2008
November 2008
Saturday 1 November 2008
Sat 1 Nov. Saturday, November 1 20th Anniversary GALA Celebration Friends Passes not available for this event 6:30 pm Norton's Woods Conference Center Ha'chipusheet New England Premiere In person: Sol Gittleman, Tufts University Professor, former Provost Director Yishai Orian’s wife, pregnant with their first child, insists he scrap his beloved VW Beetle for a safe family car. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Wednesday 5 November 2008
Wed 5 Nov to Sun 16 Nov. November 5 - November 16. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Wed 5 Nov. Wednesday, November 5 Opening Night Event Boston Premiere of The Deal, starring William H. Macy, Meg Ryan, LL Cool J and Elliot Gould. Preceded by a special musical performance by Rob Tannenbaum and David Fagin of GOOD FOR. MORE» 7:30 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Deal Boston Premiere In person: Director Steven Schachter Actor William H. Macy shows his leading man and screenwriter chops in this riotous Hollywood send-up. A serious script about the life of Jewish British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli morphs into an action flick with an African American star (LL Cool J) recently converted to Judaism. Macy plays a cynical producer. Meg Ryan as a studio “suit” is Hepburn to his Tracy. Also starring Jason Ritter, and, as an unforgettable Hollywood rabb. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thursday 6 November 2008
Thu 6 Nov. Good Morning Israel with Panel Discussion Film screening followed by Panel Discussion: Israel - Which Way the Exodus? According to The Jerusalem Post, some 25,000 hi-tech employees left Israel. MORE» 7:45 pm Institute of Contemporary Art Boker Tov Israel New England Premiere Twenty years ago Amir Har-Gil first documented the lives of five Israeli teenagers from widely differing backgrounds. In an approach reminiscent of British director Michael Apted’s 7 . 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thu 6 Nov. Max Minsky und Ich 7:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Supported by Goethe-Institut, Boston Massachusetts Premiere Nelly is a brainy 13-year-old Berlin schoolgirl with a gigantic crush on handsome Prince Edouard of Luxembourg. Her only hope for royal romance is to make the school basketball team before it leaves. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thu 6 Nov. Rabin-Peres: Everything is Personal 6:00 pm Institute of Contemporary Art Rabin-Peres: Ha'kol Ishee New England Premiere Director and political insider Arik Henig tells the truth about the life long rivalry between the late Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres and its consequences for Israel and the Middle East. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thu 6 Nov. The Gift to Stalin Supported by: Action for Post-Soviet Jewry MORE» 9:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Podarok Stalinu North American Premiere In 1949, soon after Joseph Stalin unleashes another wave of repression, a little Jewish boy is found alive in a railroad car full of dead bodies. Rescued by a Kazakh railroad worker, the boy grows up. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thu 6 Nov. Lirot im ani mehayehet 6:15 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston New England Premiere In person: Film subject Libi Abramov Six young Israeli women speak frankly about their experiences as combat soldiers stationed in Gaza and the West Bank. Like their male counterparts, they became intimate with violence as victims. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thu 6 Nov. Dans la vie 8:30 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Set in contemporary France, the film first introduces us to a young Arab nurse whose daily rounds are filled with racist comments. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Saturday 8 November 2008
Sat 8 Nov. Arab Labor (Episodes 1, 2, 3) MORE» 7:30 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Avoda Aravit New England Premiere Don’t miss this groundbreaking and wildly funny prime-time Israeli TV show, created by Dani Faran and Arab Israeli Sayed Kashua, and the first ever to feature an Arab Israeli family. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sat 8 Nov. Saturday, November 8 7:00 pm Institute of Contemporary Art Celebrating 20 years of The Boston Jewish Film Festival and the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel In person: Actor Salim Daw One of the great anti-war films, Avanti Popolo features the brilliant, Chaplinesque performance of Arab Israeli actor Salim Daw. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sat 8 Nov. Noodle 7:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Mili Avital plays Miri, a twice-widowed El Al flight attendant whose life is upended when her Chinese housekeeper disappears and leaves behind her little boy. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sat 8 Nov. Plus Tard, Tu Comprendras . 9:15 pm Institute of Contemporary Art New England Premiere The great Jeanne Moreau stars in this latest feature film by director Amos Gitaï, arguably Israel’s most prolific, internationally acclaimed, and profound filmmaker. It is Paris. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sat 8 Nov. Zarim 9:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Massachusetts Premiere In person: Directors Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv Strangers He’s Israeli, she’s Palestinian. They meet in Berlin during the frenzy of the World Cup finals where relief at running into somebody from “home” quickly turns. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sat 8 Nov. Deux Vies Plus Une 9:15 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston New England Premiere When Eliane Weiss (the marvelous Emmanuelle Devos) begins to take herself and her writing seriously, her family and friends become concerned. Mon dieu. What is happening to the attentive . 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sunday 9 November 2008
Sun 9 Nov. Sunday, November 9 11:00 am Museum of Fine Arts, Boston In person: Actor Salim Daw Don’t miss this groundbreaking and wildly funny prime-time Israeli TV show, created by Dani Faran and Arab Israeli Sayed Kashua, and the first ever to feature an Arab Israeli family. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov. Avoda Aravit Director: Roni Ninio Country: Israel released 2007 Duration: 100 min. Language: Arabic / Hebrew w/ subtitles Don’t miss this groundbreaking and wildly funny prime-time Israeli TV show, created by Dani Faran and Arab Israeli Sayed Kashua, and the first ever to feature an Arab Israeli family. Amjad is a reporter for a Hebrew-language newspaper whose hilarious attempts to assimilate into mainstream Israeli society expose prejudices and stereotypes on both sides of the country’s Jewish-Arab divide. Stars Salim Daw (Avanti Popolo, James’ Journey to Jerusalem) and Clara Khoury (Syrian Bride), among others. See all the episodes – in or out of order. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov. 1:00 pm Institute of Contemporary Art Bon-papa, a man under German occupation In person: Director Leila Ferault When director Leila Férault sets out to uncover the obscure history of her non-Jewish paternal grandfather, her efforts are met with stubborn silence. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov. Film Director: Vicente Amorim Country: UK released 2007 Duration: 91 min. Language: English Viggo Mortensen plays German literature professor John Halder whose novel about compassionate euthanasia attracts the attention of Nazi officials and draws him into the Party circles. Halder is but one of millions of “good,” ordinary Germans living in a society spiralling out of moral control under the Nazi regime, and his story is both profound and damning. Its impact can be seen in the fate of his Jewish friend, Maurice, played by Jason Isaacs (“Bloodlines,” Harry Potter). 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov. 1:30 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston In person: Director Agnes Bensimon The Pauwels are a Belgian-Jewish circus dynasty that can be traced back 125 years to the Netherlands’ theatrical Cohen circus. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov. 11:00 am Institute of Contemporary Art The Woman of the Thousand Voices In person: Director Amram Jacoby The Woman of the Thousand Voices is the title of a beautiful and exquisitely painful poem about mothers who have lost their children by Israeli poet and artist Ruth Dorrit Jacoby. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov. 1:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Khitam, a Gaza-born Palestinian woman, was married off to an Arab Israeli. When he divorces her, in absentia, the Sharia (Muslim) court grants him custody of their six children. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov, 4 pm. 4:00 pm Sunday, November 9 Coolidge Corner Theatre U.S. Premiere Director: Noa Barash Country: Israel released 2007 Duration: 15 min. Language: Hebrew / Arabic A real-time story of the tenants of an apartment building in Haifa. Two families – one Arab and one Jewish – are forced once again to enter the building’s bomb shelter for 15 minutes during another missile attack during the Second Lebanon War (2006). 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov, 4 pm. 4:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre In person: Award recipients Orian Faragy, Moran Suto, Maor Yechiel and Tal Zide Gilad Shtokelman is reserve officer who dies during the 2006 Second Lebanon war. His cousin, Tal Zide, the director of the movie, takes a journey into the heart of Gilad’s family. Along with their son, they have lost the desire to continue one of their favorite activities: playing music together as a family. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov, 4 pm. 4:00 pm Sunday, November 9 Coolidge Corner Theatre New England Premiere Director: Country: Israel released 2007 Duration: 10 min. Language: Hebrew A new program trains young Israelis to become good spokespeople for their country. The program collaborates with Jewish schools around the U.S. and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov, 5:30 pm. 5:30 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston In person: Leila Ferault (Bon-papa, a man under German occupation), Amram Jacoby (The Woman of The Thousand Voices), Guy Nattiv (Strangers), Erez Tadmor (Strangers) Director Jay Rosenblatt's daughter Ella (first seen in I'm Charlie Chaplin in our 2006 Festival) is turning four. Her dad's birthday gift of a camera starts a year-long exercise. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov, 5:30 pm. 5:30 pm Institute of Contemporary Art In 1929, Lisl Goldarbeiter, a beautiful Jewish girl from Vienna, was crowned Miss Universe in Texas after her adoring Hungarian cousin Martiz (Marci) Tenczer secretly submitted her application. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov, 6:30 pm. 6:30 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Don’t miss this groundbreaking and wildly funny prime-time Israeli TV show, created by Dani Faran and Arab Israeli Sayed Kashua, and the first ever to feature an Arab Israeli family. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov, 7:30 pm. 7:30 pm Institute of Contemporary Art Two remarkable women -- Bettina Goering, the grandniece of Nazi war criminal Herman Goering and Australian painter Ruth Rich, daughter of Holocaust survivors -- meet for a series of extraordinary encounters. As they journey toward an authentic reconciliation, Bettina must face not only Ruth’s rage over her family’s suffering but also her own guilt and fear that evil runs in the blood. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov, 7:30 pm. 7:30 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston In person: Directors Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv Strangers He’s Israeli, she’s Palestinian. They meet in Berlin during the frenzy of the World Cup finals where relief at running into somebody from “home” quickly turns turns to desire. Can love trump politics? Sexy, brave, and provocative, Strangers is a true high wire act. Working without a script, directors Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv shot on location on the fly and actors Lubna Azabel and Liron Levo improvised. Wondrously, the story emerged. Winner of Wolgin Award at the 2007 Jerusalem Film Festival and a Grand Jury Prize nominee at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 9 Nov, 8:15 pm. 8:15 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre The great Jeanne Moreau stars in this latest feature film by director Amos Gitaï, arguably Israel’s most prolific, internationally acclaimed, and profound filmmaker. It is Paris, 1987, and as the televised trial of the “Butcher of Lyon” Gestapo leader Klaus Barbie grips the nation, a son (Hippolyte Girardot from Rashevski’s Tango) tries to persuade his Jewish mother (Moreau) to recount her wartime experiences. Also starring Emmanuelle Devos (Two Lives Plus One, Read My Lips) as Moreau’s daughter-in-law. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Monday 10 November 2008
Mon 10 Nov, 6:15 pm. Monday, November 10 Coolidge Corner Theatre In person: Producer Matt Lavine and daughter of Four Seasons Lodge founders, Jeannette Polansky In 1979, nearly 100 German and Polish Jews, survivors of the Nazi death camps, created a sprawling retreat in New York’s Catskill Mountains, calling it the Four Seasons Lodge. Members of this unique community still gather to celebrate with good food, all-night dancing, raucous poker games, and a toast: L’chaim. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Mon 10 Nov, 7 pm. 7:00 pm Hollywood Hits Premiere Theatre Mili Avital plays Miri, a twice-widowed El Al flight attendant whose life is upended when her Chinese housekeeper disappears and leaves behind her little boy. Miri’s efforts to reunite the two take her and the boy, whom she dubs “Noodle,” on an amazing journey. Ayelet Menahemi directed this irresistible, award-winning feature film with a light hand and a firm touch. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Mon 10 Nov, 8:45 pm. 8:45 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre As the documentary Dancing Alfonso so perfectly demonstrates, dance, like love, transcends age. Alfonso is the dynamic lead in a Tel Aviv troupe of older flamenco dancers (the average age is 75.). A widower, he searches for a new life-and-dance partner despite his children’s disapproval and the mounting tension of an upcoming performance. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Tuesday 11 November 2008
