Information - Press Room

The Jewish Museum and The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present the twelfth annual New York Jewish Film Festival from January 12 to 23, 2003. This collaboration between the Museum and the Film Society will take place at The Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, 165 West 65th Street, New York City. Featuring two world, ten United States, and seven New York premieres, the international festival will present thirty-three productions illuminating the rich diversity of the global Jewish experience from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, and the United States. This year’s films, set everywhere from Kenya and South Africa to Australia and the American South, reflect a pervasive drive to define and understand issues of modern Jewish identity and culture through film. The themes and genres of these works are wide-ranging, from Nowhere in Africa, a story of a family seeking refuge from Nazi Germany in Kenya, and acclaimed Israeli director Amos Gitai’s Kedma, set during Israel’s 1948 war for independence, to documentaries like The Joel Files, examining the history of rock star Billy Joel’s family in pre-World War II Germany.

Highlights of the festival include world premieres of two American documentaries. Director Jeff Krulik’s Hitler’s Hat (2002, video) focuses on Jewish-American World War II veteran Richard Marowitz, who journeyed back to Germany with the filmmaker to recreate a search he made through Adolf Hitler’s Berlin apartment on the day Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. Director Howard Weinberg’s Sid at 90 (2002, video) examines the diverse career of New York actor/comedian Sid Raymond, a veteran of vaudeville, Broadway, film, radio and television, still active at age 90. In addition, Sid at 90 will be shown on WLIW-TV, Ch. 21 on January 18 and 21 at 10:30 pm.

Four dramatic films will receive their United States premieres. Acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai’s Kedma (2002) will be screened on the festival’s closing day, January 23. Kedma takes place in 1948 Palestine with the British about to end their mandate, the creation of the state of Israel imminent, and violence raging between the Jewish and Arab communities. As a European cargo freighter packed with Holocaust survivors heads toward Palestine, underground Jewish forces prepare for its arrival and British soldiers position themselves to stop its unauthorized landing, leading up to an explosive and surprising climax. Additional screenings of Kedma will take place at Makor, 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan, at 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm on January 27, 28, 29, and 30; and February 3, 4, 5 and 6. Italian director Alberto Negrin’s Perlasca (2002) is based on Giorgio Perlasca’s selfless courage in saving more than five thousand Hungarian Jews during World War II through a series of ingenious capers. Forty-four years later, Perlasca was discovered, living modestly in Padua, by some of the Hungarian women he had saved. French director Yolande Zauberman’s La Guerre à Paris (2002), set in Paris during World War II, depicts a love triangle whose many facets come to light in the harsh glare of the German occupation. Israeli director Eliezer Shapiro’s short drama, Eicha (2001, video), depicts a young woman from a religious family in search of her identity.

Six documentaries will also receive United States premieres. Austrian filmmaker Beate Thalberg’s The Joel Files (2001, video) explores the family history of rock legend Billy Joel – the family’s escape from Nazi Germany and Austria, the “aryanization” of their mail-order business in 1938, and the younger generation’s efforts to return to Germany to discover the past. Austrian filmmaker Michael Daeron’s Atlantic Drift (2001) examines the harrowing tale of 2,000 Jewish refugees who packed into the ship Atlantic to escape Vienna during World War II, only to end up interned in Mauritius, and finally deported by the British Navy. Australian director Marc Radomsky’s Choosing Exile (2002, video) documents the filmmaker’s decision to uproot his wife and young son from their life in South Africa -- where his family had lived for three generations -- and move to Australia to escape from the pervasive fear of violent crime among the white community in the post-Apartheid nation. Canadian director Eric R. Scott’s Je Me Souviens (2002, video) investigates the memory of fascism and anti-Semitism in Québec during the 1930s and 1940s, mixing rare archival footage with the speeches and commentaries of the leading nationalist figures of the period. Australian director Lesley Sharon Rosenthal’s lively short documentary, Shmatte Mazel (2000, video), traces the legacy of the Australian shmatte (garment) industry. Israeli filmmaker Yaron Shane’s short documentary, Festival Under War (2002, video), focuses on the 2001 Jerusalem Film Festival and provides an illuminating view of life in today’s conflict-torn Israel.

