Liberty Heights (1999)

It is Baltimore in 1954 and everything is changing. In this year, school desegregation is happening for the first time, bringing black and white children from different neighborhoods into the same classrooms. In this year, the dawning of rock'n'roll is giving teenagers their first slice of a musical world that will become uniquely their own. In this year, the influx of automobiles becomes a powerful force in America, allowing people the mobility and privacy to travel at will -- to see things right in their own hometowns that were previously unknown to them. And in this year, the Kurtzman family develops a newly heightened understanding of what it means to be Jewish in a rapidly growing world. Funny and dramatic, "Liberty Heights" is a look at the fabric of life at a pivotal time in American social history. In this, the fourth of his Baltimore-based films, Academy Award-winning director BARRY LEVINSON revisits his home, the location of some his most memorable work, including "Diner," "Tin Men" and "Avalon." This time he examines the changing times of the mid-1950s and the issues of race, class and religious distinction as seen through the eyes of a Jewish family, Nate (JOE MANTEGNA) and Ada (BEBE NEUWIRTH) Kurtzman, their sons Van (ADRIEN BRODY) and Ben (BEN FOSTER), and their friends. Through the eyes of two generations, 1954 becomes the year that tests and transforms the familiar lives and identities of these people in a rapidly changing world.