17th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival

2007 Audience Choice Award Winners!

The winner of the “Audience Award for Best Feature Film” at the 17 th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival, was the Brazilian film Olga, a dramatic tale based on the true story of Olga Benario, a brilliant, committed political activist who coordinated Communist activities in the USSR, France and Britain before escaping to Rio de Janeiro as the wife of Brazilian Communist leader Luis Carlos Prestes, only to be deported to Germany by the Gestapo. Olga was directed by Jayme Monjardin and was also the winner of Cinema Brazil’s Grand Prize in Art Direction, Costume Design, and Makeup.

The “Audience Award for Best Documentary” went to Knowledge is the Beginning, which follows the ethnically diverse members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and their conductor, Daniel Barenboim, through workshops and a European tour.

The winner of the “Audience Award for Best Short Subject Film” was Beautiful Music, a remarkable tale of pianist and composer Devorah Schramm, who taught piano to a 9-year-old blind and severely autistic Palestinian girl. This testament to the human spirit offers hope for the ability of individuals to reach across cultural barriers.

Ballots were cast by Film Festival ticket holders to name this year’s favorites. Audiences rated the films on a scale of 1 (Excellent) to 5 (Did Not Like). The scores for each film were tallied and the winners based on the lowest average point total.

2 Minutes From Faradis

Teen Screen Nights

A rebellious Israeli teenage girl falls for the Arab son of her parents’ maid, and finds that the relationship is the perfect way to get under her parents’ skin. Sparks fly in both families, making for a scathingly funny look at prejudice on both sides of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Winner of Best Short Drama in the BANFF, Monte Carlo, and Cinema Tout Ecran Festivals.

Director: Daniel Syrkin

Israel, 2002, 48 min., BetaSP, Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, “Date Night” Picks, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Arab/Israeli Issues

Preceded by Shmeardown

This quirky little comedy follows two young women to their local bagel shop and pits them against one another in a fight to build the ultimate bagel sandwich.

Director: Melissa Bloom and Emily Rifkin,

USA, 7 min., DVD, English

Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects, English Language

Guest Artists: Directors Melissa Bloom and Emily Rifkin invited

A Star Hidden in the Backlands

What’s the relation between Luciano Oliveira, a young physician from Paraíba; João Medeiros, a retired engineer from Natal; and Odmar Braga; a black policeman from Pernambuco? They were all born into Christian families in the northeastern backlands of Brazil. All carry on traditions that can only be explained by the fact that their ancestors were Marranos, Jews who converted to Catholicism more than 200 years ago and fled to rural Brazil to escape the Portuguese inquisition. This scholarly and fascinating film reveals what happens when these individuals begin to question their origins and seek to formally rejoin the religion of the forefathers.

Director: Elaine Eiger and Luize Valente

Brazil, 2005, 85 min., BetaSP, Portuguese w/ subtitles

Categories: Documentary, History, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression, Faith & Spirituality

Preceded by A Shtetl That’s No Longer There

This warm, family-focused tale is told by the director’s mother as she prepares vrennekes, a traditional dish from her childhood. While she cooks, she recounts her family’s life in a small town in Poland, their separation during the Holocaust, and her own escape to Peru.

Director: Heddy Honigmann

Netherlands, 2004, 25 min., BetaSP, Dutch w/ subtitles

Categories: Documentary, Short Subjects, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Holocaust

Beautiful Music

Family Day/Inclusion Program

Brooke Shields narrates this remarkable tale of pianist and composer Devorah Schramm, an American-born Orthodox Jew. Schramm moved to Israel at the height of the Intifada, where she taught piano to a 9-year-old, blind and severely autistic Palestinian girl, Rasha Hamid. This testament to the human spirit offers hope for the Middle East, the ability of individuals to reach across cultural barriers, and the healing power of music.

Director: Richard Trank

USA, 2005, 38 min., 35MM, English and Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Arts & Culture, Documentary, Short Subjects, English Language, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression, Arab/Israeli Issues, Faith & Spirituality

Guest Artist: Director Richard Trank invited

Preceded by White Balance

Twelve-year-old Itamar has a deep love for ice skating. However, he is slowly losing his hearing, which forces him away from his singular passion. Itamar refuses to accept his doctor’s orders and his parents’ wish that he stay away from the ice rink. Enter Natalie, his new partner, who is a wild and rebellious girl. Together they struggle and grow within a complicated world of adolescence.

