The 12th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival

January 12 - 23, 2003
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.
We are delighted to welcome you to the 12th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival - a collaboration between The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Jewish Museum. The need to explore and celebrate the Jewish experience is more pressing than ever, and this year's selections - from France to South Africa, Israel to Texas - reflect a pervasive drive to define and understand issues of modern Jewish identity. Exciting new voices in world cinema make their mark, among them Israeli directors Lina and Slava Chaplin, whose A TRUMPET IN THE WADI creates a heartwrenching portrait of the impact of politics on love. French romances and forgotten gems of bittersweet Yiddish melodrama, humorous family epics and documentary investigations - taken as a whole, this year's festival underscores the magnificent diversity of the the global Jewish community as expressed through film. Please join us for eleven extraordinary days of possibility and discovery at the 2003 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.

Acknowledgements: The Israel Office of Cultural Affairs in the USA, Janis Plotkin, Samuel Ball - San Francisco JFF, Miriam Morsel Nathan, Josh Speiser - Washington JFF, Sara Rubin, Kaj Wilson - Boston JFF, Susan Alper - Montreal JFF, Frederic-Gerard Kaczek - Vienna Jewish Film Festival, Sharon Riva, Mimi Krant - National Center for Jewish Film, Jessica Rosner - Kino International, Donnell Library Media Center of The New York Public Library, Olli Chanoff, Lori Cearley.

The following films will be also be shown at the Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y, 35 West 67th Street (between Columbus and Central Park West):
Kedma (Amos Gitai, Israel, 2002; 100m)
Jan 27, 28, 29 & 30 at 7:30 and 9:30
Feb 3, 44, 5, & 6 at 7:30 and 9:30
Polonaise (Frans Weisz, The Netherlands, 1989; 90m) Jan 15 & 16 at 7:30 and 9:30

For tickets to these screenings, call 212.601.1000 or visit www.makor.org

Highlights from the festival will also be showing from January 16 to 30 at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York. For information, please call 914.747.5555 or visit the Burns Film Center's website.

REDISCOVERING MAX DAVIDSON
Introduced by film critic J. Hoberman
In conjunction with The Jewish Museum's upcoming exhibition Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting (on view from Feb 21 to Sept 14, 2003)
Why Girls Say No
Leo McCarey, USA, 1927, 21m; silent
Call of the Cuckoo
Clyde Bruckman, USA, 1927, 18m; silent
Pass the Gravy
Fred Guiol & Leo McCarey, USA, 1928, 22m; silent
Jewish Prudence
Leo McCarey, USA, 1927, 20m; silent
Nearly forgotten today, hirsute, hapless Max Davidson (1875 - 1950) brought a particular brand of Eastern European "Jewish luck" to American slapstick. Davidson was extremely popular in the late 1920s when he starred in a number of shorts at the Hal Roach Studios. Ethnic stereotypes are evident in these films, but so are agile antics and inspired comedy.
With live piano accompaniment.
Sun Jan 12: 12:30


MOLLY: THE GOLDBERGS
Walter Hart, USA, 1950; 83m
A portrayal of the daily hardships and small triumphs of a working-class Jewish family from the Bronx - based on the long-running, warmhearted radio and TV series The Goldbergs. The film is a touching artifact of American Jewish life.
Sun Jan 12: 3:30


ATLANTIC DRIFT
Michael Daeron, Austria/France, 2001; 88m
(German, English & Hebrew with English subtitles)
The harrowing tale of the 2000 Jewish refugees who packed into the ship Atlantic to escape Vienna during WWII, then spent three months wandering across the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, only to end up in Mauritius.
Sun Jan 12: 5:30;
Mon Jan 13: 3:30


SMOULDERING CIGARETTE
Peter Basco, Hungary, 2001; 120m
(Hungarian with English subtitles)
Budapest in 1942 was an uneasy island of relative calm in the midst of WWII. Living by his wits, an impoverished Jewish songwriter survives the ensuing German occupation by composing hit songs for tempestuous diva Katalin Karády. Veteran Hungarian filmmaker Peter Basco directs this tale of survivor luck with his customary irony and period verve.
Sun Jan 12: 8;
Mon Jan 13: 8:45


SECRET LIVES: HIDDEN CHILDREN AND THEIR RESCUERS DURING WWII
Aviva Slesin, USA, 2002; 72m
Before WWII, more than one and a half million Jewish children were living in Europe. By war's end, fewer than one out of ten had survived. This is the story of a number of these children who were saved from the Nazis by non-Jews who hid them in their homes despite great personal danger. This deeply moving documentary explores the complex relationships between these children and their rescuers with the insight of the director who was herself a hidden child.
Mon Jan 13: 1 & 6:30


