'Friends' creator Marta Kauffman ’78 to screen new documentary Monday, March 30

Mar. 20, 2009

Marta Kauffman '78

WHO: Emmy-award winning Marta Kauffman ’78, executive producer of the 2008 documentary “Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh,” will screen her new documentary at Brandeis. Kauffman, also a co-creator of the hit series Friends, will participate in a Q&A session following the screening.

WHAT: Released in 2009, “Blessed is the Match” is Kauffman’s first feature film. In conjunction with the Katahdin Organization, the film was directed by Roberta Grossman and written by Sophie Sartain.

The film tells the story of a Hungarian poet and diarist, Hannah Senesh, during World War II. A paratrooper and resistance fighter, Senesh was captured by the Nazis while attempting to rescue Jewish people behind enemy lines in her native country of Hungary. Narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, this is the first feature film about her rescue attempt, imprisonment and dangerous mission with the 31 other Jewish-Palestinian parachutists.

In addition to serving as executive producer of “Friends,” Kauffman co-created and served as co-executive producer on the critically acclaimed comedy series “Dream On,” which earned her an Emmy Award nomination and a CableAce Award. She co-created the comedy series “The Powers That Be” for Norman Lear and served as executive producer on the one-hour drama “Related” on the WB, co-created and served as executive producer on the comedy series “Family Album” and “Veronica's Closet,” starring Kirstie Alley. In addition, she served as an executive producer on the series Jesse, starring Christina Applegate.

The screening is sponsored by the Film Studies Program and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Fund. For more information contact Dona DeLorenzo at 781-736-8270 or e-mail at delorenz@brandeis.edu.

WHEN:  Monday, March 30, 7 p.m.

WHERE: Brandeis University’s Edie and Lew Wasserman Cinematheque (inside the Sachar International Center), 415 South Street, Waltham, Mass.