Two dramatic films will receive their New York premieres. Austrian directors Robert Schindel and Lukas Stepanik’s Gebirtig (2002) weaves together the stories of an Austrian Holocaust survivor living in New York, a German journalist whose father was a Nazi, and a Jewish actor from Vienna. Delving into the memories of each character, this lyrical film offers a perspective on how the past remains a vital force in defining the present. Hungarian director Peter Basco’s Smouldering Cigarette (2001) depicts an impoverished Jewish songwriter surviving the Nazi occupation of Budapest by composing hit songs for a popular and tempermental diva.

Five documentaries will receive their New York premieres. Filmmaker Gay Block’s Bertha Alyce (2001, video) chronicles the tempestuous relationship the director shared with her mother. French director Emmanuel Finkiel’s Casting (2001, video) is a portrait of a generation of European Jews, created from audition tapes of actors who responded to an ad for “Yiddish speakers, 60-90 yrs. old” for the director’s previous film, Madame Jacques sur la Croisette. Canadian filmmaker Garry Beitel’s My Dear Clara (2001, video) uses love letters, family photos, official correspondence and rarely seen archival footage to tell the story of a Polish Jewish refugee whose Canadian wife battled to change her government’s immigration policies during World War II. American director Brian Bain’s Shalom Y’all (2002, video) explores the lives of contemporary Jews in the American South as the filmmaker embarks on a 4,200-mile journey from Texas to Tennessee, traveling the same roads his 100-year-old grandfather did as a hat salesman. Canadian director Elida Schogt’s Silent Song (2002, video) is a short poetic documentary based on film footage of a young boy playing the accordion during the liberation of Dachau.

Three screenings of rarely seen films are presented in conjunction with The Jewish Museum’s upcoming exhibition, Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting (exhibition dates: February 21 through September 14, 2003). On opening day, Sunday, January 12, at 12:30 pm, the festival will present Rediscovering Max Davidson. This special program, introduced by J. Hoberman, Senior Film Critic for The Village Voice, examines the career of silent film comic actor Max Davidson (1875-1950). Davidson was extremely popular in the late 1920s when he starred in a number of shorts - and even had his own unit - at the Hal Roach Studio. Ethnic stereotypes are evident in these shorts, but so are agile antics and inspired comedy. Live music will accompany the silent films. Films to be screened are Leo McCarey’s Why Girls Say No (1927); Clyde Bruckman’s Call of The Cuckoo (1927); Fred Guiol and Leo McCarey’s Pass The Gravy (1928) and Leo McCarey’s Jewish Prudence (1927). On January 12, the festival offers director Walter Hart’s Molly: The Goldbergs (1950), a feature film based on the popular, long running radio and television series, The Goldbergs. On January 19, director Joseph Seiden’s Motl the Operator (1939), a bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of Yiddish theater, tells of a labor dispute in New York’s garment district and its tragic consequences for one young family. A vital document of the Jewish immigrant experience, Motl features performances by some of the best known Yiddish actors of the day, including a stunning turn by the incomparable comic actress Yetta Zwerling.

In addition, six dramas and two documentaries will also be screened. Noted German filmmaker Frans Weisz’ Qui Vive (2001), the sequel to his Polonaise (1989), takes place 12 years after the first film, and focuses on the couple whose wedding was depicted in Polonaise. Qui Vive presents a vibrant, poignant, fast-paced and often hilarious tale of families in crisis. (In conjunction with the festival, Polonaise (1989) will be screened at Makor, 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan, on January 15 and 16 at 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm.) French director Emmanuel Finkiel’s Madame Jacques sur la Croisette (1995), winner of the Cesar (France’s Academy Award) for best short narrative, depicts two elderly Jews on their annual springtime retreat, where reflections on aging, love and the bond of Yiddish culture lead to the blooming of romance. Swiss director Urs Eggers’ Epstein’s Night (2001), featuring noted actor Bruno Ganz (star of Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire) is a haunting drama of three concentration camp survivors in Berlin who discover that their former tormentor from the camp is the officiating priest at a local church. When they expose the impostor, he turns the tables on the three Jews, calling them to account for their own hidden and disturbing pasts. German director Caroline Link’s Nowhere in Africa (2002) tells the story of one young family’s narrow escape from Nazi Germany and subsequent resettlement on a small farm in Kenya. There, five-year-old Regina quickly becomes intoxicated by the magic of life in their new home, while her parents struggle to cope with poverty and isolation, living in constant longing for the home they left behind. Israeli directors Lina and Slava Chaplin’s A Trumpet in The Wadi (2001) tells a love story of two outsiders in Israeli society, Alex, a new immigrant from Russia, and Huda, an Arab woman from Haifa who works in a Jewish travel agency and reads Hebrew poetry, creating a Middle Eastern nod to Romeo and Juliet. American director Aviva Slesin’s deeply moving documentary, Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII (2002), tells the stories of exceptional individuals who, at great peril to themselves and their families, rescued Jewish children from almost certain death during the second World War. The director herself was a hidden child. American filmmaker Neil Goldberg’s documentary short, A System for Writing Thank You Notes (2001, video) is an uncomfortably humorous “interview” in which Goldberg’s widowed father reveals his method for responding to condolence cards received after his wife’s death.

