14th Annual JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
October 23-27, 2011
14 years of the best of new Jewish filmmaking
Sunday, October 23rd - 7:30 pm THE MATCHMAKER (PA’AM HI’ITI)
Israel, 2010, 112 minutes • Hebrew with English Subtitles • Director: Avi Nesher
Israeli director Avi Nesher’s latest film mixes comedy with drama in this coming of age story. Arik, a teenage boy growing up in Haifa in a 1968, gets a job working for a matchmaker, Yankele Bride. Yankele is an enigmatic Holocaust survivor with an office in back of a Romanian-run movie theater that shows only love stories. From Yankele, Arik begins to learn the mysteries of the human heart when he falls sin love with Tamara, his friend Beni’s cousin. Tamara has just returned from America, full of talk of women’s rights, free love and rock and roll. Arik is introduced to a new world built on the ruins of an old one. The disparate parts of Arik’s life collide in unexpected, often funny and very moving ways through a summer that changes him forever. In cooperation with the Israel Resource Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Ro’ee Peled & Michal Makov- Peled, Community Shlichim. Suggested reading: the movie is based on the book When Heroes Fly by Amir Gutfreund.
Monday, October 24th – 7:30pm THE TAILOR
USA, 2011, 6 minutes • English • Director: Gordon Grinberg
A good joke brought to life. Film Director invited. Suggested reading: Old Jews Telling Jokes by Sam Hoffman.
with SHOLEM ALEICHEM: LAUGHING IN THE DARKNESS
USA, 2011, 93 minutes • English and Yiddish • Director: Joseph Dorman
This documentary features a portrait of the great writer whose stories became the basis of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness tells the tale of the rebellious genius who created an entirely new literature. Plumbing the depths of a Jewish world locked in crisis and on the cusp of profound change, he captured that world with brilliant humor. Sholem Aleichem was not just a witness to the creation of a new modern Jewish identity, but one of the men who forged it. In cooperation with the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies, UWM and the Jewish Museum Milwaukee. Suggested reading: Sholem Alechem, Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories translated by Hillel Halkin.
6:00 pm Special Pre-film Presentation: ROOTS AND RESTLESSNESS IN AMERICAN YIDDISH CULTURE • Marcus North Shore Cinemas – FREE
Henry Sapoznik, director of the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture at UW-Madison, will take the audience on a whirlwind tour of the Yiddish-American Arts and Letters and their place in contemporary American cultural literacy. This presentation will showcase highlights of the Mayrent Institute’s extensive collection of Yiddish recordings. This program is the first in a year long series of free lectures sponsored by the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies, UWM.
Tuesday, October 25 – 7:30 pm LA RAFLE (THE ROUND UP)
France, Germany, Hungary, 2010, 115 minutes • French, German, Yiddish with English subtitles • Director: Roselyne Bosch
"Turning one of the darkest moments in modern French history into historical drama, writer-director Bosch’s The Round Up is a polished, pathos-driven re-creation of the Vichy regime’s mass imprisonment and disposal of 13,000 Parisian Jews in the Velodrome D’Hiver, in summer 1942. With impeccable production values and all-around stirring performances, the movie emphasizes the unbearable emotions caused by "events, even the most extreme, that actually happened." Variety
Powered by fluid direction and a string of stars—from Jean Reno (The Da Vinci Code, Leon: The Professional) to Mlanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds, The Concert) — La Rafle (The Round Up) became a box-office hit in France in 2010. Its audiences included thousands of young people who came to learn about a dark chapter in their country’s history. Note: This film contains Holocaust subject matter. Not for children under 14. In cooperation the Nathan & Esther Pelz Holocaust Education & Resource Center. Suggested Reading: Sarah’s Key. Also watch for the release of the movie.
Wednesday, October 26 -7:30 pm THE TAILOR
USA, 2011, 6 minutes • English • Director: Gordon Grinberg
A good joke brought to life. Film Director invited. Suggested reading: Old Jews Telling Jokes by Sam Hoffman.
with ...I MISS YOU (TE EXTRAO)
Argentina, 2010, 96 minutes • Spanish with English subtitles • Director: Fabian Hofman
From 1976–1983 thousands of Argentineans were "disappeared." A disproportionate number of them were Jews, including students and young activists. Fabian Hofman’s semi-autobiographical, I Miss You, is an intelligent and moving look at the impact of "the Dirty War" on one Jewish family, as seen through the eyes of its youngest member. Fifteen-year-old Javier admires his older brother Adrian who belongs to a group of leftist activists. When the military takes over, Adrian is first blacklisted and then vanishes without a trace. Javier is sent for his own safety to stay with relatives in Mexico. There he struggles to make sense of Adrian’s disappearance and his own feelings of being left behind while also developing a relationship with Alejandra, a young woman his age. Featuring strong performances and wonderful period details, I Miss You is both an evocative coming-of-age film and an example of the pain caused to those families left with many questions and no true answers. Note: Not appropriate for children under 14. Suggested reading: The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander.
Thursday, October 27th – 7:30 pm MARY LOU
Israel, 2010, 150 minutes • Hebrew with English subtitles • Director: Eyton Fox
Acclaimed Israeli director Eytan Fox (Yossi & Jagger) brings us Meir, a young gay man coming of age in Israel, grappling with his mother’s desertion and living a double life as one of Tel Aviv’s most celebrated drag performers—all to a soundtrack by 1970s Israeli glam-rock sensation Svika Pick. This enthralling new gender-bending Israeli miniseries serves up high-energy choreography, infectious pop songs and hearty doses of high school ennui. All four episodes in one fabulous screening! Note: Not appropriate for children under 14. In cooperation with the Israel Resource Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Ro’ee Peled & Michal Makov- Peled, Community Shlichim; and the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival.
All movies begin at 7:30PM at MARCUS NORTH SHORE CINEMAS 11700 North Port Washington Road (Approx. 2 miles north of Mequon Rd on N. Port Washington Rd.)
Tickets cannot be purchased from the Marcus Cinemas. Tickets are available ONLY through the JCC or at the JCC table at the theater entrance one hour before each movie. Tickets are non-refundable. Open seating 30 minutes prior to show time.
- General Admission: $10 Student/Seniors: $9
- 5 Movie Pass - One Ticket to Each Screening General Admission: $45 Student/Seniors: $40
- PATRON PASS $100 includes a RESERVED seat for all 5 movies. $50 is tax-deductible.
For more information or to purchase tickets contact Micki Seinfeld, JCC Director of Special Events 414-967-8235 or mseinfeld@jccmilwaukee.org.
