SAN DIEGO (Press Release)– The 22nd Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival, sponsored by the Leichtag Foundation, and presented by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS, will run February 9-19, 2012.
The San Diego Jewish Film Festival showcases 48 of the best contemporary Jewish themed films from around the world celebrating life, human rights, and freedom of expression. The mission of the Film Festival is to offer outstanding world cinema that promotes awareness, appreciation and pride in the diversity of the Jewish people to attendees of the community at large. Festival programs aim to educate and illuminate through evocative, independent fiction and documentary films that portray the Jewish experience from current to historic global perspectives.
In addition to the carefully selected short-subject, documentary, and feature length films, the Film Festival features an international roster of visiting guest artists, including actors, filmmakers, and scholars, who introduce their work, participate in panel discussions, and meet and greet with the festival patrons.
“This year’s festival line-up has more screenings than ever before,” said Sandra Kraus, Film Festival Producer. “You may never have the opportunity to see these films again! We are also excited about our North County film screenings, which have almost doubled. The past three years have proven that the North County patrons want the Jewish Film Festival in their neighborhood. The theaters have been filled to capacity.”
Jews in Toons
“What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.” – Yiddish Proverb
How are Jews portrayed in TV cartoon shows? Find out on Thurs, Feb. 16, 7:30 p.m., at this unique evening of comedy and fun featuring classic Jewish episodes from three beloved animated series, Family Guy, South Park and The Simpsons. Following the three episodes, Mike Reiss, writer and producer for The Simpsons and creator of The Critic and Queer Duck will have you in stitches as he shares his hilarious behind-the-scenes insights, anecdotes and clips from his distinguished career which includes four Emmys and a Peabody Award. A one-time-only uproarious event!
Film Highlights
- Thu., Feb. 9, Thur., Feb. 16 and Sun., Feb. 19 – Opening the festival is Mabul (The Flood). Yoni Roshko faces a flood of challenges in growing up. His parents, a daycare provider and a perpetually stoned crop duster, barely communicate with each other and depend on him to sustain their fragile household. Then the institution housing Yoni’s autistic brother, Tomer, is closed, and he is sent home a few days before Yoni’s Bar Mitzvah. As Yoni prepares his Torah portion about Noah and the flood, Tomer connects with the story and the boys build a relationship while their parents flounder in the background.
- Sat., Feb. 11, Sun., Feb. 12 and Wed., Feb. 15 – Genius or madman? From 1958’s “To Know Him is to Love Him” to the Beatles’ “Let It Be” in 1970 and beyond, Phil Spector’s music was the soundtrack of our lives. In this riveting documentary we come to understand Spector through extensive interviews that reveal the soul behind the reclusive wall and view clips of his first murder trial. The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector is a portrait of an insecure genius haunted by his lonely childhood, angered by perceived disrespect, and jealous of contemporaries.
- Sat., Feb. 11, Tue., Feb. 14 and Sun., Feb. 19 – Mary Lou, an ebullient film about a lonely youngster searching for his mother but finding himself showcases real-life Israeli rock star Svika Pick’s music. On Meir Levi’s tenth birthday, his mother mysteriously disappears. Desperate to find his long-lost mother, the now teenaged Meir flees to Tel Aviv. However, instead of finding Mom, he falls in with a performing drag queen group, “The Holly Wigs.” In true show business tradition, Meir is drafted into the group, becoming “Mary Lou,” a persona modeled after the heroine in his mother’s favorite Svika Pick song. A star is born!
- Sat., Feb. 11, Tue., Feb. 14, Wed., Feb. 15 – Against a milieu of deceit, four families improbably come together at dusk in an Israeli hospital. First to arrive is the victim of a hit-and-run collision. Next, a mother applying for a marriage license learns she is adopted and seeks her birth mother at the hospital. Meanwhile, a beautiful Argentinian immigrant becomes intimate with the doctor she hopes will perform her son’s circumcision. Finally, a policeman attempts to renew his relationship with the son he abandoned, a doctor at the hospital. Dusk is a journey through Israel’s complicated reality via the all-too-human stories of ordinary people facing questions of moral responsibility. The Feb. 14 screening is free.
- Sun., Feb. 12, Sat., Feb. 18, Thur., Feb. 16 – Prima Primavera is a buddy film like no other! Gabor, a charming, mentally-challenged man is the only witness to a bank robbery. He hatches a plan to hide from the robber who is searching for him. Believing he can find safe haven in the rural village of his grandmother, Gabor teams up with Jolie, a hardened prostitute who has her own reasons for going on the run. Armed only with a chandelier and an evening bag, they camp in idyllic country spots from Bulgaria to Serbia and forge a most improbable bond. Reality? Perhaps. Imagination? Likely. Friendship? Definitely!
