Too Early To Be Quiet, Too Late To Sing

Documentary. Yiddish and Hebrew w/ English subtitles. 53 min.
Too Early To Be Quiet, Too Late To Sing,' wrote Yiddish poet Binem Hiller, expressing the status of Yiddish literature today. This also describes the atmosphere in Chava Alberstein's film. A flourishing Yiddish culture of poetry, music, drama, and literature came to an abrupt end with the Holocaust. A small core of survivors continued to create in Yiddish after World War II, spread out among the communities of the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Israel. Now, fifty years later only a few Yiddish poets remain alive, most of them in Israel. Chava Alberstein set out to interview these last writers of Yiddish poetry, to hear their poems and stories. Along the way she sings a Yiddish folk songs. With numerous albums to her name, Chava Alberstein, has continued to record and perform Yiddish songs. Her acclaimed CD 'The Well', where she set to music 15 poems of the greatest Yiddish poets of the 20th century, sprang from this film, and is a collaboration with New York based band 'The Klezmatics'.