Michael Roemer

Pilgrim, Farewell

Michael Roemer

Elizabeth Huddle, Christopher Lloyd

A woman suffering from terminal cancer determines to resolve several relationships in her life, especially with her daughter.

Nothing But a Man

Michael Roemer

Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln

A proud black man and his school-teacher wife face discriminatory challenges in 1960s America.

The Plot Against Harry

Michael Roemer

Martin Priest, Ben Lang

A small-time Jewish racketeer, just out of prison, finds himself in a quandary. Returning to his old neighborhood, he finds that the streets that he and his friends once controlled have now been taken over by blacks and Hispanics. On top of that, he must try to get back with his family, who want nothing to do with him.

Vengeance is Mine

Michael Roemer

Brooke Adams, Jon DeVries

Unsuccessfully trying to close old family wounds on a trip back to the Rhode Island home of her miserable childhood, a troubled young woman finds her new friendship with a neighbor has her stuck in another family drama.

Cortile Cascino

Michael Roemer

This long-suppressed and controversial documentary was produced in 1961 for network television but never broadcast. Co-mingling cinema verité and narrative techniques, the film offers a sensitive but critical look at the slum called Cortile Cascino in the center of Palermo, Sicily where poverty and early death are constants and where the church and the Mafia compete for the inhabitants' fealty. The established church, largely ignoring the plight of its parishioners, nonetheless voices its outrage when a faith healer draws large crowds. The Mafia runs an illegal slaughterhouse and controls the concession to funerals but also distributes free food to the district's hungry residents. In the face of relentless adversity, the women provide the only stabilizing force. The neighborhood's despair is tragically foregrounded in a sequence depicting the burial of baby who died of malnutrition. The soundtrack is composed of comments by the people, recorded and translated by the filmmakers.

Faces of Israel 1966

Michael Roemer

Major aspects of life in Israel are reflected in the faces of its multi-ethnic society.