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Wichita Films is a French production company specializing in documentaries. It has been founded in 2006 by Clara Kuperberg and Julia Kuperberg who act as both director and producer. After having worked independently from one another for some years, the sisters decided to pool their resources and devote most of their efforts to develop a shared family passion: American culture, society and history. Wichita Films mainly works to commission from the French market, but are distributed worldwide.

Among our documentaries; This is Orson Welles and Women who run Hollywood have been selected twice at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 and 2016 and at the Deauville American Film Festival 2015 and 2016, among prestigious other festivals.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences organized a special screening of The Women who run Hollywood at the Linwood Theater in June 2018 with Q&A, and they also won the Best Director Award at the Beverly Hills Film Festival the same year, for the same film The Women who run Hollywood.

In 2019, the prestigious Editions Montparnasse have released a special DVD box with 10 of their films called “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”.

Since 2019, the two sisters have started to produce also other directors.

News

October 13th at 10:30pm on OCS Géants

“YELLOWFACE: ASIAN WHITEWASHING & RACISM IN HOLLYWOOD“

A film by Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Dust storm at this War Relocation Authority center where evacuees of Japanese ancestry are spending the duration. Manzanar, California. July 3, 1942. Dorothea Lange. (WRA) NARA FILE #: 210-G-10C-839 WAR & CONFLICT #: 786

January 2nd at 10:30pm on ARTE

“I, Douglas Fairbanks”

The last documentary by Clara & Julia Kuperberg, narrated by Laurent Lafitte

For this occasion, listen our interview in the Radio Show “L’Instant M” on France Inter :

Interview Clara & Julia Kuperberg France Inter

 Doug playboy

FRANCE 24

FOR THE RELEASE OF THE DVD SET BOX “Il était une fois Hollywood”

Watch the interview here !

France 24

November 20th, 2018

RELEASE OF THE DVD COLLECTION

“Il était une fois Hollywood” – Editions Montparnasse

10 films by Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Jaquette-def-BD

June 28th 2018

ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS & SCIENCES 

Special Screening of “The Women who Run Hollywood” by Clara & Julia Kuperberg

at the Linwood Dunn Theater, Los Angeles

cocktail and Q&A

 Invitation1

Beverly Hills Film Festival 2018

BEST DIRECTOR AWARD

April 4th 2018 at 6pm at the Chinese Theater

Screening of “The Women who Run Hollywood”, by Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Beverly Hills Film Festival

 Vancouver International Women in Film Festival2018 

BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD

For “The Women who Run Hollywood”, by Clara & Julia Kuperberg 

2018 Festival Awards.indd

For the International Woman’s Day : March 8th 2018 at 10:30pm on OCS Géants 

Broadcasting of “Hollywood : No Sex Please!” by Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Trailer

Basic Sexe Slider

LUMIERE FILM FESTIVAL 2017

Unique screening at the Lumiere Film Festival, of “Gene Tierney A Forgotten Star”, by Clara & Julia Kuperberg, with Martin Scorsese

Trailer

Gene Slider

October 19th 2017 at 10:30pm on OCS Géants 

Broadcasting of “Hollywood Spies”, by Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Trailer Spies Slider

FRENCH CINEMATHEQUE

May 31th 2017 : Screening at the French Cinémathèque of ” The Women who Run Hollywood”, by Clara & Julia Kuperberg

La Cinémathèque Française

Women Slider

May 7th 2017 on OCS Géants at 7:45 pm

Broadcasting of “Hollywood Gossip” by Clara & Julia Kuperberg 

 Gossip Slider

March 12th 2017 on ARTE at 11pm

Broadcasting of “Ronald Reagan A Custom Made President” by Clara & Julia Kuperberg, with James Ellroy

Bande-annonce ARTE

RR actu

December 29th 2016 on OCS Géants at 10 pm

Broadcasting of “Billy Wilder Nobody’s Perfect” by Clara & Julia Kuperberg

billy_wilder

DEAUVILLE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL 2016

“The Women who Run Hollywood” by Clara & Julia Kuperberg has been selected into the section “Docs de l’Oncle Sam” 

Deauville

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2016

“The Women who Run Hollywood”, by Clara & Julia Kuperberg at Cannes Classics

 selection_CC_fr

May 20th 2016 on OCS Géants à 10:40 pm

Broadcasting of  “The Women who Run Hollywood” by Clara & Julia Kuperberg. Selected at the Cannes Films Festival 2016

The Women who Run Hollywood – Trailer

SliderLoisWeber - copie

December 3rd, 2015 on OCS Géants at 11pm

Broadcasting of “Hollywood Censored!” by Clara and Julia Kuperberg

 Bande annonce soirée La Censure à Hollywood sur OCS

 

CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES FILM FESTIVAL 2015

Screening of  “This is Orson Welles” by Clara & Julia Kuperberg the June 12th 2015 at the Publicis Theater            

Champs-Élysées Film Festival

 Champs Elysees Festival

INSTITUT LUMIERE OF LYON

“This is Orson Welles” by Clara & Julia Kuperberg opens the retrospective Orson Welles after the restored version of “Citizen Kane”

Lumiere WELLES

FESTIVAL DE CANNES 2015

“This is Orson Welles”, by Clara & Julia Kuperberg, has been selected to the FESTIVAL DE CANNES 2015, at  Cannes Classics.

Co-produced with TCM Cinéma, with Martin Scorsese, Chris Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, Henry Jaglom and Joseph McBride.

World Premiere.

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

Until today, the whitewashing is a racist tradition in Hollywood, and as the “blackface”, the “yellowface” was used in Hollywood as a propaganda tool and manifestation of the racism.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941 changed the world forever. The United States entered WW2. More than 110,000 citizens of Japanese origin were rounded up and dispatched to camps until the end of the war. Hollywood was quick to react with films from Know Your Enemy to Bugs Bunny Nip the Nip. 

With the arrival of the Cold War the enemy image had to change quickly and Hollywood obliged. Clara and Julia Kuperberg found the right interview partners in Joseph McBride, film critic, Nancy Wang Yuen, author of “Reel Inequality”, Tamlyn Tomita, actress in Come See the Paradise, one of the only film about the Japanese Camps in America,  and Dan Akira, specialist of Japanese film history, in order to show how strong an influence the silver screen has on society.

Authors & Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2018
Running Time : 53 minutes
Networks : OCS & Histoire
Production : Wichita Films 
Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Co Producer : Martine Melloul

Casting

Nancy Wang Yuen
Author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism

Tamlyn Tomita
Actress Come See the Paradise

Joseph McBride
Film Historian

Dan Akira
Film Historian

Selected at the Festival Lumière 2018

The Max Factor

The man who created the faces of Hollywood was born in Poland and became the wigmaker and make-up artist to the Court of Tsar Nicolas II. Because of rampant antisemitism in the early 1900s, he and his family fled to America where relatives were living. An immigration officer inadvertently changed his name to Factor with a c instead of a k. Max Factor moved to Hollywood at the right moment. Theatre make-up did not work very well with projectors and close-ups and the talkies as well the introduction of technicolor created other problems Factor brilliantly solved.

For Cecil B. DeMille´s THE SQUAW MAN in 1913 he lent wigs and moustaches made from real hair which was a novelty. He solved the problem of melting lipstick by testing new products in a “kissing machine” and changed the looks of many stars by means of a “beauty calibrator”. In 1935 he had created a make-up empire which allowed him to ask the famous architect S. Charles Lee to build an art-deco office for him which is now the Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles. Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg interviewed film historian Marc Wanamaker who talks about the achievements of Max Factor, while Donelle Dadigan shows us around the Museum, and the actresses Lee Purcell and Jaclyn Smith tell us what Max Factor meant to them. Lots of film clips featuring the stars Factor worked with round off this look behind the scene.

Authors & Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2018
Running Time : 52 minutes
Networks : OCS & Histoire
Production : Wichita Films 
Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg

Casting

Donelle Dadigan
Owner of the Hollywood Museum Max Factor

Marc Wanamaker
Film Historian

Lee Purcell
Actress

Jaclyn Smith
Actress

I, Douglas Fairbanks

The dashing and dazzling Douglas Fairbanks was the movie star who “swash buckled in Zorro, dueled exuberantly in Robin Hood and soared magnificently in The Thief of Bagdad”. He was the “First King of Hollywood”. His life story unfolds with American history and the emergence of the film industry as backdrop. His style made him the perfect American icon. At a time when the country did not have any self-doubt, he represented America like no one else: strong, confident, heroic, smiling and conquering. He was “Everybody ́s Hero”. He married the “America ́s Sweetheart”; Mary Pickford, he also started, with Pickford, Chaplin and Griffith, the United Artists Studio which is still a Hollywood player today. This film is the life of Douglas Fairbanks in a first person narration.

Authors & Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2018
Running time : 52 minutes
Networks : ARTE and Ciné +
Production : Wichita Films & ARTE, Ciné + and Kali Pictures 
Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Co Producer : Martine Melloul

Casting

Peter Facinelli

Selected at the St Louis Film Festival, AMDOC Palm Springs and Beverly Hills Film Festival in 2018

The Tiki Craze of Hollywood

Hawaii joined the United States in 1959 and became its 50th state. Hollywood was quick to discover the fabulous location and the native art of the Pacific which turned into a synthetic exotic world to reflect the optimism of the times. Thor Heyerdahl´s book “Kon-Tiki” became a world best-seller, Tiki bars sprang up everywhere, the Mai Tai was the drink of the moment and interiors were decorated with rattan. The nudity of Hula girls was acceptable as they were considered natives and part of folklore. The craze started with SOUTH PACIFIC and Elvis Presley´s movies shot in Hawaii. Marlon Brando was so taken with the local charm that he bought an island in Polynesia and married the Tahitian actress of his MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY while Presley created a “jungle room” Tiki style at Graceland. Tiki had its moment between McCarthyism and the hippy culture. Around 1966 the Jimmy Hendrix generation superseded the Dean Martin generation. Kathmandu replaced Hawaii and marihuana the exotic drinks.

Filmmaker Sébastien Zulian got Sven Kristen, cameraman and author of many books on Tiki as well as Craig Detweiler, film teacher at Pepperdine University, to explain the phenomenon.

Director : Sébastien Zulian
Year : 2018
Running Time : 52 minutes
Network : OCS Géants
Producers : Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Casting

Sven Kristen
Specialist of the Tiki Culture

Craig Detweiler
Film Historian Pepperdine University

Hollywood : No Sex Please!

Deep rooted religious beliefs seemingly going back to the Pilgrim Fathers’ puritanism dominate a society which is entertained by violence no end on a daily basis. If it is true that American movies reflect American society the United States have yet another severe problem: a lack of open sexuality and eroticism. After the Hays Code had faded away Hollywood exploited the newly found freedom in films like “Basic Instinct” and “Body Heat” to name but a few. But when Reagan and Bush came to power the public attitude to sex changed again. This film is demonstrating how the American film industry correctly reflects these changes in behavior. Carefully selected film clips ranging from “Basic Instinct” and “Midnight Cowboy” to “The Last Tango” underpin a narration woven together from interviews with those who are in the forefront of sexual liberation. Needless to say that relevant TV series like “Mad Men”, “Californication”, “Masters of Sex” and “Sex in the City” also feature.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2017
Running Time : 55 minutes
Network : OCS Géants
Co Producer : Martine Melloul – Kali Pictures

Casting

Adrian Lyne
Film Director

Michelle Ashford
Creator and screenwriter of the TV Series Masters of Sex

Linda Williams
Author of Screening Sex

Craig Detweiler
Film Historian

Presse

Hollywood Spies

Selected at the Festival International du Film Policier de Liège 2018

Spymasters throughout the 20th century, and particularly during times of conflict, thought it advantageous to enlist the services of celebrities who had high level and powerful “fans” in various industries, many with easy access to politicians and high ranking government officials. Hollywood, as we now know from declassified National Archive documents, aided in the mobilization for war and its people contributed as spies, combatants, propagandists, documentary and fund-raisers, entertainers, and morale- boosters. Hundreds of celebrities eagerly answered the “call to arms” and brought their talents and patriotism to the intelligence services, military and war information offices.

In the National Archives we discover that stars as Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Leslie Howard, Josephine Baker, John Ford and many more, were spies for the Allies, and changed the curse of the war. They did amazing things, dangerous things, and their fame was their asset. This untold story is very accurate and relevant still today.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2017
Running Time : 52 minutes
Network : OCS Géants

Casting

Deborah Plisko
Author of Celebrities Spies

Tony Maietta
Film Historian

Jonna Mendez
Former CIA Agent

Craig Detweiler
Film Historian, Pepperdine University

Presse

Gene Tierney A Forgotten Star

Selected at the Festival Lumière 2017

According to Martin Scorsese « Gene Tierney was the most underrated star in Hollywood ». Gene Tierney’s life story would perfectly lend itself to a screenplay for a successful Hollywood movie with herself starring in it. She grew up in a well-to-do middle class family. On a trip to Los Angeles she was taken on a tour through the Warner Studios. When Anatole Litvak spotted her, he said to her mother : She ought to be in pictures. A screen test was arranged and a contract offered which her father turned down. When Darryl F Zanuck saw a performance on stage in New York and made her into a real “Fox Girl”. Her motion picture debut was a supporting role in Fritz Lang’s western The Return of Frank James (1940) opposite Henry Fonda. She already received top billing in Ernst Lubitsch’s classic comedy Heaven Can Wait (1943). She rose to stardom in Otto Preminger’s Laura (1943), and Leave Her to Heaven. The marriage to costume and fashion designer Oleg Cassini turned into a nightmare when she gave birth to a handicapped daughter. During a brief reconciliation later on a second daughter Tina was born who luckily turned out perfectly healthy. Their children are part of the documentary talking about their memories. Other stormy relationships marked her life, including one with J.F. Kennedy and Ali Khan, to mention but two. Less well known are her years of mental illness. She spent time in various institutions. In the quest for a genuine family life she finally married a Texan oil baron in 1960.

With the access to the family archives with family photographs, films and notebooks by Gene Tierney, the film follows the memoires of Gene Tierney herself. Her grand children, film director Martin Scorsese and film critics Joseph McBride, Cari Beauchamp and Molly Haskell fill in data where needed.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2016
Running Time : 52 minutes
Network : OCS Géants

Casting

Martin Scorsese
Film Director

Molly Haskell
Film Critic

Cari Beauchamp
Film Historian

Joseph McBride
Film Historian

Cédric Cassini Belmont
Grandson of Gene Tierney

Delphina del Pozo
Granddaughter of Gene Tierney

Alexandre Cassini
Grandson of Gene Tierney

Presse

Hollywood Gossip

Nowadays we are used to the most compromising selfies and Facebook and there is very little privacy for so called public persons.This was not the case when Hollywood was set up. One assumed that tinsel town was a sort of Sodom & Gomorrah but one did not know too much detail. All of this changed when Louella Parsons was hired by Hearst because she allegedly supported Hearst’s mistress and protégé Marion Davies.