HITLER'S HAT
WORLD PREMIERE
Jeff Krulik, USA, 2002, 50m; video
Richard Marowitz, a Jewish American G.I., was present at the search of Hitler's Munich apartment in April 1945. Finding a black top hat, Marowitz flew into a rage, stomping on the hat and then donning it in an imitation of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. That same day, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. Documentarian Jeff Krulik (Obsessed with Jews, NYJFF, 2001) follows Marowitz to a reunion of his Division.
Preceded by


SID AT 90
WORLD PREMIERE
Howard Weinberg, USA, 2002, 27m; video
Actor-comedian Sid Raymond's professional exploits range from vaudeville impersonations to radio comedy, cartoon voices, live television drama, feature films, summer stock and Broadway. Celebrate Sid at 90!
Tue Jan 14: 1 & 6

PERLASCA
US PREMIERE
Alberto Negrin, Italy, 2002, 126m; video
(Italian with English subtitles)
This drama portrays Giorgio Perlasca's selfless courage in saving more than 5,000 Hungarian Jews during WWII. Perlasca becomes consumed by a sense of humanitarian duty after witnessing the persecution of Jews in Budapest. Passing himself off as Spanish Consul, he tricks the Nazis in a series of ingenious capers.
Tue Jan 14: 3:15 & 8:30


CASTING
NY PREMIERE
Emmanuel Finkiel, France, 2001, 87m; video
(Hebrew and Yiddish with English subtitles)
An incredible portrait of a generation of European Jews, this video is a humorous and heartwarming collage of audition tapes from actors who responded to an ad for "Yiddish speakers, 60 to 90 years old" for the director's previous film, MADAME JACQUES SUR LA CROISETTE.
Followed by


MADAME JACQUES SUR LA CROISETTE
Emmanuel Finkiel, France, 1995; 38m
(French and Yiddish with English subtitles)
This portrait of elderly Jews on their annual springtime retreat in Cannes won the Cesar, France's Academy Award, for best short narrative. As the old friends reflect on aging, love and the bond of Yiddish culture, a romance blooms in their midst.
Wed Jan 15: 1 & 6
LA GUERRE À PARIS
US PREMIERE
Yolande Zauberman, France, 2002; 82m
(French with English subtitles)
In this stirring drama set in the French capital during WWII, Ana Maria, Jules, and Thomas are participants in a romantic triangle whose many facets come to light in the harsh glare of the German occupation.
Wed Jan 15: 4 & 9


CHOOSING EXILE
US PREMIERE
Marc Radomsky, Australia, 2002, 55m; video
An intense portrait of the pain of emigration, documenting the filmmaker's decision to uproot his wife and young son from their life in South Africa and move to Australia. The film examines the pervasive fear of violent crime among the white community in the post-Apartheid nation that prompted one family to leave.
Preceded by


SCHMATTE MAZEL
US PREMIERE
Lesley Sharon Rosenthal, Australia, 2000, 10m; video
This fanciful documentary traces the legacy of the Australian "shmatte" (garment) industry. New Yorkers will especially enjoy the familiarity of the subject, but with an Aussie twist!
Preceded by


EICHA
US PREMIERE
Eliezer Shapiro, Israel, 2001, 21m; video
(Hebrew with English subtitles)
A beautifully conceived drama about a young girl from a religious family in search of her own identity. Eicha longs to break free of the roles that others, both secular and religious, imagine she should embody.
Thurs Jan 16: 12:30 & 6


NOWHERE IN AFRICA
Introduced by film critic J. Hoberman
Nowhere in Africa
Caroline Link, Germany, 2002, 141m
(German with English subtitles)
The story of one young family's narrow escape from Nazi Germany and resettlement on a farm in Kenya. While five-year-old Regina quickly becomes intoxicated by the magic of life in their new home, her parents struggle to cope with poverty and isolation. NOWHERE IN AFRICA powerfully conveys both the pain of separation and the possibility of reinvention.
Thurs Jan 16: 2:30 & 8:30


QUI VIVE
Frans Weisz, The Netherlands, 2001; 92m
(Dutch with English subtitles)
This sequel to director Frans Weisz's Polonaise (1989) centers on Nico and Lea, the couple whose wedding the first film portrayed. Taking up their story 12 years later and remarkably reuniting the cast from Polonaise, QUI VIVE is a vibrant, poignant, fast-paced and often hilarious tale of family dynamics.
Sat Jan 18: 7;
Sun Jan 19: 6:15;
Mon Jan 20: 6


A TRUMPET IN THE WADI
Lina and Slava Chaplin, Israel, 2001, 86m
(Hebrew with English subtitles)
Alex and Huda are lovers and outsiders in Israeli society - Alex is a new immigrant from Russia and Huda an Arab woman from Haifa. She works in a Jewish travel agency and reads Hebrew poetry; he plays the trumpet marvelously. An impossible love story that can be described as a Middle Eastern nod to Romeo and Juliet.
Preceded by


