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”.