Presented by the Washington DC Jewish Community Center’s Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts · Co-Sponsored by the Embassy of and Washington Jewish Week sunday monday tuesday

Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater AFI Silver Theatre Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Love and Religion: The Challenge Will Eisner: Portrait Human Failure In Search of the of Interfaith Relationships of a Sequential Artist E 6:00 pm and Rafting to Bombay E 10:30 am brunch, 11:30 am film E 12:15 pm E 6:15 pm The Worst Company in the World Broken Promise E 8:30 pm Shorts Program 1 with Quentin and Ferdinand E 5:45 pm Take Five: Queer Shorts, E 1:45 pm Ajami AFI Silver Theatre Good Stories 2009 WJFF Visionary Award E 8:15 pm The Girl on the Train E 8:30 pm Honoring Michael Verhoeven E 7:00 pm Screening of Nasty Girl Embassy of Ethiopia Mary and Max Goethe-Institut Washington E 3:30 pm The Name My Mother Gave Me E 9:00 pm From Swastika to Jim Crow E Noon Filmed by Yitzhak and Black Over White E Goethe-Institut Washington and The Green Dumpster Mystery 2:00 pm In Conversation Embassy of Switzerland E 6:15 pm with Michael Verhoeven Brothers Lost Islands E Noon E 7:00 pm E 8:30 pm Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre Lost Islands 6 7 E 7:30 pm 8 sunday

Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Avalon Theatre The Earth Cries Out The Jester E 11:30 am E 11:30 am FREE Room and a Half 18 KM E 1:45 pm with The Red Toy The Wedding Song E 2:00 pm E 5:00 pm Heart of Stone E 4:00 pm The Gift to Stalin CLOSING NIGHT FILM AND PARTY E 7:30 pm 13 thursday friday saturday

Embassy of France Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater A Matter of Size A Matter of Size My Mother’s Courage Opening Night Film and Party E 1:00 pm with The Legend of Mrs. Goldman E 7:30 pm­­­ and the Almighty God E 6:00 pm Ajami E 8:15 pm Surrogate with Lost Paradise E 10:30 pm

AFI Silver Theatre Camera Obscura E 7:00 pm Cycles E 9:30 pm 3 4 5 wednesday thursday friday saturday

Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Divided We Fall The Tale of Nicolai The Imported Bridegroom The Wedding Song E 1:00 pm and the Law of Return E 1:00 pm E 6:15 pm Brain Storm with Home FREE FRIDAY Anita with Capture the Moment E 6:00 pm E 8:30 pm Goethe-Institut Washington E 6:15 pm Jump Shorts Program 2 Black Over White For Making Me a Woman E 7:30 pm It Only Takes a Moment: E Noon E 8:00 pm Turning Points in Short Goethe-Institut Washington E 10:30 pm Goethe-Institut Washington Strange Fruit Rafting to Bombay E Noon AFI Silver Theatre E Noon Stumbling Stone Jump with Through the Eye of the Needle E 7:30 pm AFI Silver Theatre E 7:00 pm Marcel Reich-Ranicki— The Author of Himself Avalon Theatre E 6:30 pm Brothers E 6:00 pm Embassy of France Hello Goodbye Father’s Footsteps E 8:30 pm with 10 Weitzman Street E 7:30 pm 9 10 11 12 General INFORMATION Ticket INFORMATION

E For the latest information on films and Ticket Prices advance tickets events, call the Festival Hotline at Opening Night Film by Phone or Fax (202) 777-3231 or visit us at WJFF.ORG and Party...... $25 Please call (800) 494-8497 Closing Night Film or fax (800) 329-8497 E General seating begins 15 minutes prior and Party...... $25 to screening time. Open Evening and Monday through Friday 10:00 am–6:00 pm E All theaters are wheelchair accessible. Weekend Screenings...... $10 Saturday and Sunday 11:00 am–4:00 pm Matinee screenings at the Closed E A limited number of free tickets 16th Street J and are allocated for each screening for Daytime Doc screenings November 26 and 27 (Thanksgiving) those who cannot afford the cost of at the Goethe-Institut...... $6 admission. Arrangements must be Student and Senior Discount...... $1 off Same Day Tickets Same day tickets (starting after 11:00 pm the made at least one day before the show (For all evening and weekend screenings except Opening and Closing Nights) day prior to screening) can be purchased one by calling (202) 777-3231 or emailing hour before the show at the box office of the Free screenings of Divided We Fall and The [email protected]. theater where the film is being screened. Earth Cries Out do not require reservations or tickets. Security Notice Box Office Information Group Ticket Sales Please arrive early to allow enough time Washington DCJCC Aaron & Cecile for security checks at all venues. All Special rates are available for most screenings Goldman Theater except Opening and Closing Nights. Please call backpacks, bags, briefcases and purses Monday through Friday, the box office opens (202) 777-3231 at least three days in advance E are subject to inspection. one hour prior to the first daytime screening of screening date for prices and availability. and re-opens one hour prior to the first evening screening. E FILMS AND GUESTS ARE E All Ticket Sales Are Final. E Saturday and Sunday, the box office opens SUBJECT TO CHANGE E no refunds. no exceptions. one hour prior to the first screening of the E PARENTAL DISCRETION E no passes accepted. day and remains open. ADVISED FOR MOST FILMS For further information, call the Festival office at online Advance Tickets (202) 777-3231. E PLEASE BRING A PHOTO ID Secure online advance tickets at WJFF.ORG WITH YOU TO ALL SCREENINGS No advance ticket sales at the Washington anytime except online tickets cannot be ordered DCJCC—same day sales only. Box Office and after 11:00 pm on the day prior to the screening. Will Call tables are located in the Elizabeth FILM GUIDE KEY Priority ticket purchasing: NOVEMBER 17 and 18 M. and David Bruce Smith 16th Street Lobby. Daytime Docs Washington DCJCC members and WJFF funders The entrance to the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Lunchtime screenings Theater is on the 2nd floor. General public ticket purchasing: NOVEMBER 19 For the following venues, the Box Office Director’s Pick There is a $1.00 per ticket service charge and a opens 45 minutes prior to screening—same Favorite film choices $1.50 per order handling fee for advance tickets. day sales only: of past WJFF directors Advance tickets are not available at theater box offices. Avalon Theatre Suitable for ages 11 and Up E Tickets ordered 10 days or more prior to the Afi Silver Theatre screening date are mailed to the purchaser. Goethe-Institut Washington WJFF Visionary Award E Tickets ordered less than 10 days prior to Harold And Sylvia Greenberg Theatre winner film the screening date and by 11:00 pm the day before must be either printed out online Embassy Of France using BOT Ticket at the time of purchase Embassy Of Switzerland or picked up at the Will Call table at the Embassy Of Ethiopia screening.

2 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 THEATER LOCATIONS AND TRANSPORTATION

Aaron & Cecile AFI Silver Theatre Embassy of France Goldman Theater 8633 Colesville Road 4101 Reservoir Road NW Washington District of Columbia Silver Spring, MD Washington, DC Jewish Community Center afi.com/silver la-maison-francaise.org 1529 16th Street NW at Q Street Metro/Metrobus Metro/Metrobus washingtondcjcc.org Red Line to Silver Spring Metro. Exit onto The D6 and D3 (mornings only) buses provide Metro/Metrobus Colesville Road and walk north two blocks. The transportation to the front gate of the Embassy. Silver Spring metro station is served by bus Red line to . Exit north to Q Street. Public Parking The S series (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5) runs north and routes 70, 71, J5, F4, F6, JH1, J2, J3, J4, Q2, S2, Limited public parking (mostly metered spaces) south along 16th Street. Bus #G2 originates in S4, Y8 and Z5. on the streets in front of and around the Georgetown and travels across (1 block Public Parking Embassy. Individuals who are on the event guest south of Q Street). Surrounding streets have metered and list or who have purchased tickets in advance Walking unrestricted parking. Closest public garages have access to limited parking in the Embassy’s Exit the Metro at Q Street and cross Connecticut are located on Wayne Avenue and on Ellsworth parking garage. Avenue. Walk five blocks east until 16th and Q. Drive. Embassy of Switzerland Public Parking Goethe-Institut Washington 2900 Cathedral Avenue NW If you are planning to drive, remember to leave 814 Seventh Street NW at I Street Washington, DC plenty of time for parking. There is limited on- Washington, DC swissemb.org street parking available. goethe.de/washington Metro/Metrobus Colonial Public Parking Garage Metro/Metrobus Red Line to Woodley Park/Zoo Metro. Walk 1616 P Street NW Red, Yellow or Green Lines to Gallery Place- 3 blocks north on to $5 per car, only $4 when you have your ticket Chinatown. Exit at 7th and H Streets and walk Cathedral Avenue. Go left on Cathedral Avenue, validated at the 16th Street J’s front desk. north one block. The 70, X2 and P6 buses walk three more blocks and the Embassy will be provide transportation to 7th and I Streets. on your left. Route 96 bus goes directly to the Colonial Parking Lot Hours: Embassy. Monday through Thursday 5:30 pm–11:30 pm Public Parking Saturday 5:30 pm–1:00 am Surrounding streets have metered parking and Sunday 10:00 am–Midnight there are several commercial garages within a Embassy Of Ethiopia 3506 International Drive NW few blocks. Washington DCJCC Parking Lot Washington, DC ethiopianembassy.org Limited spaces available. Enter on Q Street just Harold and Sylvia after the building. The parking fee is $6 for up Metro/Metrobus to three hours and $10 for over three hours. Greenberg Theatre Red line to Van Ness-UDC Metro. Walk There is a $3 flat rate available for members and 4200 Wisconsin Avenue at Van Ness Street southeast on Connecticut Avenue to Van Ness seniors when you have your tickets validated at Washington, DC Street. Go right on Van Ness Street, walk 2 the 16th Street J’s front desk. american.edu/CAS/Greenberg/ blocks, the turn left onto International Drive. The Metro/Metrobus embassy will be up the hill on your left. The H2 Avalon Theatre Red Line to Tenleytown/AU Metro. Exit onto and L2 buses provide transportation to the Van 5612 Connecticut Avenue NW Wisconsin Avenue west and walk south two Ness-UDC metro station. Washington, DC blocks. Routes 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, H4, N8 theavalon.org directly pass the Greenberg Theatre. Routes Public Parking M4 and N2 go to Tenley Circle, just above the Public parking in the evening and on Sunday is Metro/Metrobus theater. available in any of the reserved Embassy spots Red Line to Friendship Heights Metro. Transfer along International Drive. A public parking to the E2, E3, E4 or E6 bus, which will drop Public Parking garage is located on Van Ness Street at the you a half-block from the theater at the corner A guarded underground lot is located on the corner of International Drive. of McKinley and Connecticut Avenue. The north side of Van Ness Street, just west of L1, L2 and L4 bus lines provide transportation Wisconsin Avenue. The theater is accessed from points south of Chevy Chase Circle on directly from the lot via elevator and stairs. Connecticut Avenue to the Avalon. Public Parking The theater is located between McKinley and Northampton Streets, just over a quarter mile south of Chevy Chase Circle. Surrounding streets have metered and unrestricted parking. For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 3 a message from ALPHABETICAL LISTING of FILMS the director (Please see corresponding pages for descriptions of movies)