Parsons’ syndicated column for the Los Angeles Examiner and later her Radio Shows reached Millions. No wonder she was instrumental in destroying Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, which was a thinly veiled take on Hearst and Davies. Louella Parsons reigned supreme until 1937, when Louis B. Meyer of MGM and some colleagues decided to have their own provider of gossip in the person of Hedda Hopper who had been a modest actress in silent films. In 1938 she started her own column in the Los Angeles Times under the title of Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood.
These columnists could make or break the career of an actor, writer or director. Edda Hopper, a staunch conservative, was one of the prime movers in making Charlie Chaplin leave for Europe in 1952.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2016
Running Time : 53 minutes
Network : OCS Géants

Casting

Cari Beauchamp
Film Historian

Tony Maietta
Film Historian

Samuel Bernstein
Author of  Mr Confidential

Presse

Ronald Reagan A Custom Made President

In 1967, NewYork Police Department detective Ralph Salerno, made a prediction: “Organized Crime will put a man into the White House someday – and he won’t ever know until they hand him the bill”.

This man was Ronald Reagan. His file at the archives of the FBI carries the number 13.82.196. What did the FBI try to find out? Ronald Reagan’s relations with the underworld. Is there some proof needed? Just consult Dan E. Moldea’s Dark Victory, Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob.

While Clara and Julia Kuperberg piece together all the evidence available with investigative journalists who have researched the subject for decades, they also cleverly invite James Ellroy, an outspoken fan of Ronald Reagan’s to give his views, to discuss the career of the two times president in the context of his astonishing ascent to power in post- war America. We hear about a country that beneath all the Hollywood glitz and glamour is thoroughly corrupt.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2016
Running Time : 53 minutes
Network : ARTE France

Casting

Dan E.Moldea
Author of Dark Victory : Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob

James Ellroy
Author of L.A Confidential

Gus Russo
Author of Supermob

Dennis McDougal
Author of Lew Wasserman The Last Mogul

Anne Edwards
Author of Ronald Reagan The Rise to Power

Marvin Rudnick
Former Prosecutor

John Meroney
Journalist

Press

Billy Wilder Nobody’s Perfect

“Eighty percent of a picture is writing, the other twenty percent is the execution, such as having the camera on the right spot and being able to afford to have good actors in all parts”, Billy Wilder once modestly said. And indeed film critics cannot decide whether he is a greater scriptwriter or director, although four of his films belong to the top 100 list established by the American Film Institute; Sight & Sound ranks him as the seventh of their great directors’ list and he received the coveted Life Achievement Award in 1986.

Clara and Julia Kuperberg will also interview film critics such as Joseph McBride and use unique footage with the man himself, whose films are always multi- layered and often full of caustic wit and irony, sometimes hidden behind very funny lines. In typical Wilder fashion he had engraved on his tomb stone: “I’m a Writer but then Nobody’s perfect”. Clips will include Ninotchka, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2016
Time : 54 minutes
Network : OCS Géants

Casting

Joseph McBride
Film critic and Author of Hawks by Hawks

Tony Maietta
Film critic

Paul Diamond
Son of the screenwriter I.A.L Diamond

Presse

Allo Ciné Interview 2016

Allo Ciné 

Interview of Clara et Julia Kuperberg

May 2016 at the Cannes Film Festival 2016 because of the selection of their last film “The Women who Run Hollywood”

Allo Ciné Cannes 2016

Europe 1 Radio Show

<h3><strong>Europe 1 Radio Show "Social Club"</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Interview with Frédéric Taddeï </strong><strong>of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  (around 30 minutes)</strong></h3> Tuesday May 10th 2016 at 8 pm on the radio Europe 1, Clara and Kuperberg talk about the selection of their last documentary "The Women who Run Hollywood", selected at the Cannes Film Festival 2016 <a href="http://www.europe1.fr/emissions/europe-1-social-club/europe-1-social-club-100516-2741725">Europe 1 Social Club</a>

Europe 1 Radio Show “Social Club”

Interview with Frédéric Taddeï of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  (around 30 minutes)

Tuesday May 10th 2016 at 8 pm on the radio Europe 1, Clara and Kuperberg talk about the selection of their last documentary “The Women who Run Hollywood”, selected at the Cannes Film Festival 2016

Europe 1 Social Club

France Culture Interview

<h3><strong>France Culture Radio - "La Grande Table"</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  </strong></h3> <strong>Monday May 16th 2016 from the Cannes Film Festival </strong> <strong>Because of the selection of their last film "The Women who Run Hollywood", Clara & Julia Kuperberg have been invited to talk with Caroline Broué on the radio show "La Grande Table" </strong> <a href="http://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/la-grande-table-1ere-partie/la-grande-table-1ere-partie-lundi-16-mai-2016">La Grande Table sur France Culture - Interview</a>

France Culture Radio – “La Grande Table”

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  

Monday May 16th 2016 from the Cannes Film Festival 

Because of the selection of their last film “The Women who Run Hollywood”, Clara & Julia Kuperberg have been invited to talk with Caroline Broué on the radio show “La Grande Table” 

La Grande Table sur France Culture – Interview

Women Lab Interview

Women Lab

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Because of the selection of their last documentary “The Women who Run Hollywood” at the Cannes Film Festival 2016, Clara & Julia Kuperberg talk about their film.

Women Lab Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

TV Show Entrée Libre Interview

TV Show “Entrée Libre” on France 5

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Because of the selection of their last documentary “The Women who Run Hollywood” at the Cannes Film Festival 2016, Clara & Julia Kuperberg talk about their film.

The Women Who Run Hollywood

Selected at the Cannes Film Festival 2016 – Cannes Classics

Selected at the American Film Festival Deauville 2016

Selected at the Festival Lumière de Lyon 2016

Selected at the Athena Film Festival New York 2017

The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy; the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays  for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars; Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood.

And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Running Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

The Cast

Paula Wagner
Film Producer,  Mission Impossible

Ally Acker
Author of Reel Women, and Director of Reel Herstory with Jodie Foster

Cari Beauchamp
Biographer of Frances Marion

Robin Swicord
Screenwriter and Film Director

Lynda Obst
Film Producer

Lillian Gish (archive)
Actress

Sherry Lansing (archive)
Film Producer and Head of studio

Margaret Booth (archive)
Editor at the MGM

Press

Hollywood Censored

Did you know that sometimes Hollywood cinema is glibly defined as a Jewish owned business selling Roman Catholic theology to protestant America? With the Great Depression and evaporating income cinema attendance fell drastically. To counter this trend Hollywood became more and more violent and sexy, to a point that a call for censorship of some kind was in the air. Indeed the better organized catholic minority created the Catholic Legion of Decency and the clergy admonished their Sunday church goers to boycott certain cinemas and films. Hollywood became to be viewed as a place of the damned and sinful.

But Hollywood did certainly not want the government to step in. The studios therefore decided to engage in their own self-censorship. They hired Will Hayes, who had been postmaster general of the United States, a Republican and Presbyterian, non-smoker, non-drinker, but wired to power in Washington and Wall Street. He was expected to “clean up” Tinsel town. A production code was commissioned and written by two Catholics.

This production code gets enforced by July 1934 and worked for the best part of 20 years until American culture changed at the end of WW2. The credo was that crime must not pay. You were not to show how to crack a safe or commit a robbery. A little temptation was alright, but it was necessary to show that it had consequences. This, of course, came as a challenge to script writers and directors and one can say that Hollywood’s most creative era was due to this production code. How directors invented subtexts is best demonstrated by Hitchcock’s Notorious who cleverly circumvented censorship to show the longest and best known kiss between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergmann, while the code restricted you to 30 seconds. Musical comedy presented an elegant way out and Cyd Charisse remembers how she got away with sexy dancing. Only in 1968 is the eroded code formally ended and replaced by a rating system which rather warns than forbids.

Film Directors and Producers : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

The Cast

Thomas Doherty
Author of Hollywood’s Censor & Pre-Code Hollywood

Craig Detweiler
American film Historian and professor at Pepperdine University

Presse

Screwball Comedy When Hollywood Went Mad

The film critic Andrew Sarris defined a Screwball Comedy as “sex comedy without sex”. And indeed the leading characters keep fighting each other as long as possible.When two people would fall in love, they did not simply surrender to their feelings but battle it out. They would lie to one another, play the most hideous tricks on each other, until finally, after having run out of inventions, fall into each other’s arms. All of this using fast and witty dialogue as well as slap stick elements.
The genre developed with the Great Depression and was not only designed to make audiences laugh and forget their daily hardship but also to deal with social problems and sexual desires in a puritan country constrained by poverty and censorship. Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934) is generally considered to be the first of this kind. Other directors famous for their screwball comedies include Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Howard Hawks, George Cukor, William Wyler, Leo McCarey, Preston Sturges, George Stevens and Gregory La Cava.The trend kept going until the early 40s. Major titles include My Man Godfrey, It Happened One Night, The Lady Eve, Bringing up Baby, I Was A Male Ware Bride and Some Like It Hot. The screwball comedies portrayed women, played by actresses such as Carol Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers and Irene Dunne, who were much more independent and intent on pursuing their own careers. Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and James Steward provided worthwhile partners in this game.

Film Directors and producers : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

The Cast

Molly Haskell
Film Critic and Film Historian

Joseph McBride
Author of Hawks by Hawks and Film Historia

Vivian Sobchack
Film Historian

Press

Radio Show France Inter

<h3><strong>France Inter - "Si l'Amérique m'était contée"</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  </strong></h3> <strong>Saturday June 20th, 2015</strong> <strong>For the selection and the screening of their documentary "This is Orson Welles" at the Cannes Film Festival 2015 and it broadcast on TCM Cinéma in May and June 2015</strong> <a href="http://www.franceinter.fr/emission-si-lamerique-metait-contee-saison-2-episode-41-orson-welles-pourquoi-le-geant-est-il-toujou" target="_blank">Si l'Amérique m'était contée - Emission du 20 juin 2015</a>

France Inter – “Si l’Amérique m’était contée”

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  

Saturday June 20th, 2015

For the selection and the screening of their documentary “This is Orson Welles” at the Cannes Film Festival 2015 and it broadcast on TCM Cinéma in May and June 2015

Si l’Amérique m’était contée – Emission du 20 juin 2015

Le Journal des Femmes

Viva Cinéma TV Show

TV Show Viva Cinéma

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

For the selection of their documentary “This is Orson Welles” at the Cannes Film Festival 2015

TV Show broadcasted on June 6th 2015 at 8:20pm on Ciné + Classic

Canal Sat Interview

CANAL SAT

Interview de Clara et Julia Kuperberg

For the broadcast of their new film ; “This is Orson Welles” on TCM Cinéma and it selection to the Cannes Film Festival 2015

Ecran Total – May 2015

<p>Sorry, this entry is only available in <a href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/">Français</a>.</p>

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

This is Orson Welles

Selected to the Cannes Film Festival 2015

World premiere at Cannes Classics screened with the new restored version of Citizen Kane.

Misunderstood genius, superstar, Hollywood’s fallen angel … Orson Welles left his indelible mark on the 20th century. Yet how to talk about Welles without falling into overstatement and excess? Discover the man behind the myth in a rare interview with Orson Welles and the exclusive memories of his friends and admirers.

Martin Scorsese, Henry Jaglom, his eldest daughter Chris Welles, together with old friends Peter Bogdanovich and the critic Joseph Mc Bride, deliver an intimate portrait of the man who shattered every rule of American film-making.

From the scandal of his War of the Worlds broadcast to the RKO years with Citizen Kane and his exile in Europe, Orson Welles looks back with humour and emotion on his errors, his successes, his early stage career and his education in the art of film-making.

Film Directors and Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Time : 52 minutes
Channel : TCM Cinema

Cast

Martin Scorsese
Film Director

Peter Bogdanovich
Film Director

Henry Jaglom
Film Director

Chris Welles
Daughter of Orson Welles

Joseph McBride
Cinema Film Historian

Presse

Allo Ciné 2015 Interview

Allo Ciné

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

In Mai 2015 at the Cannes Film Festival for the selection of their film :  “This is Orson Welles”

http://www.allocine.fr/video/video-19553684/

Europe 1 Interview

<h3><strong>RADIO LIVE SHOW : Europe 1 Frédéric Taddeï - (at 01h00)</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg </strong></h3> <strong>For the selection of their documentary "This is Orson Welles" at the Cannes Film Festival </strong> From the Cannes Film Festival, the May 19, 2015 <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/fr/podcast/europe-1-social-club/id778649931?mt=2&i=342632742" target="_blank">https://itunes.apple.com/fr/podcast/europe-1-social-club/id778649931?mt=2&i=342632742</a></p>

RADIO LIVE SHOW : Europe 1 Frédéric Taddeï – (at 01h00)

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

For the selection of their documentary “This is Orson Welles” at the Cannes Film Festival 

From the Cannes Film Festival, the May 19, 2015

https://itunes.apple.com/fr/podcast/europe-1-social-club/id778649931?mt=2&i=342632742

Télé Obs : Interview

Cheek Magazine : Interview

James Ellroy : «American Dog»

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>LGM Productions</strong> | Year : <strong>2006</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | Channel</strong> : <strong>ARTE - Released in DVD : ARTE Video en France and in USA </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast</h3> <strong>James Ellroy</strong> : Writer <strong>Bill Stoner</strong> : Detective <strong>Bruce Wagner</strong> : Writer <strong>Dana Delany</strong> : Actress <strong>William Bratton</strong> : Chief of the LAPD <strong>Tim Wride</strong> : Writer & Photograph <strong>Jerry Derloshon</strong> : Specialist of the American Culture <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/james-ellroy-american-dog/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by LGM Productions | Year : 2006
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : ARTE – Released in DVD : ARTE Video en France and in USA

The Cast

James Ellroy : Writer
Bill Stoner : Detective
Bruce Wagner : Writer
Dana Delany : Actress
William Bratton : Chief of the LAPD
Tim Wride : Writer & Photograph
Jerry Derloshon : Specialist of the American Culture

This is the story of a life-long obsession, the life in question being James Ellroy’s. From a news item – the murder of the Black Dahlia – to the slaying of his mother, this is the initiatory journey of a man and author who plumbed the depths of hell before finding redemption. Why do all his books keep returning to the same subject, with the same protagonists? Because his entire life, both as a man and a writer, has revolved around a single obsession: the murder of his mother – a murder which became entangled with the killing of the girl known as the Black Dahlia, found naked and mutilated on a vacant lot ten years earlier.