Tue 11 Nov, 2 pm. Tuesday, November 11 2:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Nelly is a brainy 13-year-old Berlin schoolgirl with a gigantic crush on handsome Prince Edouard of Luxembourg. Her only hope for royal romance is to make the school basketball team before it leaves for Luxembourg. And her only hope for making the team is ace Max Minsky, 15. Then there’s the matter of her approaching bat mitzvah…Based upon a novel by Holly-Jane Rahlens that earned the prestigious 2003 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis as the best young adult novel published in Germany. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Tue 11 Nov, 4 pm. 4:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Recruited in 1947 by the Haganah to break the British naval blockade of Palestine, Paul Kaye and twenty-five other American recruits set sail in a dilapidated ship, pick up 1,500 displaced persons in the dead of night, and engage in a naval battle with three British warships. And that is just the beginning of their astounding true story. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Tue 11 Nov, 7 pm. 7:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre In person: Directors Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten, Israel Baseball League (IBL) Director of Baseball Operations Dan Duquette, and IBL Player Nate Fish After 5,767 years, is Israel ready for baseball? Bostonian Larry Baras thinks so, certain that if he builds it, they will come. Documenting the formation of Israel’s first professional baseball league from tryouts to the selection of 120 hardball hopefuls to the scheduled first game in June 2007, the film is marvelously entertaining from the first pitch through the bottom of the ninth. Features a number of figures well-known to Red Sox Nation, including Dan Duquette, the league’s director of baseball operations and former Red Sox GM and Kevin Youkilis, one of the few Jewish m. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Tue 11 Nov, 7 pm. 7:00 pm Showcase Cinemas Randolph Thirteen year-old Chen takes up ballroom dancing with a passion after glimpsing a beautiful Russian girl in a young people’s dance class. The reactions of the boy’s gruff Israeli father and his Russian-born mother highlight the couple’s cultural differences. An irresistible coming-of-age film, Love and Dance is Israel’s twist on Mad Hot Ballroom and Billy Elliot. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Wednesday 12 November 2008
Wed 12 Nov, 2 pm. Wednesday, November 12 2:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre In person: Directors Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten, and Israel Baseball League Player Nate Fish After 5,767 years, is Israel ready for baseball? Bostonian Larry Baras thinks so, certain that if he builds it, they will come. Documenting the formation of Israel’s first professional baseball league from tryouts to the selection of 120 hardball hopefuls to the scheduled first game in June 2007, the film is marvelously entertaining from the first pitch through the bottom of the ninth. Features a number of figures well-known to Red Sox Nation, including Dan Duquette, the league’s director of baseball operations and former Red Sox GM and Kevin Youkilis, one of the few Jewish major league players. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Wed 12 Nov, 6:30 pm. Coolidge Corner Theatre Arab Labor (Episodes 7,8,9) Don’t miss this groundbreaking and wildly funny prime-time Israeli TV show, created by Dani Faran and Arab Israeli Sayed Kashua, and the first ever to feature an Arab Israeli family. Amjad is a reporter for a Hebrew-language newspaper whose hilarious attempts to assimilate into mainstream Israeli society expose prejudices and stereotypes on both sides of the country’s Jewish-Arab divide. Stars Salim Daw (Avanti Popolo, James’ Journey to Jerusalem) and Clara Khoury (Syrian Bride), among others. See all the episodes – in or out of order. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Wed 12 Nov, 6:30 pm. West Newton Cinema As an experiment in social dynamics, an idealistic teacher and his 30 students use the classroom to simulate a dictatorship. A fictional retelling of an actual 1967 experiment conducted by a California high school history teacher, this searing and chilling drama set in contemporary Germany raises and answers the question: is a Third Reich-style regime a possibility? Based upon the novel of the same name by Todd Strasser. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Wed 12 Nov, 7 pm. 7:00 pm Showcase Cinemas Randolph As a child Melanie was sent to the Drancy transit camp outside Paris during World War II. Now a wife and mother, living in Canada, the door to her past blows open with the arrival of two visitors. The extraordinary cast includes Susan Sarandon as Melanie, Gabriel Byrne as her childhood love, Christopher Plummer, and Max von Sydow. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Wed 12 Nov, 8:15 pm. Coolidge Corner Theatre Citizen Nawi documents the tumultuous life and struggles of charismatic gay social activist Ezra Nawi. An Iraqi Jew living in Jerusalem, Ezra illegally shelters his long-time Palestinian partner, and tries to protect Palestinian farmers and villagers from Israeli settlers and military bulldozers. This controversial film premiered at the 2007 Jerusalem Film Festival, where it received a special jury mention. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thursday 13 November 2008
Thu 13 Nov, 3:30 pm. Thursday, November 13 3:30 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Rabin-Peres: Everything Is Personal Director and political insider Arik Henig tells the truth about the life long rivalry between the late Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres and its consequences for Israel and the Middle East. Fast paced and gripping, the documentary is a fascinating lesson in Israeli history and Israeli archetypes. Rabin, a sabra and a general, is the Israeli prince. Peres, a European immigrant with a formal manner who speaks Hebrew with a Polish accent, is the greenhorn. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thu 13 Nov, 6:30 pm. West Newton Cinema Gift to Stalin, The In 1949, soon after Joseph Stalin unleashes another wave of repression, a little Jewish boy is found alive in a railroad car full of dead bodies. Rescued by a Kazakh railroad worker, the boy grows up and free, yet dreams of finding his exiled parents. Panoramas of the vast steppes of Kazakhstan dazzle the eyes as the story of Sasha and the people who care for him touches the heart. This film is a true gem and a real find. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thu 13 Nov, 7 pm. 7:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Talented directors and brothers Barak and Tomer Heymann depict a year at Bridge Over the Wadi school, one of Israel’s three Hand-in-Hand school projects designed to promote mutual understanding and cooperation by educating Israeli and Arab children together in jointly run schools. Progress is real, but hard won; even the most mundane daily activity exposes cultural rifts. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thu 13 Nov, 7 pm. 7:00 pm Kendall Square Cinema Actor William H. Macy shows his leading man and screenwriter chops in this riotous Hollywood send-up. A serious script about the life of Jewish British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli morphs into an action flick with an African American star (LL Cool J) recently converted to Judaism. Macy plays a cynical producer. Meg Ryan as a studio “suit” is Hepburn to his Tracy. Also starring Jason Ritter, and, as an unforgettable Hollywood rabbi, Elliott Gould. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thu 13 Nov, 9 pm. 9:00 pm Kendall Square Cinema Strangers He’s Israeli, she’s Palestinian. They meet in Berlin during the frenzy of the World Cup finals where relief at running into somebody from “home” quickly turns to desire. Can love trump politics? Sexy, brave, and provocative, Strangers is a true high wire act. Working without a script, directors Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv shot on location on the fly and actors Lubna Azabel and Liron Levo improvised. Wondrously, the story emerged. Winner of Wolgin Award at the 2007 Jerusalem Film Festival and a Grand Jury Prize nominee at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Saturday 15 November 2008
Sat 15 Nov, 7 pm. Saturday, November 15 7:00 pm Arlington Capitol Theatre Nelly is a brainy 13-year-old Berlin schoolgirl with a gigantic crush on handsome Prince Edouard of Luxembourg. Her only hope for royal romance is to make the school basketball team before it leaves for Luxembourg. And her only hope for making the team is ace Max Minsky, 15. Then there’s the matter of her approaching bat mitzvah…Based upon a novel by Holly-Jane Rahlens that earned the prestigious 2003 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis as the best young adult novel published in Germany. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sat 15 Nov, 7 pm. 7:00 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Director Yishai Orian’s wife, pregnant with their first child, insists he scrap his beloved VW Beetle for a safe family car. Yishai’s comic struggles with his inner Peter Pan take him to Jordan in a last -ditch effort to salvage the relic before his son arrives. Along the way, former owners of his Beetle tell remarkable life stories involving the car. A 2008 HotDocs Film Festival Audience Top Ten choice. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sat 15 Nov, 9 pm. 9:00 pm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Mili Avital plays Miri, a twice-widowed El Al flight attendant whose life is upended when her Chinese housekeeper disappears and leaves behind her little boy. Miri’s efforts to reunite the two take her and the boy, whom she dubs “Noodle,” on an amazing journey. Ayelet Menahemi directed this irresistible, award-winning feature film with a light hand and a firm touch. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sat 15 Nov, 9:15 pm. Arlington Capitol Theatre Viggo Mortensen plays German literature professor John Halder whose novel about compassionate euthanasia attracts the attention of Nazi officials and draws him into the Party circles. Halder is but one of millions of “good,” ordinary Germans living in a society spiralling out of moral control under the Nazi regime, and his story is both profound and damning. Its impact can be seen in the fate of his Jewish friend, Maurice, played by Jason Isaacs (“Bloodlines,” Harry Potter). 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sunday 16 November 2008