Eight films at one theater and a total audience of some 10 Weitzman Street...... 17 The Legend of Mrs. Goldman 1,500 people. and the Almighty God...... 7 15-40...... 21 Twenty years ago, that’s how the WJFF started. We Lost Islands ...... 12 remember fondly the very first film shown at the very 18 KM...... 23 first opening night. It was the Oscar-nominated Nasty Lost Paradise...... 9 Girl shown at Georgetown’s Biograph Theatre, another Ajami...... 8 bit of nostalgia. Love and Religion: The Challenge And Thou Shalt Love...... 15 Fast forward two decades. The WJFF is 20! How should of Interfaith Relationships...... 9 we mark this milestone? Shall we count the many Anita...... 21 Marcel Reich-Ranicki - films, filmmakers, guests and parties from all the past The Author of Himself...... 16 years? Perhaps we should add up the impressive list of Black Over White...... 10 donors, sponsors, cooperating organizations, volunteers Mary and Max...... 13 and venues? Brain Storm...... 16 A Matter of Size...... 5 As wonderful as it is to keep track of all that information, Broken Promise...... 10 I believe that our focus for this 11 days in December Meeskeit...... 15 should be as it always is—on the filmmakers and the Brothers...... 14 stories they bring to life on the screen. My Amulet...... 21 Camera Obscura...... 8 And so, this year we again present films from nearly all My Mother’s Courage...... 7 corners of our world as well as filmmakers of incredible Capture the Moment...... 16 talent and insight. Their stories illuminate over 200 The Name My Mother Gave Me...... 10 years of wonderfully diverse Jewish history and culture— Cycles ...... 8 from the Polish immigrants making new lives on the Nasty Girl...... 11 pampas of 19th-century Argentina to the principal and Divided We Fall...... 16 alumni of a once-celebrated high school trying to keep Pinhas...... 21 kids off the streets of Newark, New Jersey, today. Along The Earth Cries Out...... 22 the way, stop to see Israeli sumo wrestlers, home movies Quentin and Ferdinand...... 10 by Yitzhak Rabin, a boy saved from by Endsieg - Everything Changes soccer, a young woman searching for her Indian Jewish in One Shot...... 21 Rafting to Bombay...... 14 roots and so much more. Father’s Footsteps...... 17 It somehow seems just right that as we celebrate this The Red Toy...... 23 anniversary, we will present the WJFF Visionary Award Filmed by Yitzhak...... 11 to the director of that first opening night film, Michael Room and a Half...... 22 Verhoeven. Please read more about Michael and his For Making Me a Woman...... 17 Sidney Turtlebaum...... 15 acclaimed career as a filmmaker on page 6, and plan to come to programs celebrating his work on December From Swastika to Jim Crow...... 14 Srugim...... 13 5 and 7, as well as the award ceremony on December 6, when you can once again enjoy the acclaimed film The Gift to Stalin...... 5 Strange Fruit...... 18 Nasty Girl. The Girl on the Train ...... 13 The WJFF today is one of the largest and most respected Stumbling Stone...... 18 Jewish film festivals around. Thank you for helping make The Green Dumpster Mystery ...... 12 Surrogate...... 9 it so. Now it’s time to again come together as we see, think and feel film. Heart of Stone...... 23 The Tale of Nicolai and the Law of Return...... 18 Enjoy! Hello Goodbye...... 19 Through the Eye of the Needle...... 19 Susan H. Barocas Hello My Name Is Herman...... 19 Toyland...... 21 Home...... 18 A Trip to Prague...... 15 We remember fondly our dear friend Linda Posell, Human Failure ...... 12 long a supporter of the Washington Jewish Film The Wedding Song ...... 20 The Imported Bridegroom...... 20 Festival and a lover of the arts. Linda was a volunteer What About Me?...... 21 for WJFF beginning in 1994, and last year co-chaired In Search of the Bene Israel...... 14 our opening and closing nights. We miss her dearly Will Eisner: Portrait The Jester...... 22 since her death from cancer in August, but we are of a Sequential Artist...... 9 certain that her kind, loving and irreverently funny Jump...... 19 spirit is with us this year. The Worst Company in the World...... 10 opening night closing night Thursday Sunday DECEMBER 3 DECEMBER 13 E 7:30 pm E 7:30 pm Film followed by 20th Film followed by Anniversary Gala a delicious Dessert Celebration Hanukkah Party with Emcee Hillary Howard, Anchor, WTOP-Radio Sponsored by Sponsored by The Jacob & Charlotte The CrossCurrents Lehrman Foundation Foundation A MATTER OF SIZE THE GIFT TO STALIN Sipur Gadol Podarok Stalinu Israel//France, 2009, 35mm, feature Kazakhstan, 2008, 35mm, feature 92 minutes 97 minutes Hebrew and Japanese with English subtitles Kazakh and Russian with English subtitles Directors: Erez Tadmor and Sharon Maymon Director: Rustem Abdrashev Mid-Atlantic Premiere DC Premiere Four Ophir Awards, Israeli Film and Television Academy 2009 Sasha (Dalen Shintemirov), a young Jewish orphan, is sent into exile during a Stalinist . Losing his Life changes when four overweight guys decide to grandfather on the journey, Sasha is rescued by a gruff make the most of their size instead of fighting it with widowed rail worker Kasym (played by the Kazakh perpetual diets and fitness regimes. Shy 340-pound actor Nurzhuman Ikhtymbayev). Kasym takes the chef Herzl (Itzik Cohen) is the curse of his diet boy to his remote village where Sasha becomes part group’s rather blunt leader. When he is fired from his of a surrogate family of other cast outs. He befriends restaurant job for being “un-presentable” because of other children and encounters an evil Russian army his size, Herzl takes a job washing dishes in a Japanese major and a nasty local policeman. Kasym, a Muslim restaurant and discovers the one place where fat guys living by the tenets of ethnic and religious tolerance, can be rock stars: sumo wrestling. One by one, Herzl’s renames Sasha as Sabyr, meaning “humble of heart” friends leave dieting behind and discover themselves in in its Arabic origin, but the older man preserves the a world where fat people are honored and appreciated. boy’s Jewish identity. What Sasha/Sabyr finds on the Can love be far behind? lovingly filmed, sweeping Kazakh steppes is more than SPECIAL GUESTS Dvir Benedek, Actor, and Danny survival in this lyrical story told through the poignant Cohen Solal, Co-Screenwriter memories of a child. CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel, Embassy of France, Embassy of the Federal Republic of SPECIAL GUESTS Aliya Uvalzhanova, Producer; Boris Germany, Goethe-Institut Washington and Alliance Cherdabayev, Producer; Nurzhuman Ikhtymbayev, Française de Washington Actor; Yerkin Khanimolda, Chief of International Department, Aldongar Productions

CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Kazakhstan 2009 WASHINGTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL Visionary Award

MICHAEL VERHOEVEN For over 40 years, filmmaker Michael Ver- Verhoeven joined us as that film opened the hoeven has been a unique and unwavering very first WJFF, and we are proud to have him voice for truth in post-war Germany. Often present as we screen Nasty Girl again this risking popular opinion, his probing and skill- year to mark our 20th Festival. (Screening ful cinematic portrayals are unsentimental, December 6, see page 11) yet emotionally evocative. Verhoeven forged new cinematic ground Born in Berlin in 1938, Verhoeven trained in the portrayal of the Holocaust with My for a career in medicine, but fortunately Mother’s Courage (1995), his stunning feature found his way into film. With his first feature, version of Hungarian George Tabori’s play The White Rose (1982), he became the first and novel. (Screening December 5, see page 7) West German director to raise issues of With his latest film, Human Failure German resistance during the Nazi era. The (2009), he turns his unblinking documentary political controversy caused by the film led eye to the complicity of German citizens in directly to the German government officially the confiscation and re-distribution of Jewish invalidating the Nazi “People’s Court” system property and jobs. (Screening December 7, see that sentenced members of the White Rose page 12) resistance group to death. The recipient of numerous awards for his Verhoeven’s reputation as a major con- work, Verhoeven remains tenaciously com- tributor to German film was cemented with mitted to his vision, to telling the truth and his Oscar-nominated Nasty Girl (1990), which to helping modern-day Germans establish a raised issues of German citizens repressing relationship with the past. the truth about their country’s Nazi past. —Susan H. Barocas

THE WASHINGTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL VISIONARY AWARD recognizes and pays tribute to courage, creativity and insight in

presenting the of the Jewish experience through the moving image. We are honored to present the 2009 award to Michael Verho-

even in a special ceremony that includes screening of Nasty Girl, a post-film discussion and reception on Sunday,D ecember 6, at 3:30 pm.

FOOD & FILM The WJFF is a feast for your eyes, mind and soul, but your stomach needs some attention as well! Here are some great options for food at some of our venues.

THE 16TH STREET J THE AVALON THEATRE THE GOETHE-INSTITUT WASHINGTON

Now Open! E Avalon Theatre Café E California Tortilla E The new District Café Popcorn, candy and soda plus pastries, sweets, Everyone attending any film at Goethe-Institut will Enjoy delicious, strictly kosher food from the Café’s locally roasted coffee and espresso, specialty sand- receive a coupon for $1 off any order. Great for tak- meat kitchen before and after the movies—brought wiches, salads, handcrafted ice cream, beer, wine, ing lunch back to the office after a Daytime Doc to you by the owners of Eli’s and Sienna. and more screening. New this year! E Parthenon Restaurant Present any ticket from the WJFF during the festival E The WJFF Concessions (12/3-13) and receive 15% off your total food bill. Need a coffee, iced tea, glass of wine or quick snack Does not include alchohol, tax or tip. to keep you going between films? Try our new Con- cessions in the lobby outside the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater.

6 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 5 5 er b ecem 3 and 4 4 and 3 D er b aturday, aturday, ecem D S

A matter of size My mother’s courage The Legend of Mrs. Goldman

PRECEDED BY: Thursday Saturday THE LEGEND OF MRS. GOLDMAN AND DECEMBER 3 DECEMBER 5 THE ALMIGHTY GOD Sponsored by the Jacob & Charlotte Sponsored by Germany, 1996, 35mm Lehrman Foundation Norman Pozez & Melinda Bieber 3 minutes Director: Michael Verhoeven

A MATTER OF SIZE MY MOTHER’S COURAGE A comic parable told on camera by the E 7:30 pm Mutter’s Courage incomparable George Tabori. Embassy of France E 6:00 pm SPECIAL GUESTS Michael Verhoeven, Direc- Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater tor and Sharon Rivo, Co-Founder and Opening Night Film and Anniversary Party Executive Director, National Center for See page 5 Germany/UK/Austria/, 1995, 35mm, feature 89 minutes Jewish Film German with English subtitles CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of the Fed- Director: Michael Verhoeven eral Republic of Germany and the Goethe- Best Production and Best Cinematography, Institut Washington Friday Bavarian Film Awards 1996 PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH The Silver Award — Shaping of a Feature Film, Generation After and Jewish Holocaust German Film Awards 1996 Survivors and Friends of Greater Wash- DECEMBER 4 In Berlin at the celebration of his eightieth ington birthday, renowned Hungarian Jewish play- THIS FILM IS SUPPORTED BY the Milton and A MATTER OF SIZE wright, director and actor George Tabori Helen Covensky Fund at the Washington E 1:00 pm (1914–2007) tells the true story of what DCJCC Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater happened to his mother Elsa (Pauline Col- lins) 50 years earlier during the deportation See page 5 of the Hungarian Jewish community. The scene shifts between present day with Tabori Please note: Tickets are not available at the appearing as himself and Nazi-occupied special matinee price for this screening Budapest. At times humorous, at other times painfully eloquent, Verhoeven, a frequent col- laborator with Tabori, forged new ground in cinematic portrayals of the Holocaust when this film was released. WJFF 1996 (See page 6 for more information about filmmaker Michael Verhoeven and the WJFF Visionary Award)