Director: Dorit Hakim

Israel, 2005, 50 min., BetaSP, Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age

(White Balance is a subtitled film and is recommended for children ages 11 and up.)

Brother’s Shadow

Questions of identity and redemption propel this compelling drama about an ex-con who finds himself with the opportunity to begin a new life. Jake Groden (Scott Cohen, Kissing Jessica Stein) returns to Brooklyn after fourteen years to find that his identical twin brother has just died, leaving his family with a failing furniture business. Jake takes on his brother’s identity in his quest to save the business and keep the family afloat. But the masquerade takes its toll on everyone involved, including his bereaved, embittered father (Judd Hirsch). Filmmaker Todd Yellin spent time observing woodworker and MacArthur Genius Grant winner, Sam Maloof, in preparation for this finely crafted creation.

Director: Todd S. Yellin

USA, 91 min., HDCam, English

Categories: Fiction, “Date Night” Picks, English Language, Family Relations & Coming of Age

Guest Artists: Director Todd S. Yellin, Actor Scott Cohen invited

Code Name: Bayonet

Code Name: Bayonet exposes the real story of the Mossad’s Bayonet unit responsible for Israel’s retaliation against the Palestinian Black September terrorists following the 1972 massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. There are many portrayals of the Israeli payback, but this documentary revisits the operations with the Mossad agents responsible, and presents the personal accounts of CIA operatives and surviving Black September members. This is an unrivalled and compelling account of Israel’s unprecedented action, told by the people involved.

Director: Ron Maiberg

Israel, 2006, 52 min., BetaSP

Categories: Documentary, History, Israeli Films, Arab/Israeli Issues

Preceded by Dark Night

Two Israeli soldiers take shelter in the home of a Palestinian family after their vehicle strikes a landmine on the way back from patrol. The soldiers take the couple prisoner in their own home, but, before long, one soldier learns that he shares his Russian heritage with one of his captives. Their bond, however, cannot overcome the hostility of the situation, which spirals toward a gritty, all too realistic ending.

Director: Leonid Prudovsky,

Israel, 2005, 30 min., BetaSP, Russian and Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects, Israeli Films, Arab/Israeli Issues

Guest Artist: Director Leonid Prudovsky Invited

First Lesson in Peace

As a parent, it is hard to reconcile your politics with your choices for your children’s education. Filmmaker Yoram Honig and his wife live by their ideals and send their children to a bilingual Arabic/Hebrew school for Jewish and Palestinian students. We follow precocious daughter Michal from her first day at school through the entire year of holiday celebrations. The film’s climax on Israel Memorial and Independence Days (the Palestinian’s Days of Disaster) brings all the characters into sharply differing views and situations.

Director: Yoram Honig

Israel, 2006, 56 min., BetaSP, Arabic and Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Documentary, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression, Arab/Israeli Issues

Guest Speaker: Director Yoram Honig invited

Preceded by The Children’s House

Summer 2005. The Tel Aviv museum is holding an exhibition called “ Communal Sleeping” in which kibbutz-born artists portray, through their works, their childhood experiences of communal sleeping and living apart from their parents on their kibbutz. The film includes archival material from documentaries produced in the 1950’s by the kibbutz movement. These idealized scenes stand in stark contrast to the pain and memories depicted by the artists.

Directors: Tamar Feingold

Israel, 2005, 52 min., BetaSP, Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Arts & Culture, Documentary, History, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age

The First Time I Turned Twenty

Marilou Berry (Look at Me) delivers a sparkling performance as Hannah, a 16-year-old misfit growing up in the suburbs of postwar France. Her homeliness and weight do not help matters as she struggles to blend in with her wacky parents, and two pretty sisters who are only interested in one thing–boys. Yet striving to remain true to herself, and with wit and musical talent on her side, she combats pranks and anti-Semitism as she fights for a spot in the famous all-male jazz band at her school. In the end, Hannah succeeds in this charming, humorous, and poignant film.