A series of contributors will provide the key information to help better understand this rite-of-passage of a man who had all the traits of a serial killer, a man who is now one of the greatest thriller writers of the age, a man for whom the journey is not yet over.

Martin Scorsese : The Emotion through the Music

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by<strong> LGM Productions</strong> | Year : <strong>2005</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel :<strong> Ciné Cinéma </strong> <strong>Selected and screened at le Centre Pompidou in the exhibit "Intégrale Martin Scorsese" from November 2005 to March 2006 </strong> <strong>Special price at the Festival du Louvre « Classique en Images ».</strong> <hr /> <h3>Cast:</h3> <strong>Martin Scorsese</strong> <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/martin-scorsese-lemotion-par-la-musique/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by LGM Productions | Year : 2005
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Selected and screened at le Centre Pompidou in the exhibit “Intégrale Martin Scorsese” from November 2005 to March 2006

Special price at the Festival du Louvre « Classique en Images ».

Cast:

Martin Scorsese

From Taxi Driver, for which he hired the great Bernard Herrmann, meet with New York New York, or The Last Waltz, until now, as he produces a series of documentaries about Blues music, and even the near future, since he is currently preparing a documentary about, and starring Bob Dylan, – The Bob Dylan Anthology – , one can definitely say that music, in Martin Scorsese’s universe, is the very core of his movie making.

I used to live in an overpopulated neighbourhood where you could hear the music through every apartment’s windows, as well as pubs’ or candy stores’. Radio was on the whole day long, we heard the juke-box from the other side of the street, and in the big towers, we would hear opera through one window, Benny Goodman through another, and rock and roll on the first floor. That really was crazy… a nuts’ neighborhood…So, I thought: “Why don’t we ever get to see that in the movies?”

The Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood

Writers Directors : <strong></strong><strong>Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong></strong><strong>Viva Productions</strong> | Year :<strong> </strong><strong>2005</strong> Running Time :<strong></strong><strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel :<strong> </strong><strong>Ciné Cinéma</strong> <hr /> <h3>Cast:</h3> <strong>Elliott Gould</strong> : Actor <strong>Valerie Yaros</strong> : SAG Historian <strong>Melissa Gilbert</strong> : Actress and President of the SAG <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/le-syndicat-des-acteurs-a-hollywood/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Viva Productions | Year : 2005
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Cast:

Elliott Gould : Actor
Valerie Yaros : SAG Historian
Melissa Gilbert : Actress and President of the SAG

When everyone thinks of Hollywood, the Golden years of Hollywood, all you see is beauty everything in the screen, the lines of chorus girls are all smiling, happy and everyone looks perfectly fine but, behind the scenes, the actual people that you see on screen, it was often very, very different. These people were tired, these people worked “worryingly” long hours in many cases. There was nothing to really control how this worked. You did not have overtime, you did not have nearpenalties, you did not have people on the sets observing the sets to make sure that nothing dangerous was being done. The only organization in fact that existed at all covering anything for actors at that time in Hollywood was the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, until The Screen Actors Guild.

The Howard Hughes Mystery

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Program 33</strong> | Year : <strong>2004</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel :<strong> France 5 </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast:</h3> <strong>Richard Hack</strong> : Author of the biography about Howard Hughes <strong>Pat Broeske</strong> : Journalist <strong>Robert Maheu</strong> : Associate of Howard Hughes and ex CIA agent <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/le-mystere-howard-hughes/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Program 33 | Year : 2004
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : France 5

The Cast:

Richard Hack : Author of the biography about Howard Hughes
Pat Broeske : Journalist
Robert Maheu : Associate of Howard Hughes and ex CIA agent

Joseph Campbell The Hero with the Thousand Faces

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Telescope Audiovisuel</strong> | Year : <strong>2004</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | Channel</strong> :<strong> Ciné Cinéma </strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>George Miller</strong> : Director <em>Mad Max</em> <strong>Gerald McDermott</strong> : Specialist of Joseph Campbell <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/joseph-campbell-le-heros-aux-mille-visages/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Telescope Audiovisuel | Year : 2004
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Les intervenants

George Miller : Director Mad Max
Gerald McDermott : Specialist of Joseph Campbell

All stories are myths. For all stories make up the mosaic of myth, what Campbell called the “modern myths”. So it doesn’t matter whether it is a movie, a novel, an opera or indeed a new story. It all contributes to this mosaic that we could call the myths. And somehow it’s the world narrative, it’s the narrative of human kind across the ages. So film making it’s just a subspecies of it it’s just a small part of that process. I dare to say that almost any movie falls into the category of mythology. But the most striking examples I think that everybody’s quote is George Lucas’ StarWars stories. Particularly the first trilogy. Which was inspired enormously by Joseph Campbell and “Hero With the Thousand Faces”.  George Miller

The Hollywood Exiled

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Program 33</strong> | Year : <strong>2003</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel : <strong>Planète </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast</h3> <strong>Norma Barzman</strong> : Blacklisted Screenwriter<strong> Bernard Gordon</strong> : Blacklisted Screenwriter<strong> Del Reisman </strong>: President of The Writers Guild of America <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/les-exiles-dhollywood/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Program 33 | Year : 2003
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Planète

The Cast

Norma Barzman : Blacklisted Screenwriter
Bernard Gordon : Blacklisted Screenwriter
Del Reisman : President of The Writers Guild of America

The Secret Story of Universal Studio

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Program 33</strong> | Year : <strong>2003</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel : <strong>Ciné Cinéma </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast:</h3> <strong>Dennis McDougall : </strong>Journalist at the <em>LA Times </em>and Author of the biography about Lew Wasserman; <em>The Last Mogul</em> <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/universal-story-histoire-secrete-dun-studio/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Program 33 | Year : 2003
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

The Cast:

Dennis McDougall : Journalist at the LA Times and Author of the biography about Lew Wasserman; The Last Mogul

Dean Tavoularis The Magician of Hollywood

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Program 33</strong> | Year : <strong>2003</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel : <strong>Ciné Cinéma </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast:</h3> <strong>Francis Ford Coppola</strong><strong> Warren Beatty Roman Polanski Gérard Depardieu Nancy Meyers</strong> <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/dean-tavoularis-le-magicien-dhollywood/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Program 33 | Year : 2003
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

The Cast:

Francis Ford Coppola
Warren Beatty
Roman Polanski
Gérard Depardieu
Nancy Meyers

Le Doux Parfum de la Corruption

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par <strong>Program 33</strong> | Année : <strong>2003</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’</strong><strong> | </strong>Diffuseur : <strong>Canal Jimmy </strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>Sally Denton</strong> Journaliste politique <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/le-doux-parfum-de-la-corruption/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Program 33 | Année : 2003
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : Canal Jimmy

Les intervenants

Sally Denton Journaliste politique

Journaliste spécialisée dans les affaires criminelles, Sally Denton a mené l’enquête sur les liens occultes qui unissent, aujourd’hui encore, les parrains de Las Vegas et les plus hautes sphères du pouvoir américain.
Comment Las Vegas sert de caisse noire aux Présidents Américains depuis des décennies.

Le Glamour à Hollywood par George Sidney

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par <strong>Program 33</strong> | Année : <strong>2002</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’</strong><strong> | </strong>Diffuseur : <strong>Ciné Cinéma </strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>George Sidney Jean-Pierre Dionnet</strong> <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/le-glamour-a-hollywood-par-george-sidney/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Program 33 | Année : 2002
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : Ciné Cinéma

Les intervenants

George Sidney
Jean-Pierre Dionnet

« Le petit-maître, élégant et raffiné du cinéma », Monsieur George Sidney, nous livre dans sa dernière interview le récit d’un Hollywood aujourd’hui disparu. travers des images d’archives et des extraits de ses films, ce documentaire retrace l’ensemble de son oeuvre et nous dévoile la vie des studios et des plus grandes stars qu’il a fait tourner. Un voyage dans le glamour et l’âge d’or hollywoodien.

Los Angeles – Film Noir

The approach to the subject matter is innovative in so far as they focus on Los Angeles as the model for urban crime. And who else would be better suited to talk about the underbelly of the city than James Ellroy.

Directors & Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Running Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

Cast

James Ellroy
Writer

Eddie Muller
Writer & Film noir expert

Alain Silver
Writer

Press

Steve Schapiro An Eye on American Icons

Brooklyn born Steve Schapiro discovered photography at the age of 9 at a summer camp. He spent decades prowling the streets of his native New York City trying to emulate Henry Cartier Bresson whom he greatly admired. He later studied with W. Eugene Smith, pioneer of the photo essay. Smith not only taught him the technical skills but also formed his personal outlook and world-view. From 1961 Schapiro worked as a freelance photo-journalist and contributed to major magazines.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2014
Running Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

Cast

Steve Schapiro
Photographer

Dustin Hoffman
Acteur

Jodie Foster
Actress

Michael Mann
Director

Susan Mann
Friend of Steve Schapiro

Benedikt Taschen
Editor

 Press

The Warner Saga

The Warner Brothers’ career is a true “rags to riches” story. They very quickly sensed that there was more money to be made with film than with the paternal shop in Youngtown, Ohio. When Sam Warner saw the Edison Kinetoscope for the first time, he saw the future. The brothers bought a projector which came with one print, the old classic western The Great Train Robbery. And they made more money in a week, showing this movie in a rented hall, than their father in a month.

So Jack and Sam set out to California to produce movies in 1912. Subsequently the four brothers began to buy up cinemas to show their films and distribute those of others.Warner Features Co., founded in 1913, turned into Warner Brothers Studios and First National Pictures. They signed on Ernst Lubitsch and Michael Curtiz. In 1927 Warners hit the jackpot with the release of their fourth talkie, The Jazz Singer.

Jack Warner became head of productions, assisted by Darryl F. Zanuk. As the Warner brothers were outsiders themselves, they were really street kids, they readily glorified people on the margins, people on the outside, people struggling to get by. They elevated the working class and gave people during the depression in their films somebody to cheer for, somebody who resembled them.This is how the series of Gangster Films came about which swept James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson to movie stardom.

Craig Detweiler, author, filmmaker and professor of communications, who narrates The Warner Saga, thinks, “the Warner brothers saw themselves as Robin Hoods, in the forest, robbing from the rich, making movies for the poor.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Coproduced with EGO Productions
Year : 2014
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné + Classic

Cast

Craig Detweiler
Film Professor Pepperdine University

Press

Sidney Korshak Hollywood’s Fabled Fixer

FBI man Bill Roemer considered Korshak to have been nothing less than “the most important contact that the Mob had to legitimate business, labour, Hollywood and Las Vegas”. And Nick Toshes described him as “one of the great hidden figures of 20th Century organized crime”.

Attorney Sydney Korshak was thought by many to be the most powerful man in Hollywood for the last half Century. Until his death he remained an impeccably dressed enigma whose power reached deep into the lives of Jimmy Hoffa, Frank Sinatra, Lew Wasserman and Ronald Reagan.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2013
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné + Classic

Cast

Gus Russo
Author of Supermob

Dennis McDougal
Author of The Last Mogul

Press

In Search of the Ideal Male made in Hollywood

Critic Molly Haskell says “when I think of male types in the cinema the images of men through the years and how they change I don’t really see it in terms of evolution, of progress. I really think even more than with women, there are sort of two or three basic types and they just recur over and over but in different forms, you know, taking on the colour and the contours of the society, the Zeitgeist so to speak.”

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2013
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : OCS Géants

Cast

Molly Haskell
Author of La Femme à l’écran

Maria Janis Cooper
Daugther of Gary Cooper

David Dobkin
The Change Up

Steve Heller
Author of Advertising from the Mad Men Era

Press

John Ford & Monument Valley

Ford’s lifelong association with Utah’s Monument Valley, provided the setting and the backdrop for some of the director’s most famous Westerns. This documentary tells the story of how the trader Harry Goulding set up his shop at Monument Valley to do business with the Navajos who settled there.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2013
Running Time : 53 min
Channel : Ciné + Classic

Cast

Martin Scorsese

Peter Cowie
Author of John Ford and the American West

John Ford (footage)

John Wayne (footage)

Henry Fonda (footage)

James Stewart (footage)

Press

Hollywood the Indestructible

Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2014
Running Time : 52 minutes
Network : Ciné +

Casting

Denise Mann
Author of Hollywood Independents: the Postwar Talent Takeover and teacher at UCLA

Dana Harris
Editor in Chief and General Manager of IndieWire

Press

The Teen Movie Boom

The Teen Movie is a genre like the Western or the Film noir and reflects American culture or subculture and thereby has a huge influence on the younger generations worldwide. With Rebel Without A Cause and Blackboard Jungle, both produced in 1955, the Teen Movie explodes onto the screen.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2012
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : OCS Géants

Cast

Lee Purcell
Actress Big Wednesday by John Milius

Craig Detweiler
Film professor Pepperdine University, Californie.

Susannah Gora
Author and Film Journalist

Press

Soon…

The Witch Hunt is On!

« Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the communist party? » This is the question thousands of Americans were forced to answer during the years of anti-communist paranoia. From chewing gum vignettes for children to movies made in Hollywood, anti-Communist propaganda would become one of the driving forces of American politics and the obsession of several skillful politicians.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2012
Running Time : 53 min
Channel : Ciné + Classic

Cast

Michael Barson
Author of Red Scared ! The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture

Steven Heller
Author of Red Scared !
Art director at The NY Times

Press

Milos Forman Taking Off in America

During one hour, the film director Milos Forman tells his journey from Czechoslovakia to Hollywood.  Through anecdotes, Milos Forman explains how he succeeded in Hollywood and how difficult sometimes it was. From a communist country where shooting films was sometimes a hard work to a capitalist country, the film director talks about his adaptation with humour and emotion.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2011
Running Time : 58 min
Channel : TCM Turner Classic Movies

Cast

Milos Forman

Michael Douglas

Woody Harrelson

Louise Fletcher

F. Murray Abraham

Treat Williams

Press

Entrée Libre France 5 Interview

Entrée Libre – TV Show the May 4th, 2015, on  France 5.

Interview of Clara and Julia Kuperberg

For the sélection at the Cannes Film Festival of their documentary “This Is Orson Welles”.

