Michael Roemer
Encyclopedia
Michael Roemer is a film director, producer and writer. He has won several awards for his films. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship
. A professor at Yale University
, he is the author of Telling Stories.
s. In England, he attended Bunce Court School
, a German-Jewish school for refugees, both pupils and staff. There, he met Wilhelm Marckwald
, an actor and former director of the Deutsches Theater Berlin and also a refugee. The playwright Frank Marcus
and the painter Frank Auerbach
were two of his friends at Bunce Court. Roemer emigrated to the United States in 1945.
Roemer received his A.B.
degree from Harvard University
in 1949. While at Harvard, Roemer directed his first film, A Touch of the Times, possibly the first feature film produced at an American college. After graduating, he worked for Louis de Rochemont
for eight years as a production manager, film editor, and as an assistant director. He later wrote, produced and directed a series of educational films for the Ford Foundation
.
won two awards at the Venice Film Festival
, as well as critical acclaim in France. It did not, however, do well in the United States until it was re-released in 1993. Writing the screenplay, Roemer drew on his own background as a Jew in Nazi Germany, where his family had everything taken away from them and his father and grandfather were unable to provide for the family because of the Nazi's increasingly restrictive laws concerning the rights of Jews. The movie's Motown soundtrack came about by chance. George Schiffer, a classmate of Roemer's at Harvard, had his law office around the corner from where Roemer was editing the film. Over lunch one day, Roemer told him about the movie and Schiffer suggested he listen to some music he had from a new client, a small record label just starting out in Detroit, Michigan. Roemer loved the music and acquired the rights from Mowtown owner Berry Gordy
for $5,000. After the film was re-released, The Washington Post
called it "one of the most sensitive films about black life ever made in this country", and in 1994 it was added to the National Film Registry
of the Library of Congress
.
Roemer's film, The Plot Against Harry
, a comedy, was made in 1969, but found no one to distribute it because no one found it funny. Twenty years later, he decided to put all of his movies on videotape as a gift to his children. Discovering that the technician who was making the transfer was laughing hard at the film, Roemer decided to make two 35 mm prints and submitted them to film festivals in New York and Toronto. Both festivals accepted the film and commercial distribution and acclaim followed.
Roemer was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971 and began teaching at Yale University in 1966. Roemer was interviewed for the 1996 documentary about the Kindertransports, My Knees Were Jumping.
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
. A professor at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, he is the author of Telling Stories.
Early years
Roemer was born to a well-to-do Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. After the Nazis came to power in 1933 and began restricting the rights of Jews to work, his father and his grandfather found themselves unable to work and provide for the family, and eventually lost everything. At the age of 11, Roemer was sent out of Germany on one of the KindertransportKindertransport
Kindertransport is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig...
s. In England, he attended Bunce Court School
Bunce Court School
The Bunce Court School was an independent, private boarding school in the village of Otterden, in Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen in the south of Germany, but after the Nazi Party seized power in 1933,...
, a German-Jewish school for refugees, both pupils and staff. There, he met Wilhelm Marckwald
Wilhelm Marckwald
Wilhelm Marckwald was a German actor and director in both theatre and film. He went to Spain in 1933, fleeing to Stockholm as the political situation heated up. Accused of being a communist, he and his wife were forced to leave Sweden for France...
, an actor and former director of the Deutsches Theater Berlin and also a refugee. The playwright Frank Marcus
Frank Marcus
Frank Marcus was a British playwright, best known for The Killing of Sister George.-Life:Frank Ulrich Marcus was born 30 June 1928 into a Jewish family in Breslau . They came to England as refugees in 1939...
and the painter Frank Auerbach
Frank Auerbach
Frank Helmut Auerbach is a painter born in Germany although he has been a naturalised British citizen since 1947.-Biography:Auerbach was born in Berlin, the son of Max Auerbach, a patent lawyer, and Charlotte Nora Burchardt, who had trained as an artist...
were two of his friends at Bunce Court. Roemer emigrated to the United States in 1945.
Roemer received his A.B.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1949. While at Harvard, Roemer directed his first film, A Touch of the Times, possibly the first feature film produced at an American college. After graduating, he worked for Louis de Rochemont
Louis de Rochemont
Louis de Rochemont was an American film maker known for creating, along with Roy E. Larsen from Time, Inc., the monthly theatrically shown newsreels The March of Time. His brother Richard de Rochemont was also a producer and writer on The March of Time.The newsreels defined film news from 1935 to...
for eight years as a production manager, film editor, and as an assistant director. He later wrote, produced and directed a series of educational films for the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
.