For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 7 5 5 er b ecem D aturday, aturday, S

Camera obscura Ajami Cycles

CAMERA OBSCURA AJAMI CYCLES E 7:00 pm E 8:15 pm Les Murs Porteurs AFI Silver Theatre Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater E 9:30 pm AFI Silver Theatre Argentina, 2008, 35mm, feature Israel, 2009, 35mm, feature 86 minutes 120 minutes France/Germany/Switzerland, 2008, 35mm, feature Spanish with English subtitles Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles 88 minutes Director: Maria Victoria Menis Directors: Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani French with English subtitles Mid-Atlantic Premiere DC Premiere Director: Cyril Gelblat Grand Prize, Pays de Caux International Latin Five Ophir Awards including Best Picture, DC Premiere Film Festival 2009 Israeli Film and Television Academy 2009 Life’s passages can crack your foundation, Honorable Mention, Leipzig Argentine Film Camera D’Or – Special Mention, Cannes Film Festival 2009 Festival 2009 as the French title, meaning “bearing walls,” implies. Frida (Shulamit Adar) is a Holocaust At the end of the 19th Century, an ugly duck- Wolgin Award – Best Feature, Film Festival 2009 survivor slipping away as she increasingly ling is born only feet from the new world as confuses past and present. Facing middle age, a ship of immigrants docks in Buenos Aires. Set on the mean streets of ’s Ajami her daughter Judith (Miou-Miou) and son Shy and self-conscious, Gertrudis grows up neighborhood, the film is a compelling crime Simon (Charles Berling) are “sandwiched” in a colony of Argentinean , fashioning drama and so much more, revealing the com- between gradually losing their mother and herself almost invisible, even hiding her face plexities of life and relationships in this melt- their own children slipping away into adult- in photographs. After she is married off to ing pot of cultures. Stories are intertwined—a hood. Judith prefers to face her life head-on, an older, wealthy Jewish rancher, Gertrudis sensitive young boy and his brother living in but Simon will do anything, even the absurd, meets expectations and raises a family until fear of clan retaliation, a naïve young Palestin- not to. A stellar ensemble cast brings to life the arrival of a nomadic French photographer, ian refugee working to save his mother’s life, this engaging story about loss and the fragil- whose uncompromising vision allows Ger- an affluent Palestinian dreaming of a future ity of our family and cultural heritage, as well trudis to really see herself for the first time. with his Jewish girlfriend and a Jewish police- as the foundations of tenacity and hope upon A lyrical film with visual innovations, includ- man searching for his missing brother. Human which every generation builds its own life. ing original Surrealist-inspired photographs values, not politics, dominate the lives of and films, hand-drawn color animation and people who want the same things, but rarely CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of France, film-within-a-film sequences drawn from the are able to overcome conflicting views among Embassy of Switzerland, Embassy of the characters’ imaginations. Jews, Muslims and Christians. This film used Federal Republic of Germany, Goethe- no professional actors. The directors work- Institut Washington and Alliance Française CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Argen- shopped with the cast for ten months before de Washington tina, Lilith Magazine and Women in Film shooting the film. and Video DC PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH The CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel Generation After and Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Friends of Greater Wash- ington

8 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 6 6 er b ecem D unday, unday, S surrogate lost paradise Love and religion Will Eisner

SURROGATE Post-film DISCUSSION with Dr. Marion E 10:30 pm Usher, Founder, Interfaith Connections Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Sunday at the Washington DCJCC, and Edmund Case, CEO, InterfaithFamily.com. Moder- Israel, 2008, video, feature DECEMBER 6 ated by Jean Graubart, Director, Leo & 57 minutes Anna Smilow Center for Jewish Living and Hebrew with English subtitles Learning Director: Tali Shalom Ezer Sponsored by Michael & Barbara Smilow PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the 16th DC Premiere Street J’s Leo & Anna Smilow Center for Eli is an introverted 32-year-old who has trou- LOVE AND RELIGION: Jewish Living and Learning ble forming relationships with women. Hagar THE CHALLENGE OF is his sex therapist, helping him make physi- INTERFAITH RELATIONSHIPS cal and emotional contact for the first time. WILL EISNER: PORTRAIT E 10:30 am Brunch IN THE Ina & Jack Kay OF A SEQUENTIAL ARTIST Meeting under laboratory conditions, nothing Community Hall is off limits except for identifiable personal E 12:15 pm E 11:30 am Film and discussion details. They lay bare their bodies and emo- AFI Silver Theatre Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater tions, forming a complicated bond between USA, 2007, video, documentary surrogate and patient. As Eli’s barriers begin USA, 2009, video, documentary 96 minutes 55 minutes to break, he falls in love with Hagar and for Director: Andrew D. Cooke the first time confronts his deepest childhood Director: Marion Usher DC Premiere scars and creates a new, genuine dialogue The film, being shown for the first time, docu- with his family. Mature content ments a four-session workshop model for Will Eisner started working in comics in the interfaith couples developed by Dr. Marion 1930s, just as they were moving from reprints PRECEDED BY: Usher and used at the Washington DCJCC for of newspaper strips to tabloids featuring the past 15 years. In a group setting, couples original material, and Eisner had some of LOST PARADISE begin to openly discuss issues they face as the most original creations of all. He com- Israel/France, 2009, 35mm partners from two different religious back- bined elements of art, literature and film that 11 minutes grounds. Hearing other couples’ stories and eventually led to a successful career in what Directors: Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun understanding that they are not alone also he called “sequential art,” the forerunner of Best of Fest, NYC Shorts Film Festival 2009 helps in the search for answers to challenges today’s graphic novels. Starting in 1939, his Wolgin Award - Best Short Film, Jerusalem they face. In a safe environment, couples gritty crime fighter series, The Spirit, incorpo- International Film Festival 2009 work on creating their religious lives, learning rated “film noir” as well as elements of the A present day Adam and Eve story reveals how they can make Jewish choices while still Jewish experience and the fight against anti- itself as a man and woman make love in a respecting their partner’s religion. Important semitism. Featuring interviews with Michael one-star hotel room. viewing for couples, their parents and grand- Chabon, Art Spiegelman, Jules Feiffer and others, this visually imaginative documentary CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel, parents as well as professionals working on captures Eisner’s groundbreaking genius. Embassy of France and Alliance Française interfaith issues and anyone with an interest de Washington in this important topic. SPECIAL GUEST Andrew D. Cooke, Director

For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 9 6 6 er b ecem D unday, unday, S

the worst company in the world Quentin and Ferdinand Black over white

THE WORST COMPANY Best friends Quentin and Ferdinand get in The picturesque valley of Ethiopia’s Gondar IN THE WORLD over their heads when they decide to convert region becomes the scene of remarkable to Judaism in order to woo a pair of sisters. discoveries as a group of Israeli adolescents, E 1:45 pm CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel mostly born in Ethiopia, make a life-changing Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater and the Embassy of Switzerland journey. The climax of a year-long leadership Israel, 2009, video, documentary program, the trip turns a group of peers into 50 minutes brothers and young adolescents into family Hebrew with English subtitles BLACK OVER WHITE as they grapple with the universal questions Director: Regev Contes E 2:00 pm of personal identity and belonging. Together they confront their pasts and move forward, US Premiere Embassy of Ethiopia each taking a leap of faith into their futures. Mayor’s Prize for Young and Promising Filmmakers, DocAviv International Film Israel, 2007, video, documentary Screening followed by special Ethiopian coffee 56 minutes ceremony Festival 2009 English, Hebrew, Amharic with English subtitles Three divorced, middle-aged men with glasses Director: Tomer Heymann CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Ethiopia work together in a failing insurance agency and the Embassy of Israel Mid-Atlantic Premiere that is going broke. One of them is the film- maker’s father who runs the business out of his Cabra Casay and Avi Vograss Vesa are two home with his brother and a childhood friend Ethiopian members of the popular multi- BROKEN PROMISE with a very short attention span. This delightful cultural Israeli band, the Idan Raichel Project. Nedodržaný Sl’ub documentary was lovingly made by Contes, When a concert tour takes them to Addis E 5:45 pm who spent a year investigating, learning, docu- Ababa, they experience a surprising flood of AFI Silver Theatre menting and trying to help the worst company emotions as they re-discover their roots and begin to question their Israeli identity after Slovak Republic/Czech Republic/USA, 35mm, feature in the world—his father’s insurance company. 124 minutes As it turns out, love and humor don’t necessar- struggling with in Israel. The trip gives Slovak with English subtitles ily translate into business success. Israeli-born Raichel a new perspective on the Director: Jiri Chlumský immigrant experience. The cathartic power East Coast Premiere of music pulls the band back from the brink Audience Award - Best Narrative Feature, Los PRECEDED BY: as their multi-ethnic grooves bring the house Angeles Jewish Film Festival 2009 down in Addis Ababa. QUENTIN AND FERDINAND Based on the remarkable, but true story of Quentin et Ferdinand and Martin Friedmann, born in 1926 in Western Slovakia. The film opens with Martin living a Switzerland, 2009, 35mm THE NAME MY carefree life playing soccer and assisting with 18 minutes French with English subtitles MOTHER GAVE ME bell-ringing in a local church. As his bar mitz- Director: Robin Harsch vah approaches, life in the town of Banovce Israel, 2008, video, documentary begins to change. Martin narrowly escapes 56 minutes World Premiere deportation to a concentration camp thanks Hebrew and Amharic with English subtitles Director: Eli Tal-El

10 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 The Name my mother gave me broken promise Filmed by Yitzhak

to luck and his extraordinary soccer talent. 2009 WJFF VISIONARY AWARD HONORING Soon his story becomes an epic of inventive- FILMMAKER MICHAEL VERHOEVEN ness, determination and the will to survive E 3:30 pm as one boy becomes an adult. A complex, historically rich film brought to life with 94 Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater actors—all but one Slovak, Czech, Polish and Award presentation: Aviva Kempner, WJFF Founding Director, and Russian—and more than 1000 extras. Miriam Mörsel Nathan, WJFF Director Emeritus Post-film discussion: Michael Verhoeven in conversation with Sharon Rivo, Co-Founder and Executive Director, National Center for Jewish Film FILMED BY YITZHAK Tzulam Al Yedey Itzhak Reception: Hosted by His Excellency Dr. Klaus Scharioth, Ambassador of the Federal E 6:15 pm Republic of Germany Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater

NASTY GIRL Israel, 2009, video, documentary Das schreckliche Mädchen 50 minutes Germany, 1990, video, feature Hebrew with English subtitles 92 minutes Director: Limor Pinhasov German with English subtitles Director: Michael Verhoeven Mid-Atlantic Premiere Silver Bear, Berlin International An old box is opened. Dust spreads all over. Film Festival 1990 Inside are dozens of small yellow boxes, all Best Foreign Language Film, with “Yitzhak” handwritten on them. They Golden Globe Awards 1991 are 8mm films from a different and forgot- Best Foreign Language Film, New York Film ten world—the sixties as captured by Yit- Critics Circle Awards 1991 zhak Rabin before he became the country’s Nominated, Best Foreign Film, Academy Awards 1991 beloved Prime Minister. Friends, intimate Screened as the Opening Night film of the first Washington Jewish Film Festival, family moments, the faces and empty land- December 1, 1990 scapes of a newly-born Israel, first trips over- Based on the true story of Ann Elisabeth Rosmus, this black comedy uses sharp wit and seas with the Queen of England riding her an intriguing post-modern style to explore the serious subject of Germany’s Nazi past. horse, even places and people from his years A determined student, Sonja (Lena Stolze) sets out to write an essay about “My Town as Ambassador in Washington, DC. What during the Third Reich.” When the investigation begins to reveal her hometown’s secret connections are there between one man’s and shameful past, she is dubbed “the Nasty Girl,” and outraged local citizens, intent on filmmaking hobby and his lifelong endeavors preserving their version of history, go to violent lengths to stop her from exposing the for conciliation and peace? truth. (See page 6 for more information about filmmaker Michael Verhoeven and the WJFF Visionary Award) CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Goethe- Institut Washington and the Courtyard Washington

For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 11 7 7 6 6 er er b b ecem ecem D D onday, onday, unday, unday, S M

The Green dumpster mystery Lost Islands Human Failure

and LOST ISLANDS Iim Avadim THE GREEN E Monday 8:30 pm DUMPSTER MYSTERY Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Hataaluma Bamehola Hayeruka DECEMBER 7 Israel, 2008, 35mm, feature Israel, 2008, video, documentary 103 minutes 50 minutes Sponsored by Hebrew with English subtitles Hebrew with English subtitles Washington Jewish Week Director: Resehef Levy Director: Tal Haim Yoffe

Mid-Atlantic Premiere Four Ophir Awards including Best Actor and IN CONVERSATION WITH Best Supporting Actor, Israeli Film and Traveling on his scooter through , the Television Academy 2008 AWARD-WINNING filmmaker suddenly discovers a box of old 1980 sets the scene and provides the FILMMAKER photos and documents inside a green dump- soundtrack for this hilarious and heartbreak- MICHAEL VERHOEVEN ster. Who would throw out such family trea- ing autobiographical film. Twin teen brothers E Noon sures? Playing detective, Yoffe begins to piece Erez and Ofer are two members of the large Goethe-Institut Washington together the story of one extended Jewish and unique Levi family. Happily wreaking family, unwinding the tragic history beginning Join this year’s winner of the WJFF Visionary havoc and chasing girls in a still rather naïve in Lodz, and traveling to a Siberian Award, the acclaimed feature and documen- Israel, they fall in love with the same free- Gulag, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a ship of tary director Michael Verhoeven, in a special spirited girl, sparking a rivalry that tears refugees at an Italian port, a one-room apart- one-hour discussion of the roles of film in them apart. The family’s personal struggles, ment in a deserted Arab building in Jaffa and the ongoing denial and revelation of histori- including a secret one of the twins discovers, an absentee IDF soldier somewhere in the cal facts by parts of the German society. Film become forever entwined with Israel’s own as Sinai Peninsula. Thanks to Yoffe, one family’s clips will be shown including from his newest Erez joins an elite unit fighting in the Lebanon stories remain alive long after the lives have film, Human Failure. (See page 6 for more infor- War. A box office hit in Israel, the film con- been extinguished. mation about Michael Verhoeven) fronts the divide between familial obligations CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel and personal desires. SPECIAL GUEST Pini Tavger, Actor (invited) HUMAN FAILURE Menschliches Versagen CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel and the Center for Israel Studies, College E 6:00 pm of Arts and Sciences, American University Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater

Germany, 2008, video, documentary 91 minutes AJAMI German with English subtitles E 8:15 pm Director: Michael Verhoeven

AFI Silver Theatre North American Premiere Yad Vashem Chairman’s Award, Jerusalem See page 8 Film Festival 2009

12 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 The girl on the Train Srugim mary and Max

Top Prize, German Documentaries on Jewish DC Premiere hit Israeli TV series, translated “Knitted” for Themes, Berlin Jewish Film Festival 2009 Jeanne (Emilie Dequenne) lives in a house in the knitted skullcaps the main characters The appropriation of assets from German the suburbs of Paris with her mother Louise wear. Get to know the playboy doctor, the Jews during the Third Reich benefitted virtu- (Catherine Deneuve), who makes a living as artist looking for love, the newly-divorced ally every other German citizen. It was not a babysitter. Jeanne spends her days look- guy still sexually attracted to his wife and the the Gestapo who invaded Jewish homes in ing for work without much conviction and good girl trying to maintain a strictly Orthodox order to confiscate all property, from bank eventually moves in with her boyfriend. When lifestyle…plus all the rest of their friends who accounts to the last shirt; it was the German Louise reads a help wanted ad on the inter- never expected to still be living the single life. tax officials. For the first time, this film docu- net, she believes that fate has intervened, CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel ments the bizarre competition that developed and she moves to get her daughter a job with PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the 16th between bureaucrats as to how to organize a famous attorney she knew in her youth. Street J’s J-on-Demand at the Washington the robbery of the Jews before they were Jeanne’s world and that of the Jewish attor- DCJCC ever expelled or sent to their deaths. In the ney are light-years apart, but on a collision search for traces, many of the documents path because of an incredible lie that she is proving this planned expropriation were lost, about to tell, a lie that was at the heart of one MARY AND MAX destroyed or hidden away. (See page 6 for of the most highly publicized and politicized E 9:00 pm more information about Michael Verhoeven) news items in France in recent years. AFI Silver Theatre INTRODUCTION BY Dr. Edna Friedberg, CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of France Australia/USA, 2008, 35mm, feature Historian, United States Holocaust and Alliance Française de Washington 92 minutes Memorial Museum Director: Adam Elliot SPECIAL GUEST Michael Verhoeven, Director SRUGIM DC Premiere PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH E 8:30 pm Crystal Bear, Berlin International the United States Holocaust Memorial Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Film Festival 2009 Museum, The Generation After and Jewish Meet Mary Daisy Dinkle and Max Horowitz, Holocaust Survivors and Friends of Greater Episodes 1, 2 and 3 two lonely souls reaching out for a friend in Washington Israel, 2008, video, television series 90 minutes this quirky claymation tale. One day, Mary, CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of the Fed- Hebrew with English subtitles a chubby Australian girl with a crazy family, eral Republic of Germany and the Goethe- Director: Eliezer Shapiro flips through a phone book and finds Max, a Institut Washington middle-aged New York Jew with Asperger’s Where do you go to find a social scene when syndrome. The two become unlikely pen pals, you’re a single thirty-something in Israel and sharing years of life’s ups and downs. Fleshed THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN an Orthodox Jew? Check out “the Jerusalem out by the brilliant voice work of Phillip Sey- La fille du RER Swamp”—a neighborhood that has nearly mour Hoffman and Toni Collette, the film is a E 7:00 pm everything any other hip neighborhood for poignant tale of two eccentrics struggling in AFI Silver Theatre singles has except the restaurants are kosher, their own worlds thousands of miles apart, but the skirts longer and there are a lot more at peace in a special place in each other’s lives. France, 2009, 35mm, feature synagogues! Life in “the Swamp” is often not 105 minutes CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Australia French with English subtitles far from soap opera for the characters in this Director: André Téchiné For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 13 8 8 er b ecem D uesday, uesday, T From swastika to jim crow In Search of the bene israel Rafting to bombay

the long struggle for racial justice in America. Five-year-old Nahum and his mother left — Joshua Ford, WJFF Coordinator Poland, traveled by train across Europe and Tuesday 1996–2000, Director 2003–2007 sailed on a raft along the Tigris River until they reached exotic India. Decades later, Nahum CO-SPONSORED BY Pacific Street Films DECEMBER 8 travels with his family, including his filmmaker son, to a different India where, tragically, they Sponsored by the Academy of IN SEARCH OF find themselves in the midst of Bombay’s Motion Picture Arts and Sciences THE BENE ISRAEL November 2008 terror attacks. Now the Laufer family must navigate the romantic E 6:15 pm dreams of hope and promise along with the FROM SWASTIKA Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater TO JIM CROW cruel reality of both past and present. USA/India, 2008, video, documentary E noon Following the screening join us for a glass of 38 minutes wine and guided tour of the exhibit “Blue Like Goethe-Institut Washington English and Hindu with English subtitles Director: Sadia Shepard Me: The Work of Siona Benjamin” USA, 2000, video, documentary 60 minutes DC Premiere SPECIAL GUESTS Dr. Maina Chawla Singh, English Author, American University Clendenen Directors: Lori Cheatle and Martin D. Toub The filmmaker travels to India to reconnect with her grandmother’s Bene Israel commu- Scholar-in-Residence and Associate Profes- sor, University of Delhi and Nissim Reuben, WJFF 1999 nity and, along the way, gives us fascinating Program Director, Indian-Jewish American These are the lost stories of the “refugee peaks into the Indian Jewish community. Relations, American Jewish Committee scholars,” Jewish academics who fled Nazism Partly based on material that would become to the United States and found employment the award-winning memoir, The Girl from For- CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel at historically Black colleges. The refugees eign. We explore the lives of Indian Jews still and the Embassy of India entered a “double alien world:” they were living there as well as others choosing to emi- PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH the whites in the segregated world of blacks liv- grate to Israel, where about 90,000 Indian American Jewish Committee and Indian ing under and Jews amidst Jews already live. Woven throughout the film Visions Film Festival are Nana’s recollections of a once-thriving the culture of white, Protestant America. The th community of Bene Israel 60 years ago. PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the 16 film recounts the personal stories of the pro- Street J’s Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery fessors and the African-American students and whose lives they profoundly affected. BROTHERS What the Festival has always been about for RAFTING TO BOMBAy E 7:00 pm me, is telling the stories that connect us to Raphsoda le Bombay Embassy of Switzerland other Jews while simultaneously embracing Switzerland, 2008, video, feature the humanity of all people. This film tells of the Israel, 2009, video, documentary 56 minutes 116 minutes historic irony that brought together two of the English and Hebrew with English subtitles Hebrew with English subtitles most personally compelling narratives I know Director: Erez Laufer Director: Igaal Niddam of–the fate of Jews fleeing Nazi tyranny and North American Premiere DC Premiere Best Actress and Best Actor, FIPA D’OR 2009 14 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 Shorts Program 1 TAKE FIVE: QUEER SHORTS, GOOD STORIES E 8:30 pm Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Films will not necessarily be presented in order listed.

MEESKEIT USA, 2009, video, 7 minutes Director: Neil Ira Needleman Mid-Atlantic Premiere The poignant story of two meeskeits—Yiddish for “beyond ugly”—and the beautiful relationship they never had. Brothers AND THOU SHALT LOVE

Meeskeit V’ahavta Two brothers struggle to come to terms with Israel, 2008, video, 30 minutes Hebrew with English subtitles their political and religious beliefs when they Director: Chaim Elbaum reunite in Israel after years of silence. Dan, a DC Premiere secular kibbutznik and staunch Zionist, lives Best Drama Award in Memory of Anat Pirchi, a quiet life with his family. His brother Aaron Jerusalem International Film Festival 2008 is a religious New York lawyer, who takes Best Short Film, Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival 2008 up a case defending the rights of Talmudic Ohed, a closeted Orthodox Jew, must confront the students to refuse military service. When the divide between his religious devotion and sexual case threatens to incite civil war, the two men preference when he falls in love with his yeshiva study And thou shalt love are forced to reexamine their relationship, partner. beliefs and political positions. The film opens SIDNEY TURTLEBAUM a subtle yet essential discussion on the sepa- UK, 2008, 35mm, 19 minutes ration of religion and state in Israel as well Director: Tristram Shapeero as the circumstances that tear families apart East Coast Premiere and bring them together again. Best Foreign Film, Los Angeles Short Film Festival 2009 A bittersweet story about an older gay man (Derek Reception hosted by the Embassy of Jacobi) who makes his living conning unsuspecting Switzerland following the screening grievers at shiva houses.

