Films
Look for our 2011 film line up in January!
Saturday, March 20
6:00 PM-Opening Night Party
Greenhut Galleries / 146 Middle Street / Portland
8:00 PM-Ajami
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
Sunday, March 21
1:00 pm-Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueburger
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
Mature themes
4:00 PM-Free Youth Film – Inside Hana’s Suitcase
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
6:00 PM-A Matter of Size
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
Adult themes and sexual content
8:00 PM-Woman Filmmaker Forum – William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
In person: Directors Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler
Monday, March 22
5:00 PM-The Debt
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
5:30-6:30 PM- Behind the scenes: a conversation with independent filmmaker and director Erik Kesten Salt Institute for Documentary Studies / 561 Congress Street / Portland
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear what it takes to create an award-winning documentary and be part of an intimate conversation with the director of Holy Land Hardball (2009). This event is free and open to the public. Make sure to purchase a ticket for the 7:00 PM screening of the film!
7:00 PM-Holy Land Hardball
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
Tuesday, March 23
Seniors Free Luncheon & Matinee
Maine Historical Society / 489 Congress Street / Portland
12:00 PM-Free Luncheon
Luncheon limited to first 60 seniors 65 years and older who reserve Call 207.831.7495 to secure a reservation
1:00 PM-Everybody’s Uncle Sam: The Life and Legacy of Sam L. Cohen
1:30 PM-The Debt
Screening free for patrons 65 and older. General audience welcome at regular ticket prices. All seats require a ticket.
5:00 PM-Zrubavel shown w/ Maine filmmaker shorts
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
5:30-6:30 PM-LGBT Film Forum Reception
Salt Institute for Documentary Studies / 561 Congress Street / Portland
MJFF and Salt Institute for Documentary Studies invite you to a reception prior to the screening of The Secrets. Come celebrate the GLBT Film Forum! Join us for appetizers, drinks and good company.
This event is limited to The Secrets ticket holders Tickets available at the door
LGBT Film Forum
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
7:00 PM-The Secrets Adult themes and sexual content
Wednesday, March 24
5:00 PM-The Strangers
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
7:00 PM-Canvasman
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
In Person: Director, Gary Robinov and star, Rob Elowitch
9:00 PM-Artist Reception – Canvasman
Salt Institute for Documentary Studies / 561 Congress Street / Portland
MJFF invites you to our reception to celebrate the premiere event of Canvasman. Come mingle with director and Portland resident Gary Robinov, as well as Rob Elowitch, star of Canvasman. Appetizers and drinks provided.
This event is limited to Canvasman ticket holders. Please keep your ticket stub for admittance
7:00 PM-A Matter of Size
Olin Arts Center / Bates College / Lewiston, Maine
Adult themes and sexual content
Thursday, March 25
2:00 PM-HAG
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
5:00 PM-Noodle
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
7:00 PM-Leaving the Fold
Nickelodeon Cinemas / 1 Temple Street / Portland
Ajami
Director: Scander Copti, Yaron Shani
Country: Germany, Israel, 2009, Feature
Duration: 120 min.
Language: Arabic, Hebrew with English subtitles
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A gritty, urban crime drama brimming with raw energy and razor sharp insights, Ajami tells the interwoven stories of Jewish, Muslim and Christian neighbors often living in violence and disharmony in an impoverished Jaffa, Israel neighborhood. The sweeping cast of characters – illegal workers, gangs, drug dealers, revenge squads, corrupt police and clandestine inter-religious lovers – are all vividly portrayed by non-professional actors who are actual Ajami residents. Their disparate stories are tied together by a revenge killing and drug deal gone bad. Shuttling back and forth through time, interlocking events are witnessed through the eyes of different characters, thus changing audience perceptions and responses. The film is co-directed by Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti (who acts in the film as well).
Ajami is the first Arabic-language film to represent the Jewish state at the Academy Awards
-Winner of Camera D’Or
-Special Mention, -Cannes Film Festival 2009 -Winner of the Israeli Academy Award for Best Film -Winner of the Israeli Academy Award for Best Film
A Matter of Size
Director: Erez Tadmor, Sharon Maymon
Country: France, Germany, Israel, USA, United Kingdom, 2009, Feature
Duration: 90 min.