Hollywood between Paranoia & Sci-Fi – The Power of Myth

Extra-terrestrials, the end of the world, nuclear war, visions of doom, giant tsunamis, devastating meteorites, invaders of every sort: For over 50 years, the American movie industry has specialized in disaster films, in pre or post-apocalypse science fiction, in the visionary or futuristic genres in which political and biblical allusions collide.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2010
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : TCM Turner Classic Movies

Cast

Steven Spielberg

James Cameron

George Lucas

Philip Kaufman

Roland Emmerich

David Scarpa
Screenwriter The Day The Earth Stood Still

Mark Protosevich
Screenwriter I Am Legend

Vivian Sobchack
Professor & Author of American Science Fiction Film

Press

Stanley Donen, You Just Do It

Since he was a child, Stanley Donen attended dance classes and debuted on Broadway at age 17. With the help of the producer Arthur Freed and the actor Gene Kelly he got the chance to direct the musicals On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain and Love is Better Than Ever which revolutionized the genre.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2010
Running time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Cast

Stanley Donen

Press

From Weepies to Chick Flicks

Since the mid-80’s, the so called chick flick genre has grown into an authentic cultural and sociological phenomenon in the film industry reflecting the dreams and longings of modern young women with titles such as When Harry met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Pretty Woman, Baby Boom, The Bridget Jones Diary.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2009
Running time : 52 min
Channel : ARTE
Watch this film in VOD on ARTE VOD

Cast

Jennifer Garner Actress Daredevil, 13 Going on 30, Alias, Juno

Nora Ephron Screenwriter & Director, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Julie & Julia

Darren Star Creator, Producer, Writer Sex & The City

Lynda Obst Producer Flashdance, One Fine Day, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Delia Ephron Screenwriter

Robin Swicord  Screenwriter Memoirs of a Geisha

Molly Haskell Writer From Reverence to Rape

Callie Khouri  Screenwriter Thelma & Louise

Kim Adelman Writer Journalist

Press

The Art of Spiegelman

Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman is best known for his creation of MAUS, which in the form of comics retraces his parents’ story as they survived the Holocaust. He worked for The New Yorker for ten years. In 2005, Time Magazine named Spiegelman one of their « Top 100 Most Influential People of the Century ».

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Joelle Oosterlinck
Year : 2009
Running time : 43 min
Channel : ARTE
Buy the DVD on AMAZON
Watch this film in VOD on ARTE VOD

Cast

Art Spiegelman

Françoise Mouly
His wife and Art Director of The New Yorker

Charles Burns
Cartoonist

Nadja Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman’s daughter

Press

The True Story of John Dillinger

Michael Mann directed his latest movie Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp as the famous gangster John Dillinger. While the film inspired by the Bryan Burrough’s famous best-seller romanticizes the life of the gangster, this documentary wants to tell the true story in the historic context of the time.

Writer Director: Robert Kuperberg
Coproduced with Ego Productions
Year : 2009
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : 13eme Rue – NBC Universal

Cast

Bryan Burrough
Author Public Enemies

Richard Hack
Author Puppetmaster : The Secret Life of J.Edgar Hoover

Press

Broadway goes Hollywood

Musical comedy is a typical American form of entertainment dealing with burning issues of the American society from slavery to depression and World War II to Vietnam War. With Cyd Charisse and Hermes Pan, two of the leading exponents of the genre. With clips from major musical comedies.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2008
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Cast

Hermes Pan

Cyd Charisse

Press

The Brother who sent the Rosenbergs to the Electric Chair

In July 1950 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, both American citizens, were arrested by the FBI for delivering vital information on the US nuclear program to the Soviet Union. They both insisted that they were innocent, went on trial, were condemned and executed on June 19th 1953.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2008
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Planète

Cast

Robert Meeropol
Son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Sam Roberts
Journalist for The New York Times

Ray Batvinis
Ex FBI agent

Jennifer Meeropol
Grand-daughter of the Rosenbergs

Press

The Silver Screen Revolution : New Faces in Hollywood

This is the story of how a handful of young and enthusiastic filmmakers stormed the citadel of the American movie industry and created a new cinema. It was an age when talented young people like Scorsese, Coppola and Spielberg along with a new breed of actors such as De Niro…

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2008
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Cast

Martin Scorsese

Jerry Schatzberg
Director The Panic in Needle Park

Dean Tavoularis
Production Designer The Godfather, Bonnie and Clyde,  Apocalypse Now…

Dominick Dunne,
Producer, Writer for Vanity Fair

Press

Sinatra a Song for the FBI

Who knows that the FBI had a file of 1275 pages about Frank Sinatra, by far the largest on any show biz personality.  What interested the FBI most was Sinatra’s relations with organised crime, his friendship with the Great and the Good including some of the most notorious Mafia bosses…

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2007
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : 13e Rue – NBC Universal

Cast

John L.Smith
Journalist for The Las Vegas Review Journal

Tom Kuntz
Journalist for The New York Times

Phil Kuntz
Journalist for The Wall Street Journal

Corinne Sidney
Ex-wife of the Sands
Casino boss Jack Entratter

Press

Dominick Dunne In search of Justice

This documentary is the story of the extraordinary life story of Dominick Dunne, best known as an investigative journalist and writer for Vanity Fair, for successful novels and also the presenter of Power, Privilege and Justice on Court TV.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2007
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Jimmy
Best Documentary Award Beverly Hills Films Festival 2007

Cast

Dominick Dunne
Writer and Journalist for Vanity Fair

Griffin Dunne
His son, Actor, Director, Producer

Joan Didion
Writer and sister in law of Dominick’s

Jerry Schatzberg
Director The Panic in Needle Park

Graydon Carter
Editor in chief of Vanity Fair

Press

The Dark Side of the FBI

Since its foundation the FBI has always been shrouded in mystery but when J.Edgar Hoover took over he made it into one of the most brilliant search engines of our time. Hoover was at the helm of the agency for nearly fifty years and survived eight presidents of the United States and many attempts to get rid of him. What made this man so powerful ?

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2006
Running Time : 55 min
Channel : Jimmy

Cast

Richard Hack
Author of the best-seller
Puppetmaster : The Secret Life of J.Edgar Hoover

Tom Kuntz
Journalist for The New York Times

Phil Kuntz
Journalist for The Wall Street Journal

Ray Batvinis
Ex FBI agent

Press

Satellifax – 06/02/15

CineChronicle -04/05/2015

Huffington Post – 22/02/15

Surf Now, Apocalypse Later

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par <strong>Program 33</strong> | Année : <strong>2002</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’</strong> | Diffuseur : <strong>Canal Jimmy</strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>John Milius </strong>Réalisateur de Big Wednesday <strong>Gary Busey </strong>Acteur <strong>Lee Purcell </strong>Actrice <strong>William Katt </strong>Acteur <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/surf-now-apocalypse-later/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Program 33 | Année : 2002
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : Canal Jimmy

Les intervenants

John Milius Réalisateur de Big Wednesday
Gary Busey Acteur
Lee Purcell Actrice
William Katt Acteur

Intrigues amoureuses au goût de guimauve, décapotables, drive-in, parties nocturnes sur la plage arrosées de Coca et de milk-shakes, cette vision rassurante de la jeunesse, symbole d’une Amérique bien pensante en plein boom économique après les privations de la guerre, a nourri l’imaginaire quotidien de générations d’adolescents.

L’univers de surf, récupéré par Hollywood, devait servir de toile de fond au rétablissement des valeurs traditionnelles.
Qu’elle soit montrée de façon réaliste ou artificielle, cette culture si spécifique exercera dès lors un pouvoir d’attraction phénoménal auprès de milliers de jeunes en quête d’évasion et de liberté. Coup de massue pour cette génération dorée, la guerre du Vietnam viendra bouleverser ce fragile équilibre et plongera la société en proie au chaos social dans une profonde crise identitaire. Au travers de ce monde idyllique au décor de plages californiennes, ce documentaire montre ce basculement des valeurs, l’évolution brusque et irrémédiable d’une jeunesse insouciante, protégée jusqu’alors du monde réel, qu’elle soit indisciplinée comme les personnages de Big Wednesday ou sagement conformiste comme les gaillards musclés et les jeunes filles de bonne famille des Beach party movies.

Le Film Français – 18/04/14

Loving Las Vegas

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par <strong>Program 33 | </strong>Année : <strong>2002</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’</strong> | Diffuseur : <strong>Canal Jimmy</strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>George Sidney </strong>Réalisateur Les 3 Mousquetaires, Pal Joey, Scaramouche... <strong>Corinne Sidney John L.Smith </strong>Journaliste <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/loving-las-vegas-2002-52/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Program 33 | Année : 2002
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : Canal Jimmy

Les intervenants

George Sidney Réalisateur Les 3 Mousquetaires, Pal Joey, Scaramouche…
Corinne Sidney
John L.Smith Journaliste

On connaît surtout de Las Vegas ses mythes, les stars d’Hollywood, les casinos, la mafia, Frank Sinatra, le Rat Pack, Ocean’s Eleven mais que connaît-on des architectes qui ont conçu et construit ce «piège à touristes» ?

La Mafia à Hollywood

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par<strong> Lobster Films | </strong>Année : <strong>2002</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’ | </strong>Diffuseur : <strong>France 5</strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>Dan Moldea </strong>Journaliste <strong>Dennis McDougal </strong>Journaliste <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/la-mafia-a-hollywood-2002-52/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Lobster Films | Année : 2002
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : France 5

Les intervenants

Dan Moldea Journaliste
Dennis McDougal Journaliste

Après la crise de 1929, les Studios vont perdre la majorité de leurs financiers de Wall Street. Ils sont au bord de la faillite. MGM et Warner décident de réduire les salaires des acteurs de 30 à 50%. Pour résister, les acteurs créent leur syndicat : la Screen Actors Guild (le Syndicat des Acteurs). Terrorisés par la profession qui leur échappe, les Studios font appel aux gangsters de Chicago qui ont des visées sur Hollywood pour blanchir l’argent de la Prohibition. Ils placent leurs hommes à la tête des syndicats d’Hollywood. C’est cette lutte féroce que la mafia a exercée à Hollywood que ce film raconte.

Comment les grands Patrons des Studios ont appelé les gangsters à la rescousse, et se sont retrouvés prisonniers de ces mafieux qui les rançonnèrent à leur tour.

Our Movies

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
The Max Factor The Max Factor
The Max Factor
I, Douglas Fairbanks I, Douglas Fairbanks
I, Douglas Fairbanks
The Tiki Craze of Hollywood The Tiki Craze of Hollywood
The Tiki Craze of Hollywood
Hollywood : No Sex Please! Hollywood : No Sex Please!
Hollywood : No Sex Please!
Hollywood Spies Hollywood Spies
Hollywood Spies
Gene Tierney A Forgotten Star Gene Tierney A Forgotten Star
Gene Tierney A Forgotten Star
Hollywood Gossip Hollywood Gossip
Hollywood Gossip
Ronald Reagan A Custom Made President Ronald Reagan A Custom Made President
Ronald Reagan A Custom Made President
Billy Wilder Nobody’s Perfect Billy Wilder Nobody’s Perfect
Billy Wilder Nobody’s Perfect
Allo Ciné Interview 2016 Allo Ciné Interview 2016
Allo Ciné Interview 2016
Europe 1 Radio Show Europe 1 Radio Show
Europe 1 Radio Show
France Culture Interview France Culture Interview
France Culture Interview
Women Lab Interview Women Lab Interview
Women Lab Interview
TV Show Entrée Libre Interview TV Show Entrée Libre Interview
TV Show Entrée Libre Interview
The Women Who Run Hollywood The Women Who Run Hollywood
The Women Who Run Hollywood
Hollywood Censored Hollywood Censored
Hollywood Censored
Screwball Comedy When Hollywood Went Mad Screwball Comedy When Hollywood Went Mad
Screwball Comedy When Hollywood Went Mad
Radio Show France Inter
Radio Show France Inter
Le Journal des Femmes
Le Journal des Femmes
Viva Cinéma TV Show Viva Cinéma TV Show
Viva Cinéma TV Show
Canal Sat Interview Canal Sat Interview
Canal Sat Interview
Ecran Total – May 2015
Ecran Total – May 2015
This is Orson Welles This is Orson Welles
This is Orson Welles
Allo Ciné 2015 Interview Allo Ciné 2015 Interview
Allo Ciné 2015 Interview
Europe 1 Interview Europe 1 Interview
Europe 1 Interview
Télé Obs : Interview
Télé Obs : Interview
Cheek Magazine : Interview
Cheek Magazine : Interview
James Ellroy : «American Dog» James Ellroy : «American Dog»
James Ellroy : «American Dog»
Martin Scorsese : The Emotion through the Music Martin Scorsese : The Emotion through the Music
Martin Scorsese : The Emotion through the Music
The Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood The Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood
The Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood
The Howard Hughes Mystery The Howard Hughes Mystery
The Howard Hughes Mystery
Joseph Campbell The Hero with the Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell The Hero with the Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell The Hero with the Thousand Faces
The Hollywood Exiled The Hollywood Exiled
The Hollywood Exiled
The Secret Story of Universal Studio The Secret Story of Universal Studio
The Secret Story of Universal Studio
Dean Tavoularis The Magician of Hollywood Dean Tavoularis The Magician of Hollywood
Dean Tavoularis The Magician of Hollywood
Le Doux Parfum de la Corruption Le Doux Parfum de la Corruption
Le Doux Parfum de la Corruption
Le Glamour à Hollywood par George Sidney Le Glamour à Hollywood par George Sidney
Le Glamour à Hollywood par George Sidney
Los Angeles – Film Noir Los Angeles – Film Noir
Los Angeles – Film Noir
Steve Schapiro An Eye on American Icons Steve Schapiro An Eye on American Icons
Steve Schapiro An Eye on American Icons
The Warner Saga The Warner Saga
The Warner Saga
Sidney Korshak Hollywood’s Fabled Fixer Sidney Korshak Hollywood’s Fabled Fixer
Sidney Korshak Hollywood’s Fabled Fixer
In Search of the Ideal Male made in Hollywood In Search of the Ideal Male made in Hollywood
In Search of the Ideal Male made in Hollywood
John Ford & Monument Valley John Ford & Monument Valley
John Ford & Monument Valley
Hollywood the Indestructible Hollywood the Indestructible
Hollywood the Indestructible
The Teen Movie Boom The Teen Movie Boom
The Teen Movie Boom
The Witch Hunt is On! The Witch Hunt is On!
The Witch Hunt is On!
Milos Forman Taking Off in America Milos Forman Taking Off in America
Milos Forman Taking Off in America
Entrée Libre France 5 Interview Entrée Libre France 5 Interview
Entrée Libre France 5 Interview
Hollywood between Paranoia & Sci-Fi – The Power of Myth Hollywood between Paranoia & Sci-Fi – The Power of Myth
Hollywood between Paranoia & Sci-Fi – The Power of Myth
Stanley Donen, You Just Do It Stanley Donen, You Just Do It
Stanley Donen, You Just Do It
From Weepies to Chick Flicks From Weepies to Chick Flicks
From Weepies to Chick Flicks
The Art of Spiegelman The Art of Spiegelman
The Art of Spiegelman
The True Story of John Dillinger The True Story of John Dillinger
The True Story of John Dillinger
Broadway goes Hollywood Broadway goes Hollywood
Broadway goes Hollywood
The Brother who sent the Rosenbergs to the Electric Chair The Brother who sent the Rosenbergs to the Electric Chair
The Brother who sent the Rosenbergs to the Electric Chair
The Silver Screen Revolution : New Faces in Hollywood The Silver Screen Revolution : New Faces in Hollywood
The Silver Screen Revolution : New Faces in Hollywood
Sinatra a Song for the FBI Sinatra a Song for the FBI
Sinatra a Song for the FBI
Dominick Dunne In search of Justice Dominick Dunne In search of Justice
Dominick Dunne In search of Justice
The Dark Side of the FBI The Dark Side of the FBI
The Dark Side of the FBI
Satellifax – 06/02/15
Satellifax – 06/02/15
CineChronicle -04/05/2015
CineChronicle -04/05/2015
Huffington Post – 22/02/15
Huffington Post – 22/02/15
Surf Now, Apocalypse Later Surf Now, Apocalypse Later
Surf Now, Apocalypse Later
Le Film Français – 18/04/14
Le Film Français – 18/04/14
Loving Las Vegas Loving Las Vegas
Loving Las Vegas
La Mafia à Hollywood La Mafia à Hollywood
La Mafia à Hollywood

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

Until today, the whitewashing is a racist tradition in Hollywood, and as the “blackface”, the “yellowface” was used in Hollywood as a propaganda tool and manifestation of the racism.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941 changed the world forever. The United States entered WW2. More than 110,000 citizens of Japanese origin were rounded up and dispatched to camps until the end of the war. Hollywood was quick to react with films from Know Your Enemy to Bugs Bunny Nip the Nip. 

