Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen comes to you
The Historic Documentary Film Society will host their first event of the year as they screen a special documentary.
The Historic Documentary Film Society together with Seconding Innings will host the screening of the documentary, Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen.
According to one of the organisers, Selwyn Klass, this is a richly detailed reflection of director, Norman Jewison’s 1971 feature of the stage musical.
As with many of the documentaries the society has screened, this one is yet another that Klass finds holds deep sentimental value to him. Through the years, be it through meeting actors or watching once-in-a-lifetime screenings with his family as a child, this production has always been special to him. An actor he never forgot was Chaim Topol who played the lead role of Tevye.
In the late 60s, his parents took him along with his siblings and great-aunt to Europe. While they were there, Fiddler on the Roof opened, “Dad made sure to get tickets, and for all of us no less,” he said. This production is his favourite production of all time as everything from the set design to the passion of the actors struck him as a little boy and he hasn’t been able to let go of it since.
By the 70s he and his brother, Zelton opened L’chaim, a restaurant in Hilbrow he described as a ‘shtetl’, which in Yiddish, describes a small town. There a scaled-down production of Fiddler was hosted by Taubie Kushlick. It featured just two actors who portrayed the roles of Fiddler on the Roof lead character, Tevye and his wife Golde having conversations through the years.
Klass would, in the 80s, have the opportunity to meet Chaim Topol after he was an invited guest to a United Artists event where they had just released James Bond: For Your Eyes Only. On this occasion, he wasted no time in sharing with Topol just how his portrayal of Tevye in the movie had stuck with him all these years. “Topol was thrilled to know that I watched his show in his early years as an actor,” said Klass.
This screening will take place at the Ditsong National Museum of Military History on March 15, from 09:00 to 09:30.
Details: Selwyn Klass, 082 603 3214
