Festival is proud to present
Jewishfilm.2008 offers slices of life, reminders of past pain and triumph
Israeli director Ran Tal wanted to understand his upbringing. Raised on a kibbutz, he visited his parents only at designated times, just one example of the style of communal living that shaped both his and his parent's generations of kibbutzniks from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Tal spent three years piecing together home movies and old radio recordings from kibbutzim archives to revisit that part of Jewish history and culture, resulting in the documentary "Children of the Sun." Shown in a preview with Tal present earlier this month, the film returns April 12 as part of The National Center for Jewish Film's 11th annual film festival, Jewishfilm.2008. Writer and educator Leonard Fein will lead a discussion after the film.
The festival runs March 29 through April 13, with films screening at the Wasserman Cinematheque on the Brandeis campus unless otherwise noted.
Like many of this year's 10 programs, "Children of the Sun" exemplifies the mission of The National Center for Jewish Film, according to executive director Sharon Pucker Rivo. "It is important to us that documents are preserved but also that filmmakers use them as historically, accurately, and as creatively as possible," she said recently by phone.
Pucker Rivo said the center boasts the largest archive of Jewish moving images outside of Israel. It also restores film, distributes film, and on occasion helps produce films. Jewishfilm is an annual exhibition with selections from the center's collection as well as staff favorites from international festivals.
One such favorite is the feature "Noodle," scheduled as both the opening- and closing-night film. A hit at the Israeli box office in 2007, "Noodle" is about a young Chinese boy left with an Israeli woman after her housecleaner (his mother) is unexpectedly deported to Beijing. Both screenings will include guests from the Consulate General of Israel to New England.
In another contemporary feature, "And Along Come Tourists," an ennui-laden Berliner accepts a civil service assignment at Auschwitz, now the site of a youth hostel and a tourist destination. It is loosely based on the experiences of German writer/director Robert Thalheim, who will be present for two screenings (April 4 at Harvard Film Archive and April 6 at Wasserman).
The National Center for Jewish Film showcases its most recently restored Yiddish film, "The Cantor's Son," a 1937 musical that transports Shliomele (Moishe Oysher) from the Polish countryside to New York's Lower East Side and back. The film screens March 30 with a special guest, 95-year-old uncredited producer Cynthia Segal.
Brandeis alumni are featured in "The Last Jews of Libya," a documentary that traces the Roumani family from living peacefully in Benghazi, Libya, for centuries to exile to the United States, which coincides with the dispersal of Jews from much of North Africa. Director Vivienne Roumani-Denn and film subjects will be present (April 13).
Also showing: "Jerusalem Is Proud to Present" (March 30), a documentary about multi-religious opposition to a gay pride parade in Jerusalem. "Being Jewish in France" (March 30) chronicles the fragile relationship between France and her Jewish citizens from the Dreyfus Affair of 1906 to present day. "Nina's Journey" (April 3) dramatizes the adolescence of writer/director Lena Einhorn's mother, who survives the Warsaw Ghetto. "Settlement" (April 8) is a personal documentary by Emmy-winning director Marian Marzynski ("Shtetl"). "The Champagne Spy," (April 5 at ICA Boston and April 13 at Wasserman) won an Israeli Academy Award for best documentary for its account of Wolfgang Lotz, an Israeli secret agent enraptured by his cover life as an ex-Nazi billionaire playboy.
For a detailed schedule, visit jewishfilm.org. 