HOLLYWOODISM: Jews, Movies and the American Dream (1998)

Co-Director & Co-Writer: STUART SAMUELS

Hollywoodism is a feature-length documentary on the men who founded Hollywood and the image of America that they created.

Based on Neal Gabler's best-selling book, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, the film tells the story of a small group of Jewish immigrants who transformed the technological novelty of moving pictures into the most influential art form of the twentieth century.

Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount, Carl Laemmle of Universal; Louis B. Mayer, of MGM; William Fox of 20th Century Fox, and Harry Cohn of Columbia; were all immigrants (or children of immigrants) who reinvented themselves as Americans. In the process, they transformed America.

Hollywoodism makes us look at American cinema from a startling new perspective. It reveals how the American Dream of white picket fences, virtuous heroes, little guys fighting the odds, and the outsider who becomes an insider, was born in tiny European Jewish villages. The film boldly states that the American Dream, as defined by Hollywood, was a Jewish invention.

First-hand accounts of the moguls' lives are told through a series of original interviews with their children and grandchildren, along with comments by film historians, critics, actors and producers. Using rare home movies and archival footage, along with scenes from some of the greatest films ever made, Hollywoodism tells the true story of Tinseltown.

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