FESTIVAL UNDER WAR
US PREMIERE
Yaron Shane, Israel, 2002, 17m; video
(Hebrew with English subtitles)
This documentary about the 2001 Jerusalem Film Festival provides an illuminating view of life in today's conflict-torn Israel and raises questions about the role of art and film in such times.
Sat Jan 18: 9:30;
Sun Jan 19: 3:30 & 8:45


MOTL THE OPERATOR
Joseph Seiden, USA, 1939; 89m
(Yiddish with English subtitles)
A bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of Yiddish theater, this 1939 tale of a labor dispute in New York's garment district and its tragic consequences for one young family is a vital document of the Jewish immigrant experience. MOTL features performances by some of the best known Yiddish actors of the day, including Yetta Zweiling.
Sun Jan 19: 1:30


GEBIRTIG
Robert Schindel and Lukas Stepanik, Austria, 2002; 115m
(German and Yiddish with English subtitles) GEBIRTIG, adapted from an acclaimed Austrian novel, expertly mingles the stories of an Austrian Holocaust survivor living in New York, a German journalist with a Nazi father, and a Jewish actor from Vienna. Delving into the complex memories of each of these characters, this sophisticated film offers a fiercely intelligent perspective on how the past remains a vital force in defining the present.
Preceded by

SILENT STRONG
NY PREMIERE
Elida Schogt, Canada, 2002, 6m; video
From the director of Zyklon Portrait (NYJFF 2001) and The Walnut Tree (NYJFF 2002), a short poetic documentary based on footage of a young boy playing the accordion during the pandemonium of the liberation of Dachau. An evocative contemplation on the ephemeral nature of life, images and the past.
Mon Jan 20: 12:30;
Tue Jan 21: 12:30 & 6


THE JOEL FILES
US PREMIERE
Beate Thalberg, Austria, 2001, 60m; video
(English and German with English subtitles)
This is the history of the family of rock legend Billy Joel - their escape from Nazi Germany and Austria and their return to discover the past. Billy Joel's grandfather's company was "aryanized" in 1938 and became a great success under the new owner. The bitter entanglement of the two families and the third generation's eventual attempt at reconciliation form the basis of this powerful film.
Preceded by

A SYSTEM FOR WRITING THANK YOU NOTES
Neil Goldberg, USA, 2001, 9m; video
In an uncomfortably humorous "interview," Goldberg's widowed father reveals his method for responding to condolence cards received after his wife's death.
Mon Jan 20: 3:30 & 8:30;
Tue Jan 21: 9


SHALOM Y'ALL
NY PREMIERE
Brian Bain, USA, 2002, 60m; video
An engrossing exploration of the lives of Jews in the American South in which the filmmaker embarks on a journey from Texas to Tennessee, traveling the same roads his 100-year-old grandfather did as a hat salesman. Along the way he discovers a vibrant, Jewish culture - peopled by cowboys and congressmen, kosher butchers and hoop-skirted tour guides.
Preceded by

BERTHA ALYCE
NY PREMIERE
Gay Block, USA, 2001, 24m; video
Video interviews and still photographs chronicle the tempestuous relationship the director shared with her unusual and difficult mother. Engaging, poignant and often funny, this portrait is unflinchingly honest.
Tue Jan 21: 3:30;
Wed Jan 22: 3:30 & 8:30
EPSTEIN'S NIGHT
Urs Eggers, Germany, 2001; 85m
(German with English subtitles)
A haunting, yet beautiful, drama about three concentration camp survivors in Berlin who discover that their former tormentor is the officiating priest at a local church. A gripping tale of friendship and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness, with a shocking denouement. Featuring noted actor Bruno Ganz, star of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire.
Wed Jan 22: 1 & 6
JE ME SOUVIENS / I REMEBER
US PREMIERE
Eric R. Scott, Canada, 2002, 47m; video
This documentary investigates the memory of fascism and anti-Semitism in Québec during the 1930s and 40s. Reminiscent of Michael Verhoeven's The Nasty Girl, it creates a vivid and chilling portrait of a subject that has traditionally been forbidden territory for Canadian academics.
Preceded by

MY DEAR CLARA
NY PREMIERE
Garry Beitel, Canada, 2001, 44m; video
Interweaving love letters, family photos, official correspondence and archival footage, this extraordinarily moving documentary tells the story of the struggle for survival of a Polish Jewish refugee, as his Canadian wife battles to change her government's immigration policies.
Thurs Jan 23: 12:30 & 6


KEDMA
CLOSING NIGHT: US PREMIERE
Amos Gitai, Israel, 2002; 100m
(Hebrew, Russian and Yiddish with English subtitles)
May 7, 1948: With the British about to end their mandate and the creation of the state of Israel at hand, violence rages between the Jewish and Arab communities. A European cargo freighter packed with concentration camp survivors heads toward Palestine; as underground Jewish forces prepare for its arrival and British soldiers position themselves to stop its unauthorized landing, the narrative charges forward toward an explosive and surprising climax.
Thurs Jan 23: 3 & 8:30