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Certainly everything Universal is today would never have existed without Carl Laemmle’s vision.

— Ron Meyer, Vice Chairman, NBCUniversal

The Film


Carl Laemmle is a feature documentary about the extraordinary life story of Carl Laemmle, the German-Jewish immigrant who founded Universal Pictures, and saved over 300 Jewish families from Nazi Germany.

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It was Laemmle as much as anybody who invented the modern movie business. Back in 1908, he led the fight against Thomas Edison’s ruthless attempts to monopolize the film industry. He also led the immigration of filmmakers to Hollywood where he founded Universal Pictures and created Universal City, an entire city built for the sole purpose of making movies.

Ruling his movie kingdom with affability and humor unique among the early studio moguls, Carl Laemmle -- known to everyone as Uncle Carl -- turned out a highly profitable roster of monster movies, westerns, and comedies. With an unerring eye for talent, he hired many who would go on to become Hollywood legends: Walt Disney, John Ford, Irving Thalberg, William Wyler, and others. Rare for his time, Carl also valued talented women -- as he freely hired female directors and made Lois Weber the highest-paid director on his lot.

And yet Carl Laemmle harbored even loftier ambitions. Securing the rights to the anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Laemmle’s film version of Erich Maria Remarque’s book (which told the story of WWI from the German or enemy’s point of view) resulted in Universal’s first Academy Award for Best Picture in 1930. Yet when the film was released in Germany, Laemmle’s “message of peace” became an immediate threat to Adolph Hitler’s plans to militarize Germany. Laemmle had begun by tangling with Thomas Edison. He would end by tangling with Adolf Hitler.

In 1936, due to the effects of the Depression and bad management decisions, Carl Laemmle was forced to sell Universal Pictures. Yet, losing his studio gave him the opportunity to devote himself to an even greater cause: saving lives.

Shortly before the pogrom that became known as Kristallnacht, Carl Laemmle began doing what few studio heads would do: rescuing Jews from Nazi Germany. Battling not just the Nazis, but the U.S. State Department (then notoriously anti-Semitic and uninterested in the fate of European Jews), Carl wrote hundreds of affidavits and spent a great deal of his fortune finding jobs and homes for German refugees. By the time of his death in 1939, Carl Laemmle had saved over 300 Jewish families, creating a legacy in their many descendants that thrives to this day.

When the Nazis came to power, most of the world looked the other way, but not Carl Laemmle.

— Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder - Simon Wiesenthal Center

Clips


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Carl walks into a Nickelodeon

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Carl champions director Lois Weber

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Monsters

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Saving German refugees

At one time, Carl Laemmle had eleven female directors working for Universal.

— Leonard Maltin, Film Critic

Screenings


Carl Laemmle really created the monster movies as we know them... Frankenstein, Dracula, you could go on and on. Carl Laemmle had that vision. It’s a pretty extraordinary thing.

— Ron Meyer

I’m not sure he would have used the word, but Carl Laemmle was definitely a feminist.

— Antonia Carlotta, Carl Laemmle's Great-grandniece

Filmmaker's Bio


Writer, Producer, Director: James L. Freedman

James L. Freedman produced Marty Glickman’s late night sports radio show on WNEW as a senior in high school. Mr. Freedman went on to produce UNICEF commercials before becoming a working writer and producer in Hollywood for over 25 years. Among the many episodic television shows he has written for are Coach, Zoe, and Golden Globe winner Cybill. In addition, he has penned over one dozen pilots for ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and UPN –- as well as feature scripts for Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox. Mr. Freedman wrote, produced and directed the critically acclaimed HBO documentary, Glickman (Executive Produced by Martin Scorsese). Carl Laemmle is his second film.

Cast & Crew Bios


Voice of Carl Laemmle: Willie Garson

Willie Garson has appeared in over 300 episodes of television and more than 70 films. Mr. Garson is best known for his long runs on television, portraying Mozzie on White Collar, Stanford Blatch on Sex and the City, Henry Coffield on NYPD Blue, and Gerald Hirsch on Hawaii 5-0. His feature film work includes roles in Something About Mary, Kingpin, Fever Pitch, Soapdish, Groundhog Day, Mars Attacks, The Rock, Being John Malkovitch and Feed. His upcoming films include Walk to Vegas, and The Bellmen.

Music Composer: David Carbonara

David Carbonara is best known as the composer of the Emmy winning series Mad Men for which his contemporary score and period jazz inspired a number of soundtracks. In that vein, he produced period songs for Amazon’s series The Last Tycoon. He also scored the CBS series Vegas (starring Dennis Quaid and created by James Mangold) As a film composer, Carbonara’s credits include; Spanking the Monkey, The GuruFast Food Fast Women, Some Girl(s), The Congressman, Amelia and Glickman among others.  Currently, Carbonara is working on the score for Amazon’s upcoming anthology series The Romanoffs.

Editors: Frank Laughlin, Keith Robinson

Frank Laughlin has over 40 years of motion picture production experience –- from from moviolas to the latest digital workflows. Frank is an editor, producer, director and production consultant for both studio and independent productions. He currently works with Marvel, Disney, Sony, Netflix, Amazon and others delivering content for global online distribution. Frank proudly edited and co-produced Mr. Freedman's previous HBO documentary Glickman.

Keith Robinson edited When We Were Kings, did the sound on Independent Lens: Bhuto, and co-edited Glickman.

Cinematographers: Lon Magdich, Zvonimir “Z” Vidusin, Bill Irmscher

Lon Magdich is an award-winning Director of Photography with extensive experience in television and feature film production. His work has aired on Discovery, National Geographic, HBO, the History Channel, PBS and others.

Zvonimir “Z” Vidusin is a cinematographer/DP with over 20 years experience working on short films, documentaries and television shows.

Sound: Preston Edmundson

Preston Edmondson began cutting voiceover and editing for the BBC in the 1990s. He later served as lead audio mixer for National Geographic, and then manager of audio post production for The Discovery Channel. He won a prime-time Emmy for sound mixing in 2009. In 2018 he was nominated for the MPSE Golden Reel awards for his documentary work with Netflix. He continues to mix documentary film and original television series, and serves as resident lecturer in audio post production for the Los Angeles Film School.

If it hadn’t been for Carl Laemmle, I’d have disappeared into Poland like a hell of a lot of other German Jews and never came back.

— Fred Bender, German refugee

CARL LAEMMLE - The Film

Press


CARL LAEMMLE - The Film

Contact Info


Filmmaker: James L. Freedman
JamesLFreedman44@gmail.com
Publicist: Michael Saltzman
139 S. Beverly Drive #326
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Office: 310-271-5789
Cell: 310-702-5789
Michael@SaltzmanPR.com