Director: Lorraine Levy

France, 2004, 90 min., 35mm, French w/subtitles

Categories: Fiction, Arts & Culture, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Women’s Issues, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression

Viewer Discretion: One scene contains momentary male frontal nudity

Preceded by Shmeardown

This quirky little comedy follows two young women to their local bagel shop and pits them against one another in a fight to build the ultimate bagel sandwich.

Director: Melissa Bloom and Emily Rifkin,

USA, 7 min., DVD, English

Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects, English Language

Guest Artists: Directors Melissa Bloom and Emily Rifkin invited

Forgiving Dr. Mengele

Forgiving Dr. Mengele tells the story of a shocking act of forgiveness by Auschwitz survivor Eva Mozes Kor and the firestorm of criticism it has provoked. Eva and her twin sister, Miriam, were victims of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele’s cruel genetic experiment, an experience that would haunt them their entire lives. We follow Eva’s metamorphosis from embittered survivor to tireless advocate for reconciliation. This unexpected transformation was sparked when Eva met with another former Auschwitz doctor. Eva’s ideas about justice, revenge, and the possibility of healing through forgiveness, as well as the passionate opposition from other survivors, become a window to a larger discussion of the ways people define forgiveness.

Director: Bob Hercules and Cheri Pugh

USA, 2005, 80 min., BetaSP, English

Categories: Documentary, English Language, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Faith & Spirituality, Holocaust

Preceded by Distant Memory

Get a balloon for the price of a smile.

In Nazi Germany, young Marie meets Jakob, a Jewish clown who gives away balloons for the price of a smile. Unable to satisfy Jakob’s wish because of a tragic misunderstanding, Marie will apparently be forever in debt to him.

Director: Michael Schafer

Germany, 2005, 11 min., 35 MM

Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects, Holocaust

The Forgotten Refugees

In 1945 there were one million Jews living in e Middle East and North Africa outside the Palestine Mandate, many in communities dating back more than three millennia. Today, only several thousand remain. The Forgotten Refugees explores the history and destruction of these communities and recounts the compelling personal stories these people have carried for so long. Extensive testimony of survivors from Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and Iraq testify to the enormously rich cultures fleeing Jews left behind. The film weaves individuals’ stories with dramatic archival footage of rescue missions, exodus, and resettlement.

Director: Michael Grynszpan

Israel, 2005, 49 min., BetaSP, English

Categories: Documentary, History, English Language, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression, Arab/Israeli Issues

Guest Speaker: Film subject, Gina Waldman, JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa)

Preceded by Faith

Produced at UCSD, this documentary depicts an Iranian-Jewish man, now living in Los Angeles. As the one-time leader of the Communist Party in Tehran, imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis, and facing discrimination since birth, he reflects on how his faith has galvanized him.

Director: Melanie Yashar

USA, 7 min., DVD, Farsi w/ subtitles

Guest Artist: Director Melanie Yashar

Guest Artist: Director Melanie Yashar Community Partner: American Jewish Committee, San Diego Chapter

Ira and Abby

This witty romance takes an honest look at marriage, with plenty of laughter in the mix. Writer/actress Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein), Chris Messina (Six Feet Under), and comedic stars Jason Alexander, Robert Klein, and Fred Willard highlight a charming cast in the story of a wishy-washy man and a free-spirited woman swept too quickly into marriage. The relationship soon devolves into a bittersweet maze of affairs, therapy, and meddling parents. As Ira’s and Abby’s mothers, Frances Conroy and Judith Light contribute to the dysfunctional delights. Audience Choice, Best Feature at 2006 Boston Jewish Film Festival.

Director: Robert Cary,

USA, 2006, 100 min., HDCAM, English

Categories: Fiction, “Date Night” Picks, English Language, Family Relations & Coming of Age

Guest Artists: The film’s Director, Executive Producer, and actors invited (Feb 8)

Preceded by Matisyahu

Matisyahu is a Hasidic Reggae/Beat Box/Rapper who projects joy and faith. Born Matthew Miller in 1979 in Westchester, PA, he has developed a following across the USA among both Jews and non-Jews. This short documentary follows him as he explains his Chasidic transformation and his mission to use music to inspire others to greater spirituality.