With the arrival of the Cold War the enemy image had to change quickly and Hollywood obliged. Clara and Julia Kuperberg found the right interview partners in Joseph McBride, film critic, Nancy Wang Yuen, author of “Reel Inequality”, Tamlyn Tomita, actress in Come See the Paradise, one of the only film about the Japanese Camps in America,  and Dan Akira, specialist of Japanese film history, in order to show how strong an influence the silver screen has on society.

Authors & Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2018
Running Time : 53 minutes
Networks : OCS & Histoire
Production : Wichita Films 
Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Co Producer : Martine Melloul

Casting

Nancy Wang Yuen
Author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism

Tamlyn Tomita
Actress Come See the Paradise

Joseph McBride
Film Historian

Dan Akira
Film Historian

Selected at the Festival Lumière 2018

The Max Factor

The man who created the faces of Hollywood was born in Poland and became the wigmaker and make-up artist to the Court of Tsar Nicolas II. Because of rampant antisemitism in the early 1900s, he and his family fled to America where relatives were living. An immigration officer inadvertently changed his name to Factor with a c instead of a k. Max Factor moved to Hollywood at the right moment. Theatre make-up did not work very well with projectors and close-ups and the talkies as well the introduction of technicolor created other problems Factor brilliantly solved.

For Cecil B. DeMille´s THE SQUAW MAN in 1913 he lent wigs and moustaches made from real hair which was a novelty. He solved the problem of melting lipstick by testing new products in a “kissing machine” and changed the looks of many stars by means of a “beauty calibrator”. In 1935 he had created a make-up empire which allowed him to ask the famous architect S. Charles Lee to build an art-deco office for him which is now the Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles. Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg interviewed film historian Marc Wanamaker who talks about the achievements of Max Factor, while Donelle Dadigan shows us around the Museum, and the actresses Lee Purcell and Jaclyn Smith tell us what Max Factor meant to them. Lots of film clips featuring the stars Factor worked with round off this look behind the scene.

Authors & Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2018
Running Time : 52 minutes
Networks : OCS & Histoire
Production : Wichita Films 
Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg

Casting

Donelle Dadigan
Owner of the Hollywood Museum Max Factor

Marc Wanamaker
Film Historian

Lee Purcell
Actress

Jaclyn Smith
Actress

I, Douglas Fairbanks

The dashing and dazzling Douglas Fairbanks was the movie star who “swash buckled in Zorro, dueled exuberantly in Robin Hood and soared magnificently in The Thief of Bagdad”. He was the “First King of Hollywood”. His life story unfolds with American history and the emergence of the film industry as backdrop. His style made him the perfect American icon. At a time when the country did not have any self-doubt, he represented America like no one else: strong, confident, heroic, smiling and conquering. He was “Everybody ́s Hero”. He married the “America ́s Sweetheart”; Mary Pickford, he also started, with Pickford, Chaplin and Griffith, the United Artists Studio which is still a Hollywood player today. This film is the life of Douglas Fairbanks in a first person narration.

Authors & Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2018
Running time : 52 minutes
Networks : ARTE and Ciné +
Production : Wichita Films & ARTE, Ciné + and Kali Pictures 
Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Co Producer : Martine Melloul

Casting

Peter Facinelli

Selected at the St Louis Film Festival, AMDOC Palm Springs and Beverly Hills Film Festival in 2018

The Tiki Craze of Hollywood

Hawaii joined the United States in 1959 and became its 50th state. Hollywood was quick to discover the fabulous location and the native art of the Pacific which turned into a synthetic exotic world to reflect the optimism of the times. Thor Heyerdahl´s book “Kon-Tiki” became a world best-seller, Tiki bars sprang up everywhere, the Mai Tai was the drink of the moment and interiors were decorated with rattan. The nudity of Hula girls was acceptable as they were considered natives and part of folklore. The craze started with SOUTH PACIFIC and Elvis Presley´s movies shot in Hawaii. Marlon Brando was so taken with the local charm that he bought an island in Polynesia and married the Tahitian actress of his MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY while Presley created a “jungle room” Tiki style at Graceland. Tiki had its moment between McCarthyism and the hippy culture. Around 1966 the Jimmy Hendrix generation superseded the Dean Martin generation. Kathmandu replaced Hawaii and marihuana the exotic drinks.

Filmmaker Sébastien Zulian got Sven Kristen, cameraman and author of many books on Tiki as well as Craig Detweiler, film teacher at Pepperdine University, to explain the phenomenon.

Director : Sébastien Zulian
Year : 2018
Running Time : 52 minutes
Network : OCS Géants
Producers : Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Casting

Sven Kristen
Specialist of the Tiki Culture

Craig Detweiler
Film Historian Pepperdine University

Hollywood : No Sex Please!

Deep rooted religious beliefs seemingly going back to the Pilgrim Fathers’ puritanism dominate a society which is entertained by violence no end on a daily basis. If it is true that American movies reflect American society the United States have yet another severe problem: a lack of open sexuality and eroticism. After the Hays Code had faded away Hollywood exploited the newly found freedom in films like “Basic Instinct” and “Body Heat” to name but a few. But when Reagan and Bush came to power the public attitude to sex changed again. This film is demonstrating how the American film industry correctly reflects these changes in behavior. Carefully selected film clips ranging from “Basic Instinct” and “Midnight Cowboy” to “The Last Tango” underpin a narration woven together from interviews with those who are in the forefront of sexual liberation. Needless to say that relevant TV series like “Mad Men”, “Californication”, “Masters of Sex” and “Sex in the City” also feature.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2017
Running Time : 55 minutes
Network : OCS Géants
Co Producer : Martine Melloul – Kali Pictures

Casting

Adrian Lyne
Film Director

Michelle Ashford
Creator and screenwriter of the TV Series Masters of Sex

Linda Williams
Author of Screening Sex

Craig Detweiler
Film Historian

Presse

Hollywood Spies

Selected at the Festival International du Film Policier de Liège 2018

Spymasters throughout the 20th century, and particularly during times of conflict, thought it advantageous to enlist the services of celebrities who had high level and powerful “fans” in various industries, many with easy access to politicians and high ranking government officials. Hollywood, as we now know from declassified National Archive documents, aided in the mobilization for war and its people contributed as spies, combatants, propagandists, documentary and fund-raisers, entertainers, and morale- boosters. Hundreds of celebrities eagerly answered the “call to arms” and brought their talents and patriotism to the intelligence services, military and war information offices.

In the National Archives we discover that stars as Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Leslie Howard, Josephine Baker, John Ford and many more, were spies for the Allies, and changed the curse of the war. They did amazing things, dangerous things, and their fame was their asset. This untold story is very accurate and relevant still today.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2017
Running Time : 52 minutes
Network : OCS Géants

Casting

Deborah Plisko
Author of Celebrities Spies

Tony Maietta
Film Historian

Jonna Mendez
Former CIA Agent

Craig Detweiler
Film Historian, Pepperdine University

Presse

Gene Tierney A Forgotten Star

Selected at the Festival Lumière 2017

According to Martin Scorsese « Gene Tierney was the most underrated star in Hollywood ». Gene Tierney’s life story would perfectly lend itself to a screenplay for a successful Hollywood movie with herself starring in it. She grew up in a well-to-do middle class family. On a trip to Los Angeles she was taken on a tour through the Warner Studios. When Anatole Litvak spotted her, he said to her mother : She ought to be in pictures. A screen test was arranged and a contract offered which her father turned down. When Darryl F Zanuck saw a performance on stage in New York and made her into a real “Fox Girl”. Her motion picture debut was a supporting role in Fritz Lang’s western The Return of Frank James (1940) opposite Henry Fonda. She already received top billing in Ernst Lubitsch’s classic comedy Heaven Can Wait (1943). She rose to stardom in Otto Preminger’s Laura (1943), and Leave Her to Heaven. The marriage to costume and fashion designer Oleg Cassini turned into a nightmare when she gave birth to a handicapped daughter. During a brief reconciliation later on a second daughter Tina was born who luckily turned out perfectly healthy. Their children are part of the documentary talking about their memories. Other stormy relationships marked her life, including one with J.F. Kennedy and Ali Khan, to mention but two. Less well known are her years of mental illness. She spent time in various institutions. In the quest for a genuine family life she finally married a Texan oil baron in 1960.

With the access to the family archives with family photographs, films and notebooks by Gene Tierney, the film follows the memoires of Gene Tierney herself. Her grand children, film director Martin Scorsese and film critics Joseph McBride, Cari Beauchamp and Molly Haskell fill in data where needed.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2016
Running Time : 52 minutes
Network : OCS Géants

Casting

Martin Scorsese
Film Director

Molly Haskell
Film Critic

Cari Beauchamp
Film Historian

Joseph McBride
Film Historian

Cédric Cassini Belmont
Grandson of Gene Tierney

Delphina del Pozo
Granddaughter of Gene Tierney

Alexandre Cassini
Grandson of Gene Tierney

Presse

Hollywood Gossip

Nowadays we are used to the most compromising selfies and Facebook and there is very little privacy for so called public persons.This was not the case when Hollywood was set up. One assumed that tinsel town was a sort of Sodom & Gomorrah but one did not know too much detail. All of this changed when Louella Parsons was hired by Hearst because she allegedly supported Hearst’s mistress and protégé Marion Davies.

Parsons’ syndicated column for the Los Angeles Examiner and later her Radio Shows reached Millions. No wonder she was instrumental in destroying Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, which was a thinly veiled take on Hearst and Davies. Louella Parsons reigned supreme until 1937, when Louis B. Meyer of MGM and some colleagues decided to have their own provider of gossip in the person of Hedda Hopper who had been a modest actress in silent films. In 1938 she started her own column in the Los Angeles Times under the title of Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood.
These columnists could make or break the career of an actor, writer or director. Edda Hopper, a staunch conservative, was one of the prime movers in making Charlie Chaplin leave for Europe in 1952.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2016
Running Time : 53 minutes
Network : OCS Géants

Casting

Cari Beauchamp
Film Historian

Tony Maietta
Film Historian

Samuel Bernstein
Author of  Mr Confidential

Presse

Ronald Reagan A Custom Made President

In 1967, NewYork Police Department detective Ralph Salerno, made a prediction: “Organized Crime will put a man into the White House someday – and he won’t ever know until they hand him the bill”.

This man was Ronald Reagan. His file at the archives of the FBI carries the number 13.82.196. What did the FBI try to find out? Ronald Reagan’s relations with the underworld. Is there some proof needed? Just consult Dan E. Moldea’s Dark Victory, Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob.

While Clara and Julia Kuperberg piece together all the evidence available with investigative journalists who have researched the subject for decades, they also cleverly invite James Ellroy, an outspoken fan of Ronald Reagan’s to give his views, to discuss the career of the two times president in the context of his astonishing ascent to power in post- war America. We hear about a country that beneath all the Hollywood glitz and glamour is thoroughly corrupt.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2016
Running Time : 53 minutes
Network : ARTE France

Casting

Dan E.Moldea
Author of Dark Victory : Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob

James Ellroy
Author of L.A Confidential

Gus Russo
Author of Supermob

Dennis McDougal
Author of Lew Wasserman The Last Mogul

Anne Edwards
Author of Ronald Reagan The Rise to Power

Marvin Rudnick
Former Prosecutor

John Meroney
Journalist

Press

Billy Wilder Nobody’s Perfect

“Eighty percent of a picture is writing, the other twenty percent is the execution, such as having the camera on the right spot and being able to afford to have good actors in all parts”, Billy Wilder once modestly said. And indeed film critics cannot decide whether he is a greater scriptwriter or director, although four of his films belong to the top 100 list established by the American Film Institute; Sight & Sound ranks him as the seventh of their great directors’ list and he received the coveted Life Achievement Award in 1986.

