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.