Language: Hebrew & Japanese with English subtitles
View Trailer>
A Matter of Size is an absolutely enjoyable film. Herzl (Itzik Cohen) is and always has been overweight. Newly unemployed, living at home with his mother in Ramla and banished from his weight-loss program, he finds himself washing dishes in a Japanese restaurant. There, he is introduced to sumo wrestling. The sport, where size is an asset, transforms Herzl. With a few large friends, he pursues his new found passion, which transforms all of their lives and gives them an entirely new perspective on life. A Matter of Size is a comedy about a ‘coming out’ of a different kind – overweight people learning to accept themselves and be accepted. Adult themes and sexual content.
-Tribeca Film Festival, official selection, 2009
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The Bat Mitzvah Gift
Director: Shoshana Hoose
Country: USA / 2003 / Documentary short
Duration: 9:00 Min
Language: English
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A mother’s yearlong search for the perfect present to give her daughter on her 13th birthday. Return to schedule
Canvasman
Director: Gary Robinov
Country: U.S / 2010 / Documentary
Duration: 90 Min.
Language: English
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Canvasman, directed by Portland native, Gary Robinov, chronicles the dual lives of Rob Elowitch, art collector and owner of the prestigious Barridoff Galleries, who for the last forty years has also wrestled professionally under the “mat name” Robbie Ellis. The film is a portrait of a man who is less concerned with doing what is expected of him than he is with living a life fueled by passion. His journey is one that teaches us that even if they take us in unlikely directions, if we follow our hearts, we can live our lives uninhibited by age and stereotypes and find out who we really are.
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The Debt
Director: Assaf Bernstein
Country: Israel
Duration: 93 Min.
Language: Hebrew, German, and Russian with English subtitles.
View trailer>
Forty years after the supposed capture of the fictional Nazi war criminal known as “The Surgeon of Birkenau,” two ex-Mossad agents are alerted that he may still be alive. Desperate to keep their secret—that the Surgeon actually escaped imprisonment under their watch—they head to the Ukraine to find him and finish the job. The suspenseful pursuit will keep you on the edge of your seat.
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Everybody’s Uncle Sam
Director: Jim Gabbe
Country: U.S., 2009, Documentary
Duration: 33:00 Min.
Language: English
A lively portrayal of the Biddeford man whose legacy benefits the people of southern Maine. The influences of Sam’s hometown, his parents, and the Jewish community are explored from the turn of the 20th century until his death in 2003. Special attention is paid to the Shul on Bacon Street. While Sam was “a genuinely charitable man,” mindful of Tikum Olam (righteous giving), his zest for life and fun-loving nature are also vividly portrayed.
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HAG
Director: Yisrael Lifshutz
Country: U.S. / 2007 / Mocumentary
Duration: 93 Min.
Language: English
HAG is a serio-comic hybrid of fact and fiction chronicling the life of Yisrael “Izzi” Lifschutz. He has acted in and/or consulted on such Hollywood films as The Chosen, Stranger Among Us and the independent classic Pi (which he also co-produced). This outrageously funny mockumentary is a survey of Jewish visibility in cinema and fictionalized history with archival “behind the scenes” footage, interviews, and staged scenes. It also goes beyond its humor to speak to contemporary Jewish experience. Lifshutz, while “HAGing” the spotlight boasts, “I’m so animated they call me the kosher ham!”
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Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueburger
Director: Cathy Randal
Country: Australia / 2008 / 101 Min.
Language: English
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Esther Blueberger is a unique misfit in an elite girls school. She is also gutsy, opinionated and refreshingly determined to be true to her own ideals rather than conform. Any schoolgirl whose best friend is a duck she rescued from the school laboratory and named ‘Normal’ is likely to find life difficult in her teenage years. It is not until Esther meets the equally non-conformist Sunni (Castle-Hughes, Whale Rider) and her outrageous mother (Toni Collette, Little Miss Sunshine) that she finds kindred spirits who lead her in unexpected directions.
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Holy Land Hardball
Director: Erik Kesten and Brett Rapkin
Country: United States, 2009, Documentary
Duration: 84 Min.
Language: English, Hebrew with English subtitles.