Clara and Julia Kuperberg will also interview film critics such as Joseph McBride and use unique footage with the man himself, whose films are always multi- layered and often full of caustic wit and irony, sometimes hidden behind very funny lines. In typical Wilder fashion he had engraved on his tomb stone: “I’m a Writer but then Nobody’s perfect”. Clips will include Ninotchka, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2016
Time : 54 minutes
Network : OCS Géants

Casting

Joseph McBride
Film critic and Author of Hawks by Hawks

Tony Maietta
Film critic

Paul Diamond
Son of the screenwriter I.A.L Diamond

Presse

Allo Ciné Interview 2016

Allo Ciné 

Interview of Clara et Julia Kuperberg

May 2016 at the Cannes Film Festival 2016 because of the selection of their last film “The Women who Run Hollywood”

Allo Ciné Cannes 2016

Europe 1 Radio Show

<h3><strong>Europe 1 Radio Show "Social Club"</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Interview with Frédéric Taddeï </strong><strong>of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  (around 30 minutes)</strong></h3> Tuesday May 10th 2016 at 8 pm on the radio Europe 1, Clara and Kuperberg talk about the selection of their last documentary "The Women who Run Hollywood", selected at the Cannes Film Festival 2016 <a href="http://www.europe1.fr/emissions/europe-1-social-club/europe-1-social-club-100516-2741725">Europe 1 Social Club</a>

Europe 1 Radio Show “Social Club”

Interview with Frédéric Taddeï of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  (around 30 minutes)

Tuesday May 10th 2016 at 8 pm on the radio Europe 1, Clara and Kuperberg talk about the selection of their last documentary “The Women who Run Hollywood”, selected at the Cannes Film Festival 2016

Europe 1 Social Club

France Culture Interview

<h3><strong>France Culture Radio - "La Grande Table"</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  </strong></h3> <strong>Monday May 16th 2016 from the Cannes Film Festival </strong> <strong>Because of the selection of their last film "The Women who Run Hollywood", Clara & Julia Kuperberg have been invited to talk with Caroline Broué on the radio show "La Grande Table" </strong> <a href="http://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/la-grande-table-1ere-partie/la-grande-table-1ere-partie-lundi-16-mai-2016">La Grande Table sur France Culture - Interview</a>

France Culture Radio – “La Grande Table”

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  

Monday May 16th 2016 from the Cannes Film Festival 

Because of the selection of their last film “The Women who Run Hollywood”, Clara & Julia Kuperberg have been invited to talk with Caroline Broué on the radio show “La Grande Table” 

La Grande Table sur France Culture – Interview

Women Lab Interview

Women Lab

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Because of the selection of their last documentary “The Women who Run Hollywood” at the Cannes Film Festival 2016, Clara & Julia Kuperberg talk about their film.

Women Lab Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

TV Show Entrée Libre Interview

TV Show “Entrée Libre” on France 5

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

Because of the selection of their last documentary “The Women who Run Hollywood” at the Cannes Film Festival 2016, Clara & Julia Kuperberg talk about their film.

The Women Who Run Hollywood

Selected at the Cannes Film Festival 2016 – Cannes Classics

Selected at the American Film Festival Deauville 2016

Selected at the Festival Lumière de Lyon 2016

Selected at the Athena Film Festival New York 2017

The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy; the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays  for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars; Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood.

And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.

Directors : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Running Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

The Cast

Paula Wagner
Film Producer,  Mission Impossible

Ally Acker
Author of Reel Women, and Director of Reel Herstory with Jodie Foster

Cari Beauchamp
Biographer of Frances Marion

Robin Swicord
Screenwriter and Film Director

Lynda Obst
Film Producer

Lillian Gish (archive)
Actress

Sherry Lansing (archive)
Film Producer and Head of studio

Margaret Booth (archive)
Editor at the MGM

Press

Hollywood Censored

Did you know that sometimes Hollywood cinema is glibly defined as a Jewish owned business selling Roman Catholic theology to protestant America? With the Great Depression and evaporating income cinema attendance fell drastically. To counter this trend Hollywood became more and more violent and sexy, to a point that a call for censorship of some kind was in the air. Indeed the better organized catholic minority created the Catholic Legion of Decency and the clergy admonished their Sunday church goers to boycott certain cinemas and films. Hollywood became to be viewed as a place of the damned and sinful.

But Hollywood did certainly not want the government to step in. The studios therefore decided to engage in their own self-censorship. They hired Will Hayes, who had been postmaster general of the United States, a Republican and Presbyterian, non-smoker, non-drinker, but wired to power in Washington and Wall Street. He was expected to “clean up” Tinsel town. A production code was commissioned and written by two Catholics.

This production code gets enforced by July 1934 and worked for the best part of 20 years until American culture changed at the end of WW2. The credo was that crime must not pay. You were not to show how to crack a safe or commit a robbery. A little temptation was alright, but it was necessary to show that it had consequences. This, of course, came as a challenge to script writers and directors and one can say that Hollywood’s most creative era was due to this production code. How directors invented subtexts is best demonstrated by Hitchcock’s Notorious who cleverly circumvented censorship to show the longest and best known kiss between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergmann, while the code restricted you to 30 seconds. Musical comedy presented an elegant way out and Cyd Charisse remembers how she got away with sexy dancing. Only in 1968 is the eroded code formally ended and replaced by a rating system which rather warns than forbids.

Film Directors and Producers : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

The Cast

Thomas Doherty
Author of Hollywood’s Censor & Pre-Code Hollywood

Craig Detweiler
American film Historian and professor at Pepperdine University

Presse

Screwball Comedy When Hollywood Went Mad

The film critic Andrew Sarris defined a Screwball Comedy as “sex comedy without sex”. And indeed the leading characters keep fighting each other as long as possible.When two people would fall in love, they did not simply surrender to their feelings but battle it out. They would lie to one another, play the most hideous tricks on each other, until finally, after having run out of inventions, fall into each other’s arms. All of this using fast and witty dialogue as well as slap stick elements.
The genre developed with the Great Depression and was not only designed to make audiences laugh and forget their daily hardship but also to deal with social problems and sexual desires in a puritan country constrained by poverty and censorship. Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934) is generally considered to be the first of this kind. Other directors famous for their screwball comedies include Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Howard Hawks, George Cukor, William Wyler, Leo McCarey, Preston Sturges, George Stevens and Gregory La Cava.The trend kept going until the early 40s. Major titles include My Man Godfrey, It Happened One Night, The Lady Eve, Bringing up Baby, I Was A Male Ware Bride and Some Like It Hot. The screwball comedies portrayed women, played by actresses such as Carol Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers and Irene Dunne, who were much more independent and intent on pursuing their own careers. Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and James Steward provided worthwhile partners in this game.

Film Directors and producers : Julia Kuperberg & Clara Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

The Cast

Molly Haskell
Film Critic and Film Historian

Joseph McBride
Author of Hawks by Hawks and Film Historia

Vivian Sobchack
Film Historian

Press

Radio Show France Inter

<h3><strong>France Inter - "Si l'Amérique m'était contée"</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  </strong></h3> <strong>Saturday June 20th, 2015</strong> <strong>For the selection and the screening of their documentary "This is Orson Welles" at the Cannes Film Festival 2015 and it broadcast on TCM Cinéma in May and June 2015</strong> <a href="http://www.franceinter.fr/emission-si-lamerique-metait-contee-saison-2-episode-41-orson-welles-pourquoi-le-geant-est-il-toujou" target="_blank">Si l'Amérique m'était contée - Emission du 20 juin 2015</a>

France Inter – “Si l’Amérique m’était contée”

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg  

Saturday June 20th, 2015

For the selection and the screening of their documentary “This is Orson Welles” at the Cannes Film Festival 2015 and it broadcast on TCM Cinéma in May and June 2015

Si l’Amérique m’était contée – Emission du 20 juin 2015

Le Journal des Femmes

Viva Cinéma TV Show

TV Show Viva Cinéma

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

For the selection of their documentary “This is Orson Welles” at the Cannes Film Festival 2015

TV Show broadcasted on June 6th 2015 at 8:20pm on Ciné + Classic

Canal Sat Interview

CANAL SAT

Interview de Clara et Julia Kuperberg

For the broadcast of their new film ; “This is Orson Welles” on TCM Cinéma and it selection to the Cannes Film Festival 2015

Ecran Total – May 2015

<p>Sorry, this entry is only available in <a href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/">Français</a>.</p>

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

This is Orson Welles

Selected to the Cannes Film Festival 2015

World premiere at Cannes Classics screened with the new restored version of Citizen Kane.

Misunderstood genius, superstar, Hollywood’s fallen angel … Orson Welles left his indelible mark on the 20th century. Yet how to talk about Welles without falling into overstatement and excess? Discover the man behind the myth in a rare interview with Orson Welles and the exclusive memories of his friends and admirers.

Martin Scorsese, Henry Jaglom, his eldest daughter Chris Welles, together with old friends Peter Bogdanovich and the critic Joseph Mc Bride, deliver an intimate portrait of the man who shattered every rule of American film-making.

From the scandal of his War of the Worlds broadcast to the RKO years with Citizen Kane and his exile in Europe, Orson Welles looks back with humour and emotion on his errors, his successes, his early stage career and his education in the art of film-making.

Film Directors and Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Time : 52 minutes
Channel : TCM Cinema

Cast

Martin Scorsese
Film Director

Peter Bogdanovich
Film Director

Henry Jaglom
Film Director

Chris Welles
Daughter of Orson Welles

Joseph McBride
Cinema Film Historian

Presse

Allo Ciné 2015 Interview

Allo Ciné

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

In Mai 2015 at the Cannes Film Festival for the selection of their film :  “This is Orson Welles”

http://www.allocine.fr/video/video-19553684/

Europe 1 Interview

<h3><strong>RADIO LIVE SHOW : Europe 1 Frédéric Taddeï - (at 01h00)</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg </strong></h3> <strong>For the selection of their documentary "This is Orson Welles" at the Cannes Film Festival </strong> From the Cannes Film Festival, the May 19, 2015 <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/fr/podcast/europe-1-social-club/id778649931?mt=2&i=342632742" target="_blank">https://itunes.apple.com/fr/podcast/europe-1-social-club/id778649931?mt=2&i=342632742</a></p>

RADIO LIVE SHOW : Europe 1 Frédéric Taddeï – (at 01h00)

Interview of Clara & Julia Kuperberg

For the selection of their documentary “This is Orson Welles” at the Cannes Film Festival 

From the Cannes Film Festival, the May 19, 2015

https://itunes.apple.com/fr/podcast/europe-1-social-club/id778649931?mt=2&i=342632742

Télé Obs : Interview

Cheek Magazine : Interview

James Ellroy : «American Dog»

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>LGM Productions</strong> | Year : <strong>2006</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | Channel</strong> : <strong>ARTE - Released in DVD : ARTE Video en France and in USA </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast</h3> <strong>James Ellroy</strong> : Writer <strong>Bill Stoner</strong> : Detective <strong>Bruce Wagner</strong> : Writer <strong>Dana Delany</strong> : Actress <strong>William Bratton</strong> : Chief of the LAPD <strong>Tim Wride</strong> : Writer & Photograph <strong>Jerry Derloshon</strong> : Specialist of the American Culture <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/james-ellroy-american-dog/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by LGM Productions | Year : 2006
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : ARTE – Released in DVD : ARTE Video en France and in USA

The Cast

James Ellroy : Writer
Bill Stoner : Detective
Bruce Wagner : Writer
Dana Delany : Actress
William Bratton : Chief of the LAPD
Tim Wride : Writer & Photograph
Jerry Derloshon : Specialist of the American Culture

This is the story of a life-long obsession, the life in question being James Ellroy’s. From a news item – the murder of the Black Dahlia – to the slaying of his mother, this is the initiatory journey of a man and author who plumbed the depths of hell before finding redemption. Why do all his books keep returning to the same subject, with the same protagonists? Because his entire life, both as a man and a writer, has revolved around a single obsession: the murder of his mother – a murder which became entangled with the killing of the girl known as the Black Dahlia, found naked and mutilated on a vacant lot ten years earlier.

A series of contributors will provide the key information to help better understand this rite-of-passage of a man who had all the traits of a serial killer, a man who is now one of the greatest thriller writers of the age, a man for whom the journey is not yet over.

Martin Scorsese : The Emotion through the Music

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by<strong> LGM Productions</strong> | Year : <strong>2005</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel :<strong> Ciné Cinéma </strong> <strong>Selected and screened at le Centre Pompidou in the exhibit "Intégrale Martin Scorsese" from November 2005 to March 2006 </strong> <strong>Special price at the Festival du Louvre « Classique en Images ».</strong> <hr /> <h3>Cast:</h3> <strong>Martin Scorsese</strong> <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/martin-scorsese-lemotion-par-la-musique/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by LGM Productions | Year : 2005
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Selected and screened at le Centre Pompidou in the exhibit “Intégrale Martin Scorsese” from November 2005 to March 2006

Special price at the Festival du Louvre « Classique en Images ».

Cast:

Martin Scorsese

From Taxi Driver, for which he hired the great Bernard Herrmann, meet with New York New York, or The Last Waltz, until now, as he produces a series of documentaries about Blues music, and even the near future, since he is currently preparing a documentary about, and starring Bob Dylan, – The Bob Dylan Anthology – , one can definitely say that music, in Martin Scorsese’s universe, is the very core of his movie making.

I used to live in an overpopulated neighbourhood where you could hear the music through every apartment’s windows, as well as pubs’ or candy stores’. Radio was on the whole day long, we heard the juke-box from the other side of the street, and in the big towers, we would hear opera through one window, Benny Goodman through another, and rock and roll on the first floor. That really was crazy… a nuts’ neighborhood…So, I thought: “Why don’t we ever get to see that in the movies?”

The Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood

Writers Directors : <strong></strong><strong>Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong></strong><strong>Viva Productions</strong> | Year :<strong> </strong><strong>2005</strong> Running Time :<strong></strong><strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel :<strong> </strong><strong>Ciné Cinéma</strong> <hr /> <h3>Cast:</h3> <strong>Elliott Gould</strong> : Actor <strong>Valerie Yaros</strong> : SAG Historian <strong>Melissa Gilbert</strong> : Actress and President of the SAG <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/le-syndicat-des-acteurs-a-hollywood/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Viva Productions | Year : 2005
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Cast:

Elliott Gould : Actor
Valerie Yaros : SAG Historian
Melissa Gilbert : Actress and President of the SAG

When everyone thinks of Hollywood, the Golden years of Hollywood, all you see is beauty everything in the screen, the lines of chorus girls are all smiling, happy and everyone looks perfectly fine but, behind the scenes, the actual people that you see on screen, it was often very, very different. These people were tired, these people worked “worryingly” long hours in many cases. There was nothing to really control how this worked. You did not have overtime, you did not have nearpenalties, you did not have people on the sets observing the sets to make sure that nothing dangerous was being done. The only organization in fact that existed at all covering anything for actors at that time in Hollywood was the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, until The Screen Actors Guild.

