World of Jewish Flicks – October

Summer is over!  With October comes cooler weather and a flood of new movies at the theaters.  It is time for the film studios to begin releasing the films they hope will garner public attention and Academy Award consideration.

In the World of Jewish Flicks, it means the release of such outstanding films such as Inglourious Basterds and A Serious Man. Inglourious Basterds was actually released in August and it has already taken in over $100 million at the North American box office and twice that much world wide.

A Serious Man, the Coen Brothers’ first cinematic look at their roots and the Jewish world they grew up in, has just started its run and it will be interesting to see whether this kind of film will receive widespread support by film audiences around the world.

October is also a time to reflect on what happened in the past.  Last month I talked about the Toronto International Film Festival and the large number of Israeli films that were screened at that venue.  Several of these films have since been picked up by North American distributors.

Lebanon, a highly acclaimed film that played at TIFF, has been picked up by Sony Classics for the U.S. market and by Maple Films in Canada.  Ajami, another, more quirky Israeli film, was signed by Kino. Ajami recently won the Israeli equivalent of the Academy Awards as Best Film and will be the Israeli nominee to the American Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Film.

Other Jewish films to watch for in the near future include Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg.  This is a charming feature length documentary about Gertrude Berg, the actress, screenwriter and the driving force behind the radio and television series The Goldbergs, which was popular in the 1940s and 50s.  It has been playing in selected locations in the United States and is scheduled to arrive at theatres in Toronto later this month.

Also opening theatrically recently was As Seen Through These Eyes, a documentary describing how artists survived the Holocaust by painting and creating works of art for the Nazis.  This is a compelling film by director Hilary Helstein and has opened in New York City and is scheduled to appear in Los Angeles and other cities in the near future.

And in December be sure to watch for the theatrical opening of The Debt, a remake of an Israeli film about revenge and a Mossad operation against a Nazi doctor who performed experiments on Jewish patients.  The film was an exciting thriller and the English-language remake, starring Helen Mirren, promises to bring this film to a larger audience.  I will present more details when final details about the film’s release are announced.

As always, the heart of the World of Jewish Flicks is comprised of the numerous Jewish film festivals taking place around the world.  The Haifa International Film Festival in northern Israel is probably the most important festival taking place at this time of year. 

Haifa opened with a film that recently played here in North America, Taking Woodstock.  This is a film that describes one young man’s experiences while trying to save his family’s hotel in the Catskills, near where the famous Woodstock music festival took place in 1969.  It isn’t a great film, but it is an interesting story told by well-known film director Ang Lee, and has an excellent cast (Emile Hirsch, Eugene Levy and Liev Schreiber).  Many of the characters in the film are Jewish, including the young man and his family, the farmer whose fields were used for the Woodstock music festival and some of the entrepreneurs who put Woodstock together.

Haifa is also showing a number of new Israeli films, including several excellent documentaries and a few new feature films.

Also this month, there will be the Cleveland Jewish Film Festival (Oct. 15-24) and at the end of the month, the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival begins its run, which will extend into November.  There will be more on the latter festival in next month’s column.

As far as DVD releases, October features several outstanding films.  These include Lemon Tree, an Israeli film about the dispute that erupted when the Israeli government decided to uproot an orchard of lemon trees owned by an Arab widow.  The film details the legal battle the Arab woman conducted in order to save her only source of income and provides an emotional ride for film viewers.
Another DVD being released is Anvil:  The Story of Anvil.  This is the story of two musicians who had a dream of making it big in the world of heavy metal rock music.  They are Jewish boys who grew up in Toronto and who kept working at their dream for over thirty years, without much success.  Then a couple of years ago, a former roadie of theirs made this film about them.  It was a marvelous film that concentrates on the two mainstays of the band and their wonderful personalities.  Despite their continual failure to crack the big time, they persevered and refused to give up their dreams.

The film was very successful.  It opened the 2008 Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival in Toronto, and played successfully in theatres around the world.  With the theatrical release of the film, Anvil did live shows before the film’s premieres that won them legions of new fans. 

Now the film has been released on DVD.  Not only is it a truly marvelous film, but it is sure to bring them even more fame and maybe even some fortune.  If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a look. I am not a fan of heavy metal rock music, but it is an excellent and very enjoyable little film.

Also available on DVD this month is the BBC’s production of  The Diary of Anne Frank.  This is another great production put on by the BBC that should not be missed.

 Until next month, good viewing and enjoy the wide variety of Jewish flicks arriving at theatres and video stores around the world.

Larry Anklewicz is the Programme Coordinator for the Toronto Jewish Film
Festival, He has written and lectured on Jewish films for many years and is the author of  A Guide to Jewis Films on Video.