The 2018 BJFF Catalog
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BOSTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 30th ANNUAL FESTIVAL NOVEMBER 7-19, 2018 / bostonjfilm.org 30th ANNUAL FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: WEDNESDAY I’VE GOTTA BE ME NOVEMBER 7 7:00 PM Coolidge Corner Theatre Throughout his legendary career, Sammy Davis, Jr. strove for the American Dream despite the odds of racial prejudice. When Davis converted Director Samuel D. Pollard to Judaism, he yoked his identity to yet another Documentary, 2017 persecuted minority. Electrifying performance USA, 100 min, English excerpts, never-before-seen photographs, and Boston Premiere interviews with renowned performers paint a vivid picture of this extraordinary artist’s life in Join us for a Passholder this award-winning documentary. Party at Gen Sou En Teahouse following the screening. Followed by a conversation with the director Samuel D. Pollard and preceded by a live musical performance 1 MIDFEST EVENT WEDNESDAY THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS NOVEMBER 14 6:30 PM Assumed to be lost for decades, this Coolidge Corner Theatre 1924 film was rediscovered in a Paris flea market in 2015. Eerily prescient about Director Hans Karl Breslauer the Holocaust, the film was adapted Narrative, 1924, Austria, 91 min from a satirical novel and begins with Silent with English intertitles the election of an anti-Semitic chancellor With live musical accompani- who exiles all his city’s Jews. While the ment by Jeff Rapsis. chancellor’s daughter is devastated to see her Jewish boyfriend go, most of the Jeff Rapsis is a composer city enthusiastically supports the new and performer of live musical law. But, with the Jews gone, the city’s scores for silent film economy declines, inflation becomes screenings. rampant, and cultural life disappears. The government must decide—save the city or Join us for a Passholder stand by its anti-Semitic legislation? Party at Osaka Restaurant following the screening. Followed by a conversation 2 CLOSING NIGHT SPECIAL PREVIEW MONDAY SCREENING NOVEMBER 19 7:00 PM Somerville Theatre Join us for Closing Night of the 30th annual Boston Jewish Film Festival. Join us for a Passholder This special screening will be announced Party at Orleans Restaurant on October 19 on the Boston Jewish Film following the screening. website: bostonjfilm.org. 3 8th Annual FRESHFLIX FIND YOUR TRIBE Short Film Competition Short Film Program An annual celebration of the next Join us for a series of international generation of filmmakers with inter- short films about people searching national shorts, conversations, and for community, sometimes in the a post-screening party! For more unlikeliest of places. information visit bostonjfilm.org DAVID, IN BRIEF AMERICA Director Jeffrey Braverman Director Nadav Arbel Documentary, 2017, USA, 16 min Narrative, 2018, Israel, 16 min English DEATH METAL GRANDMA A DAY IN ROME Director Leah Galant Director Valerio Ciriaci Documentary, 2018, USA, 13 min Documentary, 2017, Italy/USA 31 min, Italian with subtitles THE DOUBLE DATE Directors Eli Batalion & DEATH METAL GRANDMA Jamie Elman Director Leah Galant Narrative, 2016, Canada, 7 min Documentary, 2018, USA, 13 min English THE LAW OF AVERAGES Director Elizabeth Rose LEAVE OF ABSENCE Narrative, 2016, Canada, 14 min Director Moshe Rosenthal Narrative, 2017, Israel, 18 min OPEN YOUR EYES Hebrew with subtitles Director Ilay Mevorach Narrative, 2017, Israel, 14 min WENDY’S SHABBAT Director Rachel Myers OUR HEROES Documentary, 2017, USA, 10 min Director Yair Agmon English Narrative, 2016, Israel, 17 min Followed by a conversation with filmmakers EVENT TIME Thursday, November 8, 7:00 pm EVENT TIME Somerville Theatre Saturday, November 17, 6:30 pm Museum of Fine Arts (Remis Auditorium) 4 TLV TV BINGE SATAN & ADAM Be transported from Boston to Director V. Scott Balcerek Tel Aviv. Watch the shows taking Documentary, 2018, USA, 78 min Tel Aviv and the rest of Israel by English storm. Join us for an afternoon binge of three TV shows. Can’t stay Wandering through Harlem in all day? Come for just one show—or 1986, Adam Gussow, a heartbroken two! Afraid you’ll be hooked? We will Jewish Ivy Leaguer with a harmo- be screening additional episodes of nica in his pocket, happened upon Shababnikim following the Festival. the best blues guitar he had ever heard: Sterling “Mr. Satan” Magee, Shows Include: who once played with Etta James, Marvin Gaye, and James Brown. SHABABNIKIM Satan and Adam, an unlikely pair, SEASON 1 (EPISODES 1—3) quickly became a steady duo on 1:00 pm the street outside the Apollo For more information, see page 21 Theater, and eventually, through struggles with the music industry YOUR HONOR and mental illness, a successful SEASON 1 (EPISODES 1—3) band. Satan & Adam is a 23-year 3:15 pm odyssey of music and friendship— For more information, see page 26 across races, classes, and SLEEPING BEARS generations. SEASON 1 (EPISODES 1—3) Followed by a Q&A and live blues 