Director: David Baugnon

USA, 2004, 12 min., DigiBeta, English

Categories: Arts & Culture, Documentary, Short Subjects, English Language, Faith & Spirituality

Joyce Forum

The Joyce Forum presents outstanding Jewish-themed short-subject, documentary, and feature films by student and earlycareer filmmakers from all over the world. Named in honor of San Diego Jewish Film Festival Founder Joyce Axelrod, the Joyce Forum supports emerging filmmakers by showcasing their talent and exposing their work to established filmmakers, artists, and industry peers. This year the Joyce Forum will also present early works by veteran filmmakers Alan Berliner and Dan Katzir whose latest films are also being screened in the festival.

Nobody’s Business

This multiple-award winner delves into both the humorous and the poignant sides of aging. For filmmaker Alan Berliner, it’s an uphill battle to coerce his father, Oscar, into sharing his life story. Their complex father-son dynamic is at times funny, painful, and ultimately enlightening, proving that even the deepest family wounds can be healed.

Sunday School Lockout

Melissa Hoffman would rather do 180,000 push-ups than go to Sunday School. The Toronto fourth-grader has “a dream come true” when her Hebrew School is canceled because of a locked building. This charming gem is told through Melissa’s eyes, produced by her mother, but filmed by her six-year-old brother Turner, the festival’s youngest-ever filmmaker.

Dorchester Street playing with Two Ladies

Canadian director Sarah Lazarovic uses a unique, whimsical style that combines live action footage and animation in her charming shorts. Dorchester Street is an affectionate tribute to Montreal’s Dorchester Street district. The filmmaker’s friends and family bring its colorful past to life. Two Ladies compares and contrasts Lazarovic’s two grandmothers, a Bronx-born firebrand and a Czech-born cynic. The loving tribute entices the audience to sing and dance along with its seemingly familiar characters.

Draft

In this emotionally powerful film, writer/director Naomi Levari introduces a father and son at ideological odds. The father, a 60s-era pacifist, has just twenty-four hours to stop his son from enlisting in the army. Draft was awarded Student Visionary Special Mention at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2005.

Benjamin’s Struggle

This short-subject film is a tale of persecution and ironic justice. In 1924, while imprisoned in Landsberg Castle, Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, his terrifying blueprint of things to come. A decade later, during the Nazi’s reign of terror, a nine-yearold German boy chances upon the highly prized original manuscript of Hitler’s book and begins a lifelong quest. Stars Andrew Sachs, who, as a boy, escaped the Nazis.

Faith

Road

In the Judean desert, on a narrow winding road, a young couple is making love beside a memorial pillar. Only a year before, on the very same road, four Palestinian workers kidnapped their Israeli employer and placed him on trial, charging him with injustices of Zionism and crimes of occupation.

The Metamorphosis

This short comedy is the story of Stan Leiber, who is surprised to awaken one morning and find that the unexplained pain in the back of his head is actually a yarmulke growing there.

Naturalized

A Russian immigrant to the United States wages a hilarious battle with his overbearing parents when he decides to undergo the ultimate rite of male Jewish identity.

Out For Love, Be Back Shortly

Dan Katzir’s autobiographical account of the uncertainty experienced by his generation, the children of those who founded the State of Israel. Despite growing up with wonderful role models, he finds himself doubting his country and his culture. Made in 1997, and considered the most important film about the Rabin era, Out for Love… explores the trials of finding love in a world filled with hatred and terror.

Beyond Eyruv

Twenty-year-old Moshe Galan longs to escape the narrow confines of his close-knit ultra- Orthodox Chasidic community and to satisfy his curiosity about the “world out there.” Severely lacking basic skills, but with the help of his secular grandparents, he leaves behind the only life he’s ever known and ventures out into modern America. Trying to decide where he truly belongs, Moshe finds his biggest challenge is reformulating his personal faith and relationship with G-d.

Just an Ordinary Jew

Brilliant and cultured German-Jewish journalist Emanuel Goldfarb (Ben Becker, Gloomy Sunday) receives a terribly polite letter asking him to speak about “ his daily life as a Jewish citizen” to a group of German schoolchildren. Insulted and angered by the invitation, Goldfarb sits down in his apartment to write a short, but equally polite refusal. After much soul-searching, he delivers a fascinating, provocative tour-de-force soliloquy–a monumental settling of accounts–that starkly confronts Germany’s dark past and his own German-Jewish identity. Oliver Hirshbiegel’s stunning film asks us: Can life ever again be ordinary for a Jew in Germany?

