World of Jewish Flicks – July
July is a red letter month in the World of Jewish Flicks. The Jerusalem International Film Festival takes place July 9th – 18th and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival begins its three week run on July 23rd.
The Jerusalem International Film Festival is the oldest and biggest film festival in Israel. It is entering its 26th year and has become one of the best film festivals in the world. I attended the Jerusalem festival last year and was duly impressed with its wide-ranging lineup of films from around the world and the hospitality and friendliness of the people running it. Read more
World of Jewish Flicks – June
June is busting out all over with lots of activity in the World of Jewish Flicks.
Although June is usually a slow month for Jewish Film Festival activity, I can report that at least two festivals are being held in major cities of North America.
The first is the Israeli Film Festival in Ottawa (www.ottawa.mfa.gov.il). This has become an annual event in Canada’s capital city and will feature four Israeli films between June 4 and 28. These include the recent Israeli feature films Seven Days (Shiva), about a large family getting together to mourn the passing of its patriarch and the exciting thriller The Debt, which features Gila Almagor, Israel’s leading actress. In addition the festival will screen the classics Aviva My Love and The Schwartz Dynasty.
The Israel Film Festival in the United States (www.israelfilmfestival.com) has also kicked off its tour of American cities. Each year The Israeli Film Festival runs a program of some 30 films in Los Angeles, New York and Miami. The Los Angeles leg of the festival runs June 3-18 and is highlighting such new features as Adam Resurrected, a film about a mentally disturbed Holocaust survivor; Eli & Ben, about the relationship between a father and son; Out of the Blue, a slap stick comedy featuring Israeli megastar, Moshe Ivgy; and some 9 or 10 other feature films.
The Israeli Film Festival also premieres a number of excellent documentaries, Israeli television series and several student shorts.
All in all, the Israeli Film Festival offers a unique and eclectic collection of films from the burgeoning Israeli film industry. The Festival will be visiting New York in October and Miami in December.
June also marks the release of a number of exciting films on DVD. The biggest release is a film that appeared on screens all over the country in the early months of this year. Defiance, the true story of the Bielski brothers who fled their hometown and sought sanctuary in the thick forests of Belurus in order to survive the mass killings of the Nazis during World War II. Not only did the Bielskis live through the difficult times, but they rescued over 1,000 other Jews.
Defiance is one of the few films to focus on Jews who joined the partisans during the Holocaust and fought back against the Nazis. Unfortunately these stories have not received their due until this recent film, and the DVD is now available to everyone.
A good campanion piece to Defiance is the documentary The Bielski Brothers, which includes interviews with the actual participants of the resistance to the Nazis. You can see the real Bielskis and listen to their stories directly from the source.
Also being re-released this month is The Diary of Anne Frank 50th Anniversary Edition and the award-winning Israeli film Waltz With Bashir, which won the Golden Globe for best Foreign Film and was nominated for an Oscar in the same category.
Those of you into basketball might want to look for The First Basket, the story of the Jewish origins of modern basketball. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many of the best players playing professional basketball were Jewish and they made a huge contribution to the league that eventually became the National Basketball Association.
So it looks like this will be a busy month in the World of Jewish Flicks. Enjoy the festivals and go out and get copies of some of the great films being released on DVD.
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 Jewish Films on Video.
World of Jewish Flicks – May
May brings lots more activity in the World of Jewish Flicks.
May is the month of Hot Docs, Toronto’s international documentary film festival and one of the biggest and most important documentary film festivals in the world.
Hot Docs this year is showing over 170 films from around the world, and in that total there are several films with Jewish content.
The most important Jewish film to appear at Hot Docs this year is Inside Hana’s Suitcase. The film is based on Karen Levine’s best-selling book Hana’s Suitcase and follows the delivery of a battered piece of luggage to Fumiko Ishioka, who works at the Tokyo Holocaust Museum. When Fumiko decides to investigate the origins of the suitcase she opens up the fascinating story of Hana Brady, who as a small child, was shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp and perished there. Fumiko discovers that Hana’s brother, George, survived the Holocaust and now lives in Toronto. The film is a journey of discovery and is told through the voices of children from Japan, Canada and the Czech Republic.
