WORLD OF JEWISH FLICKS DECEMBER 2009

The holiday of Chanukah is one of the most joyous and fun-filled periods in the Jewish calendar. For eight days, presents are given out to children, who play games and eat special foods such as potato latkes and jelly-filled donuts.

Unfortunately, not too many films have been made to celebrate this wonderful time of the year, although there have been a number of television programs produced that are now available on DVD, so let’s take a look at some of those.

The holiday is a celebration of the victory of the Jewish Maccabees in the second century B.C. against the occupation of the land of Israel by the Seleucid empire. When King Antiochus IV Epiphanes decided to impose his religion and his gods on the Jews, a Jewish priest by the name of Mattathias and his five sons Jochanan, Simeon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah led a rebellion and headed into the Judean hills. Mattathias and his sons formed a small army, and from the sanctuary of the rugged hill country, they set out on forays against the Seleucid armies, defeating them time and again.

Eventually, the Jews swept the Seleucids out of Jerusalem and retook the Holy Temple. At that point the Jews found only one vial of oil with which to fuel the eternal light, and it would require eight days to make a new supply of the oil. They lit the light and by some miracle, the light burned for eight whole days, until a new supply of oil was ready.

That was the miracle of Chanukah. And through two thousand years of history, the Jews have set aside eight days every year for the celebration of this miracle and of the Maccabees’ victory.

As I mentioned earlier, not too many films have been made about this holiday. Many of the films and television programs that do exist are targeted to children. That is not the case with EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS, an animated holiday fable put together by Adam Sandler. It tells the story of an unhappy small-town guy by the name of Davey Stone who screws up big-time and winds up in jail in his New England hometown. Davey’s old basketball referee bails him out and tries to put Davey to work doing community service. The entire experience is a disaster, until Davey finally commits to changing his life. Although an animated film, there is a lot of adult material and may not be appropriate for all children. But the animation is pretty good and the songs and the moral lessons are excellent.

Another film that may not be considered child friendly is THE HEBREW HAMMER, a hilarious comedy about Mordechai Jefferson Carver, a young man who grew up to become the Hebrew Hammer, a cross between a private eye and a Jewish superhero. The Hammer is recruited to save Chanukah from the ruthless Damian, who killed his father, Santa Claus, and took over the top job at the North Pole.

Children’s films seem to be some of the best Chanukah productions, and one of the best of these is LIGHTS: THE MIRACLE OF CHANUKAH. It is a short animated film that uses animated dancing Hebrew letters to follow the Jewish characters in dealing with the question of the forced assimilation of the Jews during the second century BC. LIGHTS is one of the best renditions of the Chanukah story available.

RUGRATS’ CHANUKAH tells the Chanukah story from the Rugrats’ point of view. It tells about Tommy the Maccabee, an ancient idol named Cynthia, and a turbo-charged menorah, it’s a very funny holiday program.

SHALOM SESAME: CHANUKAH SPECIAL is one in a series of Sesame Street films produced specifically for the Israeli market, and it explains the holiday of Chanukah the Sesame Street way. It’s a delight for all Sesame Street fans, whatever the age.

LAMBCHOP’S CHANUKAH AND PASSOVER SURPRISE is a delightful gem. Shari Lewis incorporates the stories behind these two holidays and uses music, songs and comedy to entertain and enlighten the viewer. The entire family will enjoy this program, as they will THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A CHANUKAH BUSH, SANDY GOLDSTEIN, based on the best selling book by Susan Sussman. This film teaches children to take pride in their own heritage and culture and to share their traditions with others.

A TASTE OF CHANUKAH is a joyous celebration of Chanukah that the whole family can enjoy. It offers host Theodore Bikel and Hankus Netsky, leader of the Klezmer Conservatory Band in a terrific one hour concert that celebrates and explains the customs of Chanukah and even has a segment that demonstrates how to cook perfect potato latkes. The music is great and makes terrific use of the talent available at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

And as the month of December spools out, we have two major Jewish film festivals taking place at the same time in two widely separated parts of the United States. The WASHINGTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL runs from December 3-13, 2009 in the Washington, D.C. area. This is the 20th edition of this festival, and it will be screening 62 films from 20 different countries. The festival will include such films as the winner of this year’s Best Film award in Israel, AJAMI, as well as the Slovak nominee for Best Foreign Film at the upcoming Academy Awards, BROKEN PROMISE. Washington will also be showing such great films as BROTHERS (about the conflict between an orthodox brother and a secular brother), CAMERA OBSCURA (about the awakening of the spirit of a repressed farmer’s wife in Argentina) and CYCLES (a French film about a Holocaust survivor and her family), amongst many other excellent films.

Coincidentally, the PALM BEACH JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL is also celebrating its 20th anniversary. It runs December 2-13, 2009, in the Palm Beach area of Florida and will be showing some 34 films from around the world. Palm Beach will also be showing BROKEN PROMISES and BROTHERS, and its schedule includes the Israeli films A MATTER OF SIZE (about a group of Israelis who wish to become sumo wrestlers), EYES WIDE OPEN (about homosexuality in the religious community) and ZRUBAVEL (about the Ethiopian community in Israel). In addition, Palm Beach will be screening the outstanding Canadian short film PIGEON, directed by Anthony Green.

