horwits has developed an effec-
tive approach to his craft.

JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
“Get the kids to think and
be analytical,” said Horwits,
OVER 24 YEARS as a social now in his 17th year at Central
studies teacher, Michael High School in Philadelphia.

LOCAL So in July, during his
vacation from school, Horwits
spent three weeks exploring
methods and source materials
for stimulating young minds.

The Jewish teacher was one of
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JEWISH EXPONENT
Michael Horwits
five educators across the country
selected for C-SPAN’s Summer
Fellows program. He received a
$1,000 stipend for participating.

In the program, which was
remote due to the pandemic
situation, the teachers used the
cable channel’s deep library
of primary source materials
to develop classroom lessons.

Photo by Ashley Zeserman
Then they would meet once or
twice a week with C-SPAN’s
team to discuss their projects.

Horwits’ main project was a
March Madness-style bracket
in which students can rank
all 46 U.S. presidents. For
the lesson’s opening activity,
See Fellowship, Page 21
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM