Art Jew

Synopsis

The film reveals Alfred Flechtheim’s dramatic life and surprising legacy in three interwoven strands: an archive-rich biography; on-camera monologues inspired by the letters and journals of Flechtheim and his glittering circle; and a present-day story line following the ongoing efforts of Flechtheim’s great-nephew to recover his family’s looted artwork.

We meet Flechtheim as a young flamboyant man, with a memorably prominent nose, as he breaks from his family’s prosperous grain business to discover contemporary artists and lovers in the Paris of Picasso and Matisse. Upon learning of his lifestyle, his family arranged an unconventional but loving marriage to Betty Goldschmidt, who helped him become an influential gallerist and publisher in Weimar Berlin. Targeted by the Nazis as a degenerate “art Jew,” he died in exiled distress in London; Betty took her own life in Berlin. His galleries were Aryanized, his magnificent collection confiscated or dispersed, and his contributions to the stature of avant-garde art were forgotten after the war. 

We experience Flechtheim’s dazzling personality, wit, passions and crises through on-camera performances of monologues drawn from and inspired by his letters and journals, and those of his confidants, including the artist George Grosz and diarist Thea Sternheim.  

Threaded throughout, we follow the present-day efforts of Flechtheim’s sole living heir, Michael Hulton, himself a gay Jew in San Francisco, to rehabilitate his great-uncle’s reputation and recover his family’s looted artwork from the world’s museums. 

About the Director

Peter L. Stein

Peter L. Stein is a Peabody Award-winning documentary maker based in San Francisco. During 11 years at PBS station KQED, he created a wide range of programs for national public television, including the six-hour documentary series Neighborhoods: The Hidden Cities of San Francisco, which garnered a Peabody Award (for “The Castro,” which Peter wrote, produced and directed) and several regional Emmy Awards for “The Fillmore.” In 2017 he produced and directed the biographical profile “Jacques Pépin: The Art of Craft” for PBS’s American Masters series.  

An experienced arts and film programmer, Peter spent eight years as Executive Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and since 2014 has been Senior Programmer for Frameline, San Francisco’s renowned LGBTQ+ film festival. His interest in art history also inspired him to develop exhibitions and online programming as Deputy Director of the Jewish Museum San Francisco, now the Contemporary Jewish Museum. 

Instagram: @peterlstein

Artistic Statement

Art Jew tells the story of how one complex man—Jewish, gay, avant-garde—came to represent the promise of modernism and then paid the ultimate price for embodying it. Flechtheim’s erasure is the ongoing, direct consequence of fascism’s intent: to root out people and ideas that are considered “dangerous.” To this day, no English-language biography exists of Flechtheim and no film has been made about him. Art Jew urgently corrects the record: it is both a cautionary tale about what happens when people and their art become “taboo” …but also a hopeful glimpse into what justice can look like today. 

In all my work, I have found great poignancy in giving voice to people and communities who have been left out of the archival record, or deliberately expunged from it. The fact that my own Jewish family’s history in Germany was erased, and lives on only in the stories of the displaced, is likely a key to why I am so drawn to Flechtheim’s story: to let the dead speak for themselves.