The 11th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival January 13 - 24, 2002 A collaboration between The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Jewish Museum. photo: the vow

about the series | film descriptions and times 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 and other funders. We are delighted to welcome you to the 11th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival – a collaboration between The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Jewish Museum. This year’s collection of unique cinematic perspectives, set everywhere from Turkey to Tel Aviv to Costa Rica to right here in New York, reflects the magnificent diversity of the Jewish experience. The themes and forms of these works are as wide-ranging as their locales, with pieces like THE WALNUT TREE, a dreamlike experimental short about Holocaust remembrance, alongside the Parisian romantic comedy ONCE WE GROW UP and important documentaries like BROWNSVILLE BLACK AND WHITE. The vibrant Argentinian Jewish cinema also gives us four compelling contributions – including TO LIVE WITH TERROR, a fascinating investigation of the bombings of the Israeli embassy and the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in the 1990s. The collective body of work on display here offers a provocative contemplation not only of Jewish culture but also, significantly and necessarily, of the human condition as a whole. Please join us for eleven splendid days of celebration and exploration at the 2002 New York Jewish Film Festival. This festival was 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. SPECIAL THANKS TO: Lori Cearley, Janis Plotkin, Samuel Ball - San Francisco JFF; Miriam Morsel Nathan - Washington JFF; Sara Rubin, Kaj Wilson - Boston JFF; Sharon Rivo, Mimi Krant - National Center for Jewish Film; Renée Schreiber, Debbi Berman - The Israel Office of Cultural Affairs in the USA; Javier A. Goliszewski – Consulate General of Argentina; Vera Suranyi – Hungarian National Film Archive; John Sirabella – National Film Board of Canada; Susan Alper - Montreal JFF; Shlomo Schwartzberg - Toronto JFF; Collin Callender - HBO Films; Gordon Hitchens; Larry Mark; Claire Harvay; Olli Chanoff; the staff of The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the staff of The Jewish Museum. The Walter Reade Theater is located on the north side of West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, one flight up on the plaza level. Look for our purple banner on 65th Street near Amsterdam Avenue to locate the escalator and elevator to the plaza level. Or you may take the escalator at the corner of 65th Street and Broadway and then walk west to the end of the plaza.

one of the hollywood ten once we grow up the travellers

SZULAMIT US Premiere Jeno Illes, Hungary, 1916, 60m Silent with simultaneous translation of Hungarian intertitles Over the years, the New York Jewish Film Festival has presented a number of rediscovered examples of early Jewish cinema. This Hungarian gem is adapted from the popular Biblical operetta by Yiddish theater pioneer Abraham Goldfaden — a fairy tale about love, betrayal, forgiveness, and belief. Preceded by Yiddish theater adaptations – produced in Riga – including The Wedding Day Yevgeny Slavinsky, Russia, 1912, 5m, silent and Meir Ezofewicz Russia, 1911, 7 min. 35mm, silent Sun Jan 13: 12 noon; Tue Jan 15: 6:15 ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD TEN NY Premiere Karl Francis, England/Spain, 2000, 102m, English Director Herbert Biberman was a victim of McCarthyism, blacklisted in the 1950s for refusing to disavow his Communist beliefs. Part political conspiracy thriller and part drama of individual perseverance, this compelling film tells the story of Biberman’s determination to continue his career in the face of governmentally sanctioned hate mongering and paranoia. With Jeff Goldblum as Biberman, Greta Scacchi as his wife, glamorous actress Gale Sondergaard, and a riveting performance by Angela Molina. Sun Jan 13: 2 & 8:30; Mon Jan 14: 6:15 THE VOW / TKIES KAF (NY Premiere of restored print) Henryk Szaro, Poland, 1937, 82m Restored Yiddish film with English subtitles A remake of the 1924 Polish-Yiddish silent sometimes known as A Vilna Legend, THE VOW’s supernatural love story has a generic resemblance to The Dybbuk and was in fact rushed into production ahead of the famous 1937 adaption of Ansky’s play. This is an opportunity to see Eastern European Jewry in one of the last Yiddish films made in Poland before the Holocaust. Zygmunt Turkow re-creates his original role as the prophet Elijah; Dina Halpern, who would later become a star of the Yiddish theater, plays the lead. Preceded by JEWISH LIFE IN VILNA Yitzhak and Shaul Goskind, Poland, 1939, 10m, Yiddish with English subtitles Jewish daily life in pre-war Vilna is recorded in this lively short documentary. Sun Jan 13: 4:15; Mon Jan 14: 3:15 ONCE WE GROW UP NY Premiere Renaud Cohen, France, 2000, 92m, English subtitles In this charming romantic comedy, a young man tries to understand his place as a 30-year-old with Algerian Jewish roots in modern, multicultural Paris. As Simon juggles the competing pressures of planning a future with his girlfriend, finding a common ground with his father, and keeping his senile grandmother from wandering the streets, an encounter with his pregnant neighbor — a fellow North African Jew — changes his life. Preceded by THE WALNUT TREE Elida Schogt, Canada, 2000, 11m The follow-up to her award-winning Zyklon Portrait (NYJFF 2000), Elida Schogt’s new film examines the final, remembered fragments of her family in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Compact and breathtakingly powerful, The Walnut Tree is a remarkable meditation on Holocaust memory, family, and survival. Sun Jan 13: 6:15; Mon Jan 14: 1 CONSPIRACY Frank Pierson, USA, 2001, 96m A gripping dramatization of the Wannsee Conference, when a group of top Nazi and SS officials secretly met outside Berlin to discuss what would come to be called the "Final Solution of the Jewish problem." Featuring powerful performances by an outstanding cast, CONSPIRACY examines the chilling process of implementing evil. With Stanley Tucci as Adolf Eichmann and Kenneth Branagh as SS General Reinhard Heydrich. Mon Jan 14: 8:30; Wed Jan 16: 1 THE TRAVELLERS: THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND NY Premiere Robert Cohen, Canada, 2001, 72m, video "World-famous in Canada," The Travellers are perhaps best known for their Canadian adaptation of Woody Guthrie’s "This Land Is Your Land." This group, most of whose members shared a Jewish/Communist background, burst onto the folk music scene in the 1950s. Through stirring archival concert footage and interviews with past and present members, this documentary brings their story vividly to life. Preceded by MY HEART BELONGS TO DADDY NY Premiere Brita Landoff, Sweden, 1999, 4m, Yiddish with English subtitles A charming Yiddish rendition of the Cole Porter classic, "Mayn harts gehert tsum tatn" is beautifully and soulfully sung by Swedish actress Basia Frydman. Tue Jan 15: 1; Wed Jan 16: 3:15 & 8:45

zygielbojm's death keep away from the window

PACHA MAMA US Premiere Asaffa Peled, Israel, 2001, 61m, video, English subtitles Like many Israeli youths, Moshe Kastiel traveled the world after completing his military service. He settled in Goa, India, became a renowned trance DJ, and then embarked on a spiritual journey that led him to establish a commune in Costa Rica. This film looks closely at the fascinating world of that commune and its attraction of followers from around the globe. Preceded by THANK GOD FOR INDIA US Premiere Nisan Katz, Israel, 2000, 58m, video, English subtitles At the advanced age of 72, Amos Mosenzon left his home in Israel to tour India, where he fell in with various fellow travelers fresh out of military duty. Through his adventures, Thank God for India explores this place that for so many young Israelis represents a journey into adulthood and where for the first time in their lives they are operating outside the structure of Israeli society. Tue Jan 15: 3:15; Wed Jan 16: 6:15 ZYGIELBOJM'S DEATH NY Premiere Dzamila Ankiewicz Poland, 2001, 52m, video, English subtitles This is a documentary on the life and death of an exceptional man. S. A. Zygielbojm, an important member of Poland’s Jewish community, was smuggled out of the country in 1942 and sent abroad as the Jewish representative of the Polish government-in-exile to spread word of the Nazi atrocities in Poland. Ultimately deeming his efforts futile, Zygielbojm committed suicide after the Warsaw ghetto uprising in an attempt to shock the world out of its indifference. Preceded by THE SECRET NY Premiere Ronit Kertsner, Israel, 2001, 55m, video, English subtitles The Secret explores the phenomenon of a personal identity crisis that has unfolded in Poland on a national scale: that of citizens who have grown up Catholic but discover later in life that they are actually Jewish. Their personal dislocation, heightened by living in a society where religion and nationality are inseparably linked, is staggering; their stories, never less than astounding. Tue Jan 15: 8:30; Thurs Jan 17: 6:15 GRIPSHOLM Xavier Koller, Germany/Switzerland, 2000, 102m, English subtitles A Berlin-based political journalist and his girlfriend spend an idyllic summer in 1932 at Gripsholm Castle in Sweden. As events in Germany worsen, the castle becomes a temporary refuge for a provocative cabaret singer. The Bohemian scene of Berlin is re-created there on a small scale. Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Kurt Tucholsky, GRIPSHOLM features an outstanding cast in a beautiful setting. Thurs Jan 17: 1; Sun Jan 20: 8:30 KEEP AWAY FROM THE WINDOW NY Premiere Jan Jakub Kolski, Poland, 2000, 117m, English subtitles In a town in Nazi-occupied Poland, a Jewish girl hiding in a young couple’s house becomes pregnant with the husband’s child. The couple tries to pass the baby off as their own, but their attempt becomes complicated. Based on the story "That Girl from Hamburg" by Hanna Krall, KEEP AWAY FROM THE WINDOW delicately balances a complex private drama with a backdrop of a larger tragedy. Thurs Jan 17: 3:15; Sat Jan 19: 7; Sun Jan 20: 6:15 WAITING FOR THE MESSIAH Daniel Burman, Argentina, 1999, 90m, English subtitles This dramatic feature by a young Argentinian director is an extraordinary exploration of family dynamics as well as an illuminating portrait of El Once, Buenos Aires’ famed Jewish neighborhood. WAITING FOR THE MESSIAH chronicles a restless young man’s struggle to break with tradition and make his own way in the world. A stolen purse, an abandoned baby and an intriguing bisexual co-worker provide plot twists in this humorous and engaging film. Preceded by THE SEVENTH DAY Gabriel Lichtmann, Argentina, 2000, 14m, English subtitles This short film follows the hectic events of an Argentinian boy’s Bar Mitzvah thrown into chaos by a blackout that strikes immediately before it’s scheduled to begin. Though the story is sweet and humorous, it also has a serious undercurrent as it addresses the changes in Argentinian Jewish life since the 1994 bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. Thurs Jan 17: 8:30; Sat Jan 19: 9:30

the optimists the komediant

LAST DANCE World Premiere Mirra Bank, USA, 2001, 84m, video A work of rare beauty and power, this documentary film reveals the creative process behind the dancework "A Selection," a collaboration between legendary author-illustrator Maurice Sendak and the innovative and audacious dance company Pilobolus. "A Selection" was partly inspired by the Czech composer Hans Krasa’s opera Brundibar, which was performed by children in the Terezin concentration camp. Preceded by MADONNA WITH CHILD, XX CENTURY (US Premiere) Herz Frank, Israel, 2001, 10m, video, English subtitles Filmed in the forests outside the Latvian capital of Riga, where between 1941 and 1944 thousands of Jews were executed, this elegiac and meditative short film focuses on a monument that stands there. The title refers to a chilling piece of evidence of the Nazis' crimes captured by an anonymous photographer. Sun Jan 20: 2; Mon Jan 21: 3:15; Wed Jan 23: 6 BROWNSVILLE BLACK AND WHITE Richard Broadman, USA, 2000, on BETA; 83m This documentary follows 60 years of Black/Jewish relations in Brownsville, Brooklyn — known first as a racially integrated community unified by shared liberal politics, and then as the setting of a watershed schism between Blacks and Jews in the late 1960s. Brownsville residents and former residents provide eloquent testimony to the changes the neighborhood has seen. Sun Jan 20: 4:15; Mon Jan 21: 8:3; Tue Jan 22: 1 STRANGE FRUIT World Premiere Joel Katz, USA, 2001, 56m, video Filmmaker Joel Katz delves into the history and legacy of the song "Strange Fruit" — written by Bronx Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol in the 1930s and best known in a Billie Holiday rendition – using it as a vehicle to explore the intricacies of Black/Jewish relations. Preceded by DUST US Premiere Michale Boganim, France, 2001, 29m, English subtitles An elegiac and lyrical portrait of Odessa, a once-flourishing center of Yiddish culture. Three lifelong friends who have experienced the horrors of war, anti-Semitism, and Communism, come together in a tiny apartment to sing old songs, dance, and reminisce. They are among the city’s last remaining Jews, passed over by the world but still vibrant with a redemptive enthusiasm for life. Mon Jan 21: 1 & 6:15; Thurs Jan 24: 6:15 DIVAN Special Preview Screening Pearl Gluck, USA, 2001, 90m, video DIVAN traces a journey from a Brooklyn Hasidic community to its origins in Hungary and back in an effort to retrieve a turn-of-the-century family heirloom. The couch, upon which Hasidic rabbis once slept, is in the filmmaker's great-grandfather's house in Rohod, Hungary. A visual parable about the Hasidic community that the filmmaker left as a teenager, DIVAN is an unorthodox approach to a religious icon. Tue Jan 22: 3:15 & 8:30 THE OPTIMISTS NY Premiere Jacky and Lisa Comforty, USA, 2000, 83m, on BETA; Bulgarian/English/Hebrew with English subtitles This documentary tells the virtually unknown story of how 50,000 Jews living in Bulgaria survived the Holocaust through the efforts of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish individuals and professional organizations. THE OPTIMISTS is a universally inspiring account of what courage can accomplish in the face of unspeakable evil. Preceded by THEY CAME TO PICK ME UP Ilana Navaro, France, 2001, 20m, video, English subtitles A touching story about a woman in her sixties preparing to leave Istanbul to join her family in Tel Aviv. When her 8-year-old granddaughter comes from Israel to share her grandmother’s final summer in Turkey, the two preside together over the bittersweet farewell to a lifetime of memories. Tue Jan 22: 6:15; Wed Jan 23: 1 TO LIVE WITH TERROR US Premiere Ton Vriens, Argentina/USA, 2001, 60m, video, English subtitles In the last decade, two horrific acts of terrorism in Buenos Aires shocked the world: the car bombing of the Israeli embassy in 1992, and the destruction of the Jewish Community Center two years later. Both crimes remain unsolved. This provocative documentary investigates the attacks, revealing a shocking and wide-ranging political cover-up and implicating, in the Community Center tragedy, a local network of anti-Semitic army and police officials. Preceded by MY OWN TELENOVELA US Premiere Jorge Weller, Israel, 2001, 60m, video, Hebrew/Spanish with English subtitles In this journey of self-discovery and redemption, filmmaker Jorge Weller travels back to his native Argentina, which he left 22 years earlier to immigrate to Israel. With film crew in tow he goes to help his older sister care for their ailing father and mildly retarded younger sister. Wed Jan 23: 3:15 & 8:15; Thurs Jan 24: 1 THE KOMEDIANT NY Premiere Arnon Goldfinger, Israel, 1999, 81m, English/Yiddish with English subtitles This portrait of the musical Burstyn Family is a wonderful document of Yiddish musical theater’s Golden Age. Full of funny anecdotes, wonderful clips of performances, home movies, and appearances by the likes of Fyvush Finkel, it’s a must-see for any fan of the Yiddish stage. Thurs Jan 24: 3:30 & 8:30 about the series | film descriptions and times