Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber

Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber

Ruth Gruber didn't just report the news...she made it!

2010 · 73 min · ★ 8.0 · History, Documentary

Brooklyn-born Ruth Gruber became the youngest PhD in the world before going on to become an international foreign correspondent and photojournalist at age 24. She defied tradition in an extraordinary career that spanned several decades. The first journalist to enter the Soviet Arctic in 1935, Ruth also traveled to Alaska as a member of the Roosevelt administration in 1942, escorted Holocaust refugees to America in 1944, covered the Nuremberg trials in 1946, and documented the Haganah ship 'Exodus' in 1947. Her relationships with world leaders gave her unique access and insight. This documentary interweaves verite scenes with archival footage.

Directed by Robert Richman

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Streaming

Rent or Buy

Cast

Ruth Gruber Herself
Louisa Herz Leopold Herself
Dava Sobel Herself
Harold L. Ickes Himself
Manya Hartmayer Breuer Herself
Tom Segev Himself
Ike Aronowitz Himself
Mordechai Rossman Himself
Eli Wallach Mordechai Rossman (voice)
Therese Plummer Young Ruth (voice)

Make it a double feature

2h 37m together

Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber

On Broadway

Both from Robert Richman.

More from Robert RichmanSee all →

On Broadway

On Broadway · 2019

MovieDocumentary

An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen—including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen—take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way on a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business in this documentary directed by Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby.

Obsessed with Light

Obsessed with Light · 2023

Obsessed with Light

MovieDocumentary

Loïe Fuller, stage name of Marie Louise Fuller: the American actress and dancer trained in burlesque, circuses and variety shows who, in the 1890s, signed by the Folies Bergère of Paris, became a star. She was portrayed by Toulouse-Lautrec, loved by the symbolists, the inspiration for Art Nouveau, in her shows she combined dance, spirals of fabric and light, reflected from behind or from below through the glass floor that she had created. She transformed into the "Fairy of Light", was taken up (especially in her Serpentine Dance) by Georges Méliès and Alice Guy and influenced René Clair's early films.

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills · 1996

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

MovieDocumentaryCrime

A horrific triple child murder leads to an indictment and trial of three nonconformist boys based on questionable evidence.

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory · 2012

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

MovieDocumentaryCrime

A further investigation into the arrest of three teenagers convicted of killing three young boys in Arkansas who spent nearly 20 years in prison before being released after new DNA evidence indicated they may be innocent.

The Hunt For Planet B

The Hunt For Planet B · 2021

The Hunt For Planet B

MovieDocumentary

Taking us behind the scenes with NASA's high-stakes Webb Space Telescope, The Hunt for Planet B follows a pioneering group of scientists - many of them women - on their quest to find another Earth among the stars.

The Dark Side of The Sun

The Dark Side of The Sun · 2017

The Dark Side of The Sun

MovieDocumentary

There are times, especially during a severe thunderstorm, when the power goes out temporarily. A minor inconvenience for most people, since they know that their power will be quickly restored. Even during major events like ice storms, where the power can be disrupted for days or even weeks, the lights will eventually come back on. If the power went out and didn’t return for a year or more, it’s a good bet that panic would set in once people realized something more ominous was happening, other than a temporary power outage. It sounds like a good scenario for a doomsday movie, but this event could actually occur.

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations · 2000

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

MovieDocumentaryCrime

Revisiting the 1994 Arkansas murder of three 8-year-old boys and the three teenagers convicted of the crime. A follow up to Paradise Lost, Revelations features new interviews with the convicted men, as well as with the original judge and police investigators.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster · 2004

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

MovieDocumentaryMusic

After bassist Jason Newsted quits the band in 2001, heavy metal superstars Metallica realize that they need an intervention. In this revealing documentary, filmmakers follow the three rock stars as they hire a group therapist and grapple with 20 years of repressed anger and aggression. Between searching for a replacement bass player, creating a new album and confronting their personal demons, the band learns to open up in ways they never thought possible.

