|
Presented in collaboration with the Jewish Museum.
about the program
program notes and times
Asterisked titles indicate that an introduction and
a Q&A session following the film are scheduled.
Soviet Silents:
Archival Discoveries
This screening (as well as the two other silent film programs in the
festival) will be introduced by J. Hoberman, author of Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds. Following the screening, Mr. Hoberman will be present to sign his new book, The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism.
SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS
Soviet Union, 1936; 84m, video, Russian with English subtitles
A family of foreign Jews immigrate to Stalin's Zion, the remote region of Birobidzhan. Soviet cinema's farewell to Jewish themes stars the beloved Yiddish actor Venya in Zuskin.
Sun, Jan 17: 2 pm (Opening Day)
Mon, Jan 25: 6:30 at the Jewish Museum
(1109 Fifth Ave. / 92nd St)
NY Premiere
THE HARMONISTS /
aka COMEDIAN HARMONISTS
Joseph Vilsmaier, Germany, 1997; 126m, 35mm, English subtitles
This remarkable true story follows the meteoric rise of a wildly popular vocal group in pre-war Berlin. Blinded by their success, the members--three Jews and three Gentiles--ignore the dangerous political changes taking place in Germany. Dramatic, raucous and nostalgic on a grand scale, this film proved a box-office phenomenon upon its premiere in Germany in 1997.
Sun, Jan 17: 4 pm (Opening Day)
Wed, Jan 20: 2 pm
Double Feature
NY PREMIERE
ADIO*
Gregori Viens, US, 1998; 19m, 35mm
Rebecca, a natural-born storyteller, recalls her life as a Greek Jew on the island of Rhodes before the war, and her escape from the Fascists in 1939.
with
LETTER WITHOUT WORDS
Lisa Lewenz, US, 1997; 62m, 16mm
Amateur filmmaker Ella Arnhold Lewenz documented with remarkable finesse the life of the German-Jewish upper-classes during the '20s and '30s, capturing intimate family moments, as well as historic events, before her exile in 1939. In 1981, her granddaughter Lisa discovered the film reels, and in an unusual cross-generational collaboration began blending them with her own footage. The result is an amazing personal account of one family's history and a complex exploration of German Jewish identity.
Sun, Jan 17: 6:40 pm (Opening Night)
Thurs, Jan 21: 2 pm
NY Premiere:
LEFT LUGGAGE
Jeroen Krabbe, Holland, 1998, 93m; 35mm,
English subtitles
Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbe (Crossing Delancey, The Living Daylights) makes an impressive directoral debut in this moving adaptation of Carl Friedman's novel about a young Jewish student in 1970s Antwerp whose difficult relationship with her parents, both Holocaust survivors, leads her to take a job as nanny in an ultra-Orthodox family. Featuring Isabella Rossellini, Maximillian Schell and Chaim Topol.
Sun, Jan 17: 8:45 pm (Opening Night)
Tues, Jan 19: 2 pm
Wed, Jan 20: 8:30 pm
Isabella Rossellini will introduce both of the evening screenings of LEFT LUGGAGE.
Double Feature
THE JEW IN THE LOTUS*
Laurel Chiten, US, 1997; 58m, video
Award-winning filmmaker Laurel Chiten revisits the story of the 1990 meeting between eight Jewish delegates and the Dalai Lama of Tibet, producing a rather unusual behind-the-scenes look at the making of the national bestseller The Jew in the Lotus.
The historic Jewish-Buddhist encounter is combined with the story of writer Roger Kamenetz, a skeptic for whom the experience becomes an intense journey of reflection on his Jewish heritage.
with
TREYF
Alisa Lebow and Cynthia Madansky, US, 1997;
54m, 16mm
In an important new work that has already ignited controversy, two filmmakers explore with intelligence and humor the different ways that they and other women have sought to reconcile and redefine their identities as members of both the Jewish and lesbian communities. Raised in kosher households, the two create an engaging dialogue between the religious beliefs and cultural values they have come to question, and the concepts of "treyf" they have come to embody.
Mon, Jan 18: 2 pm
Sun, Jan 24: 9 pm
Double Feature
MAN OF THE WALL: A DOCUMENTARY MYSTERY
Herz Frank, Semyon Vinokur and Jakob Svirski, Israel, 1998; 58m, video, English subtitles
Featuring a breathtaking original score, this extraordinary collage of images and sounds is a poetic documentary on the meaning of the Western Wall today: its unique spiritual legacy, its emotional significance in the present and its unlikely embodiment in the mysterious and eccentric character at the film's center.
with
GOD@HEAVEN
Joseph Neulight, US/Israel, 1998; 19m, 35mm
This promising student film about a boy, his dog and God's Web site is a clever and uplifting exploration of the tenuous intersection of faith and modern society.
Mon, Jan 18: 4:45 pm
Thurs, Jan 21: 9:50 pm
Double Feature
ÖRVÉNY / FREEFALL
Péter Forgács, Hungary, 1996; 75m, video, English subtitles
In the tenth episode of an epic series on "Private Hungary" made for Hungarian television, producer Péter Forgács gathers together the extraordinary home movies of successful Jewish businessman György Petó to create a beautifully evocative window into Hungarian Jewish life between 1938 and 1944. This richly textured, deeply moving film leads the viewer on a nostalgic trip back into time only to reach its final, tragic conclusion.
with
US Premiere
VILNA
Harvey Wang, US, 1998; 3m, video
The abandoned streets of Vilna's Jewish ghetto evoke the alienation of a lovelorn young woman in this exquisitely crafted visual metaphor.
Tues, Jan 19: 4 pm; Tues, Jan 26: 8:30 pm
Soviet Silents: Archival Discoveries
Screenings introduced by J. Hoberman.
Live piano accompaniment by Curtis Salke.
Double Feature
US Premiere
AGAINST THE FATHERS' WILL
Soviet Union, 1927; 40m, 35mm, silent with
simultaneous translation
The legendary Soviet adaptation of Sholem Aleichem's In the Storm, a novel of the 1905 Revolution, made with the Hebrew-language Habima theater, was presumed lost until the discovery of this 40-minute fragment. Live musical accompaniment.
with
US Premiere
SUBURBAN QUARTERS
Soviet Union, 1930; 60m, 35 mm, silent with
simultaneous translation
A modern Jewish girl flouts her traditional parents to marry a Ukrainian boy only to encounter the anti-Semitism of his family. Live musical accompaniment.
Tues, Jan 19: 6:15 pm
Special Screening
THE TWELVE CHAIRS
Mel Brooks, US, 1970; 94m, 35mm
One of the few Hollywood movies adapted from a Soviet source, Mel Brooks's second feature uses the satiric 1928 novel by the popular, half-Jewish team of Ilf and Petrov as the basis for a comedy suggesting the meeting of Karl and Groucho Marx.
Tues, Jan 19: 9:30 pm
Sat, Jan 23: 7:30 pm
MY MOTHER'S FIRST OLYMPICS*
Ron Carmally, Israel, 1998; 64m, video, English subtitles
Rather than become self-pitying when she loses her eyesight in her forties, Kitty becomes Israel's blind lawn bowling champion and member of the national Para-Olympics team. The filmmaker follows his courageous and vivacious mother to the 1996 Atlanta games where she competes in a dramatic contest of skills and wills. A wholly unique mother-and-son story, this film is wry and uplifting without a hint of sentimentality.
Wed, Jan 20: 4:30 pm; Thurs, Jan 21: 8:10 pm
US Premiere
DAAVID -- STORIES OF HONOR AND SHAME*
Taru Mäkelä, Finland, 1998; 94m, 35mm, English
subtitles
In the winter of 1942, Jewish soldiers in the Finnish army erected a field synagogue less than half a mile from where their German brothers-in-arms were posted. This astounding film tells the true story of Finnish Jews forced to fight alongside Germans against their common Soviet enemy. Exhaustively researched, with never-before-seen footage, recordings of confidential meetings between Finnish high officials, and interviews with Jewish veterans, this film explores an identity torn between patriotism and religious faith.
Wed, Jan 20: 6:15 pm
Thurs, Jan 21: 4 pm
Double Feature
US Premiere
A TRIP TO MALIN*
Arkady Kogan, Russia, 1997, 20m, 35mm
Documentary filmmaker Arkady Kogan returns with his wife and young sons to the tiny village of Malin where his widowed mother implores, "Don't forget us." His mother's sense of loss is confirmed when her playful grandsons do not recognize the Star of David on their ancestors' gravestones.
with
World Premiere
HOUSE OF THE WORLD / HOUSE OF MEMORY*
Esther Polenski, US/Poland, 1998, 54m, 16mm
This eloquent documentary pays homage to the Jewish cemetery as the house of Jewish memory. Interviewing family members and survivors from Poland, the filmmaker discovers how they and other Jews returned after the war to find their cemeteries destroyed. Once repaired and now threatened again, these cemeteries are a poignant reminder that "to never forget" one must preserve these "houses of memory."
Thurs, Jan 21: 6:15 pm
Sun, Jan 24: 5 pm
PICK A CARD / aka AFULA EXPRESS
Julie Shles, Israel, 1997; 95m, 35mm, Hebrew with English subtitles
Winner of six Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress, this bittersweet comedy follows the rise and fall of two hapless lovers from Afula (a provincial northern city), who share a tired magic act and a dream. Stardom in the big city of Tel Aviv splits them apart, leading them to the simplest of discoveries: that love is the only true reward worth gaining in life.
Sat, Jan 23: 9:30 pm;
Tues, Jan 26: 6:30 pm
Soviet Silents: Archival Discoveries
Screenings introduced by J. Hoberman. Live piano
accompaniment by Curtis Salke.
CAIN & ARTEM
Soviet Union, 1929; 85m, 35mm, silent with simultaneous translation
In its first New York screening in 65 years, this anti anti-Semitic product, based on a story by Maxim Gorky, celebrates the friendship between a brawny Russian laborer and a diminutive Jewish shoemaker. Live musical accompaniment.
Sun, Jan 24: 2 pm
Double Feature
World Premiere
ANDRE'S LIVES*
Brad Lichtenstein, US, 1998, 64m, video
This unusual documentary tells the story of a Jewish rescuer who after training at the legendary Bauhaus designed work camps for Slovak Jews that he saved by bribing Nazi officials. Now, 50 years after emigrating to America where he has become a successful architect, Andre Steiner reluctantly returns with his sons to revisit his Holocaust experience for the first time.
with
SILENCE*
Sylvie Bringas and Orly Yadin, Sweden, 1998; 11m, 35mm
Mixing animation with real footage to create a remarkable visual tapestry, this short film recounts the true story of one young girl's survival in a concentration camp and eventual escape to Sweden with her grandmother.
Sun, Jan 24: 6:50 pm; Tues, Jan 26: 2 pm
NY Premiere
THE SOUTH: ALICE NEVER LIVED HERE
Sini Bar-David, Israel, 1998, 82m; video, Hebrew with English subtitles
Crossing time and space from a small Greek village at the turn of the century to the ghetto of Jaffa in contemporary Israel, this documentary takes viewers on a powerful journey of lost innocence. Linking the experiences of three generations of Sephardic women, the filmmaker discovers that the dream of a Jewish homeland is fraught with unresolved issues of poverty, racism and abandoned hopes.
Tues, Jan 26: 4 pm; Wed, Jan 27: 6:15 pm
World Premiere
DELTA JEWS*
Mike DeWitt, US, 1998; 64m, video
The Mississippi Delta has been home to generations of Jewish families who have forged a hybrid identity out of their religious and regional heritage. A handful of remaining Jews trace the history of their community, examining the challenges of assimilation and anti-Semitism in a society steeped in Southern pride, Protestantism, and historically divided along racial lines. The relationship between blacks and Jews, in particular, offers an uncommon view of Jews confronted with their own racial and cultural ambivalence.
Mon, Jan 18: 6:30 pm at the Jewish Museum
(1109 Fifth Ave. / 92nd St)
Wed, Jan 27: 2 pm
US Premiere
JE SUIS VIVANTE ET JE VOUS AIME /
I AM ALIVE AND I LOVE YOU*
Roger Kahane, France, 1998; 95m, 35mm, English
subtitles
Veteran film and television actor Jérôme Deschamps plays Julien, a humorless railroad worker who suddenly finds himself capable of the most romantic, courageous acts. After delivering a young woman's clandestine note to her family reassuring them that she is alive, Julien promptly becomes attached to her abandoned young son. Hiding the Jewish child, he inadvertently becomes a part of the organized Resistance against the Nazis. This film offers a heart-warming testament to the power of love and loyalty in a time of war.
Wed, Jan 27: 4 pm and 8:15 pm (Closing Night)
about the program
|
