COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 104 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: Cast: Brenda Vaccaro (Marilyn), Len Cariou (Jack), Dyan Cannon (Lois), Joseph Bologna (Harry), Sally Kellerman (Sandy), Michael Nouri (Donald), Renee Taylor (Platinum Blond), Mal Z. Lawrence (Marty) BOYNTON BEACH BEREAVEMENT CLUB is a romantic comedy about our amazing capacity to rebound and fall in love.... at any age. LOIS (Dyan Cannon), HARRY (Joseph Bologna), MARILYN (Brenda Vaccaro), SANDY (Sally Kellerman) and JACK (Len Cariou) live in an "Active Adult" community in Boynton Beach, Florida. Their lives intersect when they meet at a local Bereavement Club, where they've gone to find emotional support after the loss of a loved one. But soon they each find themselves on a journey they could never have predicted, when they reenter the "dating scene" after many decades -- only to find that it's a whole new world out there. As the leaders of the original Baby Boomer generation now approach retirement age, the concept of what it means to be older is dramatically changing. (Hey, Mick Jagger is a grandfather!) So those who think that new love and romance end well before retirement age are in for a reality check. No one sees themselves as becoming old, and the residents of Boynton Beach aren't about to start. In a world where 60 is fast becoming the new 40, BOYNTON BEACH BEREAVEMENT CLUB shows us that it's never too late to fall in love with ourselves and others, whatever the age. Seen at HamptonsFilmFest.ORG, October 2005
Coney Island, 1945
TITLE: Coney Island, 1945
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Jeremiah Zagar
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 4 minutes
SOURCE: just google the director
TEXT: Cast: Isaiah Zagar, Jacob N. Honig, Sarah Hatfield
Pen and ink becomes nostalgia for an old man as he recalls his Mother, his boyhood, the joy of the Brooklyn seashores. Seen at HamptonsFilmFest.ORG, October 2005
Song of songs
TITLE: Song of songs
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Josh Appignanesi
COUNTRY: UK
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 80 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: With Natalie Press and Joel Chalfen. Ruth (Natalie Press) is a devoutly religious young woman who is seeking meaning in Orthodox Jewish life. She has just returned from a seminary in Israel to the family home in north London to look after her widowed mother who is dying. Her brother, David, (Joel Chalfen) estranged himself from the family and teaches English at a further education college in London. When Ruth tries to bring her brother David back to the family, the result is a forbidden game under the guise of religious law, verging on the darkest realms of sexual obsession. Topical in its examination of the links between religious belief and violence, Song of Songs, draws on modern European cinema and biblical sources to explore the 'return of religion'.
Seen at UK Jewish Film Festival, November 2005
The Tale of The Goat
TITLE: The Tale of The Goat
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Max Cohen
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 5 minutes
SOURCE: Max Cohen maxrcohen@gmail.com
TEXT: A short hand drawn animation in Yiddish. Adapted from the story by S. Y. Agnon. Cohen made "The Goat," which is a father and son tale (adapted from a story by S.Y. Agnon) about the son's quest to find out what happened to the family goat
From SFGATE: ...while studying film at Vassar College. Born in Brooklyn, he moved to upstate New York as a teenager to a farm with goats and this formative experience, coupled with his budding interest in Yiddish, inspired him to make his pioneering film. Although Cohen didn't complete his film degree, his black and white animation won the coveted "Palme d'Schnorrer" award for short films at the Heeb Film Festival (as in the magazine, Heeb: The New Jew Review) in London last December. Here at the SFJFF, it's the opening short preceding "A Cantor's Tale," a feature documentary about the glory days of chazzanut -- the Jewish cantorial music that flourished in New York City in the 50s; the program screens three times -- in SF, Mountain View and Berkeley. Although he's already at work on his next movie -- which would be the second Yiddish-language animation in existence -- when he returns home to Brooklyn he'll be starting his new job as an emergency medical technician "riding ambulances around every borough of the city." All of his Vassar friends enrolled in graduate school, but Cohen wanted to do "something that was helping." That something didn't include "signing up for the army and dying" either, so he became an EMT. Talking about the Brooklyn of today, Cohen said that all the neighborhoods are gentrified. In Williamsburg, the Hassidim are putting up signs in Yiddish saying "God, Please Save This Place from Artists!"
Turn Left At The End Of The World (Sof Ha´Olam Smola)
TITLE: Turn Left At The End Of The World (Sof Ha´Olam Smola)
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Avi Nesher
COUNTRY: Israel/France
LANGUAGE: Hebrew, French and English with English subtitles
TIME: 108 minutes
SOURCE: A United King Films presentation of a Davis Films/Artomas Communications/Metro Communications production
TEXT: The year is 1969 and in an isolated Israeli village on the edge of the Negev two Jewish immigrant families, one from Morocco and the other from India, become unlikely neighbors who have nothing in common but the dream of a new life. Everyone tries to assert their particular cultural identities, the Indian family by putting together a cricket team and the Moroccan family by trying to disrupt the game. Meanwhile, each family has a teenage daughter negotiating the landscape of the sexual revolution. When the sultry Moroccan, Nicole, and the headstrong Indian, Sara, become friends, their youth and desire for freedom help them to overcome their differences. In this isolated place, the road to harmony takes many surprising and comical twists and turns and is beautifully filmed against a desert background. Audience Grand Prix for Best Picture at Taormina Film Festival "Charming, totally original, very funny and clever. Israel's best hope in years for Best Foreign Picture Oscar" Time Out, Tel Aviv.
Note: One had not expected an Israeli film in the Asian competition section to have any kind of Indian connection. But "Turn Left at the End of the World" by Avi Nesher is full of Indian actors. It is about Indian and Moroccan Jews who go and settle in a town in Israel. The Moroccans like to think they are French while the Indians think they are British. As they are forced to live together, they find that they have to smoothen many rough edges.
Nesher, the Isreali-born, US-based director of the film, has chosen non-Jewish actors from India to play Jews. He says he is pleased with the abundance of talent in India and chose the actors like Parmeet Sethi and Kruttika Desai because of their suitability for the roles.
The Devil and Manny Shmeckstein
TITLE: The Devil and Manny Shmeckstein
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Jim Goodman
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 7 minutes
SOURCE: Jim Goodman Productions, Goodman Media Design 552 N. Edgemere Dr., W. Allenhurst, NJ 07711
PHONE/FAX: 732-663-1864
TEXT: Animation. At his death on stage, tired and washed-up comedian Manny Schmeckstein finds himself consigned to eternal damnation for the unpardonable sin of a lifetime's worth of bad jokes. Unless he can get just one laugh!
In filmmaker Jim Goodman's mind, a person doesn't necessarily go to Hell because he was bad. He can end up there because he stinks at his craft, hobby, or job. For the human in Goodman's claymation short "The Devil & Manny Schmeckstein" (2004), poor comedy skills lead to an elevator ride to Hell. Manny (voiced by Dick Rodstein) is a standup comedian probably in his late sixties. When the film begins, he is doing a set with a brick wall and one ceiling light for a stage. He starts talking about his wife Beatrice who was packing her bags. He tries to finish the joke but the audience doesn't respond very well. Manny gets nervous, sweats raindrops, and collapses next to the microphone. He doesn't wake up. His soul leaves his body. An elevator door appears in the middle of the brick wall and opens. Manny cautiously enters and finds himself in the company of a man in a suit. This man introduces himself as the Devil (also voiced by Dick Rodstein) and explains to Manny that ineffectively performing a task is sufficient enough reason to land one underground as opposed to above the clouds. The Devil gives Manny a chance to make it to Heaven: make a resident of Hell laugh. Winner of a handful of film festival awards for Best Animation (Boston International and New Jersey International) and Claymation (Garden State), "The Devil & Manny Schmeckstein" is artfully created, humorously written, and re-interprets the common definition of and difference between Hell and Heaven
Distortion
TITLE: Distortion
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Haim Bouzaglo
COUNTRY: Israel / France
LANGUAGE: Hebrew with English ST
TIME: 103 minutes
SOURCE: Mazel productions, Israel
TEXT: Set in Israel during the Intifada where everyday life continues amidst suicide attacks and periods of great anxiety and tension. A scriptwriter is contracted to present a new theatre play but experiences a writer's block. His girlfriend, a documentary filmmaker, is working on a film about a former soldier who opened a business but went bankrupt because of the economic situation. The scriptwriter, desperate for a story, hires a private detective in the hope that he will add some interest to his life. He asks him to trail his girlfriend's growing involvement with the former soldier. The real life story, the theatre play and the documentary are interwoven as the film reaches a surprising theatrical climax.
Peter Vander Haar writes: ... Scenes of Haim writing and blocking his new play are interspersed with those of a terrorist, plastic explosives belt concealed beneath a Polo t-shirt with an American flag on it, as he cases various establishments in search of a target. His presence is felt throughout the film, though not specifically, as each of the characters tends to drink or drug too much and are prone to various stress-induced tics and mannerisms. Bouzaglo increases the tension through the use of jump cuts and discordant noise cues.
The techniques are effective, for the most part, until the final third of the movie. This is about the time Bouzaglo decides to trot out each of his characters' sexual peccadilloes. Two of the actors in the play are having an affair, while the lead is given to soliciting gay street hustlers. Haim himself is comparatively low key, contenting himself with sniffing Anat's panties as a means to assuage his loneliness, but it's all unnecessary given the very real drama going on around them and our anticipation at what's going to happen when Anat and her new boyfriend see their antics recreated on the stage. For all that, the broader themes of fatalism and powerlessness are put across very effectively in "Distortion." Bouzaglo quite capably conveys to the audience a small taste of what it must be like to try and live one's life surrounded by violence and uncertainty. And frankly, a small taste is probably all that most of us would care to have." Seen at UK Jewish Film Fest, October 2005
Fateless (Sorstalanság)
TITLE: Fateless (Sorstalanság)
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Lajos Koltai
COUNTRY: Hungary/Germany/UK
LANGUAGE: Hungarian/English/German with English subtitles
TIME: 140 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: Magnificent Holocaust drama based on the novel by Imre Kertész, 2002 Nobel Prize laureate and concentration camp survivor. This profoundly moving drama offers a new perspective on one of history's darkest periods. Fourteen-year-old Gyuri's response to his experience during the Holocaust is curiously ambivalent. In the camps, he tries to adjust to his ever-worsening situation by imputing human motives to his inhuman captors. By imposing a logic, his logic, that of a bright, sensitive teenager, he maintains a precarious semblance of normalcy. On his return to his native Budapest, Gyuri senses the indifference, even hostility, of people on the street. Vast in scale, yet boasting a remarkable historical detail, and with a sweeping score by Ennio Morricone, this is a true testament to the resilience of the human spirit. (note: the actor grew 4 inches during the filming) Seen at UK Jewish Film Fest, October 2005
The First Time I was Twenty
TITLE: The First Time I was Twenty
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Lorraine Levy
COUNTRY: France
LANGUAGE: French with English ST
TIME: 93 minutes
SOURCE: Elodie Henneton Elodie.HENNETON@pathe.com Pathe Distribution 10 rue Lincoln Paris 75008 T:140-76-9438 F:140-76-9194
TEXT: With great wit and musical talent on her side, Hannah is the misfit who strolls into pride of place in a pre-feminist era, hostile world. Sixteen-year-old Hannah lives in the Paris suburbs of post-war France with her doting mother, her garage mechanic father and her two pretty sisters. She is not interested in dating, and the famous school jazz band that she desperately wants to join is traditionally all-male and refuses to change. Hannah's adolescence is turning out to be a trial, especially when pranks aimed at her turn from gentle teasing to outright anti-Semitism. By remaining true to herself, Hannah finds the courage to score points for girls who do not spend their lives chasing boys, the cultural outsiders and for fat girls everywhere. The First Time I Was Twenty takes the traditional story of a likeable misfit and lifts it to an uncommon level of charm, humor and poignancy. Seen at UK Jewish Film Fest, October 2005
Forever Yours (Evig Din)
TITLE: Forever Yours (Evig Din)
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Monica Csango
COUNTRY: NORWAY
LANGUAGE: Norwegian, Hungarian and English with English subtitles
TIME: 56 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: A woman's everlasting love for her husband, who apparently died during World War II, turns into a captivating mystery of family deceipt and intrigue. When her granddaughter discovers a photo from Mumbai, India, and suspects that her grandfather did not die in the Holocaust, but escaped and changed his life forever, she begins an emotional investigation that leads to a momentous revelation. The loyalty, love and stubborn pride of her grandmother provides the backdrop for a disturbing journey towards the truth. This mysterious love story is woven around rare, vivid and romantic pre-war archival film footage that the grandmother has treasured for so many years as her only link with her glamorous husband. Seen at UK Jewish Film Fest, October 2005
The Future is Behind You
TITLE: The Future is Behind You
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Abigail Child
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English and German with English subtitles
TIME: 21 minutes
SOURCE: http://www.abigailchild.com/
TEXT: "A fictional story from an anonymous family archive from 1930's Europe, reconstructed to emphasise gender acculturation in two sisters who play, race, fight, kiss and grow up together under a shadow of oncoming history. The Future is Behind You excavates gestures to get at the heart of narrative; it seeks a bridge between private and public histories." Abigail Child
God on Our Side
TITLE: God on Our Side
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Michal Pfeffer and Uri Kranot
COUNTRY: Netherlands
LANGUAGE: None
TIME: 7 minutes
SOURCE: http://www.tindrumanimation.com/
TEXT: Animation. Inspired by Picasso's Guernica (1937) and focussing on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The question is 'What hope is there for a child born into this circle of loss?' Inspired by Picasso's Guernica (1937), "God on our side" is fundamentally about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the name of God, people are infused with rage and violence. Fear leads to brutality and vengeance follows. What hope is there for a child born into this circle of loss? This is a short animated film (07:00 min), in cut-out technique combining pieces of paper, objects and drawings. The film was made during 2004 in the Netherlands institute for animation films. The film had been selected for many short film, animation and documentary festivals around the world. The music was composed by Uri Kranot (a member of Hapuritanim Hatze'irim ) and recorded live (with members of Yuppies With Jeeps ) while screening the film, during August 2004 in Jerusalem. Musicians: Daniel kitczales- violin, guitar and piano
Shery Weinstein- percussion Erez Nataf- Oud Alon Nataf- Nei Grisha Geles- Cello
Yael Tai- vocals Noam Yaish- banjo Uri Kranot- flute sound and mix : Noam Yaish
Avinu Malkenu
TITLE: Avinu Malkenu
YEAR: 2001
DIR/PROD: Michal Pfeffer and Uri Kranot
COUNTRY:
LANGUAGE: None
TIME: 3 minutes
SOURCE: http://www.tindrumanimation.com/
TEXT: Animation. A fable of lost people in search of salvation. Uses sand animation
Hiding From Hitler
TITLE: Hiding From Hitler
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Sue Read
COUNTRY: UK
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 50 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: Over 1.5 million children perished in the Holocaust, but unbelievably, a few thousand children survived in hiding. This is their story. Now, as adults, they talk about living alone, often in dark terrifying places or constantly on the run, scavenging for food. As children, aged between six and fifteen, often without their parents, they were forced to hide in sewers, holes in the ground, cupboards or caves for up to two years. They talk about the terrible conditions and the fear of being found and shot, and the bravery of those friends and strangers who risked death to save their lives. This is a story of courage and triumph. The director and Holocaust survivors appearing in the film will attend the screening and panel discussion. This film was shown in 2005/2006 as part of the UK JFF Holocaust Education events for schools and colleges.
The Holocaust Tourist: Whatever Happened To Never Again?