The Price of Everything

The Price of Everything · 2018

The Price of Everything

MovieDocumentary

Featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers and a rich range of artists, including market darlings George Condo, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, this documentary examines the role of art and artistic passion in today’s money-driven, consumer-based society.

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth · 2006

An Inconvenient Truth

MovieDocumentary

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

Warning: This Drug May Kill You

Warning: This Drug May Kill You · 2017

Warning: This Drug May Kill You

MovieTV MovieDocumentary

A harrowing, unflinching look at the devastating effects of opioid addiction in the U.S. told from the perspectives of four families devastated by the deadly epidemic.

Waiting for "Superman"

Waiting for "Superman" · 2010

Waiting for "Superman"

MovieDocumentary

Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for Superman is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim.

My Architect: A Son's Journey

My Architect: A Son's Journey · 2003

My Architect: A Son's Journey

MovieDocumentary

World-famous architect Louis Kahn (Exeter Library, Salk Institute, Bangladeshi Capitol Building) had two illegitimate children with two different women outside of his marriage. Son Nathaniel always hoped that someday his father would come and live with him and his mother, but Kahn never left his wife. Instead, Kahn was found dead in a men's room in Penn Station when Nathaniel was only 11.

Hank: 5 Years from the Brink

Hank: 5 Years from the Brink · 2013

Hank: 5 Years from the Brink

MovieDocumentary

For three weeks in September 2008, one person was charged with preventing the collapse of the global economy. No one understood the financial markets better than Hank Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. In Hank: Five Years from the Brink, Paulson tells the complete story of how he persuaded banks, Congress and presidential candidates to sign off on nearly $1 trillion in bailouts - even as he found the behavior that led to the crisis, and the bailouts themselves, morally reprehensible. Directed by Academy Award nominee Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost Trilogy, Some Kind of Monster), the film features Paulson, and his wife of 40 years, Wendy. it's a riveting portrait of leadership under unimaginable pressure - and a marriage under unfathomable circumstances.

The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan

The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan · 2004

The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan

MovieComedyDocumentary

Everyone has a skeleton or two in his or her closet, but what about the director behind some of the most successful thrillers ever to hit the silver screen? Could M. Night Shyamalan be hiding a deep, dark secret that drives his macabre cinematic vision? Now viewers will be able to find out firsthand what fuels The Sixth Sense director's seemingly supernatural creativity as filmmakers interview Shyamalan as well as the cast and crew members who have worked most closely with him over the years. Discover the early events that shaped the mind of a future master of suspense in a documentary that is as fascinating as it is revealing.

The September Issue

The September Issue · 2009

The September Issue

MovieDocumentary

A documentary chronicling Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour's preparations for the 2007 fall-fashion issue.

More Like This

Lions for Lambs

Lions for Lambs · 2007

Lions for Lambs

MovieActionAdventure

Three stories told simultaneously in ninety minutes of real time: a Republican Senator who's a presidential hopeful gives an hour-long interview to a skeptical television reporter, detailing a strategy for victory in Afghanistan; two special forces ambushed on an Afghani ridge await rescue as Taliban forces close in; a poli-sci professor at a California college invites a student to re-engage.

The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields · 1984

The Killing Fields

MovieDramaHistory

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

Shock and Awe

Shock and Awe · 2017

MovieHistoryDrama

A group of journalists covering George Bush's planned invasion of Iraq in 2003 are skeptical of the presidents claim that Saddam Hussein has "weapons of mass destruction."

The Post

The Post · 2017

MovieDramaHistory

A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government. Inspired by true events.

Welcome to Sarajevo

Welcome to Sarajevo · 1997

Welcome to Sarajevo

Follow a group of international journalists into the heart of the once cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo—now a danger zone of sniper and mortar attacks where residents still live. While reporting on an American aid worker who’s trying to get children out of the country, a British correspondent decides to take an orphaned girl home to London.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter