New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 Jan 09 – Jan 24

A.K.A. Doc Pomus

Opening Night! New York City Premiere!

Filmmakers Peter Miller, Sharyn Felder and editor Amy Linton in person at both screenings! Filmmaker Will Hechter in person at 3:15pm screening!

Paralyzed with polio as a child, Brooklyn-born Jerome Felder reinvented himself as a blues singer, renaming himself Doc Pomus and emerging as one of the most brilliant songwriters of the early rock and roll era.

Hannah Arendt

Closing Night! New York Premiere!

Star Barbara Sukowa and screenwriter Pam Katz in person!

Margarethe von Trotta’s stirring bio-pic follows four years in the life of the titular philosopher and author (brilliantly played by Barbara Sukowa), including her controversial New Yorker coverage of the trial of Adolf Eichmann.

Aliyah

A stylish and brooding crime drama about a young man caught between family ties and dreams of a better life on the gritty streets of Northeast Paris.

All In

Director Daniel Burman in person at both screenings!

A professional gambler and Don Juan resolves to embark on a new life of freedom in this winning romantic comedy from festival favorite Daniel Burman (Waiting For the Messiah).

The Art of Spiegelman

Castaways co-director Slawomir Grunberg in person!

This intimate and homey portrait of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and artist Art Spiegelman reveals him to be as witty, fascinating, and fiercely insightful in person as his extraordinary creative output. Screening with Castaways (Slawomir Grunberg & Tomasz Wisniewski, 2012).

The Ballad of the Weeping Spring

A legendary lute player running a bar in northern Israel reunited his band to honor a dying friend’s last wish in this riveting musical drama.

The Black Cat (and Other Tales)

Film critic and author J. Hoberman introduces this special screening of the Béla Lugosi/Boris Karloff horror classic, plus clips from other works he considers compelling Jewish horror movies.

Cabaret-Berlin: The Wild Scene

Director Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir in person at both screenings!

This mesmerizing and exuberant assemblage of archival film, sound, and visual culture offers a front row seat to the best show in town: Berlin’s Weimar Republic cabaret scene.

The Cutoff Man

U.S. Premiere! Director Idan Hubel in person at both screenings!

A down-on-his-luck man takes up an unlikely profession—cutting off the water supply to people who don’t pay their bills—in this poignant family drama.

Daddy Longlegs (a.k.a. Go Get Some Rosemary)

Directors Josh and Benny Safdie in person! Make it a Double Feature with An Evening with the Safdie Brothers!

In this madcap drama, a frazzled, thirtysomething divorced dad leads his two young sons through a jumble of lawless fun, strange visitors and other adventures during his annual two-week custody period.

An Evening with the Safdie Brothers

Directors Josh and Benny Safdie in person! Make it a Double Feature with Daddy Longlegs (a.k.a. Go Get Some Rosemary)!

Acclaimed New York filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie present a program of five shorts: There's Nothing You Can Do, We're Going to the Zoo, The Acquaintances of a Lonely John, John's Gone and The Black Balloon.

The Fifth Heaven

New York City Premiere! Director Dina Zvi-Riklis in person at both screenings!

A forbidden romance blooms for an orphaned Jewish teen in British-controlled Palestine in this beautifully realized 1940s coming-of-age drama.

The Films of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson

Introduction and post-screening discussion with Bruce Checefsky!

A special event featuring the only three surviving films made by influential Polish experimental filmmakers Franciszka and Stefan Themerson, plus two “remakes” of lost Themerson films by Bruce Checefsky, Director, Reinberger Galleries, Cleveland Institute of Art.

Hava Nagila (The Movie)

New York Premiere! Director Roberta Grossman in person!

A rollicking documentary about how a little Jewish folk song went from the shtetls of Ukraine to become a worldwide hit covered by everyone from Bob Dylan to Elvis.

How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire

New York Premiere!

Co-director Daniel Edelstyn in person at both screenings! Shards director Jack Feldstein in person at both screenings!

Irish documentary filmmaker Dan Edelstyn journeys to reconnect with his Jewish Ukrainian roots in this fascinating exploration of the desire for return. Screening with Shards (Jack Feldstein, 2012).

In Case I Never Win the Golden Palm

New York Premiere! Director Renaud Cohen in person at both screenings!

A director who hasn’t made a film in 10 years rushes into production on a new project when he believes he may be dying in this delightfully self-referential moviemaking satire. Screening with Glue (Michal Lavi, 2012). 

Joe Papp in Five Acts

Directors Tracie Holder and Karen Thorsen in person!

A revealing portrait of New York’s indomitable, streetwise champion of the arts, who introduced interracial casting to the American stage and brought free Shakespeare to Central Park.

Koch

Mayor Ed Koch in person at January 13 screening! Director Neil Barsky in person at January 10 screening!

A documentary journey through the life and career of New York’s 86-year-old former mayor, revealing the personal toll of being mayor of our wondrous city.

Kol Nidre

U.S. Premiere of Restored Print!

Newly restored by the National center for Jewish Film, this musical melodrama about a young woman torn between two suitors explores themes of assimilation, cultural identity, and generational conflict.

Let’s Dance

New York Premiere!

This extraordinary, surprising window onto Israeli society explores how the need to move, shift, and be in constant motion has produced generations of great dancers and choreographers. Screening with Life in Stills (Tamar Tal, 2011). 

Life? Or Theatre?

U.S. Premiere! Director Frans Weisz in person at both screenings!

In this moving and original documentary, director Franz Weisz revisits the haunting legacy of the German Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon and her magnum opus Leben? oder Theater?, the subject of his 1981 narrative feature film, Charlotte.

Max Raabe in Israel

U.S. Premiere!

The wildly popular Berlin-based singer Max Raabe and members of his band recall their emotionally and politically charged trip to Israel to perform their show Tonight or Never.

Numbered

New York Premiere!

Co-director Dana Doron in person at January 20 screening! Audition director Udo Prinsen in person at January 14 screening!

This powerful film examines the complex relationships three Auschwitz survivors have with the numbers tattooed on their arms. Screening with Audition (Udo Prinsen, 2011).

Oma & Bella

Director Alexa Karolinski in person at both screenings!

A poetic meditation on heritage, memory and identity as seen through the lives of two elderly Holocaust survivors now living as roommates in Berlin. Screening with Kosher (Isabelle Stead, 2010). 

Papirosen

Director Gaston Solnicki in person at both screenings!

Argentine filmmaker Gaston Solnicki drew on 200 hours of home movies shot over a decade to create a family portrait at once epic and intimate, deeply concerned with the weight of history.

Policeman

Director Nadav Lapid’s stunning debut feature, a hit at NYFF ‘11, focuses on the entwined destinies of an elite anti-terrorist police unit and a group of wealthy young anarchists.

Süskind

New York Premiere!

A Jewish industrialist living in Amsterdam befriends and betrays an SS officer in a dangerous effort to save the lives of concentration camp-bound deportees.

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann

New York Premiere!

A remarkable document of the fate and impact of one of Nazism’s greatest villains, featuring detailed accounts of Eichmann’s capture, and the drama that ensued in the courtroom and behind the scenes.

The Yellow Ticket

Silent film with live music accompaniment!

A rarely screened silent about a young Jewish woman (Pola Negri) who hides her identity in order to study medicine, enlivened by an exciting new musical score by Alicia Svigals with live musical accompaniment by Alicia Svigals (violin) and Marilyn Lerner (piano).

Yorzeit

U.S. Premiere! Director Zuzanna Solakiewicz in person at both screenings!

For 30 years, Meir Moszkowicz has come to a ruined Polish cemetery to care for the graves of the forgotten Tzaddik (righteous man). Screening with 55 Socks (Co Hoedeman, 2011).