SAN DIEGO — Speaking about this year’s Joyce Forum in a recent phone interview, its founder, Joyce Axelrod, proudly pointed out that this year’s shorts program (Shorts in Winter) received a record number of submissions, 100, that almost overwhelmed the all-volunteer curating committee consisting of herself, Claudia and Mark Title and Don and Marcia Wolochow. According to Axelrod, the number of submissions was due to the large number of people making films and videos and to the ease by which they could be submitted electronically. “However, we had to establish guidelines. There wasn’t always quality control in the past. What we did (this year) was typically we would all watch every film, but his time we divided into groups and we rated our films and shared our ratings with the other curators. When we got all our films together, we had 30 quality films to choose from, rather than 100. It was difficult to winnow down, but we think we selected the best of the shorts that were around, and since then, some of the shorts have won prizes at other film festivals, and that was very gratifying to us. ”
Of all this year’s shorts, she was most impressed with Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest, by the 11 year-old precocious local filmmaker, Perry Chen. “I got in touch with Perry and his mom, who led me to his website, and I thought it was charming the way he was discovered and how the two veteran filmmakers (animator Bill Plympton and film director, producer, and visual artist Kevin Sean Michaels) embraced this little guy. They saw such potential in him. Then I read about Ingrid Pitt, who was a heroine in her own right. She was a movie star and starred in horror films in England. I think Perry is a typical 11 year-old who has talent. He talks and looks like a typical kid. He has a mother who is very excited about having a son with so many talents. He is also a film critic. He will be interviewed by out artist-in-residence., who is an animator who we are bringing in from New York, Hanan Harchol.”
This year’s shorts are a mixture of drama and comedy. “We had a mix and match of drama and comedy. It’s will be a really fun afternoon and it will be free to the public. We like to offer the San Diego public a couple of slots during the year that are free.”
Axelrod talked about the target audience for the feature film, Jewish Food for Thought (Hanan Harchol), that will be showing at the Joyce Forum: “I think it is 10-11 years old and up to 80. It presents things they learn in Sunday School, but what is charming about it is Hanan, in his sketches, has conversations with his father. And very often they are at odds and they yell at each other. It is so real. The father is an Israeli, and Hanan gets his voice down pat. Hanan’s mannerisms and cartoon-like renderings just bring a smile to my face. He was here in 2004 and was an audience favorite.”
Axelrod promised that “if you attend the San Diego Jewish Film Festival on Monday, February 13, you’ll get a delicious buffet of films: as an opener, a selection of shorts that is sure to please the most discerning of tastes; for the entree there is a full-featured drama from an emerging filmmaker from Germany (Leo Khasin/Kaddish For a Friend) who will be in attendance to answer your questions; and to round out the menu, the dessert will be a returning award-winning filmmaker, Hanan Harchol (Jewish Food for Thought), who will share with us the bittersweet conversation he has about life with his feisty father. Bon appetit!”
The Shorts in Winter program starts at 2:30 p.m., Kaddish for a Friend at 5:00 p.m., and Jewish Food for Thought at 7:30 p.m.
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The Greenbergs, mother and son, are freelance writer based in San Diego.
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