- Sun., Feb. 12 and Thur., Feb. 16 – An amazingly uplifting film about a cemetery, In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery is a journey into history that celebrates the immortality of memories and the importance of tradition. Just outside Berlin’s hectic city center lies the serene, 130-year-old Weissensee Jewish Cemetery. Still in use today, it houses 115,000 graves as well as meticulous archival records. Established in the 1850s, the cemetery has endured years of war and chaos but has remained in Jewish hands even throughout the Nazi regime. Interweaving historical facts, daily activities, the personal stories of a delightful array of characters from around the world, and breathtakingly beautiful images, this kaleidoscope portrays the cemetery as a living thing – a survivor.
- Sun., Feb. 12, Thur., Feb. 16 and Sun., Feb. 19 – Based on actual events, Little Rose is a captivating espionage thriller set in 1967-68 Poland when political unrest escalated against the brutal rule of the Soviet-dominated Communist Party. Popular university professor Adam is falsely accused of being a “camouflaged Zionist” and writing anonymous pro-democracy broadcasts on Radio Free Europe. Roman, a bullying secret policeman, recruits his beautiful girlfriend Kamila to seduce the aging professor and discover something incriminating about him. Code-named Little Rose, Kamila gradually falls in love with the man she’s been asked to betray.
- Tue., Feb 14 and Thur., Feb. 16 – No one is a doubt-free as a true believer – until the system turns against even its most enthusiastic supporters. Such is the case for Evgenia Ginzburg, a Russian Literature professor, poet, and Communist apparatchik. As told in Within the Whirlwind, she is trapped in Stalin’s anti-intellectual purges of the 1930s. Retaining both her pride and her faith in justice, she refuses to confess, but a kangaroo court sentences her in a six-minute trial to 10 years in the Gulag. Initially strong in the face of grueling hardships, Ginzburg nearly loses herself as the years grind on until a camp doctor’s love helps her regain her humanity. Emily Watson gives a dazzling performance of courage under horrific circumstances.
- Wed., Feb. 15 – A real-life story of Muslims saving Jews? Free Men relates the transformation of a barely literate immigrant into a passionate freedom fighter. In 1942 Paris, Younges, a young Algerian black marketeer, is arrested and forced to become an informant. After discovering that Ben Ghabrit, the respected founding rector of Paris’s Grand Mosque, is posing as a Nazi collaborator while secretly harboring Jews and others fleeing persecution, Younges befriends a hauntingly-voiced singer – who happens to be Jewish – and the “Nazi spy” joins the Resistance. This history-based film is a powerful reminder of the unifying potential of humanity’s yearning for freedom.
- Thur., Feb. 16 – Featuring a top-notch multilingual cast including popular Mexican stars Angelica Vale and Angelica Maria (mother and daughter in real life), Salsa Tel Aviv integrates romance, misunderstanding, comedy and salsa dancing into a plot exploring the serious social issue of illegal foreign workers in Israel. Vicki, a passionate salsa dancer from Mexico turns Israeli professor Yoni’s life upside down when she moves in on him to avoid the immigration police. From completely different worlds, almost everything divides them: religion, culture, and social class. Salsa Tel Aviv is part of a collaboration with the San Diego Latino Film Festival.
- Sun., Feb. 19 – Closing the festival is My Best Enemy, which explores what action turns a friend into a fiend, a neighbor into a mortal enemy. Victor Kaufmann’s family owns a Viennese art gallery. After Germany annexes Austria, the Kaufmanns are stunned when Victor’s childhood friend Rudi joins the SS and betrays them. Several years later, Rudi collects Victor from the concentration camp to bring him to Berlin for questioning about a priceless drawing by Leonardo da Vinci that the Kaufmanns had owned. Enroute to Berlin, their plane is shot down. Thus begins a series of tragicomic turns worthy of Shakespeare. Who is the Jew? Who is the Nazi? Do clothes make or unmake the man? My Best Enemy transforms both men, but only one emerges a mensch.
Family Day – Shalom Sesame
On Sun., Feb. 12 at 11 a.m., bring the whole mishpochah to the Clairemont Reading 14 to celebrate Family Day on Sesame Street with the Muppets on an Israeli street corner! Enjoy the film Mitzvah on the Street. When a storm makes a mess of the neighborhood, everyone lends a helping hand. In the meantime, Grover is invited to a Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem. Come join Matisyahu and Oofnik as they beat box the Hava Nagila. Family Day activities for preschoolers follow the film.