TITLE: The Holocaust Tourist: Whatever Happened To Never Again?
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Jes Benstock
COUNTRY: UK
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 10 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: Winner of the UK JFF Short Film Fund 2004. Not another sad film about the Holocaust, but a wry animated documentary about Auschwitz hot-dogs and Krakow's kitsch Judaica. How is dark tourism changing history?
In Her Shoes
TITLE: In Her Shoes
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Curtis Hanson
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 130 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: Based on Jennifer Weiner's best selling novel and starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley Maclaine. An alternately hilarious and heart-rending story of two sisters with very little in common except their passion for fancy shoes! Maggie and Rose Feller are best friends and polar opposites when it comes to values, goals and personal style. Maggie (Cameron Diaz) is a party girl who barely graduated from high school and believes that her biggest asset is her attractiveness to the opposite sex. Rose (Toni Collette) is a Princeton educated attorney at a top law firm in Philadelphia, with a heavy work schedule and a low self esteem regarding her physical appearance. After a calamitous falling out, the two sisters lose contact with each other until the discovery of their maternal grandmother (Shirley MacLaine), who they thought was dead, enables them to make peace with themselves and with each other.
Jai
TITLE: Jai
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Ariel Zylbersztejn
COUNTRY: Mexico
LANGUAGE: Spanish with English ST
TIME: 9 minutes
SOURCE: Jessy Vega promofilmfest@gmail. com Crimson Forest Films CNI CANAL 40, WTC MÉXICO, PISO 41 Montecito #38, col. Napoles 03810 T:55-1686-2781 F:55-5488-3263 http://www.crimsonforestfilms.com/
TEXT: When a young Mexican Jewish girl innocently asks her grandmother about the numbers tattooed on her arm, the answer is a surprise. Ariel Zylbersztejn was born in Mexico City in 1980. He has a major in Communication from Anahuac University. Since then his career starts in this difficut task of transmitting emotions. In the year 2002, he has studied at the New York Film Academy. That's how he begins his professional career. From Nowadays Ariel is finishing his latest documentary Aviv in Israel and is preparing his next feature film script. Shown at NY Jewish Film, January 2006
The Last Scene (Haseret Shel Menucha)
TITLE: The Last Scene (Haseret Shel Menucha)
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Eliezer Shapiro
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew with English ST
TIME: 50 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: For seventy years, Menucha has remained silent. The image of their parting at the train station in Warsaw in the Spring of 1935 remains engraved in her memory. The face of five-year-old Menucha is pressed against the window of the train, her eyes, wide with horror, stare at the scene on the platform. Her sister Mindel, eleven years old, is clinging desperately to their mother's dress. The piercing whistle of the train fills the air. The mother, in a single movement, tears away from the grasp of her daughter and rushes to board the train. The clatter of the wheels erases the image of the child vainly chasing the vanishing train. The film follows Menucha's attempt to recreate that defining moment in her childhood with a fictional scene. She sensitively documents the challenges that she experiences in her efforts to transform a blurry memory into a cinematic image. Winner of the Beslau Jewish Film Festival in Spain, appeared at UK Jewish FF in November 2005
Little Jerusalem (La Petite Jérusalem)
TITLE: Little Jerusalem (La Petite Jérusalem)
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Karin Albou
COUNTRY: France
LANGUAGE: French, Arabic and Hebrew with English Subtitles
TIME: 96 minutes
SOURCE: http://www.ocean-films.com/lapetitejerusalem/ eva.simonet@wanadoo.fr
TEXT: A subtle and thought-provoking film, set in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles known as "little Jerusalem" because a large number of Jews have settled there. Laura is eighteen and she is torn between her religious upbringing and her studies in philosophy, a subject that fascinates her and offers her a different view of the world. Little Jerusalem by Karin Albou (La Petite Jerusalem, France, 2005, 94 min.). Desire is a persistent and occasionally pernicious thing in Karin Albou's exquisitely rendered family drama. The film takes its title from a suburb of Paris, home to a large Jewish population. Laura is a young woman who lives in a small apartment with her family: her sister Mathilde, her Orthodox husband, their four children, and her Tunisian mother. Passion erupts when Laura falls in love with a Muslim man, and she must choose between following the tenets of her faith and her own desires. In French with English. Introduced by Lisa Nesselson, Paris-based film critic for Variety. Description adapted from the Vancouver International Film Festival. Winner of the SACD Screenwriting Award, 2005
Line Of Life (Ligne de Vie)
TITLE: Line Of Life (Ligne de Vie)
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Serge Avédikian
COUNTRY: France
LANGUAGE:
TIME: 11 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: Animation. The artist draws his last drawing, on a wall. A unique depiction of an artist struggling to survive life in the camps.
Looking For The Lost Voice (Be'ikvot Ha'kol Ha'avood)
TITLE: Looking For The Lost Voice (Be'ikvot Ha'kol Ha'avood)
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Tzipi Trope
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
TIME: 68 minutes
SOURCE: Maya Films
TEXT: VARIETY MAGAZINE WRITES: On Aug. 4, 2002, Omri Goldin, a sergeant in the Israeli army and the lead vocalist for a punk band called Lucy's Pussy, was killed in a suicide bus bombing in Galilee; his girlfriend was able to survive because Goldin's body absorbed the shock and shrapnel. Goldin's father, Amiram, was already involved in the Peace Now movement and the construction of a co-ooperative Palestinian-Israeli industrial complex in Galilee. Omri's death fueled his passion for peace and stability. Unfortunately, Trope fails to widen the story to make it more than a family's mourning and a restatement of what ails the Middle East. Amiram Goldin was, apparently, a military man who retired and took his familty to Galilee because he thought it was the Tuscany or Provence of Israel. It didn't turn out that way. "We were sitting on a barrel of gunpowder" that was about to explode betwen Arabs and Jews, he says, so he got involved with the peace movement. Then his son was killed. How it fails to embitter him is never explored very deeply here. In addition, there are many unanswered questions -- Omri's 53-year-old mother Tilda, for instance, becomes pregnant within months after her son 's death. There are also several sequences featuring Lucy's Pussy. The band's unremarkable music punctuates the proceedings with incongruous results: Trope's insistence on showing Omri's parents' game but bewildered response to the music adds an unintended pathos.
Men On The Edge - A Fishermen's Diary (Gvarim Al Hakatze-Yoman Dayagim)
TITLE: Men On The Edge - A Fishermen's Diary (Gvarim Al Hakatze-Yoman Dayagim)
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Avner Faingulernt & Macabit Abramzon
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
TIME: 90 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: A gripping observation of the lives of Palestinian and Israeli fishermen working and living together on an abandoned Mediterranean shoreline between Israel and Gaza. Over the course of four years, the filmmakers depict the complex dynamics of hardworking men, driven together by necessity, creating partnerships in a place where their respective communities are in a constant state of conflict. Through the camera's attentive presence in their makeshift huts, we gain unique access into the inner worlds of middle-aged men, struggling with the forces of nature, as well as with the harshness of the national conflict that dictates their lives and the vicissitudes of their personal relationships. Away from the familiar scenes of the Intifada, the suicide attacks and the dramatic visuals, Men on the Edge, is a poetic documentary that invites us to reflect on the realities of the Middle East and far beyond.
Metallic Blues
TITLE: Metallic Blues
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Danny Verete
COUNTRY: Israel/Canada/Germany
LANGUAGE: English, Hebrew and German with English subtitles
TIME: 90 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: When Shmuel and Siso, stumble on the chance to buy a spotless blue 1985 Lincoln Continental limousine for ,000, they figure their luck has finally turned. All they need to do is ship the classic beauty to Germany, sell it to a collector and return with a handsome profit. So begins this offbeat, funny and touching buddy movie that brings together the irrepressible Avi Kushner (a noted Israeli stand-up comic) and Moshe Ivgy on a road trip from hell. Siso, a Moroccan Jew, is suspicious of the scheme and queasy about travelling to the land of the Holocaust. His friend is the son of Holocaust survivors, who long ago turned the page on that area of history until their adventures bring up unexpected emotions about the Jewish past in Germany.
