Screening Room

Nancy Spielberg's film, Above and Beyond, comes to ILM

The hot climate of Arizona may have led to the filmmaking success of the Spielberg brother-and-sister duo.

NANCY SPIELBERG, Steven Spielberg’s youngest sister, worked as her brother’s cast and crew rather than playing outside as a kid. Steven would come up with projects growing up in Arizona.

“It was 118 degrees! You couldn’t play outside, or you would die,” Nancy jokes.

She visits the area this month for the second annual Wilmington Jewish Film Festival to attend the screening of the documentary Above and Beyond. Nancy, who produced the documentary about the early days of the Israeli Air Force, is scheduled to participate in a question-and-answer session after the film’s showing at Thalian Hall.

A natural storyteller, Nancy wrote vignettes of life growing up in her atypical household and attributes her surroundings to a very caring but unusual Jewish mother. Things like bouncing to school in a Jeep with no roll top made for great stories. When she was ten and her parents divorced, her mother brought home a pet monkey, to which they referred to as their “replacement father,” Nancy jokes.

With such a rich background to create stories, Nancy pursued writing until she pulled away from it due to a harsh reality: the publishing world was difficult to break into for Steven Spielberg’s sister unless she would spill dirt about her family.

“There was no dirt to spill,” she says, adding that they were just a quirky household that spurred creativity.

Another sister of the Spielberg clan, Anne Spielberg, also made her way into the film industry and was nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing the 1988 film Big starring Tom Hanks. Nancy’s other older sister Sue also works in the business.

Nancy says growing up with her famous director brother wasn’t intimidating in her later pursuit of a film career.

“Steven grew into the big name, but he was always just my brother,” she says.

Gradually, Nancy was asked to consult on scripts and produce films in the documentary world along with her charity work. She came across a story that really “lit a fire” in her.

The film, Above and Beyond, focuses on Jewish American pilots who trained in secret to fly for Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

PEGGY PANCOE ROSOFF, co-chairwoman of the Wilmington Jewish Film Festival, says she had been in correspondence with Nancy for over two years about her appearance.

The festival, in association with United Jewish Appeal of Wilmington, embraces historical and contemporary Jewish culture.

Nancy says she is honored to come to Wilmington for the screening, which is on April 26.

“You give birth to the film, and the film festivals are your baby’s first steps in the world,” she says. “We are giving the film the ability to not just walk, but to skip and jump and run.”

The second-annual Wilmington Jewish Film Festival takes place this month at Thalian Hall, with six feature films and selected shorts screening on April 19, 20, 22, 26, 27, and 29.

Tickets for the films showing Monday and Wednesday are $10. Tickets for the two Sunday films are $15 each, which includes catered receptions. Tickets are $7 for students.
Info: www.wilmingtonjff.org