| The New York Jewish Film Festival |
| Written by Jeffrey Catlet |
The 18th Annual New York Jewish Film FestivalJan. 14 - 29, 2009Admission: $11 general public, $7 Film Society & Jewish Museum members and students; $7 seniors weekday matinee screenings only Walter Reade Theater West 65th Street, plaza level (between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue) 212-875-5600 filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/nyjff09  Films will screen in their original language with English subtitles; please note that films in English will not have subtitles. For an alphabetical listing of the films go to Program Overview.  At The JCC in Manhattan 334 Amsterdam Avenue at West 76th Street Tue Jan 20 at 7:30pm A Refusenik’s Mother screening with Yideshe Mama Online: jccmanhattan.org or call: 646.505.5708 At 92Y Tribeca 200 Hudson Street at Canal Sat Jan 24 at 9pm The Wedding Song Online: 92ytribeca.org/film or call: 212.601.1000 At The Jewish Museum 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street Tues Jan 27 at 3:30 & 6:30pm In Search of the Bene Israel screening with The Fire Within Tickets to these screenings are available at The Jewish Museum (212.423.3337) as well as at the Walter Reade Theater box office and online through filmlinc.com Visit The Jewish Museum's website for additional information about the films in the Festival and the filmmakers attending the Festival. Below is a list of a few films that will be screened: "At Home in Utopia" (US, 2008, 57m) directed by Michal Goldman Buy Tickets Wed Jan 14: 1:30 & 6:15  In the mid-1920s, thousands of immigrant workers escaped tenement life by pooling their resources to build housing collectives in the Bronx. This moving documentary focuses on the United Workers Cooperative Colony—aka, the Coops—the most grassroots and member-driven of the Jewish labor housing cooperatives, where many residents were Communists or sympathetic to the Communist movement. . "Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story" (Australia, 2006; 52m) directed by Julian Shaw Buy Tickets Thu Jan 29: 1 & 6  Writer/director Julian Shaw creates an inspiring and intimate portrait of South African political satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys, a Jewish Afrikaner who risked his life in the 1980s by criticizing his country’s apartheid government. Renowned for his outrageous drag persona Evita Bezuidenhout, Uys currently uses his celebrity to educate school children about HIV/AIDS. "Facing the Wind" (Israel, 2006; 50m) directed by Gilad Reshe Buy Tickets Thu Jan 15: 3:15 & 8:15  Oran Almog is an Israeli teen who lost his eyesight and five family members in a suicide bombing in Haifa. Here, Oran displays extraordinary character and perseverance as he prepares for his bar mitzvah, establishes a competitive sailing club for the blind, and lives life as a regular kid. "In Search of the Bene Israel" (USA, 2008; 38m) directed by Sadia Shepard Buy Tickets Tue Jan 27: 3 & 6:30  Filmmaker and author Sadia Shepard, the daughter of a Christian and a Muslim, travels to India to connect with her grandmother’s Jewish community in and around Mumbai (formerly Bombai). "Jewish Luck" (USSR, 1925, 100 m) directed by Alexander Granovsky Buy Tickets Sun Jan 18: 1  One of the first Soviet Yiddish comedies released in the U.S., Jewish Luck is based on Sholom Aleichem’s stories about a daydreaming entrepreneur who specializes in doomed strike-it-rich schemes. The film, featuring Mikhoels’s screen debut, is an adaptation of the GOSET stage production. Silent with live piano. "Lemon Tree" (Israel/France/Germany, 2008; 106m) directed by Eran Riklis Buy Tickets Sat Jan 24: 4  The wonderful Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass plays Salma, a 40-something widow who earns her living tending to the lemon grove planted years ago by her father. When the guards of an Israeli government minister who has moved in next door plan to secure the perimeter of his house—which includes Salma’s lemon grove—she hires a lawyer (Ali Suliman, Paradise Now) and takes the Israeli security forces to court. As in his earlier films The Syrian Bride and Cup Final, director Eran Riklis gives an engaging human dimension to Israel’s ongoing political and social controversies, while exposing individual contradictions and self-delusions. Abbass earned the Israeli Film Academy’s award for best actress for her performance, while this touching, personal drama garnered the 2008 Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama Audience Award. |