Other Jewish films at Hot Docs include Defamation, a study of anti-semitism today, two generations after the Holocaust; City of Borders, an American film about a gay bar in the heart of Jerusalem; Chronicle of a Kidnap, a study of the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers in 2006 which led to the Second Lebanon War; and Rachel, an investigation into the death of young American activist Rachel Corrie.
New DVD releases include such films as Voyage of the Damned, which is coming to DVD for the first time and the release of O Jerusalem, a recent film about the founding of the State of Israel.
Talk to you soon with more great information about the World of Jewish Flicks.
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 Jewish Films on Video.
World of Jewish Flicks – April
Aril is another busy month for Jewish film festivals. With the conclusion of the Passover holidays, several major Jewish film festivals get under way. The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival (April 23-30, 2009) opens with Patrick Swayze’s latest film “Jump” and concludes with a fascinating documentary about the Warner brothers, “The Brothers Warner”. For further information go to www.lajfilmfest.org.
Toronto, Canada hosts one of the biggest Jewish film festivals in the world in April (April 18-26, 2009). This Festival will be screening 91 films from 23 countries this year and features a wide variety of narrative films, documentaries and shorts. The festival kicks off with a beautiful film from Argentina, “Camera Obscura” and ends with a rare screening of the restored “What Makes Sammy Run”.
Other highlights at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival include the winner of the David A. Stein Award, given annually to the best documentary making its Canadian premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. This year the recipient of that award is Yariv Mozer for his film, “My First War”. Other outstanding films include the Swiss production, “Brothers”, and the Israeli documentary, “The Green Dumpster Mystery”. Also watch for the very charming “Galilee Eskimos” and the Israeli-American co-production, “The Little Traitor”. (www.tjff.com)
In the world of DVD releases, there have been a number of great Jewish films being made available for the home market.
An old TV movie, “A Woman Called Golda”, has finally made its way onto DVD. This is the marvelous film that features Ingrid Bergman as Golda Meir, in a dramatic rendering of Golda’s remarkable life.
Another exciting new DVD release is a wonderful accompaniment to the recent theatrical film, “Defiance”. “The Bielski Brothers” is a documentary record of the real Bielski Brothers and their adventures in the forests of eastern Europe during the Holocaust. It is a must see for anyone wanting more information about the Jewish partisans during World War II.
Other recent DVD releases includes an excellent film that played in the theatres a few years ago, “Va, Vis et Deviens”, which is also known as “Live and Become”, which tells the story of a young African boy who becomes part of the Israeli airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. The film follows this boy as he grows up and becomes acclimatized to Israeli society and who also suffers a continuing longing to be reunited with his mother.
Also recently released is “The Reader”, the film that won a Best Actress Academy Award for Kate Winslet. The film focuses on a woman who has an affair with a teenage boy and who later turns out to have been a guard at a concentration camp during the War. But it tells the story in a way that is sympathetic to the German woman. The performances are outstanding, but the whole premise of the film is somewhat problematic for many people.
Talk to you soon with more great information about the World of Jewish
Flicks.
Larry Anklewicz ia 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 Jewish Films on Video”.
World of Jewish Flicks – March
Here we go again with another edition of the WORLD OF JEWISH FLICKS. March is another busy month for Jewish film festivals, as we try to squeeze as many festivals into the time period between Purim and Passover. Pittsburgh has its Israeli Jewish Film Festival this month and the National Center for Jewish Film has its own festival in Boston this month.
In Canada we have the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival hosting a mini festival towards the end of March and the Winnipeg International Jewish Film Festival extends over a three week period in March. January is a big month for Jewish film festivals,
Of course, the BIG film festival this spring will be the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. With some 90 films and an annual attendance of over 30,000 people, this is one of the biggers Jewish film festivals in the world, if not the biggest in the entire universe. As the Programme Coordinator I am proud of our record and especially proud of our festival this year. I’ll tell you more about it after our March 31st Media Presentation.