The Howard Hughes Mystery

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Program 33</strong> | Year : <strong>2004</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel :<strong> France 5 </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast:</h3> <strong>Richard Hack</strong> : Author of the biography about Howard Hughes <strong>Pat Broeske</strong> : Journalist <strong>Robert Maheu</strong> : Associate of Howard Hughes and ex CIA agent <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/le-mystere-howard-hughes/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Program 33 | Year : 2004
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : France 5

The Cast:

Richard Hack : Author of the biography about Howard Hughes
Pat Broeske : Journalist
Robert Maheu : Associate of Howard Hughes and ex CIA agent

Joseph Campbell The Hero with the Thousand Faces

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Telescope Audiovisuel</strong> | Year : <strong>2004</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | Channel</strong> :<strong> Ciné Cinéma </strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>George Miller</strong> : Director <em>Mad Max</em> <strong>Gerald McDermott</strong> : Specialist of Joseph Campbell <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/joseph-campbell-le-heros-aux-mille-visages/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Telescope Audiovisuel | Year : 2004
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Les intervenants

George Miller : Director Mad Max
Gerald McDermott : Specialist of Joseph Campbell

All stories are myths. For all stories make up the mosaic of myth, what Campbell called the “modern myths”. So it doesn’t matter whether it is a movie, a novel, an opera or indeed a new story. It all contributes to this mosaic that we could call the myths. And somehow it’s the world narrative, it’s the narrative of human kind across the ages. So film making it’s just a subspecies of it it’s just a small part of that process. I dare to say that almost any movie falls into the category of mythology. But the most striking examples I think that everybody’s quote is George Lucas’ StarWars stories. Particularly the first trilogy. Which was inspired enormously by Joseph Campbell and “Hero With the Thousand Faces”.  George Miller

The Hollywood Exiled

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Program 33</strong> | Year : <strong>2003</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel : <strong>Planète </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast</h3> <strong>Norma Barzman</strong> : Blacklisted Screenwriter<strong> Bernard Gordon</strong> : Blacklisted Screenwriter<strong> Del Reisman </strong>: President of The Writers Guild of America <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/les-exiles-dhollywood/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Program 33 | Year : 2003
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Planète

The Cast

Norma Barzman : Blacklisted Screenwriter
Bernard Gordon : Blacklisted Screenwriter
Del Reisman : President of The Writers Guild of America

The Secret Story of Universal Studio

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Program 33</strong> | Year : <strong>2003</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel : <strong>Ciné Cinéma </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast:</h3> <strong>Dennis McDougall : </strong>Journalist at the <em>LA Times </em>and Author of the biography about Lew Wasserman; <em>The Last Mogul</em> <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/universal-story-histoire-secrete-dun-studio/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Program 33 | Year : 2003
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

The Cast:

Dennis McDougall : Journalist at the LA Times and Author of the biography about Lew Wasserman; The Last Mogul

Dean Tavoularis The Magician of Hollywood

Writers Directors :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produced by <strong>Program 33</strong> | Year : <strong>2003</strong> Running Time :<strong> 52 minutes</strong><strong> | </strong>Channel : <strong>Ciné Cinéma </strong> <hr /> <h3>The Cast:</h3> <strong>Francis Ford Coppola</strong><strong> Warren Beatty Roman Polanski Gérard Depardieu Nancy Meyers</strong> <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/dean-tavoularis-le-magicien-dhollywood/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produced by Program 33 | Year : 2003
Running Time : 52 minutes | Channel : Ciné Cinéma

The Cast:

Francis Ford Coppola
Warren Beatty
Roman Polanski
Gérard Depardieu
Nancy Meyers

Le Doux Parfum de la Corruption

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par <strong>Program 33</strong> | Année : <strong>2003</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’</strong><strong> | </strong>Diffuseur : <strong>Canal Jimmy </strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>Sally Denton</strong> Journaliste politique <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/le-doux-parfum-de-la-corruption/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Program 33 | Année : 2003
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : Canal Jimmy

Les intervenants

Sally Denton Journaliste politique

Journaliste spécialisée dans les affaires criminelles, Sally Denton a mené l’enquête sur les liens occultes qui unissent, aujourd’hui encore, les parrains de Las Vegas et les plus hautes sphères du pouvoir américain.
Comment Las Vegas sert de caisse noire aux Présidents Américains depuis des décennies.

Le Glamour à Hollywood par George Sidney

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par <strong>Program 33</strong> | Année : <strong>2002</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’</strong><strong> | </strong>Diffuseur : <strong>Ciné Cinéma </strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>George Sidney Jean-Pierre Dionnet</strong> <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/le-glamour-a-hollywood-par-george-sidney/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Program 33 | Année : 2002
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : Ciné Cinéma

Les intervenants

George Sidney
Jean-Pierre Dionnet

« Le petit-maître, élégant et raffiné du cinéma », Monsieur George Sidney, nous livre dans sa dernière interview le récit d’un Hollywood aujourd’hui disparu. travers des images d’archives et des extraits de ses films, ce documentaire retrace l’ensemble de son oeuvre et nous dévoile la vie des studios et des plus grandes stars qu’il a fait tourner. Un voyage dans le glamour et l’âge d’or hollywoodien.

Los Angeles – Film Noir

The approach to the subject matter is innovative in so far as they focus on Los Angeles as the model for urban crime. And who else would be better suited to talk about the underbelly of the city than James Ellroy.

Directors & Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2015
Running Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

Cast

James Ellroy
Writer

Eddie Muller
Writer & Film noir expert

Alain Silver
Writer

Press

Steve Schapiro An Eye on American Icons

Brooklyn born Steve Schapiro discovered photography at the age of 9 at a summer camp. He spent decades prowling the streets of his native New York City trying to emulate Henry Cartier Bresson whom he greatly admired. He later studied with W. Eugene Smith, pioneer of the photo essay. Smith not only taught him the technical skills but also formed his personal outlook and world-view. From 1961 Schapiro worked as a freelance photo-journalist and contributed to major magazines.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2014
Running Time : 52 minutes
Channel : OCS Géants

Cast

Steve Schapiro
Photographer

Dustin Hoffman
Acteur

Jodie Foster
Actress

Michael Mann
Director

Susan Mann
Friend of Steve Schapiro

Benedikt Taschen
Editor

 Press

The Warner Saga

The Warner Brothers’ career is a true “rags to riches” story. They very quickly sensed that there was more money to be made with film than with the paternal shop in Youngtown, Ohio. When Sam Warner saw the Edison Kinetoscope for the first time, he saw the future. The brothers bought a projector which came with one print, the old classic western The Great Train Robbery. And they made more money in a week, showing this movie in a rented hall, than their father in a month.

So Jack and Sam set out to California to produce movies in 1912. Subsequently the four brothers began to buy up cinemas to show their films and distribute those of others.Warner Features Co., founded in 1913, turned into Warner Brothers Studios and First National Pictures. They signed on Ernst Lubitsch and Michael Curtiz. In 1927 Warners hit the jackpot with the release of their fourth talkie, The Jazz Singer.

Jack Warner became head of productions, assisted by Darryl F. Zanuk. As the Warner brothers were outsiders themselves, they were really street kids, they readily glorified people on the margins, people on the outside, people struggling to get by. They elevated the working class and gave people during the depression in their films somebody to cheer for, somebody who resembled them.This is how the series of Gangster Films came about which swept James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson to movie stardom.

Craig Detweiler, author, filmmaker and professor of communications, who narrates The Warner Saga, thinks, “the Warner brothers saw themselves as Robin Hoods, in the forest, robbing from the rich, making movies for the poor.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Coproduced with EGO Productions
Year : 2014
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné + Classic

Cast

Craig Detweiler
Film Professor Pepperdine University

Press

Sidney Korshak Hollywood’s Fabled Fixer

FBI man Bill Roemer considered Korshak to have been nothing less than “the most important contact that the Mob had to legitimate business, labour, Hollywood and Las Vegas”. And Nick Toshes described him as “one of the great hidden figures of 20th Century organized crime”.

Attorney Sydney Korshak was thought by many to be the most powerful man in Hollywood for the last half Century. Until his death he remained an impeccably dressed enigma whose power reached deep into the lives of Jimmy Hoffa, Frank Sinatra, Lew Wasserman and Ronald Reagan.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2013
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné + Classic

Cast

Gus Russo
Author of Supermob

Dennis McDougal
Author of The Last Mogul

Press

In Search of the Ideal Male made in Hollywood

Critic Molly Haskell says “when I think of male types in the cinema the images of men through the years and how they change I don’t really see it in terms of evolution, of progress. I really think even more than with women, there are sort of two or three basic types and they just recur over and over but in different forms, you know, taking on the colour and the contours of the society, the Zeitgeist so to speak.”

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2013
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : OCS Géants

Cast

Molly Haskell
Author of La Femme à l’écran

Maria Janis Cooper
Daugther of Gary Cooper

David Dobkin
The Change Up

Steve Heller
Author of Advertising from the Mad Men Era

Press

John Ford & Monument Valley

Ford’s lifelong association with Utah’s Monument Valley, provided the setting and the backdrop for some of the director’s most famous Westerns. This documentary tells the story of how the trader Harry Goulding set up his shop at Monument Valley to do business with the Navajos who settled there.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2013
Running Time : 53 min
Channel : Ciné + Classic

Cast

Martin Scorsese

Peter Cowie
Author of John Ford and the American West

John Ford (footage)

John Wayne (footage)

Henry Fonda (footage)

James Stewart (footage)

Press

Hollywood the Indestructible

Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2014
Running Time : 52 minutes
Network : Ciné +

Casting

Denise Mann
Author of Hollywood Independents: the Postwar Talent Takeover and teacher at UCLA

Dana Harris
Editor in Chief and General Manager of IndieWire

Press

The Teen Movie Boom

The Teen Movie is a genre like the Western or the Film noir and reflects American culture or subculture and thereby has a huge influence on the younger generations worldwide. With Rebel Without A Cause and Blackboard Jungle, both produced in 1955, the Teen Movie explodes onto the screen.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2012
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : OCS Géants

Cast

Lee Purcell
Actress Big Wednesday by John Milius

Craig Detweiler
Film professor Pepperdine University, Californie.

Susannah Gora
Author and Film Journalist

Press

Soon…

The Witch Hunt is On!

« Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the communist party? » This is the question thousands of Americans were forced to answer during the years of anti-communist paranoia. From chewing gum vignettes for children to movies made in Hollywood, anti-Communist propaganda would become one of the driving forces of American politics and the obsession of several skillful politicians.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2012
Running Time : 53 min
Channel : Ciné + Classic

Cast

Michael Barson
Author of Red Scared ! The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture

Steven Heller
Author of Red Scared !
Art director at The NY Times

Press

Milos Forman Taking Off in America

During one hour, the film director Milos Forman tells his journey from Czechoslovakia to Hollywood.  Through anecdotes, Milos Forman explains how he succeeded in Hollywood and how difficult sometimes it was. From a communist country where shooting films was sometimes a hard work to a capitalist country, the film director talks about his adaptation with humour and emotion.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2011
Running Time : 58 min
Channel : TCM Turner Classic Movies

Cast

Milos Forman

Michael Douglas

Woody Harrelson

Louise Fletcher

F. Murray Abraham

Treat Williams

Press

Entrée Libre France 5 Interview

Entrée Libre – TV Show the May 4th, 2015, on  France 5.

Interview of Clara and Julia Kuperberg

For the sélection at the Cannes Film Festival of their documentary “This Is Orson Welles”.

Hollywood between Paranoia & Sci-Fi – The Power of Myth

Extra-terrestrials, the end of the world, nuclear war, visions of doom, giant tsunamis, devastating meteorites, invaders of every sort: For over 50 years, the American movie industry has specialized in disaster films, in pre or post-apocalypse science fiction, in the visionary or futuristic genres in which political and biblical allusions collide.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2010
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : TCM Turner Classic Movies

Cast

Steven Spielberg

James Cameron

George Lucas

Philip Kaufman

Roland Emmerich

David Scarpa
Screenwriter The Day The Earth Stood Still

Mark Protosevich
Screenwriter I Am Legend

Vivian Sobchack
Professor & Author of American Science Fiction Film

Press

Stanley Donen, You Just Do It

Since he was a child, Stanley Donen attended dance classes and debuted on Broadway at age 17. With the help of the producer Arthur Freed and the actor Gene Kelly he got the chance to direct the musicals On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain and Love is Better Than Ever which revolutionized the genre.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2010
Running time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Cast

Stanley Donen

Press

From Weepies to Chick Flicks

Since the mid-80’s, the so called chick flick genre has grown into an authentic cultural and sociological phenomenon in the film industry reflecting the dreams and longings of modern young women with titles such as When Harry met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Pretty Woman, Baby Boom, The Bridget Jones Diary.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2009
Running time : 52 min
Channel : ARTE
Watch this film in VOD on ARTE VOD

Cast

Jennifer Garner Actress Daredevil, 13 Going on 30, Alias, Juno

Nora Ephron Screenwriter & Director, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Julie & Julia

Darren Star Creator, Producer, Writer Sex & The City

Lynda Obst Producer Flashdance, One Fine Day, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Delia Ephron Screenwriter

Robin Swicord  Screenwriter Memoirs of a Geisha

Molly Haskell Writer From Reverence to Rape

Callie Khouri  Screenwriter Thelma & Louise

Kim Adelman Writer Journalist

Press

The Art of Spiegelman

Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman is best known for his creation of MAUS, which in the form of comics retraces his parents’ story as they survived the Holocaust. He worked for The New Yorker for ten years. In 2005, Time Magazine named Spiegelman one of their « Top 100 Most Influential People of the Century ».

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Joelle Oosterlinck
Year : 2009
Running time : 43 min
Channel : ARTE
Buy the DVD on AMAZON
Watch this film in VOD on ARTE VOD

Cast

Art Spiegelman

Françoise Mouly
His wife and Art Director of The New Yorker

Charles Burns
Cartoonist

Nadja Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman’s daughter

Press

The True Story of John Dillinger

Michael Mann directed his latest movie Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp as the famous gangster John Dillinger. While the film inspired by the Bryan Burrough’s famous best-seller romanticizes the life of the gangster, this documentary wants to tell the true story in the historic context of the time.

Writer Director: Robert Kuperberg
Coproduced with Ego Productions
Year : 2009
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : 13eme Rue – NBC Universal

Cast

Bryan Burrough
Author Public Enemies

Richard Hack
Author Puppetmaster : The Secret Life of J.Edgar Hoover

Press

Broadway goes Hollywood

Musical comedy is a typical American form of entertainment dealing with burning issues of the American society from slavery to depression and World War II to Vietnam War. With Cyd Charisse and Hermes Pan, two of the leading exponents of the genre. With clips from major musical comedies.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Year : 2008
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Cast

Hermes Pan

Cyd Charisse

Press

The Brother who sent the Rosenbergs to the Electric Chair

In July 1950 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, both American citizens, were arrested by the FBI for delivering vital information on the US nuclear program to the Soviet Union. They both insisted that they were innocent, went on trial, were condemned and executed on June 19th 1953.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2008
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Planète

Cast

Robert Meeropol
Son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Sam Roberts
Journalist for The New York Times

Ray Batvinis
Ex FBI agent

Jennifer Meeropol
Grand-daughter of the Rosenbergs

Press

The Silver Screen Revolution : New Faces in Hollywood

This is the story of how a handful of young and enthusiastic filmmakers stormed the citadel of the American movie industry and created a new cinema. It was an age when talented young people like Scorsese, Coppola and Spielberg along with a new breed of actors such as De Niro…

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2008
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Ciné Cinéma

Cast

Martin Scorsese

Jerry Schatzberg
Director The Panic in Needle Park

Dean Tavoularis
Production Designer The Godfather, Bonnie and Clyde,  Apocalypse Now…

Dominick Dunne,
Producer, Writer for Vanity Fair

Press

Sinatra a Song for the FBI

Who knows that the FBI had a file of 1275 pages about Frank Sinatra, by far the largest on any show biz personality.  What interested the FBI most was Sinatra’s relations with organised crime, his friendship with the Great and the Good including some of the most notorious Mafia bosses…

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2007
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : 13e Rue – NBC Universal

Cast

John L.Smith
Journalist for The Las Vegas Review Journal

Tom Kuntz
Journalist for The New York Times

Phil Kuntz
Journalist for The Wall Street Journal

Corinne Sidney
Ex-wife of the Sands
Casino boss Jack Entratter

Press

Dominick Dunne In search of Justice

This documentary is the story of the extraordinary life story of Dominick Dunne, best known as an investigative journalist and writer for Vanity Fair, for successful novels and also the presenter of Power, Privilege and Justice on Court TV.

