Aviva Kempner.

Documentary filmmaker Aviva Kempner had a dream. It took 13 years to fulfill it, but "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg" will be opening May 19 at the Nuart Theater. It's the tale of the great Detroit Tiger slugger who nearly broke Babe Ruth's home run record in 1938 when he hit 58 homers. It's also the story of how Greenberg dealt with anti-Semitism, locally and internationally. Every time Greenberg hit a home run, he says in the film, it was a home run "against Hitler."

"I grew up in Detroit, the daughter of an immigrant Jew," Kempner said. "Greenberg was the Jewish Jackie Robinson. I had to do a film that showed what he meant to others."

The film's budget was $1 million. One of Kempner' s biggest supporters was producer Norman Lear, who in addition to contributing his own money wrote a fund-raising letter for her. Contributors included Mike Ovitz, Lew Wasserman, Mel Brooks, Kirk Douglas and Jeffrey Katzenberg.