Due to unexpected circumstances, Paul Gorman is no longer able to take part in this screening. We are instead very glad to be joined for a Q&A with the award-winning music writer Daniel Rachel, author of the forthcoming book This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich.

Long neglected, American Pop is perhaps the last great film of the golden age of adult animation. At once a jukebox musical, an intergenerational epic, and a stylistic tour de force, the film tells the intertwined story of music and migration through the adventures of one remarkable family. Fleeing the Russian pogroms, a rabbi’s wife and her baby son land in New York at the height of the vaudeville craze. Each generation that follows falls in with another wave of distinctly American music, from jazz and soul to rock’n’roll, psychedelia, punk, and beyond. Directed by Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat) in his distinctive Rotoscoping style, the film is both a reimagining of the director’s own journey from Mandatory Palestine to Brooklyn and a celebration of the allure of mass culture.

Scenes of animated violence and drug use

This screening is part of ‘Beyond Jewish Cinema’, a new series that considers what it really means to make ‘Jewish cinema’ in light of parallel currents in commercial and experimental filmmaking. Moving from the Lower East Side to the Yiddish East End and beyond, the series shines a new light on old favourites alongside lesser-known works from across the history of film. ‘Beyond Jewish Cinema’ is programmed by Jargon, a non-profit dedicated to exploring past, present, and future visions of Jewish diasporic culture.