SPECIAL GUEST Igaal Niddam, Director Sidney Turtlebaum HELLO MY NAME IS HERMAN Canada, 2007, video, 10 minutes CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Switzer- Director: Karine Silverwoman land and the Embassy of Israel DC Premiere PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the 16th Best Short Film or Video, Toronto Inside Out Film Festival 2007 Street J’s Leo & Anna Smilow Center for A warmhearted look into the relationship between a Jewish Living and Learning 91-year-old Jewish man, his lesbian granddaughter and her girlfriend.

A TRIP TO PRAGUE LOST ISLANDS USA, 2006, video, 4 minutes Iim Avadim Hello my name is herman Director: Neil Ira Needleman E 7:30 pm Sketches come to life in the story of a life-changing trip to Prague with a nice Jewish couple. Back by popular Harold and Sylvia Greenberg request from the 19th WJFF. Theatre at American University SPECIAL GUESTS Daniel Jewel, Producer, Sidney Turtle- See page 12 baum; Karine Silverwoman, Director, Hello My Name Free film with current AU ID. Reservations Is Herman; Neil Ira Needleman, Director, and Herb suggested by calling the AU Center for Israel Rogoff, Illustrator,Meeskeit and A Trip to Prague Studies at (202) 885-3780. PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the 16th Street J’s A trip to Prague Co-sponsored by the Embassy Israel and Kurlander Program for Gay and Lesbian Outreach the Center for Israel Studies, College of and Engagement Arts and Sciences, American University For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 15 9 9 er b ecem D ednesday, ednesday, W Divided We Fall brain Storm capture the moment Marcel Reich-Ranicki

to play an important part in the charade. is no different. As both siblings traverse con- Based on the novel by Pëtr Jarchovsky. tinents, relationships and revelations, a tap- Wednesday estry of beauty, light and the healing power of I have loved so many of the features I pro- love emerges. grammed while director of the WJFF, but DECEMBER 9 Divided We Fall has stood out over the years. A.O. Scott, film critic for , PRECEDED BY: Sponsored by the Embassy of Israel said it best: the film “utilizes the rich Czech tra- dition of absurdist humanism, and constructs CAPTURE THE MOMENT Litpos et Ha’Rega RAFTING TO BOMBAY a universe booby-trapped with impossible E noon choices and ethical puzzles.” For me, this is an Israel, 2009, video Goethe-Institut Washington irresistible and unsentimental film that deals 13 minutes with difficult subject matter in a most unpre- Hebrew with English subtitles See page 14 dictable way. Director: Gili Boraks — Miriam Mörsel Nathan, WJFF Co-Director North American Premiere DIVIDED WE FALL 1990-1993 and Director 1994-2002 A young woman thinks she knows how to Musíme si pomáhat shoot a good photograph until she learns to really see from her heart. E 1:00 pm BRAIN STORM Aaron & Cecile Goldman E 6:15 pm CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel

th Czech Republic, 2000, 35mm, feature Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the 16 117 minutes Street J’s Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery Israel, 2008, video, documentary Czech with English subtitles 56 minutes Director: Jan Hrebejk English and Hebrew with English subtitles WJFF 2000 Directors: Yael Reich and Itai Lev MARCEL REICH-RANICKI – THE AUTHOR OF HIMSELF Nominated, Best Foreign Language Film, US Premiere Academy Awards 2000 Marcel Reich-Ranicki - Mein Leben After suffering a debilitating car accident, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best E 6:30 pm artist Eilon Reich fights to reconstruct his Actress and Best Screenplay, Czech Lion AFI Silver Theatre 2001 memories and rediscover his passions. This In a small Czech village during World War II, imaginative documentary, intimately filmed Germany/Poland, 2008, video, feature a childless couple hides their former neigh- by Eilon’s sister Yael, exposes the difficult 91 minutes process of rehabilitation for Eilon as well German and Polish with English subtitles bor, a young Jewish man who has managed Director: Dror Zahavi to escape from the death camps after losing as his family. Eilon’s vivid and sometimes his entire family. The couple must suddenly disturbing paintings and sculptures serve North American Premiere become pregnant in order to prevent a Nazi as his only outlet as he struggles to express Marcel Reich-Ranicki is arguably the most official from moving into the apartment and himself through words. Yael documents every influential and controversial critic of German discovering their secret boarder…who begins moment of her life, and her brother’s accident literature today. Yet far more riveting than

16 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 Father’s footsteps 10 Weitzman Street for making me a woman

much of the fiction he reviews is his own only to find the better life they dreamed of FOR MAKING ME life story, rooted in the darkest hours of the suddenly disrupted. Charming and devoted A WOMAN 20th Century. Based on his autobiography, father Felix (Gad Elmaleh) falls in with a Sep- E 8:00 pm this compelling film retraces Reick-Ranicki’s hardi gangster and turns to a life of crime to Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater remarkable life from his childhood in Poland support his family. Fiercely protective mother to captivity in the Warsaw Ghetto, his escape Mirieille (Yaël Abecassis, Live and Become, Israel, 2005, video, documentary and hiding with his wife until the end of the WJFF 2006) and youngest son Michel are left 50 minutes war, joining and then falling out with the Pol- loving, but questioning the man they thought Hebrew with English subtitles Director: Yoram Schaffer ish Communist Party, and, finally, his depar- they knew. Drawing on events and characters ture for West Germany in the late 1950s. from his childhood, first-time director Carmel DC Premiere Through it all, he never loses his love for Ger- seamlessly blends drama and comedy to cre- Hadar Galron is a comedian, actress, play- man literature, leading to the career that he ate an honest coming-of-age story and, in the wright…and orthodox Jewish woman who has passionately pursued for over 50 years. end, an uplifting portrait of a family re-defin- writes a feminist religious comedy show SPECIAL GUESTS Dror Zahavi, Director; ing what “the good life” means to them. and appears in solo stage shows calling for Katharina Trebitsch, Producer; Dr. Bar- a change in the Jewish paradigm, which was bara Buhl, Head of Fiction, TV Movie and PRECEDED BY: formed for hundreds of years by men only. As Motion Pictures, Westdeutscher Rundfunk much as she speaks out for equality, freedom Television 10 WEITZMAN STREET and a true role for orthodox women in public life, she also has to overcome the confusion PANEL MODERATED BY Marc Pachter, Cul- Israel, 2006, video inherent in the desire to change halacha (reli- tural Historian and former Director of the 13 minutes gious laws) while remaining observant. Talk- National Portrait Gallery Russian and Hebrew with English subtitles ing with orthodox high school girls is just one Director: Pini Tavger CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of the scene that reveals nothing about changing Federal Republic of Germany and Goethe- A Russian Jewish family immigrates to Israel the rules is a given, even in younger genera- Institut Washington and, while searching for their new apartment, tions. finds the behavior of their adopted country- PANEL DISCUSSION MODERATED BY Guila FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS men even stranger than the sudden air raid. Franklin Siegel, Director, Tikkun Olam Comme Ton Pére SPECIAL GUESTS Pini Tavger, Director Women’s Foundation of Greater Wash- E 7:30 pm (invited) ington Embassy of France CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel, CO-SPONSORED BY the Tikkun Olam Wom- Embassy of France and Alliance Française en’s Foundation of Greater Washington Israel/France, 2008, video, feature 95 minutes de Washington PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the 16th French, Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH the Street J’s Theater J and the May 2010 Director: Marco Carmel American Sephardi Federation and Magen production of by Hadar Galron A rambunctious, tight-knit Tunisian Jewish David Sephardic Congregation family moves from Israel to Paris in 1970,

For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 17 10 er b ecem D hursday hursday T

Strange Fruit the tale of nicolai and the law of return Home stumbling stone

Jewish communities. In this case, the story of a PRECEDED BY: painful history for both communities is revealed Thursday through interviews and film clips in this out- HOME standing film directed by Joel Katz. Israel, 1994, video DECEMBER 10 — Miriam Mörsel Nathan, co-director 17 minutes 1990-1993 and director 1994-2002 Hebrew with English subtitles Director: David Ofek Sponsored by the David Bruce Smith SPECIAL GUEST Joel Katz, director (invited) Family Foundation Director and WJFF favorite David Ofek explores the meaning of “home” and connection to place STRANGE FRUIT THE TALE OF NICOLAI AND through an intimate look at his own family. E Noon THE LAW OF RETURN CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel Goethe-Institut Washington Ha’Agada al Nicolai Ve’Hok Ha’Shvut E 6:00 pm PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH the USA, 2002, video, documentary and the DC Labor Film 57 minutes Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater English Festival Israel, 2008, video, documentary Director: Joel Katz 54 minutes “Southern trees bear a strange fruit. Blood on Hebrew and Romanian with English subtitles BROTHERS Director: David Ofek the leaves and blood at the root. Body swinging E 6:00 pm in the southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging Mid-Atlantic Premiere Avalon Theatre from the poplar trees.” Wolgin Award - Best Documentary Film, Jeru- This is the haunting first stanza of the song salem International Film Festival 2008 See page 14 “Strange Fruit,” one of the most important The story of Nicolai began in a tiny, remote protest songs of the 20th century. A bitter village in the Romanian region of Moldavia description of a , the words and music when Nicolai, like many thousands of other STUMBLING STONE Stolperstein were written by Abel Meeropol, a Jew of Rus- villagers, found himself out of work and E sian origin and New York City public school decided to seek his fortune overseas. For 7:00 pm teacher, who published under the name three years, he worked as a guest laborer in Goethe-Institut Washington Israel, exploited by the company that sent “Lewis Allan.” The song is an important anec- Germany/Austria/UK/Hungary, 2008, dote in the history of Black/Jewish relations, him there and unable to have much contact video, documentary music history and leftist politics. WJFF 2002 with his wife, who gave birth in his absence. 73 minutes Taking control of his destiny, he fled his English, Hungarian and German with English subtitles I was always moved by this excellent docu- employer and became an “illegal.” Caught and Director: Dörte Franke mentary that tells the history of the title song, sent to prison, his life suddenly takes a very DC Premiere first performed by Billie Holiday in 1939. We unexpected turn. With Nicolai playing himself screened Strange Fruit as part of our Windows German artist Gunter Demnig is on a contro- in this dramatic re-telling, the film raises ethi- versial mission to create small, but significant and Mirrors series, which celebrated the shared cal questions about life in Israel and the laws traditions between the African American and memorials to victims of the Nazis by single- that define its national identity. handedly laying markers—stolpersteins—

18 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 through the eye of the needle jump hello goodbye

engraved with the names of those taken JUMP HELLO GOODBYE during the Holocaust in front of what were E 7:30 pm E 8:30 pm once their homes. As beautifully documented Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Avalon Theatre in the film, so far Demnig has laid more than 17,000 hand-made memorial plaques that Austria, 2008, 35mm, feature Israel/France, 2008, 35mm, feature have become part of the streets in Germany, 118 minutes 98 minutes English French and Hebrew with English subtitles Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands and Director: Joshua Sinclair Director: Graham Guit will soon arrive in Belgium. East Coast Premiere DC Premiere PRECEDED BY: Legendary photographer Philippe Halsman Alain (Gerard Depardieu) and Gisèle (Fanny was known for capturing the essence of Ardant) are a Parisian couple in their fifties, THROUGH THE EYE celebrity personalities, in part by getting them sharing a comfortable upper middle class life, OF THE NEEDLE to jump as he photographed. His own person- beautiful home and country club membership ality, however, was defined by the tragic expe- when a dream vacation in Israel provokes a USA, 2009, video, documentary work-in-progress riences of his youth. As re-told dramatically midlife crisis. Gisèle, a Jew by choice, insists 6 minutes in the film, in 1928 Philippe (Ben Silverstone) they change their life and move to Tel Aviv Director: Nina Shapiro-Perl was on a mountain hike with his Jewish den- where their Parisian sensibilities crash into Searching for a way to keep alive the memory tist father Morduch Halsman (Heinz Hoenig) Israeli realities from lost luggage to the unac- of her lost family, Holocaust survivor and in Austria. After a fall, his father died, and commodating local bureaucracy. While she seamstress Esther Krinitz picked up her nee- Philippe was put on trial for murder, defended finds their new life inspiring and energizing dle and went back in time, creating an eyewit- by a Jewish lawyer Richard Pressburger (Pat- (especially her new heartthrob rabbi), Alain, ness account...and timeless art. rick Swayze in one of his last film roles). An a doctor, finds himself fighting to embrace increasingly anti-semitic crowd judged the Hebrew, Jewish tradition and a new circum- SPECIAL GUEST Marsha Rehns, Writer/Edi- defendant guilty even before Phillippe was cision. Will this couple discover “Shalom” tor, talking about laying a stolperstein for convicted of murder and given a life sentence. means Hello or Goodbye? her “Onkel Ignaz” and Nina Shapiro-Perl, Using transcripts from the trial and newspa- Director CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel, per accounts, the film vividly tells the true Embassy of France and Alliance Française CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of the Fed- story of one man’s personal tragedy that fore- de Washington eral Republic of Germany and the Goethe- shadowed what was yet to come in Europe. Institut Washington Screening followed by reception with the PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH Art producer and Remembrance, The Generation After, SPECIAL GUEST Lilly Berger, Producer Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Friends of Greater Washington

For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 19 12 12 er 11 11 b er b ecem D ecem D aturday, aturday, riday riday F S

the Imported bridegroom The wedding song Anita

tional first feature paints a loving picture of Jewish immigrants in turn-of-the-century Friday America. Saturday One of the joys of choosing films is always the DECEMBER 11 celebration of independent filmmaking and DECEMBER 12 the delightful Imported Bridegroom, made in Sponsored by BLACK OVER WHITE the filmmaker’s house, is a wonderful example Ralph & Louie Dweck of the challenges of doing it all. This film cel- E Noon ebrates old-fashioned romance and traditions Goethe-Institut Washington set in turn of the century America—themes not Please join us at 5:45 pm for our Menorah See page 10 often found in angst ridden Jewish films and Lighting in the Q Street Lobby. originally explored in the book by the Yiddish Forward’s founding editor Abraham Cahan. THE WEDDING SONG th Free Friday at the 16 Street J! — Aviva Kempner, Filmmaker and Le Chant des Mariées WJFF Founding Director THE IMPORTED E 6:15 pm Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater BRIDEGROOM INTRODUCTION BY Aviva Kempner SPECIAL GUEST Pamela Berger, Director France/Tunisia, 2009, 35mm, feature E 1:00 pm THIS FILM IS SUPPORTED BY the Chaim 100 minutes Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater French, Arabic and German with English subtitles Kempner Fund Director: Karin Albou USA, 1989, 35mm, feature Nour and Myriam, 16, have been friends 93 minutes since childhood, growing up around the same English courtyard in a modest neighborhood in Tunis Director: Pamela Berger where Jews and Muslims live in harmony. As the German army enters the city in 1942, A rich, widowed Boston landlord, trying to each girl is secretly desiring the other’s life. secure his place in heaven, returns to the “Old Myriam dreams of love while Nour, who is Country” to pray at his father’s grave for the mainly confined to the house, wants to go to Almighty to wipe out his sins. While there, school. Both are curious about men and sex. he finds a brilliant student, Shaya, whom he The Nazi presence has far-reaching effects on wants for his daughter Flora. She, however, both characters. Nour’s wedding is postponed wants to marry an “American doctor.” A sen- because her fiancé can’t find a job while timental comedy of assimilation with some Myriam’s mother (played by director Karin surprising twists along the way, this excep- Albou) must pay a huge fine for being a Jew- ish resident, forcing her daughter to marry a kind but much older doctor. Even as the girls grow apart, they find they need each other more than ever.

20 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 Shorts Program 2

13 13 IT ONLY TAKES A MOMENT:

er TURNING POINTS IN SHORT b E 10:30 pm Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater Films will not necessarily be presented in order listed. ecem

D WHAT ABOUT ME? Israel, 2008, video, 5 minutes Hebrew with English subtitles Director: Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen Absurdity unfolds as a man with a donkey car- unday, unday, rying bananas attempts to cross a checkpoint S in the middle of the Israeli desert. The earth cries out WHAT ABOUT ME? 15-40 USA/Denmark, 2007, video, 22 minutes SPECIAL GUEST Karin Albou, Director Director: Christian Bagger Based on the true story of Kai Hensen, a Dan- CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of France ish tennis player must decide whether to forfeit and Alliance Française de Washington a match in order to save a Jewish life.

ENDSIEG – EVERYTHING CHANGES JUMP IN ONE SHOT 15-40 Switzerland, 2008, 35mm, 12 minutes E 7:30 pm English and German with English subtitles AFI Silver Theatre Directors: Niccolo Castelli and Daniel Casparis The story of two American soldiers encounter- See page 19 ing a Nazi-outpost hidden in the Alps in the last days of World War II is told twice with shocking differences. ANITA E 8:30 pm TOYLAND Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater ENDSIEG Spielzeugland Germany, 2007, video, 14 minutes Argentina, 2009, 35mm, feature German with English subtitles 104 minutes Director: Jochen Alexander Freydank Spanish with English subtitles Best Short Film - Live Action, Academy Awards 2008 Director: Marcos Carnevale For two boys caught up in Nazi expulsions of Jews, a trip to Toyland isn’t everything they East Coast Premiere thought it would be. Anita Feldman, a young woman with Down

syndrome, lives a happy, routine life being TOYLAND PINHAS meticulously cared for by her mother (Norma Israel, 2008, video, 32 minutes Hebrew and Russian with English subtitles Aleandro). But one tragic morning changes Director: Pini Tavger everything when Anita is left alone, confused Audience Award, Brooklyn International and helpless when the nearby Argentine Film Festival 2009 Israelite Mutual Association is bombed. As Nominated, Student Academy Awards 2009 she wanders through the city, she learns not A nine-year-old Russian immigrant finds reli- only to care for herself, but touches the lives gion and the family he longs for when he gets to know the neighbors living upstairs. of those around her, from an alcoholic to a PINHAS family of Asian immigrants. Alejandra Manzo, MY AMULET an actress living with Down syndrome, gives UK, 2008, video, 8 minutes a heartbreaking and touching performance in Director: Leah Thorn the title role. Spoken-word poet Leah Thorn’s childhood home movies set the scene for her rapid-fire CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of monologue about what it means to be an Argentina Anglo-Jew. CO-SPONSORED BY DC Shorts Film Festival MY AMULET For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 21 13 er b ecem D unday unday S

The jester Room and a half 18 km

the appearance and behavior of British sol- ROOM AND A HALF diers carrying out their orders to contain the Poltory Komnaty Sunday Jews.” (New York Times, August 31, 1949) E 1:45 pm CO-SPONSORED BY the Italian Cultural Avalon Theatre DECEMBER 13 Institute of Washington, DC , 2009, 35mm, feature Sponsored by 130 minutes CrossCurrents Foundation English and Russian with English subtitles THE JESTER Director: Andrey Krizhanovsky Der Purimspiler E 11:30 am DC Premiere Please join us at 6:45 pm for our Menorah FIPRESCI International Critics Prize for New Avalon Theatre Lighting in the Q Street Lobby. Directors, Haifa International Film Festival 2009 A special free screening! Poland, 1937, 35mm, feature 90 minutes A lyrical journey through fact and fiction into THE EARTH CRIES OUT Yiddish with new English subtitles the life of Nobel Prize-winning Jewish-Rus- Directors: Joseph Green and Jan Nowina-Przybylski Il Grido Della Terra sian poet Joseph Brodsky. Due to the political nature of his writings, Brodsky was exiled E 11:30 pm From the directors of Yiddle with His Fiddle, from Russia in 1972. The film imagines his Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater The Jester stars a lonely wanderer (War- return to the city of his roots, a nostalgic look , 1949, 35mm, feature saw Yiddish Art Theater founder Zygmunt back at the happy years spent in his cramped 90 minutes Turkow), a circus performer and Esther the family apartment with his talented, if not a bit Italian with English subtitles shoemaker’s daughter (husband/wife Yiddish eccentric, parents and his ascent as a fixture Director: Duilio Coletti theater stars Hymie Jacobson and Miriam in the cultural scene. Brilliantly blending a Kressyn). Filmed on location in Poland, the The post-war conflict between the British and variety of cinematic styles and techniques lively vaudeville scenes offer a glimpse of Jews in Palestine is captured with realistic including live-action, animation and archival Warsaw’s then-thriving Yiddish cabarets, and compassionate exploration of both sides footage, the film creates a rich portrait of the which were destroyed soon after. New 35mm in this carefully restored film. “With arresting acclaimed writer as well as a revealing look at film restoration including preservation of rare reality, they have pictured the hardships and St. Petersburg in the years after World War II. color toning, and complete new English sub- the fortitude of Jews on their way to Palestine SPECIAL GUESTS Alla Verlotsky, Film Distrib- titles by The National Center for Jewish Film. from Italy aboard a broken-down, blockade- utor, in conversation with Leon Wieseltier, running ship, the eagerness and the resolu- PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH Yid- Literary Editor, The New Republic tion of these immigrants to reach the perilous dish of Greater Washington PRESENTED IN COOPERATION WITH the shore and their overwhelming rapture upon th PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the 16 National Gallery of Art and the Russian their safe arrival in a Jewish colony. Likewise, Street J’s Department of Literature, Music Cultural Centre they have imaged, with documentary care, and Dance PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the 16th Street J’s Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival

22 For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 The red toy Heart of stone The gift to Stalin

18 KM Under the ever-present eye of security cam- SPECIAL GUESTs Beth Toni Kruvant, Director, E 2:00 pm eras, a red toy makes its way through many and E. Ethelbert Miller, Author/Director, Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater different hands—and lives—in East Jerusalem. African American Resource Center, CO-SPONSORED BY the Embassy of Israel Howard University Israel, 2008, video, feature CO-SPONSORED BY the Academy of Motion 76 minutes Hebrew with English subtitles Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Director: Avi Levi HEART OF STONE WJFF Community Education and Outreach E 4:00 pm Initiative Boaz, an army officer, longs for a wife and Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater family. Miriam, his half-blind mother, is still a USA, 2008, video, documentary THE WEDDING SONG powerful woman mourning her husband. His 84 minutes younger brother Yuval pursues his musical English Le Chant des Mariées dreams as a way out. Keren, a single mother, Director: Beth Toni Kruvant E 5:00 pm is raising her young daughter and looking Avalon Theatre DC Premiere for a partner, although still grieving for her Audience Award, Slamdance Film Festival See page 20 husband. Hassan, a former Palestinian photo- 2008 journalist, regrets being forced to cooperate Best Feature Film, Philadelphia Film Festival with the IDF in order to get medical treat- 2009 ments for his daughter. Hassan’s wife Nadra Best Documentary Film, Cinequest Film THE GIFT TO STALIN Podarok Stalinu keeps in close touch with his sister, Annan, Festival 2009 who is married to Asraf, a wanted terrorist Newark New Jersey’s legendary Weequahic E 7:30 pm from Gaza. Just 24 hours in the lives of peo- High School was one of the best schools in Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater ple for whom conflict is pervasive, forgiveness the country before the 1960s, immortalized difficult and the need for communication by alum Philip Roth. By 2000, WHS was one Closing Night Film and Hanukkah Party paramount. of the country’s most violent schools in the 12th most dangerous city in the US. Ron Stone, See page 5 PRECEDED BY: a tough, unconventional principal, took over the school in 2001 and began trading guns THE RED TOY and gangs for classes and even college. Join- Israel, 2005, video ing forces with the committed alumni associ- 12 minutes ation—mostly older Jews and younger African No dialogue Americans—the school is slowly transformed Director: Dani Rosenberg into a model for other inner city schools, dem- Best Short Film, Jerusalem International Film onstrating that by working together, disparate Festival 2004 groups can join forces to give their schools— Best Short Film, Miami International Film and children—hope for the future. Festival 2005

For Tickets Visit wjff.org or call (800) 494-8497 23 $100,000 + THANK YOU Ann Loeb Bronfman The Robert M. Fisher Memorial Foundation The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington 20TH WASHINGTON JEWISH Deborah Brudno and David Bernstein Hazel Groman Nextbook, Inc. United Jewish Endowment Fund FILM FESTIVAL FUNDERS Frances and Leonard Burka Judyth Groner Richard and Amira Chadwick Rachel Hecht Carol Ann Dyer Naomi and Jack Heller $50,000 - $99,999 FESTIVAL SPONSORS Arlene and David Epstein Linda and Jay Herson The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz DC Commission on the Arts Karen and Baruch Fellner Edith and Arthur Hessel Foundation and Humanities Lorraine Gallard and Richard Levy Ronald Kaplan and Yoni Bock Arlene and Robert Kogod Embassy of Israel Paula Seigle Goldman Sid Kaplan Melanie and Lawrence Nussdorf Jewish Federation of Greater Washington Susan Sachs Goldman Marilyn (Mickey) Klein Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Lisa and Tom Goldring Hynda Kleinman and Nolan Danchik Foundation Washington Jewish Week Grace Guggenheim Phyllis Kline and Norman Lord Serve DC: The Mayor’s Office on Marlene and Samuel Halperin Marjorie and Lawrence Kravitz Volunteerism EVENING SPONSORS Florence and Peter D. Hart Gary Laden, Esq. David Bruce Smith Academy of Motion Picture Arts Wiiliam Kreisberg Roslyn Lang and Sciences Rosalind Avnet Lazarus Bill Levenson $25,000 - $49,999 Melinda Bieber and Norman Pozez Dr. Sherry Levy-Reiner and Gisela Marcuse Jamie and Joseph A. Baldinger CrossCurrents Foundation Rabbi Fred N. Reiner Barbara Bordwell McGrew Diane and Norman Bernstein Louie and Ralph Dweck Dalya and Edward Luttwak Paula Veiner McMartin Melinda Bieber and Norman Pozez Charlotte and Jacob Lehrman Stuart Meyers Dr. Paul and Sophie Nemirovsky DC Commission on the Arts and Foundation Joy Midman Ruth and Pedi Neta Humanities Barbara and Michael Smilow Linda and Sid Moskowitz Nina and Sam Niedzviecki Louie and Ralph Dweck David Bruce Smith Family Foundation Dorothy Moss and Larry Meyer Laura and M. Louis Offen Stuart S. Kurlander Miriam Mörsel Nathan and Harvey Debra Pincus National Endowment for the Arts DIRECTOR Nathan in memory of Linda Posell Edna and Larry Povich Philip L. Graham Fund United Jewish Endowment Fund Lynn and Stan Oshinsky Deborah Prigal Robert H. Smith Family Foundation Judith and Herbert Weintraub Sarah Pokempner and Gerald Levine Wilma Probst Levy and Louis Levy The Shubert Foundation Elaine Reuben Estelle Quain Trish and George Vradenburg LIGHTS Gerald Schwinn in memory Melinda and Robert Robbins Lisa and Josh Bernstein of Linda Posell Gary Rosenthal $15,000 - $24,999 Diana Engel Lori Ann Skolnick Phyllis Schottenstein Lisa and Josh Bernstein Brenda Gruss and Daniel Hirsch Deborah Tannen and Michael Macovski Claudine Schweber Ginny and Irwin Edlavitch Belman Klein Associates, Ltd Francine Zorn Trachtenberg and Samantha and Peter Seigman Susie and Michael Gelman Connie and Jay Krupin Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Carolyn and Martin Shargel Alexander Greenbaum Melanie and Larry Nussdorf Lise Van Susteren and Paul Siegel Brenda Gruss and Daniel Hirsch Peggy Parsons Jonathan Kempner Howard Sokolove Tamara and Harry Handelsman Lynn and John Sachs Elizabeth and David Wagger Yulia Spivak and Roman Svirsky Susy and Thomas Kahn Deborah and Michael Salzberg Joan Wessel Rose-Helene and Paul Spreiregen Jacob & Charlotte Lehrman Foundation Richard Solloway Cecille and Sam Steinberg Diane and Arnold Polinger Diane Abelman Wattenberg FAN Carol Ann Strauss Deborah and Michael Salzberg Gabriela Bebchick John Tolleris Charlotte and Hank Schlosberg CAMERA Paula Bienenfeld and Emlen Myers Sherwin Turk The Abe & Kathryn Selsky Foundation Charlotte and Michael Baer Elaine Braverman Mindy and Sheldon Weisel Patti and Jerry Sowalsky Kathy Borrus and Josh Gronsbell Stuart Carlow Joan Weiss Lori and Les Ulanow Laura and Michael Faino Bonnie and Louis Cohen Vera and Isaac Weissman George Wasserman Family Dina Gold Lois Cohen Sandra Weiswasser Foundation, Inc. Martha Winter Gross and Robert Tracy Victoria Cordova Sharon Zamore Sally Kaplan Carla and Raphael Danziger The above list represents gifts received as $10,000 - $14,999 Aviva Kempner Natalie and Laurence Dickter of October 21, 2009. Anonymous Dianne and Herbert Lerner Rita Dolan Patty Abramson and Les Silverman Rikki and Nat Lewin Alison Drucker and Thomas Holzman Michele and Allan Berman Iris Lipkowitz Anita and Edward Dworkin DONORS TO THE Deborah Carliner and Robert Remes Myra and Allen Mondzac Sara Ehrman WASHINGTON DC JEWISH Rose and Robert Cohen Joan Nathan and Allan Gerson Diane and Ron Eichner COMMUNITY CENTER Ryna, Mel, Marcella and Neil Cohen Dori Phaff and Dan Raviv Margery and Mel Elfin The Corps Network Zelda Porte Burton Epstein The Washington DCJCC wishes to thank DC Office on Aging Rabbi Mindy Portnoy Debra and Marvin Feuer all those who made contributions to the The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Deborah and Juan Prawda Leesa Fields and Jonathan Band JCC to help support our programs dur- Foundation, Inc. Tabard Inn Lois and Michael Fingerhut ing the 2009 fiscal year (July 1, 2008– Lois & Richard England Family Foundation Tikkun Olam Women’s Foundation of Michael Fleischhacker June 30, 2009). Your support has been The Fannie Mae Foundation Greater Washington Ronna and Stan Foster invaluable in allowing us to create and Marilyn and Michael Glosserman Marion and Michael Usher David Fox sustain programs of excellence through- Rena and Michael Gordon Natalie Wexler and James Feldman Sharyn and Arthur Fuchs out the year. Martha Winter Gross and Robert Tracy Mindy Gasthalter Barbara and Jack Kay ACTION Ellen Gerecht Due to space limitations only donors of Thelma and Melvin Lenkin Rabbi and Babs Abramowitz Laura Glassman $1,000 or more are listed. The Washing- The Schoenbaum Family Foundation Miriam and Eliezer Benbassat Anita Glick ton DCJCC would like to thank all of our Rhea Schwartz and Paul Wolff Sanders H. Berk, MD and Sally Berk Debra Goldberg and Seth Waxman donors for the important impact they United Way of the National Capital Area Dava Berkman Marcia Goldberg have on our work. For a complete list of Natalie Wexler and James Feldman Barrett Brick and Antonio Ruffini Michael Goldstein donors to the Washington DCJCC visit Irene and Alan Wurtzel Bridge Street Books Vivian and Phil Gorden washingtondcjcc.org/donate. $5,000 - $9,999 Jeff Menick Joan and Barry Rosenthal Anonymous Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Sanford Schwartz WJFF STAFF Esthy and Jim Adler Alfred Munzer and Joel Wind Victor Shargai Susan H. Barocas, Festival Director Beverly Bernstein Elaine Reuben Risa Shargel and Rumen Buzatov Jennifer L. Katz, Public Relations Director Blum-Kovler Foundation Sylvia Ritzenberg* Charitable Trust Albert and Shirley Small Josh Gardner, Festival Coordinator Ann and Donald Brown Loretta Rosenthal Michelle Smith Seth Finkle, Festival Assistant Susie and Kenton Campbell Chaya and Walter Roth Richard Solloway Margalit Rosenthal, Box Office Children’s Charities Foundation Daryl and Steven Roth Sarah Rabin Spira and Mark Spira Debra Lerner Cohen and Edward Cohen Jane Nathan Rothschild Margaret Hahn Stern and Stephen Stern Janet Langhart Cohen and Beth Rubenstein and Evan Markiewicz Samson and Andrew Stern SPECIAL THANKS William Cohen Michael Singer Katherine and Thomas Sullivan CrossCurrents Foundation Sondheimer Family Charitable Tabard Corporation Diana Altman, Moment Magazine Embassy of Israel Foundation Michael Tacelosky Caitlin Barile, Box Office Tickets Lois and Michael Fingerhut Saul I. Stern Annie and Sami Totah Sylvia Blume, Goethe-Institut Jane and Charles Forman Mindy Strelitz and Andrew Cornblatt David and Rita Trachtenberg Washington The Aaron & Cecile Goldman Family The Washington Post Company Marion and Michael Usher Juliet Burch, National Center Foundation Diane Abelman Wattenberg Lise Van Susteren and Jonathan for Jewish Film Cheryl and Ken* Gorelick Kempner Roland Celette, Embassy of France Deborah Harmon and Robert Seder $1,000 - $2,499 Matthew Watson Michèle Colburn, Embassy of William Kreisberg Anonymous(2) Judith and Herbert Weintraub Switzerland Sandra and Stephen Lachter Wendi and Daniel Abramowitz Cynthia Wolloch and Joseph Reid Laura Cutler, AU Center for Israel Jacqueline and Marc Leland Alternative Gifts of Greater Washington Margot and Paul Zimmerman Studies Joy Lerner and Stephen Kelin Agatha and Laurence Aurbach Members of the 2009 and 2010 Board Karen Davis, Palm Beach JFF Marion and Larry Lewin Participants from the Behrend-Adas of Directors appear in italics Tara Dennard, Embassy of the Federal Linda Lipsett and Jules Bernstein Senior Lunch Fellowship * of blessed memory Republic of Germany MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger Bender Foundation Inc. Esther Finder, Generation After, Inc. Arna Meyer Mickelson Dava Berkman Lawrence Fishbein, President and and Alan Mickelson Ellen Berman WJFF FILM COUNCIL Publisher, Washington Jewish Week Faye and Jack Moskowitz The Bernstein Companies Nancy Fishman, San Francisco JFF Linda and Sid Moskowitz Suanne and Richard Beyda Diane Abelman Wattenberg, Chair Joshua Ford Prince Charitable Trusts Mara Bralove and Ari Fisher Babs Abramowitz Guila Franklin Siegal, Tikkun Olam Kathy and Thomas Raffa Amelie and Bernei Burgunder, Jr. Ed Cohen Women’s Foundation Renay and William Regardie Sharon and David Butler Lois Fingerhut Nicola Galliner, Berlin JFF Rae Ringel and Amos Hochstein Susan and Dixon Butler Dina Gold Michele Giacolone, Italian Cultural Debra and Jonathan Rutenberg Mimi Conway and Dennis Houlihan Linda Kaufman Institute of Washington Lynn and John Sachs Nancy and Morris Deutsch Aviva Kempner, Founding Director Sharon Gil, Embassy of Israel Evelyn Sandground and Bill Perkins Elizabeth and Richard Dubin Connie Krupin Seth Goldman, Honest Tea Emily Schoenbaum Nava and Mark Ely Roz Lazarus Nikole Grad, Graphic Design Barbara and Michael Smilow Laura and Michael Faino Joy Midman Jean Graubart, Smilow Center SunTrust Bank Melissa and Joshua Ford Miriam Mörsel Nathan, Director Emeritus for Jewish Living and Learning Francine Zorn Trachtenberg and Lorraine Gallard and Richard Levy Dori Phaff Vered Guttman, Cardamom & Mint Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Geico Philanthropic Foundation Renay Regardie Catering Marvin Weissberg Richard Gerber Bob Remes Todd Hitchcock, AFI Silver Theatre Joan Wessel Sarah and Bernard Gewirz Barbara Smilow Lili Kalish Gersch, Literary, Music Rosa D. Wiener Ann and Frank Gilbert Marion Usher and Dance Programs Carolyn and William Wolfe Albert Girod Aviva Kempner Woodbury Fund Rhoda and Dan Glickman 2009 WJFF STEERING Justin Lerner, Director, Gay & Lesbian Ellen and Bernard Young Paula Seigle Goldman Outreach and Engagement (GLOE) Judy and Leo Zickler Ira Hillman and Jeremy Barber COMMITTEE Deborah Lipnick, Embassy of Israel Rory and Shelton Zuckerman The Holton-Arms School Laurent Mellier, Alliance Française Judith and Paul Ianuale Deb Ashner, Hospitality and Events de Washington Italian Cultural Institute Roz Cohen, Special Events Andy Mencher, Avalon Theatre $2,500 - $4,999 Rebeccah Goldstein-Gan, Audience Adas Israel Congregation JCC Assocation of North America Deborah Miller, Tikkun Olam Award Barbara and Rabbi Nathan Abramowitz Sally Kaplan Women’s Foundation Trish Kent, Hospitality Natalie and Paul Abrams Betsy Karmin and Manny Strauss Miriam Mörsel Nathan Shira Keyes, Special Events Marnie Abramson Laine and Norton Katz Peggy Parsons, National Gallery Hannah Kruglanski, Opening and Closing Amy and Stephen Altman Ruthe and Nathan Katz of Art Nights Arlene and Kenneth Becker Aviva Kempner Sam Phillips Erik Ladinsky, Webmaster Dorothy Bennett Linda Klein , Artistic Director, Theater J Bill Levenson, Theater Operations Joan and Alan Berman Bette and William Kramer Annette Sheckler, Embassy of Ethiopia Dan Levenson, Theater Operations Caryn Cohen Laurie Kramer Antoine Sebire, Embassy of France Judy Levy, Volunteer Coordination Sarah Cohen and Norman Rich Amy and Kenneth Krupsky Laura Seltzer, Seltzer Film and Video Stuart Levy, Volunteer Coordination Beth and Ronald Dozoretz The Louis J. Kuriansky Foundation, Inc. Sara Smith, J on Demand Bruce MacIver, Theater Operations Lois and Richard England Steven Lustig Conrado Solari Yrigoyen, Embassy Tamara Miller, Shabbat Dinner Myrna Fawcett Ellen and Gary Malasky of Argentina Dori Phaff, Opening and Closing Nights Federal Emergency Management Agency Jennifer Mizrahi George Spina, Pillsbury Travel Maurice Singer, Concessions Linda and Jay Freedman Dorothy Moss and Larry Meyer Bernice Steinhardt, Art and Anke Stoneman, Theater Operations Joanne Fungaroli Lawrence Muenz Remembrance Barbara Taylor, Concessions Debra Goldberg and Seth Waxman Shirlee Ornstein Rita Venturelli, Italian Cultural Mary and Robert Haft Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning Institute of Washington Roberta Hantgan Carol and David Pensky Bertram von Moltke, Embassy of G. Scott Hong Thomas and Sue Pick Family Fund the Federal Republic of Germany Sandra and Arnold Leibowitz Ruth and Stephen Pollak Brendan Wall, Embassy of Australia Edward Lenkin Stanley Rabinowitz The WJFF catalog was designed Susan Weidman Schneider, Lilith Richard Levy Georgia Ravitz by Cutting Edge Design Magazine Zena and Paul J. Mason Carol Risher (www.cuttingedgedc.com). Thank Cathryn and Scot McCulloch Toni Ritzenberg you to Sarah, Katie and Sally! JUDY GOLD IS Morris Cafritz center MOMMY QUEEREST! for community service Starring Judy Gold December 25th Day of Service