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 – 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.

World of Jewish Flicks – September

In many ways September is the beginning of a new year. School starts up again after a long summer break, film studios begin releasing the films they consider Academy Award contenders, and DVD companies gear up for the big Christmas season and begin releasing their summer blockbusters for home consumption.

September is also the beginning of a new film festival season in Toronto. Every year close to one hundred film festivals enliven the Toronto landscape and the granddaddy of them all gets underway on the first Thursday after Labour Day.

Yes, it is time for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), probably the biggest and certainly one of the most important film festivals in the world. This year promises to be a special festival. Not only will TIFF be screening over 300 feature films, documentaries and shorts, it will be premiering some of the biggest films of the year.

And in the World of Jewish Flicks, the Festival will be screening some 15 Israeli films and five or six other films of Jewish interest. This is the largest bonanza of Jewish films ever presented by TIFF.

What makes this year special is the fact that TIFF is inaugurating a new program. Its City To City program will concentrate on one specific city each year. This year, because the city of Tel Aviv is celebrating its 100th anniversary, TIFF decided to put the spotlight on that city and will be presenting ten films that focus on Tel Aviv. These ten films attempt to show a realistic picture of the city and of Israel. It shows its problems and its accomplishments.

These films include several classic films, such as The Big Dig, a comedy released in Israel in 1969 that was written and directed by one of Israel’s leading satirists, Ephraim Kishon, and Life According to Agfa, a film made in 1992 by Israeli screenwriter, director and actor Assi Dayan, which looks at some of the issues confronting a wide range of Israeli society during that time in Israel’s history.

Another film in this series is Bena, a new film by first time feature film director Niv Klainer about a father and his attempts to keep his schizophrenic teenaged son out of an institution.

Big Eyes was produced in 1974 and was directed by Israeli film icon Uri Zohar. It deals with a group of people who strive for happiness through their relations with each other. It’s a more personal film than many other films of that time period.

The Bubble shows off Tel Aviv’s free-thinking attitude towards gay relationships, including one between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian. It created quite a reaction when first shown by TIFF in 2006 and when it was shown by the Toronto Jewish Film Festival a short time later.

A History of Israeli Cinema Part 1 and Part 2 is exactly what the title suggests. It gives a careful and very detailed history of Israeli cinema and shows how the film industry in Israel has grown from very modest beginnings until today, when it is producing films that are recognized and acclaimed around the world.

Jaffa examines the ancient port city, which contains a mixed population of Muslims, Jews and Christians. Although the city is now a part of the greater city of Tel Aviv, Jaffa retains many interesting areas that go back several years that the local inhabitants wish to preserve. Other groups in the city are trying to modernize and gentrify these areas, and this is making it difficult for the older communities to remain where they are and to retain the ancient characteristics of the city that make it a charming place to live.

Kirot delves into the world of prostitution and assassination in the backstreets of Tel Aviv, while Phobidilia deals with a protagonist who has taken refuge from the world in his apartment and refuses to leave.

In addition to the films on Tel Aviv, TIFF will also be screening an additional number of the latest releases by the Israeli film industry. These include Carmel, the latest work of director Amos Gitai; Eyes Wide Open, a film about a religious young man in Jerusalem and the temptations of the modern world; Five Hours From Paris, a romantic story of new love; Google Baby, a film about surrogate motherhood; and Lebanon, a film set during the first Lebanon War in 1982 and the dilemma of a small group of Israeli soldiers trying to decide whether to kill or be killed.

Other Jewish films include Ahead of Time, a documentary about the fascinating Ruth Gruber. Now 97 years old and still going strong, Ruth Gruber was born in Brooklyn and lived in Germany for three years while studying for her PhD prior to World War II. She witnessed the rise of Nazism and became a foreign correspondent and photojournalist.

In 1944, Gruber was instrumental in getting the United States to accept a group of 1,000 Jewish refugees into the United States, and was the only journalist allowed to board The Exodus in 1947 while it was anchored off the coast of France and obtain interviews with the survivors attempting to make their way to Palestine. She covered the Nuremberg trials and was always an outspoken commentator on world affairs.

Also being screened this year at TIFF is Marc Levin’s documentary, Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags, a look at the history of New York City’s garment district and how it was the place for new immigrants, especially Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, to start the climb up the ladder of American society.

One film that everyone seems to be waiting for with great anticipation is A Serious Man, the latest film by the Coen Brothers. This comic drama is set in the Coens’ home state of Minnesota in the year 1967 and deals with a number of Jewish characters and the troubles that life has dealt them.

There are probably other films at this year’s festival that would qualify as Jewish content, but as we haven’t had a chance to see them yet, we will have to leave any discussion of them to a later time.

If you can make your way to the Toronto International Film Festival, I’m sure it will be a rewarding experience for all of you.

Until next month, good viewing and maybe we’ll see you in one of the movie theatres showing films during TIFF.

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 – 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 31^st 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 10^th. 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”.