Director: Oliver Hirshbiegel

Germany, 2005, 90 min., BetaSP, German w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, History, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression, Holocaust

Guest Artist: Director Oliver Hirshbiegel invited

Katzhen

Life on a kibbutz is the only remaining option for Katzhen, a young boy whose mother has died, whose father is in a mental institution, and whose remaining relatives have failed at caring for him. His sad and touching tale includes ridicule by other children and a loneliness tempered only, for a short time, by the caring Arab shepherd. The bitter-sweet ending finds the boy and his father reunited in a shared moment in grief, recognition, and love.

Director: Guy Michael,

Israel, 2005, 52 min., BetaSP, Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Holocaust

Preceded by Pesya’s Necklace

An Israeli Holocaust survivor accompanies her 17-year-old granddaughter on a school trip to Auschwitz. While in Poland, she visits her former family home to search for a necklace buried there, but what she unearths instead is the shocking truth of her past.

Director: Jorge Gurvich

Israel, 2006, 35 min., BetaSP, Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Holocaust

Knowledge is the Beginning

Music Program

Conductor Daniel Barenboim believes a peaceful future is possible for the Middle East. This belief was his motivation to create, with the late literary critic/scholar Edward Said, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999. The mix of English, German, Hebrew, and Arabic language compliment the film’s beautiful music and underscore the diversity of the young musicians in the orchestra. The film follows them through workshops and a European tour, accompanied by admiration and controversy.

Director: Paul Smaczny

Germany, 2006, 115 min., BetaSP, English/German and Arabic w/subtitles

Categories: Arts & Culture, Documentary, Arab/Israeli Issues

Guest Artist: Director Richard Trank invited

Preceded by Beautiful Music

Director: Richard Trank

USA, 2005, 38 min., 35MM, English and Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Arts & Culture, Documentary, Short Subjects, English Language, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression, Arab/Israeli Issues, Faith & Spiritualit

KZ

Committed British documentarian Rex Bloomstein continues his career-long engagement with anti- Semitism. KZ is a low key, but disturbing portrait of visitors and guides at the Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen and villagers in the adjacent Austrian town. Bloomstein queries old timers about the secrets of the past and newcomers about choosing to live there now. He monitors tourists’ reactions to the death camp, while KZ tour guides unflinchingly recount the horrors in minute detail. Bloomstein delivers a powerful message: Unless we face the atrocities of the past, we may be doomed to repeat them.

Director: Rex Bloomstein

UK, 2005, 97 min., DigiBeta, English and German w/ subtitles

Categories: Documentary, Holocaust

Guest Artist: Director Rex Bloomstein invited

Guest Artist: Co-presented by: Holocaust Education Program, The Samuel & Rebecca Astor Judaica Library

Like A Fish Out of Water

Director Leonid Prudovsky takes a walk on the lighter side with this comedy of cross-cultural romance. An Argentine-born telenovela actor has trouble finding work when he immigrates to Israel. He falls for his Hebrew teacher, whose parents adore him thanks to a series of hilarious misunderstandings. His young daughter brings an unexpectedly sharp wit to an already eclectic group of characters. The laughs twist, turn, and don’t let up.

Director: Leonid Prudovsky

Israel, 2006, 52 min., BetaSP, Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age

Guests Artists: Director Leonid Prudovsky invited

Preceded by2 Minutes From Faradis

Director: Daniel Syrkin

Israel, 2002, 48 min., BetaSP, Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, “Date Night” Picks, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Arab/Israeli Issues

Olga

Based on a true story, Olga tells the dramatic tale of Olga Benario, a brilliant, committed political activist and a valiant woman. German-born and half-Jewish, Olga becomes a communist at 15, eventually coordinating activities in the USSR, France, and Britain before escaping to Rio de Janiero as the wife of Brazilian Communist leader Luis Carlos Prestes. When Dictator Getulio Vargas has the couple arrested, Prestes goes to jail, but Olga is deported to Germany by the Gestapo. In the most undignified setting in a concentration camp, Olga remains a heroine by teaching secret classes, publishing an underground newspaper, organizing food for sick prisoners, and encouraging her fellow prisoners to strive not only for survival, but also for their dignity. This epic love story is a tale that touches our hearts and inspires our admiration. Winner of Cinema Brazil Grand Prize in Art Direction, Costume Design, and Makeup.