There has been a bit of a hiatus in Jewish films being released on DVD. The biggest release so far this year has been THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS, which was released on March 10th. Look for the DVD release of one of the best Jewish films of last year, THE SECRETS in early April and THE READER in late April.
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS has been somewhat problematic for many of us. The Toronto Jewish Film Festival was offered a preview screening of the film and after a great deal of debate, we turned it down. Our difficulty was that the film is a look at the Holocause from the perspective of a German family. The father is the commander of a concentration camp and lives, with his family, just outside the camp. His son is very curious about the goings on at the camp and sneaks away to have a look for himself. He meets and befriends a Jewish boy his own age and the two begin meeting at the camp fence.
The problem is how realistic is this scenerio. And was it even remotely possible for such a friendship to become reality. It is doubtful. But more problematic is the fact that the father has no qualms about exterminating Jews and the rest of the family seems to be satisfied with their ignorance.
Our feeling was that the film was too sympathetic to the Germans. The tragedy of the film is focused on what happens to the German boy without any thought about the thousands of Jews being exterminated every day.
There also seems to be a flood of Holocause films in the theatres this past holiday season. THE READER, VALKYRIE and THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS seem to have taken the German perspective. DEFIANCE is the only one of the high profile Holocause films that presents a bit of a new perspective. While not a great film, it does hold your interest throughout and the story of Jewish partisans is one that has been ignored for a long time. It is definitely worth seeing.
There have been a couple of other Holocaust films floating around. Neither of them has received any kind of wide release as yet. In fact, they seem to have been confined to the film festival circuit. ADAM RESURRECTED with Jeff Goldbloom is terrible. It seems to have lost all focus and is a complete mess. GOOD is a better film, but again, it takes some of the German perspective, in that is seems to try to rationalize the decision of a German university professor to join the Nazi Party and his indifference to his Jewish friends plight.
Probably the best Jewish film coming up is a documentary by Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein. His retelling of the story of Hana’s Suitecase is a wonderful film that is accessible to people of all ages and is done in a very moving and heartrending way. It may be a while before the film is released theatrically or on television, but it is certainly worth waiting for and watch for it at a film festival near you. It is having its world premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto in late April or early May.
Talk to you soon with more great information about the World of Jewish
Flicks.
Larry Anklewicz ia 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 Jewish Films on Video”.
World of Jewish Flicks – Feb.
This blog will try to keep everyone up to date an what’s happening in the world of Jewish flicks. January is a big month for Jewish film festivals,
with the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (www.ajff.org) playing from Jan. 14 to Jan. 25. The Jewish film festival in New York
(www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/nyjff2009) is scheduled for
Jan. 14-29 and the Miami Jewish Film Festival
(www.caje-miami.org/filmfestival/) is on from Jan. 24 to Feb. 1.
So, Jewish film festivals are rolling right along. There are over 100
Jewish film festivals around the world, with a large number of those held in
cities large and small in the United States. I’ll try to keep you updated
on all the news, but if you want to see what each of these festivals are
showing, you can go onto their websites and explore the line-up of outstanding films each of them have selected.
With the new year well underway, it is time to take a look at some of
the excellent “Jewish” films that made their debut on DVD in the past 12
months, including two made in Canada. But before we get to that, I’d like to tell you about two TV miniseries that were released in their entirety on DVD during the year 2008.
MASADA, the 1981 miniseries about the Jewish revolt against Roman rule in the 1st century, is now available in its complete version, just as it was shown on television when it was first aired. This DVD contains the original
introduction and ending, two important sections that were cut out of the VHS release. In fact, this DVD is especially welcome because the VHS release was badly edited, with entire sections cut out and other sections moved around. The result was a mess. This DVD corrects all of these mistakes.