Independent filmmaker
His feature-length film, Nothing But a ManNothing But a Man
Nothing But a Man is a film made in 1964 and directed by Michael Roemer. The story is about a black railroad worker, who falls in love with a black school teacher, who is the town’s preacher’s daughter. The story depicts the struggle of their strife for “a meaningful place” in their society. It...
won two awards at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
, as well as critical acclaim in France. It did not, however, do well in the United States until it was re-released in 1993. Writing the screenplay, Roemer drew on his own background as a Jew in Nazi Germany, where his family had everything taken away from them and his father and grandfather were unable to provide for the family because of the Nazi's increasingly restrictive laws concerning the rights of Jews. The movie's Motown soundtrack came about by chance. George Schiffer, a classmate of Roemer's at Harvard, had his law office around the corner from where Roemer was editing the film. Over lunch one day, Roemer told him about the movie and Schiffer suggested he listen to some music he had from a new client, a small record label just starting out in Detroit, Michigan. Roemer loved the music and acquired the rights from Mowtown owner Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy, Jr. is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries.-Early years:...
for $5,000. After the film was re-released, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
called it "one of the most sensitive films about black life ever made in this country", and in 1994 it was added to the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
.
Roemer's film, The Plot Against Harry
The Plot Against Harry
The Plot Against Harry is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Michael Roemer and filmed in 1969. It was screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Martin Priest as Harry Plotnick* Ben Lang as Leo* Maxine Woods as Kay...
, a comedy, was made in 1969, but found no one to distribute it because no one found it funny. Twenty years later, he decided to put all of his movies on videotape as a gift to his children. Discovering that the technician who was making the transfer was laughing hard at the film, Roemer decided to make two 35 mm prints and submitted them to film festivals in New York and Toronto. Both festivals accepted the film and commercial distribution and acclaim followed.
Roemer was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971 and began teaching at Yale University in 1966. Roemer was interviewed for the 1996 documentary about the Kindertransports, My Knees Were Jumping.
Books
- Telling Stories: Postmodernism and the Invalidation of Traditional Narrative (1997) University Press of America, Inc. ISBN 1-57309-035-2
- Film Stories, Vol. 1, Scarecrow Press (2001) ISBN 0810839091
- Film Stories, Vol. 2, Scarecrow Press (2001) ISBN 9780810839113
Filmography (selected list)
- A Touch of the Times (1949)
- Cortile Cascino (1962) documentary
- Nothing But a ManNothing But a ManNothing But a Man is a film made in 1964 and directed by Michael Roemer. The story is about a black railroad worker, who falls in love with a black school teacher, who is the town’s preacher’s daughter. The story depicts the struggle of their strife for “a meaningful place” in their society. It...
(1964), co-produced with Robert M. Young and Robert Rubin, starring Ivan DixonIvan DixonIvan Dixon was an American actor, director, and producer best known for his series role in the 1960s sitcom Hogan's Heroes, for his role in the 1967 telefilm The Final War of Olly Winter, and for directing hundreds of episodes of television series...
and Abbey LincolnAbbey LincolnAnna Marie Wooldridge , better known by her stage name Abbey Lincoln, was a jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress. Lincoln was unusual in that she wrote and performed her own compositions, expanding the expectations of jazz audiences.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, she was one of many... - Faces of Israel (1967)
- The Plot Against HarryThe Plot Against HarryThe Plot Against Harry is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Michael Roemer and filmed in 1969. It was screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Martin Priest as Harry Plotnick* Ben Lang as Leo* Maxine Woods as Kay...
(1969), co-produced with Robert M. Young - Vengeance is mine (1984)
- Dying (1976), documentary
Television
- Pilgrim, Farewell (1980), with Christopher LloydChristopher LloydChristopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
- Haunted (1984), with Brooke Adams
External links
- Faculty profile Yale University. Retrieved October 19, 2011
- Review of Nothing But a Man One Film Beyond (blog). Retrieved October 20, 2011
- Michael Roemer professional credits film reference. Retrieved October 19, 2011
- Michael Roemer biography New Video. Retrieved October 19, 2011
- Michael Roemer credits Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 19, 2011