Sun 16 Nov, 10:30 am. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston New England Premiere Chicken or the Egg Director: Alon Alsheich, Eran Yehezkel Country: Israel released 2007 Duration: 40 min. Language: Hebrew w/ subtitles Israelis in the South, in the region that borders the Gaza Strip, live in anticipation of the next Red Dawn alarm. When the alarm sounds, it means a missile attack is 17 seconds away. Despite this danger people go on with their lives. Graduates and students at the Film & Television School at Sapir College document the lives of their families and neighbors living under constant threat of bombardment, providing rare insight into the seemingly impossible reckoning of daily routines and air raids. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 10:30 am. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston New England Premiere Director: Nachum Landau Country: Israel released 2007 Duration: 30 min. Language: Hebrew w/ subtitles Israelis in the South, in the region that borders the Gaza Strip, live in anticipation of the next Red Dawn alarm. When the alarm sounds, it means a missile attack is 17 seconds away. Despite this danger people go on with their lives. Graduates and students at the Film & Television School at Sapir College document the lives of their families and neighbors living under constant threat of bombardment, providing rare insight into the seemingly impossible reckoning of daily routines and air raids. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 10:30 am. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston New England Premiere In person: Director Michael Lavi Director: Michal Lavi Country: Israel released 2007 Duration: 30 min. Language: Hebrew w/ subtitles Israelis in the South, in the region that borders the Gaza Strip, live in anticipation of the next Red Dawn alarm. When the alarm sounds, it means a missile attack is 17 seconds away. Despite this danger people go on with their lives. Graduates and students at the Film & Television School at Sapir College document the lives of their families and neighbors living under constant threat of bombardment, providing rare insight into the seemingly impossible reckoning of daily routines and air raids. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 12:50 pm. Sunday, November 16 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Massachusetts Premiere In person: Director Jake Boritt, Film Subjects Gabor Boritt, PhD and Judith Borit, MD Budapest to Gettysburg: A Journey to America Director: Jake Boritt Country: USA released 2007 Duration: 73 min. Language: English An authority on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, Dr. Gabor Boritt resists probing into his own traumatic history. A Hungarian Jew, now a U.S. citizen, he lived through the Nazi invasion, the Holocaust, Soviet tyranny, and the 1956 Revolution. Director Jake Boritt prevails upon his father to return to Budapest and explore the past that transformed him into a world-renowned American historian. Gabor’s sister Judith, a psychiatrist, joins him on this journey. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 3 pm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Boston Premiere In person: Director Cindy Kleine Co presented by: Women in Film and Video/New England Phyllis and Harold Director: Cindy Kleine Country: USA released 2008 Duration: 85 min. Language: English Filmmaker Ken Burns (“Jazz”) calls Cindy Kleine’s frank and fearless chronicle of her parents’ disastrous 59 year marriage "a masterpiece.” Drawing on a lifetime of family home movies and 12 years’ worth of interviews, Kleine uncovers family secrets and tells a story that could not be shown publicly when her father was still alive. The film reflects years of work on Kleine’s part, beginning with her short film, ‘Til Death Do Us Part, shown in our 2001 Festival. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 4 pm. West Newton Cinema New England Premiere Two Lives Plus One Deux Vies Plus Une Director: Idit Cébula Country: France released 2007 Duration: 86 min. Language: French w/ subtitles When Eliane Weiss (the marvelous Emmanuelle Devos) begins to take herself and her writing seriously, her family and friends become concerned. Mon dieu. What is happening to the attentive mother, selfless teacher, devoted wife, friend, and good Jewish daughter? This touching tale of female fulfillment is told with Gallic charm and Jewish heart. Director Idit Cébula was represented by her short film, Warsaw-Paris, in our 2006 Festival. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 5:20 pm. Sunday, November 16 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Massachusetts Premiere Baghdad Twist Director: Joe Balass Country: Canada released 33 Duration: 2007 min. Language: English / Arabic w/ subtitles Archival images, home movies, and family photographs tell the moving story of one family's life in Baghdad before their escape to Canada in 1970. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 5:20 pm. Sunday, November 16 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Massachusetts Premiere In person: Director Neil Ira Needleman and Illustrator Herb Rogoff Corner Delancey Director: Neil Ira Needleman Country: USA released 2008 Duration: 8 min. Language: English In this fictional narrative, an illustrator sketches key events in his family life to illuminate his relationship with his son. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 5:20 pm. Sunday, November 16 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Massachusetts Premiere Mota Shel Shula Director: Asaf Korman Country: Israel released 2007 Duration: 25 min. Language: Hebrew w/ subtitles After the family dog dies, Yossi sets out to bury her but stops along the way to visit his children. The director and family members play themselves, and only they know for sure what in this film is fact and what is fiction. Screened at Cannes Film Festival 2007. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 5:20 pm. Sunday, November 16 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston New England Premiere The Battle of Cable Street Director: Yoav Segal Country: UK released 2006 Duration: 8 min. Language: English Mixing animation and live action, the director tells a partly fanciful, partly factual tale of a grandfather who whisks his young grandson away to the time in 1936 when Oswald Mosley's “blackshirt fascists” attempted to march through the East End of London. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 5:20 pm. Sunday, November 16 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston New England Premiere In person: Director Zohar Lavi-Hasson Zula Move Director: Zohar Lavi- Hasson Country: USA released 2008 Duration: 15 min. Language: English / Hebrew w/ subtitles Two young Israelis, army buddies as close as brothers, work as movers in New York City. An encounter with a customer teaches them a lesson. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Sun 16 Nov, 7:45 pm. Sunday, November 16 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston New England Premiere Sponsored by: Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Boston In person: Director Cyril Gelblat Cycles Murs Porteurs, Les Director: Cyril Gelblat Country: France/Switzerland/Germany released 2008 Duration: 92 min. Language: French w/ subtitles This exceptional dramatic comedy about life’s passages and family dynamics over time is set in Paris and features an all-star cast. Frida (Shulamit Adar) is a 75-year old Ashkenazi Jewish widow whose memory is failing. Her children, played by Miou-Miou and Charles Berling, are caught between two generations – their children’s and their mother’s – and stand at life’s crossroads. Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno (The Last Kiss, Facing Windows). 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Monday 17 November 2008
Mon 17 Nov, 7 pm. Monday, November 17 Hollywood Hits Premiere Theatre Massachusetts Premiere Sponsored by: The Benjamin Olanoff Community Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation/Jewish Federation of the North Shore Emotional Arithmetic Director: Paolo Barzman Country: Canada released 2007 Duration: 95 min. Language: English As a child Melanie was sent to the Drancy transit camp outside Paris during World War II. Now a wife and mother, living in Canada, the door to her past blows open with the arrival of two visitors. The extraordinary cast includes Susan Sarandon as Melanie, Gabriel Byrne as her childhood love, Christopher Plummer, and Max von Sydow. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Tuesday 18 November 2008
Tue 18 Nov, 7 pm. Tuesday, November 18 Arlington Capitol Theatre New England Premiere Sponsored by: Beth El Temple Center, Belmont, Temple Emunah, Lexington, and Temple Isaiah, Lexington Cycles Murs Porteurs, Les Director: Cyril Gelblat Country: France/Switzerland/Germany released 2008 Duration: 92 min. Language: French w/ subtitles This exceptional dramatic comedy about life’s passages and family dynamics over time is set in Paris and features an all-star cast. Frida (Shulamit Adar) is a 75-year old Ashkenazi Jewish widow whose memory is failing. Her children, played by Miou-Miou and Charles Berling, are caught between two generations – their children’s and their mother’s – and stand at life’s crossroads. Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno (The Last Kiss, Facing Windows. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]
Thursday 20 November 2008
Thu 20 Nov, 7 pm. Thursday, November 20 Arlington Capitol Theatre North American Premiere Sponsored by: Beth El Temple Center, Belmont, Temple Emunah, Lexington, and Temple Isaiah, Lexington Gift to Stalin, The Podarok Stalinu Director: Rustem Abdrashev Country: Poland/Israel/Russia/Kazakhstan released 2008 Duration: 97 min. Language: Russian / Kazakh w/ subtitles In 1949, soon after Joseph Stalin unleashes another wave of repression, a little Jewish boy is found alive in a railroad car full of dead bodies. Rescued by a Kazakh railroad worker, the boy grows up loved and free, yet dreams of finding his exiled parents. Panoramas of the vast steppes of Kazakhstan dazzle the eyes as the story of Sasha and the people who care for him touches the heart. This film is a true gem a. 1001 Watertown Street, West Newton, 02465. Sara Rubin, 617-244-9899, info@bjff.org. Boston Jewish Film Festival - [events]