Winner - Israeli Film Academy Award.
My Sister My Bride
TITLE: My Sister My Bride
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Bonnie Burt
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 26 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: A moving journey with two women in love, J. Farrell Cafferata and Caren Jenkins, who want to celebrate their commitment officially, like other couples.
PIGEON
TITLE: PIGEON
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Anthony Green
COUNTRY: Canada
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 11 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: Based on a true story during WW II, Pigeon recounts a rare and startling act of kindness and courage.
MAGIC(S)
TITLE: MAGIC(S)
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Todd Felderstein
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English and Hebrew and Arabic and Bulgarian and other with English ST
TIME: 94 minutes
SOURCE: MagicsDocumentary.com
TEXT: MAGIC(S) follows the journey of a smile as delivered by a "smile activist", a medical magician, as he travels from one pediatric hospital to another in the country of Israel where he works with both Palestinians and Israelis as they speak freely on the joys of receiving Magic Michael's remarkable gifts while candidly detailing the current intifada from an insider's perspective which continues to plague the conflicted borders of the land.. MAGIC(S) is the story of a "smile activist", a very unique entertainer in a very exceptional land who travels from one pediatric hospital to the next delivering healthy doses of happiness to all those in need of the most potent medicinal treatment know to mankind: laughter.
Equipped with the charm of your favorite uncle and the prowess of a seasoned entertainer MAGIC MICHAEL'S daily routine becomes the backbone of this documentary as it chronicles his delivery of healthy doses of humor throughout this tiny, multi-cultural country. His responsibility is simple in concept yet enormous in scope and that is to conjure a grin from those children inflicted by disease, injury and all too often, terror in an effort to speed and assist in their rehabilitation or to simply make their unfortunate circumstance that much more tolerable. Narrated, for the most part, by one of his now six children, MAGIC(S) details this act as accomplished day after day by this very unique magical performer. Stronger than disease, more potent than terror, MAGIC(S) returns to the very essence that binds human beings together regardless of ancestry, that being the need for humor and love.
MAGIC(S) follows Michael on his daily routine from his home in Rehovot to three different hospitals: Dana Hospital in Tel Aviv, Alyn Hospital in Jerusalem and The Edmond and Lily Safra Hospital in Tel Hashomare. In each case there is a mutual eagerness. The magician combs the halls of these hospitals toting his wares in a violin case as his multi-aged, multi-cultural fans chant "Magic Michael, Magic Michael" from all corners of the ward. Children rush down hallways eager to smother him with their affections. Doctors, nurses, aids and parents consistently praise the genius of their magician's abilities and his relationships with the young patients. Palestinian parents gloat over Michael's smile-conjuring with the same enthusiasm as their Israeli counterparts. What he brings to these hospitals is immeasurable and each administration savors his discovery as their own. The fact that he is a religious Jew, a man whose traditional garb distinctly conveys his convictions, has no bearing whatsoever on his multi-ethnic audience. Women in burkas are as anxious for Michael to treat their children as their religious Jewish counterparts.
As a therapeutic talent, Michael's responsibilities range from laughter to love as dispensed through wit, wisdom and his magical flair. His rehabilitative performances encourage the young patients to use what has since been repaired or not. At other times it is his friendship and will that affect the kids in immeasurable ways by gauges and graphs.
Departing the hospitals, Magic Michael then transforms into Meir (Michael) Tulkoff, husband and father of five. MAGIC(S) further investigates the smile in both his family and daily life.
The Director - His most recent credit is as a writer in the inaugural season of Sony/Marvel/MTV's SPIDER-MAN. He has written, directed and produced in the independent film arena most recently taking the Silver Remi at Worldfest Houston and honors at the EarthVision 2003 for a cutting environmental PSA aimed at the recklessness of the timber industry. His very first film, GESUNDHEIT, premiered at the inaugural year of the Temecula International Film Festival. He has directed a series of "documentary-ettes", abbreviated tributes, honoring The Barbra Streisand Foundation, Ed Begley, Jr., the late Frank G. Wells, the late Timothy Treadwell among many others.
Ydessa, The Bears and etc.
TITLE: Ydessa, The Bears and etc.
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Agnčs Varda
COUNTRY:
LANGUAGE: English and French w/ English ST
TIME: 44 minutes in 35mm
SOURCE:
TEXT: The Director saw the Partners (Teddy Bear Project) exhibit in Munich at the Haus de Kunst museum where the Nazis' 1937 Degenerate Art exhibition was held. She was so struck by the exhibit, which featured several thousand old photographs of people with teddy bears, that she flew to Toronto to meet its curator, Ydessa Hendeles. The director talks to Ydessa and to viewers, sharing their evolving reactions - curiosity, nostalgia, and finally shock - just as Ydessa intended. BOSTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL, NOVEMBER 2005
Only Human
TITLE: Only Human
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Dominic Harari and Teresa Pelegri
COUNTRY: Argentina/Spain
LANGUAGE: Spanish w/ English ST
TIME: 89 minutes in 35mm
SOURCE: Jeff Reichert Magnolia Pictures 49 West 27th Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-924-6701 Fax: 212-924-6742 JReichert@magpictures.com www.magpictures.com
TEXT: Leni Dalinsky brings her Palestinian fiancé Rafi home to meet her hyperactive Jewish family, and a Meet the Parents-type comedy of errors ensues. Assuming that Rafi is an Israeli Jew, Leni's newly Orthodox brother, belly dancing sister, and even her blind, rifle-toting Zionist grandfather all embrace him to their bosom. The always-marvelous Norma Aleandro (Son of the Bride) plays Leni's mother. BJFF.com
39 Pounds of Love
TITLE: 39 Pounds of Love
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Dani Menkin
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: English and Hebrew w/ English ST
TIME: 70 minutes, video
SOURCE: Theatrical Bookings Greg Kendall Balcony Releasing Phone: 413-256-1349 greg@balconyfilm.com
TEXT: As a child, Israeli animator Ami Ankilewitz was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy and given six years to live. Now 34 years old and weighing only 39 pounds, Ami sets out with his friends on a road trip across the United States with two goals: finding the doctor who first diagnosed him and riding a Harley-Davidson. Though his movement is now limited to a single finger on his left hand, Ami creates the cartoon characters which grace this moving, funny, and utterly surprising film. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Security Groove
TITLE: Security Groove
YEAR: 2002
DIR/PROD: Edan Alterman
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew w/ English ST
TIME: 3 minutes, video
SOURCE: Arik Bernstein Alma Films Ltd. 4 Herman Cohen St. Tel Aviv 64385 Israel Phone: 972-3-5224061 Fax: 972-3-52248 6 arik@alma-films.com
TEXT: The dramatic increase in the number of security guards since the start of the Intifada inspired Edan Alterman to make this short film about the latest Israeli urban soundtrack. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Short
TITLE: Short
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Edan Alterman
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew/English w/subtitles
TIME: 51 minutes
SOURCE: Arik Bernstein Alma Films Ltd. 4 Herman Cohen St.
Tel Aviv 64385 Israel Phone: 972-3-5224061 Fax: 972-3-52248 6
arik@alma-films.com
TEXT: Like Rodney Dangerfield, short people get no respect. The 5-foot-4-inch tall Israeli comedian and television star Edan Alterman explores what it means to be short through personal revelation, interviews with well-known Israelis, and conversations with teenage boys. His documentary is as charming and sensitive as it is funny and candid. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Age of Reason
TITLE: Age of Reason
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Myriam Aziza
COUNTRY: France
LANGUAGE: French w/subtitles
TIME: 14 minutes
SOURCE: Romain Pascual 17 Production 35, Rue Mouffetard Paris, 75005 France Phone: 33-1-46272317 17prod@free.fr
TEXT: Brought up to obey and honor Jewish laws and traditions, seven-year-old Deborah begins to ask, "Why?" Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
The Loser Who Won
TITLE: The Loser Who Won
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Jack Feldstein
COUNTRY: Australia
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 20 minutes
SOURCE: Jack Feldstein
Jack Feldstein Films
40A Birriga Rd.
Bellevue Hill
Sydney, NSW 2023
Australia
Phone: 612-93652926
feldsteinjack@yahoo.com.au
TEXT: In this winningly funny and inventive animated short fiction, a 90-year-old Jewish pensioner helps an unlucky actuary find true love. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Checking Out
TITLE: Checking Out
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Jeff Hare
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 94 minutes
SOURCE: Mark Lane Fully Attired Film Group, LLC 17420 Lahey St. Granada Hills, CA 91344 Phone: 818-624-2035 Fax: 818-831-5840 checkingoutlp@yahoo.com
TEXT: This snappy, heartwarming comedy stars Peter Falk as Morris Applebaum, an irascible old Shakespearean actor who summons his children, played by Laura San Giacomo, David Paymer, and Judge Reinhold, to announce his plans to bring the final curtain down on himself while there's still time to make a good exit.
Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Adam and Steve
TITLE: Adam and Steve
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Craig Chester
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 100 minutes - Video
SOURCE: Johnny Ortez
Funny Boy Films
346 N Detroit St.
Los Angeles, CA 90036-2531
Phone: 323-993-0000
Fax: 323-954-0440
johnny@funnyboyfilms.com
TEXT: New York, 1987: Jewish Goth Adam (Craig Chester) and big-haired Dazzle Dancer Steve (Malcolm Gets) share a disastrous one-night-stand. Seventeen years later, the two meet again and fall in love, with neither one recognizing the other. Irreverent, at times raunchy, this hilarious debut film features stand-out supporting performances from Parker Posey and Chris Kattan.
Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Local Call
TITLE: Local Call
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Arthur Joffe
COUNTRY: France
LANGUAGE: French w/subtitles
TIME: 102 minutes
SOURCE: Lise Zipci Les Films du Losange 22, avenue Pierre-1er-de-Serbie Paris 75116 France Phone: 33-1-44438710 Fax: 33-1-49520640 L.Zipci@FilmsduLosange.fr www.filmsdulosange.fr
TEXT: A supernatural Jewish cell phone comedy? Yes, and it's just delightful. The marvelous Sergio Castellitto (Unfair Competition) stars as Felix Mandel, a sweet Parisian astronomer who, to placate his wife, gets rid of his father's old cashmere overcoat. Once he gives it away, he receives a collect call from his angry father. The rub: His father has been dead for two years! Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
The Ritchie Boys
TITLE: The Ritchie Boys
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Christian Bauer
COUNTRY: USA/Germany/Italy
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 90 minutes, 35mm
SOURCE: Christian Bauer TANGRAM Herzog- Wilhelm - Strasse 27 80331 Munich, Germany Phone: 49-89-236606-0 info@tangramfilm.de www.ritchieboys.com
TEXT: At top-secret U.S. Camp Ritchie in Maryland, the army trained an elite band of young Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in intelligence work. Amazingly, they returned to Germany, intent on breaking the enemy's morale. They called themselves the Ritchie Boys. This remarkable documentary uses never-before-seen archival footage and first-person accounts by two of the film's heroes to tell their unforgettable story. Seen at BJFF.ORG, and Washington DC JFF too in November 2005
The Man Who Loved Haugesund
TITLE: The Man Who Loved Haugesund
YEAR: 2002
DIR/PROD: John Haukeland and Tore Vollan
COUNTRY: Norway
LANGUAGE: Norwegian w/ English ST
TIME: 52 minutes
SOURCE: Toril Siomnsen
Norwegian Filminstitute
Dronningensgt 16
PO Box 482
Sentrum, N-0105 Oslo
Norway
Phone: 47-22-474500
Fax: 47-22-474597
toril.simonsen@nfi.no
ts@nfi.no
TEXT: Moritz Rabinowitz, the only Jew in Haugesund in 1911, built a clothing empire that at one time employed 3,000 people. Nonetheless he remained an outsider. An anti-Nazi activist in World War II, when Germany occupied Norway, Rabinowitz became a hunted man. This fascinating but chilling documentary becomes a portrait of small-town anti-Semitism. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Awake Zion
TITLE: Awake Zion
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Monica Haim
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 60 minutes
SOURCE: Monica Haim Twin Goat Productions 54 Havemeyer St. #2 Brooklyn, NY 11211 Phone: 646-263-5115 monica@awakezion.net www.awakezion.net
TEXT: Reggae enthusiast and director Monica Haim explores similarities between Judaism and reggae culture: the Star of David and the ancient African six-pointed star, Hasidic earlocks and dreadlocks, old Jewish songs that fit into African grooves. Could they be connected? The film celebrates music and its capacity to unite people of all faiths. Featuring reggae artists King Django, Super Dane, and Matisyahu. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Poumy
TITLE: Poumy
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Sam Ball
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: French w/subtitles
TIME: 30 minutes video
SOURCE: Phone: 415-206-1880 Fax: 415-206-1329 admin@citizenfilm.org www.citizenfilm.org
TEXT: The eloquent, witty 92-year-old Andree "Poumy" Moreuil reflects on her experiences as a young Jewish mother who escaped the Nazis with her two sons and joined the French Resistance. The stunning documentary by San Francisco filmmaker Sam Ball (Pleasures of Urban Decay) is a hauntingly poetic landscape that conveys the intensity and mysterious exhilaration of her wartime years.
Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Helen Suzman, An Indomitable Woman
TITLE: Helen Suzman, An Indomitable Woman
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Ingrid Gavshon
COUNTRY: South Africa
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 14 minutes
SOURCE: Ingrid Gavshon Angel Films Atlas Studios 33 Frost Ave Auckland Park Johannesburg, 2092 South Africa Phone: 27-11-7267819 Fax: 27-11-7268521 angelfilms1@tiscal.co.za
TEXT: A fascinating documentary portrait of Helen Suzman in her own acerbic and witty words. The daughter of Russian Jews who immigrated to South Africa, Helen Suzman was a fierce liberal voice and an opposition politician in the darkest days of apartheid, and she served in the South African parliament for thirty-five years. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Love One Another
TITLE: Love One Another
YEAR: 1922
DIR/PROD: Carl Dreyer
COUNTRY: Germany
LANGUAGE: SILENT
TIME: 84 minutes in 35mm
SOURCE: Dominique Kaspar
Deutshes Filminstitut - DIF
Kreuzberger Ring 56
65205 Wiesbaden
Germany
Phone: 49-611-970-0010
Fax: 49-611-970-0015
filmverleih@deutsches-filminstitut.de
TEXT: Long-lost silent film by the great Danish director Carl Dreyer. A young Jewish girl moves to St. Petersburg, falls in love with a revolutionary, flees the czar/s police, and returns to her village just as a pogrom breaks out.
Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Esther's Book
TITLE: Esther's Book
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Esaias Baitel
COUNTRY: Sweden
LANGUAGE: English Narration
TIME: 15 minutes, 35mm
SOURCE: Sara Yamashita Ruster
Swedish Film Institute
Box 27126
Stockholm, 102 52
Sweden
Phone: 46-8-6651141
Fax: 46-8-6663698
sara.ruster@sfi.se
TEXT: For fifteen years Swedish artist Esaias Baitel photographed Purim holiday festivities in Jerusalem. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
Homing
TITLE: Homing
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Jonah Bleicher
COUNTRY: Israel/USA
LANGUAGE: Arabic w. English ST
TIME: 9 minutes
SOURCE: Jonah Bleicher
Zeney R Jones Productions
1626 E. 22nd St
Phone: 415-350-8385
jonah@zeneyrjones.com
www.zeneyrjones.com
TEXT: His bus is late. While he waits, step inside the head of a suicide bomber.
Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
The Diaries of Yossef Nachmani
TITLE: The Diaries of Yossef Nachmani
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Dalia Karpel
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew/Arabic w/subtitles
TIME: 60 minutes
SOURCE: Transfax Film Productions 22 Nachmani Street
Tel Aviv 65201 Israel Phone: 972-3566-1484
transfax@netvision.net.il www.transfax.co.il
TEXT: This Israeli documentary explores the life and work of Yossef Nachmani, a former director of the Jewish National Fund office in the Galilee. Nachmani left behind a fascinating series of diaries that shed new light upon the author's complex personality and upon the events in the Galilee during the 30s and 40s, when he was acquiring as much land as possible in support of the Zionist enterprise. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
HINEINI: Coming Out in a Jewish High School
TITLE: HINEINI: Coming Out in a Jewish High School
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Irena Fayngold
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 60 minutes
SOURCE: Idit Klein Keshet 284 Amory St. Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 Phone: 617-524-9227 Fax: 617-524-9229 idit@boston-keshet.org www.boston-keshet.org
TEXT: This timely film chronicles Shulamit Izen's fight to start a gay-straight alliance at Gann Academy - the New Jewish High School of Greater Boston. Beyond the struggle to create a supportive environment for gay and lesbian students and teachers at the school, this is the story of a community wrestling with the very definition of pluralism and diversity in a Jewish context. Seen at BJFF.ORG, November 2005
A Treasure In Auschwitz
TITLE: A treasure in auschwitz
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Yahaly Gat
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew w/ English Subtitles
TIME: 55 minutes
SOURCE: Yahaly Gat Email: fg_prod@netvision.net.il MUSE PRODUCTIONS
TEXT: Documentary: A young student, Yariv Nornberg, hears from an elderly vendor in a rundown shop a fantastic story about a Jewish treasure buried in Polish soil. His curiosity is aroused when he learns of the location of the hiding place - next to the infamous Auschwitz extermination camp. During the next 5 years, Yariv pursues these lost religious artifacts, hidden in the grounds of the Great Synagogue in the city of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) in 1939. For him, these artifacts embody his own perished family and guide his attempt for a closure and acceptance of the Polish people, usually regarded by Jews as collaborators and anti-Semites.
Yariv manages to organize a unique archaeological excavation to unearth the treasure. But as the digging progresses, it becomes apparent that the synagogue's soil conceals a 60-year-old sinister secret and Yariv and his crew begin to lose hope. Until one morning a shovel hits a metallic object in one of the ditches....
The search and excavation for the treasure translates within the film to a succession of poignant metaphors - to the Jewish existence in Poland and its annihilation, to the possibility of a dialog between the younger generations, to the capacity of Nazi evilness embodied in the presence of the nearby death camp and above all - to the growing sentiment that only 60 years have gone by and already WW2 and it's greatest nightmare - the Holocaust - is tragically transforming into an archaeological exhibit...
NY Jewish FF (Jan 2006)
About the Director: Director Producer, writer and director of documentaries and image films. Head of Muse productions Ltd. BFA graduate, Film and Television studies, Tel Aviv University [1984]. Member of the Producers Union & the Documentary Forum, Israel. Recent films (as producer): *As a River Flows (doc, 67 min.,2005) *Living in Boxes (doc, 54 min. , 2004) Jerusalem Film Festival 2004; Globians, Potsdam 2005 *Men on Wheels (doc, 54 min., 2003)Superfest 2003 (Merit Award); IVfest, Kerala 2003; Tucson Jewish FF 2004;Hartford Jewish FF; Detroit Jewish FF *Body Exposures(doc, 45 min. 2003) for the National Geographic Channel *Love Inventory (doc, 90 min. 2001)Best Doc - Jerusalem Film Festival & Film Academy 2001; Berlin Film Festival 2001; Seattle FF; Bangkok; Taiwan Doc (Second Prize); Boston FF; INPUT, and many others
As a great River Flows
TITLE: As a great River Flows
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Yitzhak Halutzi
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew with English Subtitles
TIME: 67 minutes
SOURCE: Yahaly Gat Email: fg_prod@netvision.net.il MUSE PRODUCTIONS
TEXT: Documentary: Nir Malchi is a world leading Tai-Chi master, born on a Kibbutz but turned to Judaism to become an ultra-orthodox Jew. He was also a renowned commando fighter and is now fighting his own battle with cancer. It's been two years since his doctor declared he has a few months to live. Nir was grown up to be an individualist, a rebel. During his army service as a commando fighter he became a role model to many after saving some of his diving partners' lives. After discharging from the army he traveled to Japan to learn the eastern martial arts in order to fulfill his quest for spiritual strength. He trained for 10 years with the best eastern masters and during that time began his return to Judaism followed by a large group of Israelis looking for spiritual guidance. After returning to Israel with his wife he established the largest Tai-Chi school in Israel. As the film progresses Nir's relationship with his first-born son, Gal, is revealed. 28-year-old Gal was the fruit of an affair Nir has carried out while in the army. He met his son only once or twice and the young child learnt of his father's fame from newspaper clippings. After the army Gal himself began training in martial arts and their ways crossed again. This touching union is the emotional center of the film as Nir's health deteriorates and improves periodically. Nir's complex personality breaks our conventional ways of thinking about what an Israeli is or should be. His fight for a cure to his ailment forces the viewer to rethink the traditional definitions of Eastern and Western medicine practices and philosophies. About the Director: Selected Filmography: 2000 -present: - Director: "As a Great River Flows", 67 min. documentary (for Israel channel 2) Director for the Israeli Educational TV, TV programs & Documentaries (including 2005 academy Award nomination for Best Children's Show - "Hanni's Room") - Director: "One of the righteous 36" - documentary 50 min. (for the Israeli TV) 1990-2000 - Director of numerous TV series, among them: "Redhead" (winner best dramatic series for children, Bulgaria 1996; First Prize, 32nd Intl. Festival, Chicago). "Reading", highly popular dramatic 30 episode series (Israeli Educational TV). - "Braids", Script & Direction of feature film, (screened at the Jerusalem Film Festival 1990; New York Jewish Festival and many others). 1988 - "Sesame Street" - Director of 50 episodes. 1976-2004 - Senior Director at the Israeli educational TV. 1970 - present - involved in many theatre productions as actor and director; teacher of TV direction and acting in various schools and colleges.
Diameter of the Bomb
TITLE: Diameter of the Bomb
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Steven Silver, Andrew Quigley
COUNTRY: UK / Canada
LANGUAGE: English Hebrew and Arabic and ST
TIME: 86 minutes
SOURCE: In the USA: http://www.thinkfilmcompany.com/ Elsewhere: Rainmaker FIlms/National Film Board of Canada
TEXT: Lives linked in tragedy reverberate in an unsparing examination of a 2002 suicide bombing aboard a Jerusalem bus. Nineteen people died in the attack and this unflinchingly clinical account of the incident and its aftermath follows the bomb's trajectory in human suffering. The film relies on footage from the scene, interviews with Israeli forensic experts, emergency workers, trauma doctors, police and military officials, and the terrorist's accomplice, as well as the bomber's own home video, to reconstruct events. But at the documentary's core are the stories of five deaths: an adolescent dancer preparing for a trip to Germany, only identified by the tattered pieces of her swimsuit; the young wife of a stone carver, who now must etch his epitaph on a headstone; a teen-aged girl whose family fled the hardships of Ethiopia; the only son of an elderly Israeli Arab worker; and the bomber himself, an educated Palestinian who spoke of getting his doctorate. They're remembered by their families and friends struggling with loss and with the impact of the continuing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. seen at Hamptonsfilmfest.org Seen at TIFF also
Lucky
TITLE: Lucky
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Melissa Berman / Sondra Wiemar
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 10 minutes
SOURCE: www.Uglybetty.com
TEXT: In a Palm Beach Florida condominium community, Ruth and Harry spend their time doing romantic things like going to the podiatrist, playing bridge and having dinner at the early bird special. All is bliss until one day Harry brings home the wrong tuna.
DAVID AND LAYLA
TITLE: DAVID AND LAYLA
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Jay Jonroy
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English and Hebrew and Kurdish with English Subtitles
TIME: 109 minutes
SOURCE: Jalal Jay Jonroy, writer/director: T 212 757 4743 F 1 212 757 4743 Email: jj@newrozfilms.com
TEXT: Cast: Shiva Rose (Layla), David Moscow (David Fine), Polly Adams (Judith), Callie Thorne (Abby), Will Janowitz (Woody Fine), Alexander Blaise (Francois), Ed Chemaly (Uncle 'Al' Ali), Anna George (Zina), Peter van Wagner
A real New York story, DAVID & LAYLA is a film about an impossible romance that gets at the heart of the hypocritical stereotypes and illusions we all have about differing cultures and religions. David (David Moscow), a young Jewish man finds Layla (Shiva Rose McDermott), a beautiful Muslim immigrant, and can't get her off of his mind. But her Kurdish culture doesn't mix with his Upper East Side origins, and both lovers can't help but mislead their families about one another as they try to begin their affair. However, marriage is quickly on their minds with Layla's deportation looming and they must work out their differences or lose each other forever. A true comedy of errors ensues from temple to mosque, from perversion to conversion, and all the while their passions increase regardless of their unlikely attraction.
Jay wrote: In New York, it's love at first sight when hip TV producer David first lays eyes on voluptuous Layla - a mysterious, sensual dancer. Layla turns out to be a Muslim refugee. Advised by his ironic French cameraman, David's attempts to woo Layla eventually succeed. But his family is dead against it, as is hers! Layla is faced with deportation. She must choose: Muslim Dr. Ahmad or Jewish David? Meanwhile, David's TV show playfully explores the correlation between sex, spice, joie de vivre, and politics! In the face of his parents, will David dump Abby, his Jewish princess fiancée? Will David and Layla follow their hearts to blast through centuries of religious animosity and war? Who will convert? Will David & Layla's passion for life (and spice!) bring a reign of dance, laughter, and peace to their folks?
Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs
TITLE: Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Norma Percy
COUNTRY: UK
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: minutes
SOURCE: BBC
TEXT: This program employs extraordinary access on all sides to tell the story of the unraveling peace process and ensuing violence between Israelis and Palestinians from 1999 through this year. ELUSIVE PEACE includes interviews with insiders from Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat to Bill Clinton and Colin Powell, behind-the-scenes footage of tense peace negotiations, and snapshots of the violence that enveloped the region much of the past five years. Shown in the USA on PBS, October 10, 2005. IN the UK it is a new three part documentary series examines the last six years of the Arab-Israeli peace process from the point of view of presidents and prime ministers, their generals and ministers and those behind the suicide bombs and assassinations. The series reveals what happened behind closed doors as the peace process failed and the violence of the intifada exploded. Programme 1: CLINTON (1999/2000) Israel's former Prime Minister Ehud Barak persuaded US President Bill Clinton to devote his last 18 months in office to helping make peace with Yasser Arafat. But after tense negotiations the deal was never made. Then Ariel Sharon made a controversial visit to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem, a site which is also holy to Jews. Programme 2: ARAFAT (2001/2002) The former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell attempted to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. However, his efforts were derailed by his own hard-line colleagues. And the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat himself. Programme 3: SHARON (2003-2005) President Bush was determined to stay out of Middle East peace-making. But the war in Iraq forced him to court Arab allies. He needed to push Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon back towards peace. But Ariel Sharon moved the goal posts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/elusive_peace/4311136.stm
Belzec
TITLE: Belzec
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Guillaume Moscovitz
COUNTRY: France
LANGUAGE: Polish French Hebrew w/ English Subtitles
TIME: 112 minutes
SOURCE: Films Distribution, Paris (a vlr production) www.advitamdistribution.com
TEXT: A documentary on Belzec, the death camp that was open for less than a year, but killed over 600,000. In 60 days, 330,000 Jews were murdered in 1942. As the Soviets advanced, the Nazis closed the camp and wiped out nearly all traces of it. They planted tress over the mass graves, and one would never know what really exists under the soil. Guillaume Moscovitz's first feature film reconstructs the horror through the memories of the inhabitants of the village, who watched on helplessly, as virtual accomplices, as the massacre was carried out. The imagery emerges slowly from the emptiness in this moving and brutal documentary on the repression of the conscience. Belzec is a film on a forgotten death camp. The destruction of the History with Belzec is the consequence of obliteration wanted, organized, programmed traces of the extermination of the Jews of Europe by the Nazis. By filming the after-effects of this obliteration, Belzec is a film on the violence of our present. Where there is only destruction, how to attest what was?
The only survivors of Belzec were the Jews forced to herd other Jews to their deaths. The only living survivor appears in the film. She was 7 years old, and was hidden in the village. Seen at Venice Film Festival 2005. Also NY Jewish Film Festival January 2006
Presque oublié dans l'histoire de la Shoah, Belzec est chronologiquement le premier camp d'extermination de l'Aktion Reinhard, le plan nazi d'extermination des Juifs des territoires de la Pologne occupée. Sa destruction intégrale dans les premiers mois de l'année 1943, presque un an avant le démantčlement des camps de Sobibor et de Treblinka, témoigne de la volonté nazie d'effacer les traces de l'extermination des juifs d'Europe. Le meurtre de masse industrialisé du peuple juif par les Nazis ne s'est pas arręté aux meurtres des vies, il a continué avec la destruction des cadavres de ceux qui avaient été exterminés : effacement des corps, des noms et des lieux. Ce qu'on appelle aujourd'hui le négationnisme était déjŕ au principe męme du meurtre nazi : l'effacement des traces de l'extermination faisait partie du plan d'anéantissement du peuple juif. A part Rudolf Reder décédé ŕ la fin des années soixante et Chaďm Hirszmann mort assassiné ŕ Lublin au lendemain de la guerre, personne n'est revenu du camp d'extermination de Belzec pour témoigner. En filmant les séquelles de cet effacement, le cinéaste montre la violence de notre présent : lŕ oů il n'y a que destruction, comment attester de ce qui a été ?
HABER
TITLE: HABER
YEAR: 2006
DIR/PROD: Daniel Ragussis
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 40 minutes
SOURCE: www.haberfilm.ORG dan at haberfilm dot org
TEXT: A short film on Fritz Haber, the German Jewish chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his discovery of the synthesis of ammonia from its elements. Haber was the son of a prosperous chemical merchant. He entered his father's business but soon decided to turn to an academic career. His intensive early researches in electrochemistry and thermodynamics soon gained him the position of Professor of Physical Chemistry (1898) at the Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe. His most important work which begun in 1904, was the synthesis of ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen. His laboratory demonstration interested Bosch, Bergius and the Badische Aniline-and Sodafabrik companies, and they eventually developed the process into commercial production. Haber and Bosch were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1918 "for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements". This work of Haber was invaluable for the German military effort in World War I. In 1911, at the age of 42, Haber was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry in Berlin .With the outbreak of World War I. in 1914, motivated by his strong patriotism, he placed himself and his laboratory at the service of the government. He played a leading part in the development of poison gas as a weapon. His wife, a chemist also, killed herself due to this invention. Haber fled the nazi regime, and his relatives were killed using poison gas that he helped to develop. By the way... The nucleus of the libraries of the Weizmann Institute in Israel was the private collection of the late Prof. Fritz Haber.