5:30 pm performance by Adam Gussow and For more information, see page 22 Chris “Stovall” Brown. EVENT TIME EVENT TIME Sunday, November 18, 1:00 pm Saturday, November 17, 8:00 pm Brattle Theatre Somerville Theatre Additional screening on Sunday, November 19 (Q&A only) For more information, see page 16 5 THE ACCOUNTANT 93QUEEN OF AUSCHWITZ Director Paula Eiselt Director Matthew Shoychet Documentary, 2018, USA, 85 min Documentary, 2018, Canada English and Yiddish with subtitles 78 min, English and German with subtitles Within the ultra-Orthodox enclaves New England Premiere of Brooklyn, Rachel “Ruchie” Freier, a lawyer and mother of six, is More than 40 years after serving revolutionizing the role of women in as an SS officer at Auschwitz, daily life by training them to work as Oskar Gröning told the world what EMTs—an alternative to Hatzolah, he had done; his admission led the all-male Jewish volunteer to his trial for complicity in the ambulance corps. Ruchie’s belief murder of 300,000 Jews. While the that Orthodox women deserve majority of SS officers have gone female EMTs drives her to overcome unprosecuted, a new generation her community’s objections and to is reopening investigations against bring her vision to reality. the living perpetrators of some of history’s worst crimes. Gröning’s trial November 12 screening followed and others like it raise fundamental by a conversation with director moral questions with few simple Paula Eiselt answers. SCREENING TIMES Screening with The Driver is Red Saturday, November 10, 6:30 pm Director Randall Christopher JCC Riemer-Goldstein Theater Documentary, 2017, USA, 15 min Monday, November 12, 6:30 pm Screening as part of the Cummings Coolidge Corner Theatre Social Justice Film Series. Followed by a conversation with director Matthew Shoychet SCREENING TIME Tuesday, November 13, 7:00 pm West Newton Cinema 6 TEEN SCREEN: BJFF Jr! Presents: ALMOST FAMOUS AN AMERICAN TAIL Director Marco Carmel Director Don Bluth Narrative, 2017, Israel, 95 min Narrative, 1986, USA, 80 min Hebrew with subtitles English New England Premiere Steven Spielberg’s first animated Shir has a best friend, excellent production is fun for the whole grades, and butterflies in her family! In this animated classic, stomach whenever she sees the a young Russian mouse named handsome Omri. When her older Fievel Mousekewitz is separated brother, Tomer, competes on a from his family when he arrives in musical reality TV show, the popular America. Forced to navigate the kids suddenly start noticing her. Is streets of New York all alone, he Tomer’s mega-fame Shir’s ticket to meets friendly and hostile mice popularity? How far is she willing to and even befriends a dreaded go to join the popular crowd and get cat. An ageless and ever-relevant Omri’s attention? immigration tale full of adventure, triumph, and lots of laughs. Join us in the Passholder Lounge at La Tate Mexican Restaurant before SCREENING TIME the West Newton screening. Sunday, November 11, 12:00 pm JCC Riemer-Goldstein Theater SCREENING TIME Sunday, November 18, 6:15 pm West Newton Cinema 7 ANTHRAX BUDAPEST NOIR Director Shai Scherf Director Éva Gárdos Narrative, 2017, Israel, 76 min Narrative, 2017, Hungary, 95 min Hebrew with subtitles Hungarian with subtitles New England Premiere Massachusetts Premiere A conspiracy thriller, based on a 1936. Budapest. Another young (mostly) true story. When a group prostitute is found dead in the of best friends from the army each streets. But cynical reporter begin to fall ill, they suspect that Zsigmond Gordon can tell this it’s the result of an anthrax vaccine case is not like the others. Looking experiment in which they took part for answers, Gordon dives deep during their military service. But into the city’s dark underbelly—a when they set out to expose the shady world of pornographers, truth and save their own lives, they fixers, brothels, and powerful crime find that the roots of this experiment syndicates—and is led back to the are deeper than they could have highest echelons of power, where imagined. influencers are beginning to align themselves with Hitler. A politically- SCREENING TIME charged tale of corruption and Thursday, November 15, 9:00 pm betrayal, this richly atmospheric Brattle Theatre murder mystery leaves us guessing until its surprising climax. All screenings followed by a conversation with director Éva Gárdos SCREENING TIMES Monday, November 12, 7:00 pm The Center for the Arts in Natick Tuesday, November 13, 8:45 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre Thursday, November 15, 1:00 pm Coolidge Corner Theatre 8 CHASING DRIVER PORTRAITS Director Elizabeth Rynecki Director Yehonatan Indursky Documentary, 2018, USA Narrative, 2017, Israel, 92 min 78 min, English and Polish with Hebrew with subtitles subtitles Massachusetts Premiere Massachusetts Premiere Nahman Ruzumni exists on the In this deeply personal and periphery of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox engaging documentary, director city of Bnei Brak.