Starring: Peter O’Toole, Peter Strauss
HOLOCAUST is the other TV miniseries that was released on DVD recently. And once again the DVD release contains the entire series in one very compact and easily handled DVD. This is a must for anyone who hasn’t seen the landmark series or just wants to refresh their memories.
Starring: James Woods, Meryl Streep, Michael Moriarty.
Theatrical films that have been released on DVD include the wonderful
Israeli film, THE BAND’S VISIT. This pleasant little comedy won rave reviews throughout the world and was one of Israel’s most successful films to enter the international market.
Also released this year was the Academy Award winning Austrian film, THE
COUNTERFEITERS, about a group of counterfeiters who were forced to produce
bogus English and American currency for the Nazis. If you haven’t seen this
film, you should do so now.
And then we have the heartwarming and magical Brazilian film, THE YEAR MY
PARENTS WENT ON VACATION. This was the film that opened the Toronto Jewish
Film Festival (TJFF) in 2007. It tells the story of a young boy being left
at his grandfather’s place while his parents go underground in order to
avoid arrest by the military junta then governing Brazil. What the parents
did not know was that the grandfather had died suddenly a short time before
and the grandfather’s friends and neighbours take on the task of caring for
the child.
For all the people who wanted to see THE RAPE OF EUROPA, now is your
opportunity. It was released on DVD in September. This too played at the
TJFF and was the closing film in 2007. It is a powerful documentary about
the Nazi theft of Europe’s art treasures, and the allies attempts to recover
and return these art works.
Also available on video is the American film, ARRANGED. It was shown at the
TJFF in 2008 and deals with the similarities between Moslem and Jewish
cultures when it comes to arranged marriages. The film tells the story
of a young Jewish Orthodox school teacher who doesn’t like the man her
parents have chosen for her, and a young Moslem school teacher who is also
being married off to a man chosen by her family.
Then we get to the Adam Sandler film, YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN, a
comedy that misses the mark on many levels, yet is interesting for being one
of the first attempts by an American movie star to portray an Israeli, and
it contains some excellent Israeli music on the soundtrack. It was also very
nice to see Montreal born and Toronto raised Emmanuelle Chriqui playing a
beautiful Palestinian hair salon owner in that film.
And one of the best Israeli films to hit the North American market in quite
some time, BEAUFORT, is also now available on DVD. This is the story of a
small group of Israeli soldiers stationed in the Crusader fortress of
Beaufort in Lebanon, just as Israel is planning to bring the last of their
forces back home. In the meantime, the fortress is under constant attack by
rocket bombardment and sniper fire and the film questions whether the casualties they suffer are worth the effort.
THEN SHE FOUND ME is touching comedy/drama about a Jewish woman who is
desperate to start her own family. Her confusion after her husband suddenly
leaves her is compounded when she meets her somewhat unconventional birth
mother.
Starring: Helen Hunt, Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth, Bette Midler.
The two Canadian films that have been released on DVD this year are the two
films that opened and closed the Toronto International Film Festival in
2007. The opening film, FUGITIVE PIECES, is an interesting adaptation of the
best selling Canadian novel and follows a young boy who is saved from the
Nazis by a Greek archeologist. The boy’s experience during the Holocaust and
his inability to find any trace of his family, have left an indelible mark
on his mind.
Starring: Stephen Dillane, Rade Sherbedgia, Rosamund Pike, Ayelet Zurer.
The other Canadian film is EMOTIONAL ARITHMETIC which stars Susan Sarandon
as a Holocaust survivor who now lives in Quebec and learns that the man who
saved her life during the war has been released from a Soviet prison. She
invites him to come visit her on her farm, which he does, bringing another
survivor along with him.
Also Starring: Christopher Plummer, Gabriel Byrne, Roy Dupuis, Max Von
Sydow.
If you want your own copies of any of these DVD’s, go to
www.jewishflicks.com and place your order.
Talk to you soon with more great information about the World of Jewish
Flicks.
Larry Anklewicz ia 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 Jewish Films on Video”.
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