Over 1,000 volunteers needed Serve over 50 community organizations DEC 16–JAN 3

Star of the critically acclaimed 25 Ques- Distribute 6,000 + gifts tions for a Jewish Mother, comedian Judy Help 10,000 people Gold is back in this edgy, multi-media comic memoir with original music featuring her hysterical take on being a working gay mom, anti-depressants, nursing homes, and raising two boys in New York City.

The Morris Cafritz Center for Community Service is supported by the Capital Area Food Bank, FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program, the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and ServeDC: (800) 494-8496 I theaterj.org The Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism

E E E Print sources

10 Weitzman Street For Making Me a Woman Marcel Reich-Ranicki – The Tale of Nicolai [email protected] [email protected] The Author of Himself and The Law of Return www.go2films.com www.israelifilms.co.il [email protected] [email protected] www.edenproductions.co.il 15-40 From Swastika to Jim Crow Mary and Max [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Through the Eye of the Needle www.christianbagger.com www.psfp.com www.ifcfilms.com [email protected] www.artandremembrance.org 18 KM The Gift to Stalin A Matter of Size [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Toyland www.go2films.com www.menemshafilms.com [email protected] The Girl on the Train www.magnetfilm.de Ajami [email protected] Meeskeit [email protected] www.strandreleasing.com [email protected] A Trip to Prague www.kino.com [email protected] The Green Dumpster Mystery My Amulet And Thou Shalt Love [email protected] [email protected] The Wedding Song [email protected] www.leahthorn.com [email protected] Heart of Stone www.maale.co.il www.strandreleasing.com [email protected] My Mother’s Courage Anita www.goodfootageproductions.com [email protected] What About Me? [email protected] www.jewishfilm.org [email protected] www.finecut.co.kr Hello Goodbye [email protected] The Name My Mother Gave Me Will Eisner: Black Over White www.libent.com [email protected] Portrait of a Sequential Artist [email protected] www.ruthfilms.com Hello My Name is Herman [email protected] www.ruthfilms.com www.montillapictures.com [email protected] Nasty Girl Brain Storm [email protected] Home The Worst Company in the World [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Pinhas www.ruthfilms.com Broken Promise www.ruthfilms.com [email protected] [email protected] www.go2films.com www.filmeurope.eu Human Failure [email protected] Quentin and Ferdinand Brothers www.menemshafilms.com [email protected] Washington [email protected] www.sagaproduction.ch DCJCC www.troubadour-films.com The Imported Bridegroom [email protected] Rafting to Bombay Camera Obscura www.jewishfilm.org [email protected] Robert Tracy [email protected] President www.jewishfilm.org In Search of the Bene Israel The Red Toy [email protected] [email protected] Diane Abelman Capture the Moment www.sadiashepard.com www.ruthfilms.com Wattenberg [email protected] WJFF Chairperson The Jester Room and a Half [email protected] Cycles [email protected] Arna Meyer Mickelson www.jewishfilm.org [email protected] www.seagullfilms.com Chief Executive Officer

Divided We Fall Jump Sidney Turtlebaum Margaret Hahn Stern [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Chief Operating Officer www.sonyclassics.com www.thirdmanfilms.co.uk The Legend of Mrs. Goldman Joshua Ford The Earth Cries Out and the Almighty God Srugim Chief Programming Officer www.csc-cinematographia.it [email protected] [email protected] www.jewishfilm.org www.go2films.com Judith Ianuale Endsieg - Everything Changes Chief Financial Officer in One Shot Lost Islands Strange Fruit [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Mark Spira www.zhdk.ch www.filmsdistribution.com www.onierafilms.com Chief Development Officer

Father’s Footsteps Lost Paradise Stumbling Stone Ari Roth [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Co-Director, Morris Cafritz www.jewishfilm.org www.hu-film.de Center for the Arts Love and Religion: The Challenge Filmed by Yitzhak of Interfaith Relationships Surrogate Susan Barocas [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Director, Washington Jewish www.israelifilms.co.il www.israelifilms.co.il Film Festival our sponsors & partners 20th WASHINGTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL

Festival Sponsors

Executive Producer Producer

Embassy of Australia

Embassy of Ethiopia

PILLSBURY TRAVEL

Associate Producer

Bridge Street Books Brookville Market Jewish Community Radio

Community Partners

AFI Silver Theatre Embassy of India Gary Rosenthal Collection Alliance Française de Washington Embassy of Kazakhstan Russian Cultural Centre Avalon Theatre Finkle Distributors, Inc. Special Tees Inc. California Tortilla Chinatown Harold and Sylvia United States Holocaust Dancing Moose Photography Greenberg Theatre Memorial Museum Embassy of Argentina Parthenon Restaurant Women in Film & Video DC THE SCREENING ROOM at the Washington DCJCC presents

E New and award-winning films every month of the year E Special premieres, programs and guests

FILM HOTLINE (202) 777-3231 · washingtondcjcc.org/FILM

Washington District of Columbia Jewish Community Center Irwin P. Edlavitch Building Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts 1529 Sixteenth Street NW Washington, DC 20036 wjff.org washingtondcjcc.org