The twelfth annual New York Jewish Film Festival has been organized by a committee consisting of Rachel Chanoff, Chair, Film Festival Selection Committee; J. Hoberman, Senior Film Critic, The Village Voice; Richard Peña, Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center; Mohini Sara Shapero, Film Festival Coordinator; and Aviva Weintraub, Director of Media and Public Programs, The Jewish Museum.

TICKET INFORMATION: The Walter Reade Theater is located at 165 West 65th Street, Plaza Level. Tickets for each screening are $9.50 for the general public; $7 for students (with valid photo ID); $5 for Film Society and Jewish Museum members and donors; and $4.50 for senior citizens only for screenings Monday through Friday before 6 pm.

Tickets are available online at www.filmlinc.com or at the box office beginning December 16. The box office opens Monday through Friday at 12:30 pm and on weekends thirty minutes before the start of the day’s first show; it closes 15 minutes after the start of the day's last show. Ticket purchases at the box office are cash only. To confirm box office hours and schedule, call 212.875.5600. Tickets are available by phone at 212.496.3809 beginning January 6, 2003 for screenings that take place during the following seven days. There is a $1 surcharge per ticket for all tickets bought online or by phone. To request a brochure and ticket order form, the public may call 212.423.3338.

For general information, the public may call The Jewish Museum at 212.423.3338 or The Walter Reade Theater box office at 212.875.5600.

This international festival is made possible by generous support from The Martin and Doris Payson Charitable Foundation, The Liman Foundation, The Jack and Pearl Resnick Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Mimi and Barry Alperin, The Canadian Consulate General, New York, and other funders.

Additional support has been provided by The Andrea & Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.

Sunday, January 12
12:30 pm	Rediscovering Max Davidson Introduced by J. Hoberman, Senior Film Critic, The Village Voice
	*Why Girls Say No* Director: Leo McCarey (USA, 1927, 21 min., 16mm, silent with live piano accompaniment)
	*Call of The Cuckoo* Director: Clyde Bruckman (USA, 1927, 18 min., 16mm, silent with live piano accompaniment)
	*Pass The Gravy* Directors: Fred Guiol and Leo McCarey (USA, 1928, 22 min., 16mm, silent with live piano accompaniment)
	*Jewish Prudence* Director: Leo McCarey (USA, 1927, 20 min., 16mm, silent with live piano accompaniment)
3:30 pm	*Molly: The Goldbergs* Director: Walter Hart (USA, 1950, 83 min., 16mm)
5:30 pm	Atlantic Drift (US Premiere) Director: Michael Daeron (Austria/France, 2001, 88 min., 16mm, English subtitles)
8:00 pm	Smouldering Cigarette (NY Premiere) Director: Peter Basco (Hungary, 2001, 120 min., 35mm, English subtitles)

Monday, January 13
1:00 pm	*Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII* Director: Aviva Slesin (USA, 2002, 72 min., 35 mm)
3:30 pm	*Atlantic Drift*
6:30 pm	*Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII*
8:45 pm	*Smouldering Cigarette*

Tuesday, January 14
1:00 pm	Hitler’s Hat (World Premiere) Director: Jeff Krulik (United States, 2002, 50 min., video) preceded by
	Sid at 90 (World Premiere) Director: Howard Weinberg (USA, 2002, 27 min., video)
3:15 pm	Perlasca (US Premiere) Director: Alberto Negrin (Italy, 2002, 126 min., video, English subtitles)
6:00 pm	Hitler’s Hat preceded by Sid at 90
8:30 pm	*Perlasca*