Viewer Discretion: Adult content.

Director: Jayme Monjardin

Brazil, 2004, 141 min., 35MM, Portuguese and German w/subtitles

Categories: Fiction, History, Women’s Issues, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression, Holocaust

Guest Speaker: Dr. Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, Professor of History, CSU San Marcos

Out of Faith

The hostilities of one family ripped apart by interfaith marriage come under the microscope. To Leah and Eliezer, the eldest generation of the Welber family, their grandchildren’s choice in spouses represents a betrayal of their relatives killed in the Holocaust. Just as their first great-grandchild is about to be born, an unexpected event occurs that will either reconcile three generations, or rend them asunder for good.

Directors: Lisa Leeman and L. Mark DeAngelis

USA, 2006, 82 min., BetaSP, English and Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: English Language, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Faith & Spirituality, Holocaust

Guest Artists: Directors Lisa Leeman and L. Mark DeAngelis invited (with panel Feb16)

Preceded by Naturalized

A Russian immigrant to the United States wages a hilarious battle with his overbearing parents when he decides to undergo the ultimate rite of male Jewish identity.

Director: Julia Kots

2006, USA, 8 min., DigiBeta, English

Out of Sight

A young, blind woman, who is studying in the United States, returns home to Israel for the funeral of her childhood best friend. In her grief, she boldly conducts her own personal investigation into the shocking death, which is determined to be by suicide. This riveting psychological story questions whether people ever truly see–either physically or metaphorically – all that is going on around them. The intense drama won Syrkin the Israeli Academy

Viewer Discretion: Adult content.

Director: Daniel Syrkin

Israel, 1995, 86 min., 35MM, Hebrew w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, Documentary, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Women’s Issues

Guest Artist: Director Daniel Syrkin invited

The Rape of Europa

The Rape of Europa is a documentary based on the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning book by Lynn H. Nicholas. The film tells the epic tale of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction, and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures during the Third Reich and World War II. The film interweaves the history of Nazi art looting with the stories of contemporary restitution cases. It also tells the dramatic story of the unprecedented heroic efforts of the US Monuments Men who were sent to Europe to safeguard and return displaced art at the end of the war.

Director: Richard Berge, Nicole Newnham and Bonni Cohen

Co-Producer: Robert M. Edsel

USA, 117 min., BetaSP, English

Categories: Arts & Culture, Documentary, English Language, Holocaust

Various Positions

In this briskly-paced romantic drama, college student Josh is on track for law school and a place at his father’s firm. As his Orthodox Jewish family prepares for their traditional Passover celebrations, Josh hits a brick wall in the form of the alluring, troubled–and not quite Jewish–Cheryth. As things heat up at the dorm and at home, Josh is suddenly questioning his faith, his father, and his future. Passion and new love collide with family values and the demands of tradition as Josh, Cheryth, and Josh’s family find themselves questioning their lives.

Viewer Discretion: Adult content.

Directors: Ori Kowarsky

Canada, 2002, 90 min., 35MM, English

Categories: Fiction, “Date Night” Picks, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Faith & Spirituality, Holocaust

Guest Artist: Director Ori Kowarsky

What a Wonderful Place

Three absorbing stories about the impact of immigration on Israel come together in director Eyal Halfon’s striking film that calls to mind Robert Altman’s Nashville and Paul Haggis’ Crash. An ex-cop helps a brutal gangster smuggle Russian women to Israel for prostitution, but rediscovers his conscience while assisting and falling for a Ukranian call girl. A melancholic overweight farmer turns to one of his overworked Thai laborers for understanding and compassion. A tough nature ranger harasses the Thai workers while he depends on a Filipino immigrant to care for his handicapped father. Cultures clash as these foreigners shaping modern Israel come together in a dramatic and uplifting ending. Israelis’ entry 2006 Academy Awards; Best Picture Israeli Academy Awards; Best Feature Jerusalem International Film Festival.

Viewer Discretion: Adult content.

