“The (Whole) Cinemagillah” premiers at National Museum of American Jewish History
Filmmaker and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain and University of California robotics professor and artist Ken Goldberg are the latest participants in the National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) OPEN for Interpretation artist residency. The husband-and-wife team have launched a participatory art project to create an original short film, “The (Whole) Cinemagillah,” which explores the American Jewish experience through film and television. The film premiered at NMAJH this week and will remain on view as part of its regular installations through early 2017.
Shlain and Goldberg’s project is inspired by the original films playing in NMAJH’s core exhibition utilizing clips from films and television that reflect how the American Jewish experience is depicted and understood in popular media. The film captures a range of cinematic moments, whether it is a scene from Cabaret, Spock’s famous salute in Star Trek, or a clip from Seinfeld. The film’s, “The (Whole) Cinemagillah,” blends the concepts of cinema (a sequence of images wound onto a reel and unwound to tell a story) and megillah (a sequence of words wound onto a scroll and unwound to tell a story).