A second go-round for Moe Berg -- in Aviva Kempner's doc, THE SPY BEHIND HOME PLATE

That erstwhile documentarian Aviva Kempner (pictured below) is making her second foray (after her excellent The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg) into baseball documentaries with her newest work, THE SPY BEHIND HOME PLATE, which explores the life and times of Moe Berg, another Jewish baseball player -- who also doubled as a surprising multi-field savant speaking several languages fluently and then tripled as an American spy during the Second World War.

Unfortunately, the documentary follows fairly hard on the heels of last year's excellent narrative movie about the same character and time period, The Catcher Was a Spy, which proved one of those increasingly rare American independent films that actually found somewhat of an audience. Its starrier cast (with Paul Rudd playing Berg), bigger budget and intrinsically fascinating story no doubt helped.

Interestingly enough, the folk who enjoyed The Catcher Was a Spy will probably want to see this new film, too, because, in many cases, it probes Berg's life (the catcher/ spy is shown on poster, top, and below, left) in much closer detail.

While the more elusive narrative version suggested and alluded, this documentary lays in it all out in spades: what Berg most likely did on his many trips abroad (for both "goodwill" baseball purposes and for spying), how his intelligence excelled so famously on a popular radio show of the time, and how he took care to help encourage the rookie baseball players (as above) -- as well as getting to know and pal around with the "greats" like Babe Ruth (I believe that's the "Babe" at left, below, with Berg at right, on a trip to Japan).

What the documentary does not go into at all is Berg's bi-sexuality, which the narrative version covered quite beautifully and, again, allusively. All four of Ms Kempner's documentaries that TrustMovies has seen (which include Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg! and, her best work so far, Rosenwald) are primarily meant to create Jewish heroes, which indeed they do. To this end, much that might be considered as "negative" is left out. You have only to read the relatively brief Wikipedia description of Moe Berg to find some of less appealing aspects of his character.

Interestingly, Berg's remaining living family members -- as well as other talking heads (there's one above) -- speak of him here only with seeming huge respect and admiration. Yet, according to Wikipedia, Berg's brother, with whom he lived during his later years, actually evicted Moe from his home, after which Moe lived with his sister. And although, for the final 20 years of his life, Berg was unable to find any employment, you won't hear that mentioned in this documentary, either.

Via the use of archival photos and film, Kempner also offers us a nice recreation of the WWII time period as seen in America. I do wish, however, that she had not used quite so many clips from old narrative movies as stand-ins for what is being talked about on-screen.

As interesting and enjoyable -- if a tad too lopsided toward the positive -- as is this new Berg exploration, I'd still recommend you view The Catcher Was a Spy first (you can find it on home video/digital), for its rich, allusive view of this very interesting -- and very elusive -- character, before honing in on the much more detailed but standardized look that The Spy Behind Home Plate provides.

The documentary, arriving via The Ciesla Foundation and running 101 minutes, opens this Friday, June 21, in the South Florida area: in Miami at the AMC Aventura 24, in Tamarac at The Last Picture Show, In Fort Lauderdale in The Classic Gateway, in Boca Raton at the Regal Shadowood and Living Room Theaters, and at The Movies of Delray and The Movies of Lake Worth.

Get an Oscar polished up: Aviva Kempner's new doc, ROSENWALD, arrives in theaters

What a joy and what a great learning experience is ROSENWALD, the terrifically entertaining, moving and eye-opening new documentary from Aviva Kempner, the filmmaker who has previously given us two other first-rate docs: Yoo-hoo, Mrs Goldberg and The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg. This new one is her best so far. TrustMovies admits to knowing almost nothing about Julius Rosenwald, the businessman who brought to prominence and then ran Sears, Roebuck & Company, the most famous mercantile film in U.S. history. After viewing this film, I suspect you'll think of Mr. Rosenwald as the most deservedly famous businessman/philanthropist in U.S. history.

Upfront, the movie tells us that Rosenwald was an extremely savvy and competitive business man. The choice anecdote about catalog size and Sears' largest competitor, Montgomery Ward, is a perfect example of Rosenwald's acumen. I suspect that our hero was not above using dirty tricks in business, but the movie doesn't go much into that. Instead its focus is on Rosenwald as a philanthropist. And what a singular "giver" he turns out to have been.

As a Jew whose family had experienced the horrible pogroms that raged throughout Europe, Russia and the Ukraine, Rosenwald came to understand how similar to those pogroms was the treatment of Blacks here in the southern states of the USA: from the lynchings to the woefully second-class citizenship they were given -- particularly in regards to their often barely-to-non-existent education. Born and raised only a few blocks from the residence of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, Julius was a boy when Lincoln was President, and he admired and believed in the work and goals of the "Great Emancipator."

Filmmaker Kempner, shown above, weaves together the personal with the historical regarding Mr. Rosenwald, but what makes her documentary such a keeper is how she blends in Black history to such an important extent that her film becomes as much a tribute to the struggle and success of the American Negro as it is to Rosenwald himself. The philanthropist had a supremely fine idea of how to gift his largess: One-third came from him, one third was matched by the recipients, and the final third came from the local white community. This made his education grants serve at least a dual purpose: they brought much needed money to the black community, while simultaneously empowering that community.

As the film wends its most interesting way along, we learn bit by bit, man and woman by man and woman -- via interviews with everyone from Julian Bond and Stephanie Deutsch to Eugene Robinson and George C. Wolfe -- just how many important members of the Black community Rosenwald and his philanthropy actually helped, from the great Booker T. Washington (shown below with Rosenwald) onwards. The number of Black southerners who received an education via Rosenwald, along with the help of their own community and other generous whites, will simply amaze you.

The final capper, however, is the lengthy list of cultural, social, educational and artistic icons for whom his generosity provided an entry into a world that they might never have known -- and by their entry into which has made that world incredibly richer. The film's great strength is that is simultaneously acts as a fitting tribute to both the giver and his recipients.

We need a documentary like Rosenwald, now especially, as our nation falls ever more precariously into chaos. What a model Julius makes for the enlightened businessman and seeker of justice, and for the kind of quasi-Capitalism/quasi-Socialism that seems to have all but disappeared from our society. Not only did Rosenwald not want his name attached to his schools or to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, which his gifts brought into being, he actively refrained from this kind of vanity tub-thumping.

When the model businessman of today is too-often perceived as someone like Donald Trump (who should have to see this film with the wax removed from his ears and his blabber mouth taped shut), Rosenwald appears as some kind of sudden, shocking blessing. In its own way, it proves as important and rewarding as the equally inspiring doc, Searching for Sugar Man. And we all know what happened to that smart little film.

Rosenwald, running 96 remarkable minutes, opens this Friday, August 14, in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, and from there in the weeks to come it will expand throughout the country. (In the L.A. area, it hits three Laemmle theaters on August 28.) To see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and scroll down.