Monkey Around With AJFF

Director Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Rey Foundation Executive Director Nat Scrimshaw will be the special guests at the AJFF Selects screening of “Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George’s Creators.”

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival will show the documentary at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 14, at SCADshow, 173 14th St., Midtown.

AJFF Executive Director Kenny Blank said there are great conversations to be derived from the film, which tells the story of husband and wife Hans and Margret Rey, German Jews who were living in Paris at the start of World War II and escaped the Nazi troops on makeshift bicycles, carrying the yet-to-be-published “Curious George” manuscript with them.

Forced to live in Brazil while they awaited visas to the United States, the Reys eventually reached New York, where they published the children’s classic 75 years ago.

The documentary, narrated by actor Sam Waterston, augments interviews with hand-drawn animation and a treasure-trove of archival materials, including wartime journals, photographs, letters, and unpublished Curious George sketches and notes.

Scrimshaw is an illustrator who knew the Reys when he was a child.

Tickets are $13 and are available at AJFF.org/monkeybusinesstix.