The Yiddish Twain in 'Sholem Aleichem'

Describing writer Sholem Aleichem as the "Mark Twain of the shtetl," isn't entirely wrong: Aleichem, like our Mr. Clemens, mixed humor, absurdity, melancholy and profundity and while doing so created a literature that stands virtually alone. But as is brought home more than once during director Joseph Dorman's moving documentary "Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness," Twain signified the beginning of something, and Aleichem the end: The Yiddish culture he celebrated in his novels and stories (one of which would inspire "Fiddler on the Roof") was disappearing around him, and had largely, in fact, disappeared; as one of Dorman's consistently eloquent interview subjects puts it, in Aleichem we see an artist who is creating "a portrait of a society as that society is dissolving."

But while his work may be steeped in longing, nostalgia

is not what Aleichem was all about. On the contrary: As "Laughing in the Darkness" makes abundantly clear, Aleichem was a creative artist on the cusp of modern Jewish culture, and even helped midwife it into being.

Dorman, whose celebrated "Arguing the World" (1998) told the story of New York Jewish intellectuals Irving Howe, Irving Kristol, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Bell, offers up an absolute treasure trove of archival photographs and a dizzying array of antique movie footage, creating a rich atmosphere in which to tell Aleichem's story. One could say "Laughing in the Darkness" gives Sholem his props.

Dorman will be at Cinema Arts Centre

Saturday for a Q&A and reception

after the 6:30 p.m. screening.