Director: Sidney M. Goldin

USA, 2002 restoration of 1931 film, 10 min., BetaSP, Yiddish w/ subtitles

Categories: Fiction, Israeli Films, Women’s Issues, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression

Wide Awake

A confirmed night owl, Alan Berliner has an obsessive mind that won’t shut down for sleep and which leaves him feeling “ jet lagged in his own time zone.” Digging deeply into the notion that true creativity can come only from chaos and exhaustion, the sleep-deprived documentarian interviews family and friends and gives us an intimate glimpse into the unsettling ripple effect one man’s insomnia has on everyone around him. Can Berliner be cured of his insomnia? Does he really want to be? This delightful collage is a real eye-opener.

Director: Alan Berliner

USA, 2006, 79 min., DigiBeta, English

Categories: Documentary, English Language

Preceded by The Sweetest Sound

Tired of being mistaken for anyone who shares his name, the filmmaker invites all the Alan Berliners in the world to his home for dinner. What starts as a search for identity transforms into a meditation on mortality. Ultimately, he shares the power and magic embedded in a name, and examines how our identities are shaped by what we call ourselves.

Director/Writer: Alan Berliner

USA, 2001, 60 min., DigiBeta, English

Categories: Documentary, English Language

Guest Artist: Director Alan Berliner

The World Was Ours

This beautiful documentary tells of the legacy of a legendary Eastern Europe culture that was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. Founded in the early 14th century, Vilna, Lithuania was a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society in which a remarkable Jewish community took root and grew, often under adverse conditions. It helped shape many of the great ideologies of 20th century Jewish life, had a deep religious and artistic heritage, and a highly developed sense of social responsibility. Film narrated by Mandy Patinkin.

Director: Mira Jedwabnik Van Doren

USA, 2006, 58 min., DigiBeta, English

Categories: Arts & Culture, Documentary, English Language, Holocaust

Preceded by Torte Bluma

This short film, based on a true story, is so compelling that you’ll wish it was full length. Treblinka Commandant Franz Stangl (Stelian Skarsgard) forgives Richard Blau, his personal slave and cook, for ruining the torte bluma. Blau’s search for clothing among the confiscated items belonging to newly-arriving prisoners, results in a divesting discovery that challenges the unusual relationship between the two men.

Director: Benjamin Ross

USA, 2005, 17 min., BetaSP, English

Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects, Holocaust

Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner, Tony Kushner (Angels in America) is a consummate artist and indomitable political activist whose work challenges us to “ wrestle with angels.” A Jewish homosexual, raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Kushner has become a compassionate voice for outsiders in a climate of repression and censorship. Interweaving interviews and personal moments from Kushner’s life with scenes from his plays, Wrestling with Angels covers the three years between 9/11 and the 2004 presidential election as a three-act play. Freida Lee Mock (Maya Lin) has created a film as charismatic as Kushner himself. Award winner at the Munich and the Cleveland International Film Festivals.

Director: Freida Lee Mock

USA, 2006, 98 min., 35MM, English

Categories: Arts & Culture, Documentary, English Language, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression

Guest Artist: Director Freida Lee Mock invited

Co-presented by: J*Pride

Yiddish Theater: A Love Story

Enter the larger-than-life world of Yiddish theatre through award-winning Dan Katzir’s loving tribute to the late Zypora Spaisman, founder of the longest running Yiddish theatre in America. The film tells of the poignant struggle of a beloved old art form to remain relevant and an aging actress to find a stage in a society that worships the “ cutting edge” and the hip. A must-see film for everyone who loves theater.

Director: Dan Katzir

Israel/USA, 2006, 80 min., BetaSX, English and Yiddish w/ subtitles

Categories: Arts & Culture, Documentary, History, English Language

Guest Artist: Director Dan Katzir

Preceded by A Cantor on Trial

Cantor Leibele Waldman plays multiple roles in this spoof of a synagogue’s search for a High Holidays Cantor. He auditions first as a Galitzianer, then as Daytsher (German), and finally as a slick modern chazan with pep and jazz, a two-step Kol Nidre, and a black bottom Unetanah Tokef. Will our Yiddish Sinatra carry the day?

Director: Sidney M. Goldin

USA, 2002 restoration of 1931 film, 10 min., BetaSP, Yiddish w/ subtitles

Categories: Arts & Culture, Short Subjects, Faith & Spirituality

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