The Fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael of The New Yorker called “the most powerful movie musical ever made.” Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison’s quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim puts us in the director’s chair and in Jewison’s heart and mind, drawing on rare behind-the-scenes footage, original storyboards, and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Norman Jewison, Chaim Topol (Tevye), composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small (Tevye’s daughters). The film explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepens Jewison as an artist and revives his soul.
“Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen is as wondrous, buoyant and heartwarming as the film it celebrates.” — Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
Daniel Raim
Daniel Raim, Michael Sragow
Robert F. Boyle, Jeff Goldblum, Rosalind Harris
United States