The Last Laugh

Film Screening Sponsored by Lynn Bartner-Wiesel & Elisha Wiesel Admission: $10 YIVO members: $8

Are we allowed to make jokes about the Holocaust? In this outrageously funny and thought-provoking film, filmmaker Ferne Pearlstein puts the question about comedy's ultimate taboo to legends including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Gilbert Gottfried, Harry Shearer, Jeff Ross, Judy Gold, Susie Essman, Larry Charles, and other critical thinkers, as well as Holocaust survivors themselves. Through these interviews and clips from our favorite standup comedy, TV shows, and movies, The Last Laugh offers fresh insights into the Holocaust, our own psyches, and what else—9/11, AIDS, racism— is or isn’t off-limits in a society that prizes freedom of speech. In the process, the documentary also disproves the idea that there is nothing left to say about the Holocaust and opens a fresh avenue for approaching this epochal tragedy. Star-studded, provocative, and thoroughly entertaining, The Last Laugh dares to ask uncomfortable questions about just how free speech can really be, with unexpected and hilarious results that will leave you both laughing and appreciating the importance of humor even in the face of events that make you want to cry.

Join YIVO for a screening of this film followed by a Q&A with director Ferne Pearlstein and special guest Alan Zweibel.

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About the Speakers

Ferne Pearlstein is a quadruple-threat: Director, Cinematographer, Producer, Editor. Ferne is a graduate of Stanford’s MA program in documentary film, a distinguished member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and an inductee of the Brooklyn Jewish Hall of Fame. She has had four features premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, most recently the critically acclaimed The Last Laugh, which screened at over 100 film festivals and was released theatrically in 25 cities. Ferne is presently in pre-production on her latest film, A Fine Line about comedy and race, which she is co-directing with Jon-Sesrie Goff.

An original SNL writer, Alan Zweibel has won 5 Emmy Awards for his work in television which also includes “It's Garry Shandling's Show” (which he co-created) and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” For the Broadway stage, he collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning show “700 Sundays,” and Martin Short's hit “Fame Becomes Me.” Alan is the author of eleven books, including Bunny Bunny - Gilda Radner: A Sort of Love Story, the Thurber Prize-winning novel The Other Shulman and, most recently, a memoir titled Laugh Lines - My Life Helping Funny People Be Funnier. Because of the diversity of his body of work, the Writers Guild of America East has honored Alan with a Lifetime Achievement award. Alan and his wife Robin have three children and five grandchildren.