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2007
Running Time : 52 min
Channel : Jimmy
Best Documentary Award Beverly Hills Films Festival 2007

Cast

Dominick Dunne
Writer and Journalist for Vanity Fair

Griffin Dunne
His son, Actor, Director, Producer

Joan Didion
Writer and sister in law of Dominick’s

Jerry Schatzberg
Director The Panic in Needle Park

Graydon Carter
Editor in chief of Vanity Fair

Press

The Dark Side of the FBI

Since its foundation the FBI has always been shrouded in mystery but when J.Edgar Hoover took over he made it into one of the most brilliant search engines of our time. Hoover was at the helm of the agency for nearly fifty years and survived eight presidents of the United States and many attempts to get rid of him. What made this man so powerful ?

Writers Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Year : 2006
Running Time : 55 min
Channel : Jimmy

Cast

Richard Hack
Author of the best-seller
Puppetmaster : The Secret Life of J.Edgar Hoover

Tom Kuntz
Journalist for The New York Times

Phil Kuntz
Journalist for The Wall Street Journal

Ray Batvinis
Ex FBI agent

Press

Satellifax – 06/02/15

CineChronicle -04/05/2015

Huffington Post – 22/02/15

Surf Now, Apocalypse Later

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par <strong>Program 33</strong> | Année : <strong>2002</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’</strong> | Diffuseur : <strong>Canal Jimmy</strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>John Milius </strong>Réalisateur de Big Wednesday <strong>Gary Busey </strong>Acteur <strong>Lee Purcell </strong>Actrice <strong>William Katt </strong>Acteur <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/surf-now-apocalypse-later/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Program 33 | Année : 2002
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : Canal Jimmy

Les intervenants

John Milius Réalisateur de Big Wednesday
Gary Busey Acteur
Lee Purcell Actrice
William Katt Acteur

Intrigues amoureuses au goût de guimauve, décapotables, drive-in, parties nocturnes sur la plage arrosées de Coca et de milk-shakes, cette vision rassurante de la jeunesse, symbole d’une Amérique bien pensante en plein boom économique après les privations de la guerre, a nourri l’imaginaire quotidien de générations d’adolescents.

L’univers de surf, récupéré par Hollywood, devait servir de toile de fond au rétablissement des valeurs traditionnelles.
Qu’elle soit montrée de façon réaliste ou artificielle, cette culture si spécifique exercera dès lors un pouvoir d’attraction phénoménal auprès de milliers de jeunes en quête d’évasion et de liberté. Coup de massue pour cette génération dorée, la guerre du Vietnam viendra bouleverser ce fragile équilibre et plongera la société en proie au chaos social dans une profonde crise identitaire. Au travers de ce monde idyllique au décor de plages californiennes, ce documentaire montre ce basculement des valeurs, l’évolution brusque et irrémédiable d’une jeunesse insouciante, protégée jusqu’alors du monde réel, qu’elle soit indisciplinée comme les personnages de Big Wednesday ou sagement conformiste comme les gaillards musclés et les jeunes filles de bonne famille des Beach party movies.

Le Film Français – 18/04/14

Loving Las Vegas

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par <strong>Program 33 | </strong>Année : <strong>2002</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’</strong> | Diffuseur : <strong>Canal Jimmy</strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>George Sidney </strong>Réalisateur Les 3 Mousquetaires, Pal Joey, Scaramouche... <strong>Corinne Sidney John L.Smith </strong>Journaliste <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/loving-las-vegas-2002-52/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Program 33 | Année : 2002
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : Canal Jimmy

Les intervenants

George Sidney Réalisateur Les 3 Mousquetaires, Pal Joey, Scaramouche…
Corinne Sidney
John L.Smith Journaliste

On connaît surtout de Las Vegas ses mythes, les stars d’Hollywood, les casinos, la mafia, Frank Sinatra, le Rat Pack, Ocean’s Eleven mais que connaît-on des architectes qui ont conçu et construit ce «piège à touristes» ?

La Mafia à Hollywood

Auteurs Réalisateurs :<strong> Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg</strong> Produit par<strong> Lobster Films | </strong>Année : <strong>2002</strong> Durée :<strong> 52’ | </strong>Diffuseur : <strong>France 5</strong> <hr /> <h3>Les intervenants</h3> <strong>Dan Moldea </strong>Journaliste <strong>Dennis McDougal </strong>Journaliste <p style="text-align: justify;"><div class="more-container"><a class="button float-right active more-link" href="https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/project/la-mafia-a-hollywood-2002-52/">Continue Reading..</a></div></p>

Auteurs Réalisateurs : Clara Kuperberg & Robert Kuperberg
Produit par Lobster Films | Année : 2002
Durée : 52’ | Diffuseur : France 5

Les intervenants

Dan Moldea Journaliste
Dennis McDougal Journaliste

Après la crise de 1929, les Studios vont perdre la majorité de leurs financiers de Wall Street. Ils sont au bord de la faillite. MGM et Warner décident de réduire les salaires des acteurs de 30 à 50%. Pour résister, les acteurs créent leur syndicat : la Screen Actors Guild (le Syndicat des Acteurs). Terrorisés par la profession qui leur échappe, les Studios font appel aux gangsters de Chicago qui ont des visées sur Hollywood pour blanchir l’argent de la Prohibition. Ils placent leurs hommes à la tête des syndicats d’Hollywood. C’est cette lutte féroce que la mafia a exercée à Hollywood que ce film raconte.

Comment les grands Patrons des Studios ont appelé les gangsters à la rescousse, et se sont retrouvés prisonniers de ces mafieux qui les rançonnèrent à leur tour.

Press

Watch below different press articles and interviews about Wichita Films and the Kuperberg sisters:

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
The Max Factor The Max Factor
The Max Factor
I, Douglas Fairbanks I, Douglas Fairbanks
I, Douglas Fairbanks
The Tiki Craze of Hollywood The Tiki Craze of Hollywood
The Tiki Craze of Hollywood
Hollywood : No Sex Please! Hollywood : No Sex Please!
Hollywood : No Sex Please!
Hollywood Spies Hollywood Spies
Hollywood Spies
Gene Tierney A Forgotten Star Gene Tierney A Forgotten Star
Gene Tierney A Forgotten Star
Hollywood Gossip Hollywood Gossip
Hollywood Gossip
Ronald Reagan A Custom Made President Ronald Reagan A Custom Made President
Ronald Reagan A Custom Made President
Billy Wilder Nobody’s Perfect Billy Wilder Nobody’s Perfect
Billy Wilder Nobody’s Perfect
Allo Ciné Interview 2016 Allo Ciné Interview 2016
Allo Ciné Interview 2016
Europe 1 Radio Show Europe 1 Radio Show
Europe 1 Radio Show
France Culture Interview France Culture Interview
France Culture Interview
Women Lab Interview Women Lab Interview
Women Lab Interview
TV Show Entrée Libre Interview TV Show Entrée Libre Interview
TV Show Entrée Libre Interview
The Women Who Run Hollywood The Women Who Run Hollywood
The Women Who Run Hollywood
Hollywood Censored Hollywood Censored
Hollywood Censored
Screwball Comedy When Hollywood Went Mad Screwball Comedy When Hollywood Went Mad
Screwball Comedy When Hollywood Went Mad
Radio Show France Inter
Radio Show France Inter
Le Journal des Femmes
Le Journal des Femmes
Viva Cinéma TV Show Viva Cinéma TV Show
Viva Cinéma TV Show
Canal Sat Interview Canal Sat Interview
Canal Sat Interview
Ecran Total – May 2015
Ecran Total – May 2015
This is Orson Welles This is Orson Welles
This is Orson Welles
Allo Ciné 2015 Interview Allo Ciné 2015 Interview
Allo Ciné 2015 Interview
Europe 1 Interview Europe 1 Interview
Europe 1 Interview
Télé Obs : Interview
Télé Obs : Interview
Cheek Magazine : Interview
Cheek Magazine : Interview
James Ellroy : «American Dog» James Ellroy : «American Dog»
James Ellroy : «American Dog»
Martin Scorsese : The Emotion through the Music Martin Scorsese : The Emotion through the Music
Martin Scorsese : The Emotion through the Music
The Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood The Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood
The Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood
The Howard Hughes Mystery The Howard Hughes Mystery
The Howard Hughes Mystery
Joseph Campbell The Hero with the Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell The Hero with the Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell The Hero with the Thousand Faces
The Hollywood Exiled The Hollywood Exiled
The Hollywood Exiled
The Secret Story of Universal Studio The Secret Story of Universal Studio
The Secret Story of Universal Studio
Dean Tavoularis The Magician of Hollywood Dean Tavoularis The Magician of Hollywood
Dean Tavoularis The Magician of Hollywood
Le Doux Parfum de la Corruption Le Doux Parfum de la Corruption
Le Doux Parfum de la Corruption
Le Glamour à Hollywood par George Sidney Le Glamour à Hollywood par George Sidney
Le Glamour à Hollywood par George Sidney
Los Angeles – Film Noir Los Angeles – Film Noir
Los Angeles – Film Noir
Steve Schapiro An Eye on American Icons Steve Schapiro An Eye on American Icons
Steve Schapiro An Eye on American Icons
The Warner Saga The Warner Saga
The Warner Saga
Sidney Korshak Hollywood’s Fabled Fixer Sidney Korshak Hollywood’s Fabled Fixer
Sidney Korshak Hollywood’s Fabled Fixer
In Search of the Ideal Male made in Hollywood In Search of the Ideal Male made in Hollywood
In Search of the Ideal Male made in Hollywood
John Ford & Monument Valley John Ford & Monument Valley
John Ford & Monument Valley
Hollywood the Indestructible Hollywood the Indestructible
Hollywood the Indestructible
The Teen Movie Boom The Teen Movie Boom
The Teen Movie Boom
The Witch Hunt is On! The Witch Hunt is On!
The Witch Hunt is On!
Milos Forman Taking Off in America Milos Forman Taking Off in America
Milos Forman Taking Off in America
Entrée Libre France 5 Interview Entrée Libre France 5 Interview
Entrée Libre France 5 Interview
Hollywood between Paranoia & Sci-Fi – The Power of Myth Hollywood between Paranoia & Sci-Fi – The Power of Myth
Hollywood between Paranoia & Sci-Fi – The Power of Myth
Stanley Donen, You Just Do It Stanley Donen, You Just Do It
Stanley Donen, You Just Do It
From Weepies to Chick Flicks From Weepies to Chick Flicks
From Weepies to Chick Flicks
The Art of Spiegelman The Art of Spiegelman
The Art of Spiegelman
The True Story of John Dillinger The True Story of John Dillinger
The True Story of John Dillinger
Broadway goes Hollywood Broadway goes Hollywood
Broadway goes Hollywood
The Brother who sent the Rosenbergs to the Electric Chair The Brother who sent the Rosenbergs to the Electric Chair
The Brother who sent the Rosenbergs to the Electric Chair
The Silver Screen Revolution : New Faces in Hollywood The Silver Screen Revolution : New Faces in Hollywood
The Silver Screen Revolution : New Faces in Hollywood
Sinatra a Song for the FBI Sinatra a Song for the FBI
Sinatra a Song for the FBI
Dominick Dunne In search of Justice Dominick Dunne In search of Justice
Dominick Dunne In search of Justice
The Dark Side of the FBI The Dark Side of the FBI
The Dark Side of the FBI
Satellifax – 06/02/15
Satellifax – 06/02/15
CineChronicle -04/05/2015
CineChronicle -04/05/2015
Huffington Post – 22/02/15
Huffington Post – 22/02/15
Surf Now, Apocalypse Later Surf Now, Apocalypse Later
Surf Now, Apocalypse Later
Le Film Français – 18/04/14
Le Film Français – 18/04/14
Loving Las Vegas Loving Las Vegas
Loving Las Vegas
La Mafia à Hollywood La Mafia à Hollywood
La Mafia à Hollywood

About us

Passionate  about  American film history and American culture, Clara and Julia Kuperberg created their own film company, Wichita Films, in 2006 to produce and direct documentaries. The two sisters had come from different spheres.

For three years, Julia was on the editorial board of the famous French TV show, Tracks, broadcast on the French/German channel ARTE. She also coordinated the teams before being solicited by the international company, Fremantle. She worked for Fremantle for two years. After several years working on shorts programs, Julia craved working on more long-form projects. She made the decision to join forces with her sister, Clara, already a documentary film director.

Clara has always been attracted by the documentary form. For three years she worked for CNDP, the French National Educational Institute, on a TV art documentary series. The series was broadcast on the French national channel France 5.  After, she directed her first documentary in 2001, (she also directed approximately ten films for various producers: Lobster, Program 33, LGM),  she made the decision to join forces with Julia and create their own company.

The Kuperberg sisters work as equal measure as producers, directors, writers and editors on their films. Their films, all in english, are distributed all over the world.
Their last ones, This is Orson Welles, was selected and screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2015 and Deauville American Cinema Festival 2015, and The Women who Run Hollywood was selected and screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2016 and Deauville American Cinema Festival 2016 again, among other prestigious film festivals.

In April 2018, the Kuperberg sisters won the Best Director Award at the Beverly Hills Film Festival for The Women who Run Hollywood. And in June, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences screened their film for a special screening at the Linwood Theater.

Contact us

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Wichita France :

  • Wichita Films
  • 11, rue Jacob
  • 75006 Paris
  • France
  • (+33) (0)9 51 76 93 01



International Sales :

  • Poorhouse International,
    Reiner Moritz,
  • 58 Broadwick Street,
  • London
  • W1F 7AL
  • Great Britain
  • +44 20 7436 8663
  • Fax : +44 20 7436 8663
  • reiner.moritz@gmx.net