Baby & Me Movie
On Tue., Feb. 14, 10:30 a.m., there is a screening at the David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre especially for Moms and Dads with children under one year of age. This is a chance for parents to see a first-rate feature with no need to find a babysitter or worry if the baby cries during the film. Parents are invited to pack the diaper bag, bring the stroller, and enjoy David. Can the son of a prominent Imam and an Orthodox Jewish boy become friends in Brooklyn’s brew of separate ethnic enclaves? With evenhanded sensitivity and humor, the filmmaker explores the question of how preteen Daud can both retain his core identity as a Muslim and enter into another culture. David is an examination of how cultural and ethnic boundaries can be transcended as well as a heartwarming story of youthful friendship. Babies are free; parent tickets are $11.75-$13.75.
Teen Screen Night
On Tue., Feb. 14, 6:00 p.m., at the Clairemont Reading Town Square 14, a pizza dinner (for teens only) will be followed by the screening of Kaddish for a Friend, the story of an unlikely friendship between Ali, a fourteen-year-old Palestinian refugee who hates Jews, and an elderly Russian Jew, Alexander, who passionately wants to continue living independently. When Ali’s friends trash Alexander’s apartment, only Ali is recognized. To avoid criminal charges and deportation, Ali reluctantly agrees to help Alexander renovate his apartment and gradually the two overcome obstacles of hatred and despair. Teen Screen is open to teens 18 and under at no charge.
Flix Mix Evening
A “Flix Mix” evening on Sun., Feb. 19 at 5 p.m., offers the opportunity for young professional film fans in their 20s, 30s, and 40s to view The Names of Love, the provocative story of a young, extroverted left-wing activist who sleeps with her political opponents to convert them to her cause. Her efforts are successful until she meets her match. The screening at the Reading Cinema Town Square 14 will be preceded by a 3 p.m. mixer in the Underwriter Lounge, where participants can meet, mingle, and enjoy food and drinks. Tickets will be distributed from the JCC Box Office or may be picked up at Will Call one hour prior to show time at the theatre. ID will be required to guarantee discounted pricing of $20 in advance or $25 at the door.
The 10th Annual Joyce Forum – A Celebration of Rising Stars and Seasoned Filmmakers
The Joyce Forum presents outstanding Jewish-themed short-subject, documentary, and feature films by rising stars and seasoned filmmakers from around the world. Named in honor of San Diego Jewish Film Festival Founder Joyce Axelrod, the Joyce Forum supports emerging filmmakers by showcasing their talent and exposing their work to established filmmakers, artists, and industry peers.
This year’s Joyce Forum takes place on Mon., Feb. 13, at the Clairemont Reading 14. Shorts in Winter, a collection of short films, will screen at 2:30 p.m., including Flawed, Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish!, Ladies and Gentlemen: Biddie Schitzerman, Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest, David and Goliath, Miracle Lady, I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, Shira, and A Reuben By Any Other Name. Shorts in Winter is free of charge.
At 7:30 p.m., The Joyce Forum welcomes back (SDJFF ’04) filmmaker, multimedia artist, and nonstop animation machine, Hanan Harchol. The featured screening is Jewish Food for Thought, a series of animated shorts that incorporate Jewish wisdom into entertaining and thought-provoking conversations between Hanan and his Israeli nuclear physicist father. Each episode focuses on a particular theme in Jewish teaching, such as repentance or forgiveness, distilling the major Jewish teachings on that theme into accessible, contemporary, non-preachy, engaging human conversation. The series provides a fresh, new non-pedantic way to access thousands of years of Jewish wisdom. Tickets for Jewish Food for Thought are $11.75-$13.75.
General Information
The San Diego Jewish Film Festival takes place at the Reading Cinemas Town Square 14 in Clairemont Mesa, UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas at Hazard Center, Edwards San Marcos Stadium 18, the Carlsbad Village Theatre in Carlsbad, and at the David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. San Diego Jewish Film Festival presentations at the Reading Cinemas Town Square 14 are made possible by the Joy F. Knapp Film Festival Endowment Fund.
Single ticket prices for most films are $10.75- $12.75 for seniors, $11.75 for JCC members and $13.75 for non-members; tickets for the opening night film, Mabul, and the closing night film, My Best Enemy, are $13.75-$15.75 ($12.75-$14.75 for seniors), the Feb. 14 screening of Dusk, Family Day, Teen Screen, and Joyce Forum Shorts in Winter are free. Festival passes, senior and student discounts, and group rate discounts are available. For tickets or information call 858-362-1348 or visit www.lfjcc.org/sdjff .
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Preceding provided by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture