American Splendor’s Harvey Pekar, who brought a hard-boiled Jewish neurosis to the graphic novel, and Etgar Keret, Israel’s most provocative artistic innovator, share their views on art, Hollywood, and Jewish identity, and show clips and images from their award-winning films, best-selling books, and graphic novels.
Etgar Keret, champion of young, fresh, Israeli short-short stories (The Bus Driver who Wanted to be God and The Nimrod Flipout), is a master of graphic novels (Pizzeria Kamikaze), a unique filmmaker and the inspiration for films (Jellyfish, Wristcutters).
Harvey Pekar is an award-winning author of the autobiographical comic-book series “American Splendor,” which was made into a film in 2003. His first language was Yiddish. He learned about America through comic books, jazz, and the Cleveland Indians. He collaborated with Dan Plonsey on the avant-garde opera “Leave Me Alone,” and is currently working on a book-length comic on Yiddish literature.
This program took place at the Contemporary Jewish Museum on April 13, 2010.