Wednesday, January 15
1:00 pm	Casting (NY Premiere) Director: Emmanuel Finkiel (France, 2001, 87 min., video, English subtitles) preceded by
	*Madame Jacques sur la Croisette* Director: Emmanuel Finkiel (France, 1995, 38 min., 35 mm, English subtitles)
4:00 pm	La Guerre à Paris (US Premiere) Director: Yolande Zauberman (France, 2002, 82 min., video, English subtitles)
6:00 pm	Casting preceded by Madame Jacques sur la Croisette
9:00 pm	*La Guerre à Paris*

Thursday, January 16
12:30 pm	Choosing Exile (US Premiere) Director: Marc Radomsky (Australia, 2002, 55 min., video) preceded by
	Shmatte Mazel (US Premiere) Director: Lesley Sharon Rosenthal (Australia, 2000, 10 min., video) and
	Eicha (US Premiere) Director: Eliezer Shapiro (Israel, 2001, 21 min., video, English subtitles)
2:30 pm	*Nowhere in Africa* Director: Caroline Link (Germany, 2002, 141 min, 35mm, English subtitles)
6:00 pm	Choosing Exile preceded by Shmatte Mazel and Eicha
8:30 pm	*Nowhere in Africa*

Saturday, January 18
7:00 pm	*Qui Vive* Director: Frans Weisz (Netherlands, 2001, 92 min., 35mm, English subtitles)
9:30 pm	*A Trumpet in The Wadi* Directors: Lina and Slava Chaplin (Israel, 2001, 86 min., 35mm, English subtitles) preceded by
	Festival Under War (US Premiere) Director: Yaron Shane (Israel, 2002, 17 min., video, English subtitles)

Sunday, January 19
1:30 pm	*Motl the Operator* Director: Joseph Seiden (USA, 1939, 89 min., 35mm, English subtitles)
3:30 pm	A Trumpet in The Wadi preceded by Festival Under War
6:15 pm	*Qui Vive*
8:45 pm	A Trumpet in The Wadi preceded by Festival Under War

Monday, January 20
12:30 pm	Gebirtig (NY Premiere) Directors: Robert Schindel and Lukas Stepanik (Austria, 2002, 115 min., 35mm., English subtitles) preceded by
	Silent Song (NY Premiere) Director: Elida Schogt (Canada, 2002, 6 min., video)
3:30 pm	The Joel Files (US Premiere) Director: Beate Thalberg (Austria, 2001, 60 min., video, English subtitles) preceded by
	*A System for Writing Thank You Notes* Director: Neil Goldberg (USA, 2001, 9 min., video)
6:00 pm	*Qui Vive*
8:30 pm	The Joel Files preceded by A System for Writing Thank You Notes

Tuesday, January 21
12:30 pm	Gebirtig preceded by Silent Song
3:30 pm	Shalom Y’all (NY Premiere) Director: Brian Bain (USA, 2002, 60 min., video) preceded by
	Bertha Alyce (NY Premiere) Director: Gay Block (USA, 2001, 24 min., video)
6:00 pm	Gebirtig preceded by Silent Song
9:00 pm	The Joel Files preceded by A System for Writing Thank You Notes

Wednesday, January 22
1:00 pm	*Epstein’s Night* Director: Urs Eggers (Germany, 2001, 85 min., 35 mm, English subtitles)
3:30 pm	Shalom Y’all preceded by Bertha Alyce
6:00 pm	*Epstein’s Night*
8:30 pm	Shalom Y’all preceded by Bertha Alyce

Thursday, January 23
12:30 pm	Je Me Souviens (US Premiere) Director: Eric R. Scott (Canada, 2002, 47 min., video) preceded by
	My Dear Clara (NY Premiere) Director: Garry Beitel (Canada, 2001, 44 min., video)
3:00 pm	Kedma (US Premiere) Director: Amos Gitai (Israel, 2002, 100 min., 35mm, English subtitles)
6:00 pm	Je Me Souviens preceded by My Dear Clara
8:30 pm	*Kedma*

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: There will be repeat screenings of Kedma at Makor, 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan on January 27, 28, 29, and 30; and February 3, 4, 5 and 6 at 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm. In addition, there will be screenings of Polonaise at Makor on January 15 and 16 at 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm. For tickets to these screenings at Makor, those interested should call 212.601.1000.


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