My Land Zion
TITLE: My Land Zion
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Yulie Cohen Gerstel
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew w/ English Subtitles
TIME: 54 minutes
SOURCE: Women Make Movies Debra Zimmermann dzimmerman@wmm.com
TEXT: Are we destined to spend generation after generation living at the expense of others? Is land more important than life? What kind of mother raises her children in a country where they might get blown up riding on a school bus? Sixth-generation Israeli Yulie Cohen Gerstel poses difficult questions without simple answers in this highly personal odyssey to understand the burden of her country's history. In seeking the links that connect the Holocaust, the creation of the Jewish state and the displacement of Palestinians, she journeys across generations, from the rubble of an abandoned Arab house to the former home of a Holocaust survivor and to a Jewish settlement in Hebron to talk with a woman whose husband was killed by a militant Palestinian. In wondering what kind of future awaits her daughters now just a few years away from military service, she confronts the events, sacrifices and myths that have shaped her country and her own fears that history does indeed repeat itself.
NASSER
TITLE: Nasser
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Adam Yeremian
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 20 minutes
SOURCE: NYU
TEXT: In 2001, Yasser Arafat's top political advisor sent his eldest son to the United States for a better life. This documentary follows a month in the life of a Palestinian-American who strives to be successful in his new homeland. Placed on anti-depressants because of overwhelming stress, this self-supporting youth is caught in a life-altering juggling between school, work, fear of failure, and loss of identity.
PRIME
TITLE: PRIME
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Ben Younger
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 103 minutes
SOURCE: Stratus Films
TEXT: Cast: Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg, Jon Abrahams
Prime is a sophisticated character comedy about Rafi (Uma Thurman), a recently divorced 37-year-old career woman from Manhattan, and what happens when Dave (Bryan Greenberg), a talented 23-year-old painter from Brooklyn, falls in love with her. Part counselor, part Jewish mother, Rafi's therapist Lisa (Streep) is gingerly helping Rafi out of her post-divorce slump and through the urgent alarm of her ticking biological clock. Although doubtful that Rafi's new fling (he is 23, after all) is an appropriate partner in the long term, Lisa encourages her patient to enjoy it and have fun (he is 23, after all!). But once Lisa accidentally discovers that Rafi's new boyfriend is, in fact, her son, Dave, she finds it increasingly difficult to act the good therapist while hearing intimate details of her son's love life. Soon, the secret is out and cultures clash, complications arise, civil arguments erupt and a storm of opinions swirl around the couple at the center of all this comic fuss. Prime looks at love from everyone's point of view-friends, relatives and in this case, Rafi's therapist-and follows all who come apart, and some who pull it together, when two people fall in love. Ben Younger (Boiler Room) directs and is produced by Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd under their Team Todd banner. The executive producers are Mark Gordon and Bob Yari. The film will be released domestically by Universal Pictures, with Focus Features handling all international sales.
The Naked Brothers Band
TITLE: The Naked Brothers Band
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Polly Draper
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 85 minutes
SOURCE:
TEXT: Cast: Nat Wolff (Nat), Alex Wolff (Alex), Joshua Kaye (Josh), David Juilian Levi (David), David Julian Levi (David), Thomas Batuello (Thomas), Cole Hawkins (Cole), Allie DiMeco (Rosalina), Jesse Draper (Jesse), Michael Wolff (Dad), Cooper Pillot (Cooper), Jonathan Pillot (Mort Needleman). "The Naked Brothers Band" is a thoroughly entertaining rock and roll musical comedy for children and adults. Part documentary, part mockumentary, and a lot of fun in between, it tracks a kids' rock band that struggles with superstardom in elementary school. This 'fantasy rockumentary' stars two real life brothers; Nat Wolff age 9, and Alex Wolff age 6. All the songs in the film were written and performed by them. In "The Naked Brothers Band," the camera follows Nat and Alex through their concerts, their rehearsals and their private lives, as they deal with the growing pains related to love, friendship and fame. Film features original songs written and performed by Nat Wolff including, "Crazy Car," "Got No Mojo," "Hardcore Wrestlers," and "Rosalina," and a special solo performance by Alex Wolff singing his original song, "That's How It Is." "The Naked Brothers Band" is written and directed by Polly Draper (star of 30something), starring Nat Wolff and Alex Wolff. Music by Nat Wolff, produced by Michael Wolff and Michael Levine. Executive producers Tim Draper, Polly Draper and Michael Wolff.
The skies are closer in Homesh
TITLE: The skies are closer in Homesh
YEAR: 2004
DIR/PROD: Menora Hazani
COUNTRY: Israel
LANGUAGE: Hebrew w/ English Subtitles
TIME: 53 minutes
SOURCE: Ruth Diskin Films Tel: 972-2-5610094 ;972-2-5669691 Fax:972-2-5660718
ruthdis@netvision.net.il http://www.ruthfilms.com
TEXT: This documentary is an exploration of faith, in a situation of unfathomable complexity. Israeli filmmaker Menora Hazan tells a first-person story of her decision with new husband Ariel to settle in the secluded hilltop Jewish settlement of Homesh. Originally a secular community, settlers in Homesh sought religious families to join them after killings and hardship drove many of their number away. Just married, Ariel and Menora feel drawn to the mountaintop community, where the air is sweet and the view is beautiful; in spite of the pleas of their families, they follow in the wake of the other new settlers. This is an intimate portrait that shares Menora's experience of spreading roots in a harsh and unstable environment, her fears for herself and her family with violence so present, her ambivalence, envy of the enthusiasm of earlier Jewish settlers, and her growing solidarity with nearby settlers who are being forcibly removed from their homes by fellow Israelis. The effects of killings of neighbors and relatives is profound, and the Israelis in this film exhibit a determination to persist in their faith, and to pass on to their children this faith "to believe, even when you don't understand."
Torte Bluma
TITLE: Torte Bluma
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: Benjamin Ross
COUNTRY: UK
LANGUAGE: English and German
TIME: 17 minutes
SOURCE: Email: dan@dmcfilmco.com
TEXT: Cast: Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting; Exorcist: The Beginning; Dogville; Breaking the Waves), Simon McBurney (Kafka; The Manchurian Candidate; Bright Young Things), Sol Frieder (Niagra; Niagra; IQ; Music Box; Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy; Love and Death), Benedick Bates (Woundings; Real Women; Deadly Advice) The fine line of human nature in its most compassionate, yet destructive evil is depicted through the complex relationship between a servile prisoner and a Commander of the Treblinka concentration camp, played by Stellan Skarsgĺrd. WINNER AT THE LA FEST
THE FOOL OF THE WORLD AND THE FLYING SHIP
TITLE: THE FOOL OF THE WORLD AND THE FLYING SHIP
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD:
COUNTRY:
LANGUAGE: English Subtitles
TIME: minutes
SOURCE: Amazon.com
TEXT: This delightful, magnificently animated Russian folktale tells the story of a peasant boy who wins the hand of a beautiful princess with a little help from his uniquely talented friends. Pyotr and his friends journey to the Czar's palace, where they successfully complete three impossible tasks and prove that the most humble of people can defeat power and greed. Parents' Choice Award. (60 min.)
Glow Ropes: The Rise and Fall of a Bar Mitzvah Emcee
TITLE: Glow Ropes: The Rise and Fall of a Bar Mitzvah Emcee
YEAR: 2005
DIR/PROD: George Valencia
COUNTRY: USA
LANGUAGE: English
TIME: 76 minutes
SOURCE: Hellfish Films, NJ hellfishfilms.com
TEXT: The writer, producer, director was a Bar Mitzvah entertainer for years. Now he has created a fun film based on the life of an emcee and his clients and co-workers. A satire. Stars Tom Pepper, George Valencia, and Judy Reyes (Scrubs). Taylor James is a goyish looking entertainer on the bar mitzvah circuit in NJ, when he is discovered and makes it to the big time: NYC bar mitzvah emcee'ing. Soon he becomes a star in NYC, teaching 13 year olds to dance, etc. But wait. His career is ruined when someone sabotages the glow rope bracelets. Then a Jewish bar mitzvah boy, a future Spielberg perhaps, tracks down a drunk Taylor to get his side of the story for a film. Premiered at the NY Latino Film Fest in July 2005.
Films at Margaret Mead
Wake Zion
Kings and Extras
Vault Key
Naomis Corset
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