View trailer>
Meet Larry Baras, a middle-aged Jewish bakery owner from Boston. With no prior sports management experience, he sets out to create Israel’s first professional baseball league. With extraordinary access, Holy Land Hardball follows the unlikely formation of the Israel Baseball League, the first ever professional baseball circuit in the Middle East. Their task is to bring to Israel a sport they have managed to live without for 5,767 years. The ultimate question is, “If we build it, will they come?”
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Inside Hana’s Suitcase
Director: Larry Weinstein
Country: Canada/Czech Republic, 2009, Documentary
Duration: 90 Min
Language: English, Czech & Japanese; English subtitles
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Inside Hana’s Suitcase tells the present-day story of a group of Japanese children who, with the help of their passionate and tenacious teacher, Fumiko Ishioka, are able to solve the mystery of a young Czech girl, Hana Brady, whose name appears on an old battered suitcase in the Auschwitz Museum. The film follows Fumiko’s search to discover the details of Hana’s life, which leads to the discovery of her older brother, George, in Toronto. As young children, they had been incarcerated in Theresienstadt after the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939. A remarkable story brought to life through the contemporary young voices of three groups of children from Japan, Canada and the Czech Republic.
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Leaving the Fold
Director: Eric R. Scott
Country: Canada, 2008, Documentary
Duration: 52 Min
Language: English
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Leaving The Fold is a documentary, which tells the story of five young people born and raised within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world who no longer wish to remain on the inside. As children they grew up in a closed society where deviation from the rules of conduct is often punishable by ostracism, intimidation or worse. As young adults they pay a steep price for abandoning their parents and community to seek the freedom to make their own choices. From the Hasidic enclaves of Montreal, Brooklyn and Jerusalem come stories of conflict, coercion and struggle.
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Mustard Doublebreasted
Director: Phyllis Graber Jensen
Country: USA / 2009 / Documentary short
Duration: 10:00 Min.
Language: English
As the 40th anniversary of his bar mitzvah approaches, a son and his parents recall the experience.
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Noodle
Director: Ayelet Menahemi
Country: Israel / 2007 / Feature
Length: 95 Min.
Language: Hebrew/Mandarin
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At 37, Miri is a twice-widowed, El Al flight attendant. Her well-regulated existence is suddenly turned upside down by an abandoned Chinese boy whose migrant-worker mother has been summarily deported from Israel. A touching comic-drama in which two human beings – as different from each other as Tel Aviv is from Beijing – accompany each other on a remarkable journey, both hoping that it takes them back to a meaningful life.
-Montreal World Film Festival, Grand Prize of the Jury, 2008
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The Strangers
Director: Avi Nesher
Country: Israel/France, 2007, Feature
Duration: 120 Min
Language: French and Hebrew with English subtitles
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He’s Israeli, she’s Palestinian. They meet in Berlin during the frenzy of the World Cup finals where relief at running into somebody from “home” quickly turns to desire. Can love trump politics? Sexy, brave, and provocative, Strangers is a true high wire act.
-Grand Jury Prize nominee at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
The Secrets
Director: Avi Nesher
Country: Israel/France, 2007, Feature
Duration: 120 Min.
Language: French and Hebrew with English subtitles
View trailer>
Transport two young women to a seminary in the holy city of Safed, throw in a murder mystery, a French cinema legend, a klezmer-playing pharmacist and a lesbian love story and you’ve got The Secrets – the astonishing new Orthodox-feminist feature from Israeli maverick Avi Nesher. Devout Naomi (Ania Bokstein) dreams of becoming the first female rabbi and quickly establishes herself as the seminary boffin, to the annoyance of cosmopolitan Michelle (Michal Shtamler), who arrives from France moodily chain-smoking. But the two become closer when they help dying outcast Anouk (Fanny Ardant) with a series of Tikunim Kabbalistic rituals to cleanse her murky past – while making discoveries about their own sexuality and debating their future as orthodox women.
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William Kunstler: Disturb. the Universe
Director: Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler
Country: USA, 2009, Documentary
Duration: 85 min.
Language: English
View trailer>
In William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe, filmmakers Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler explore the life of their father, the late radical civil rights lawyer. In the 1960s and 70s, William Kunstler fought for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr. and represented the famed “Chicago 8” activists who protested the Vietnam War. When the inmates took over Attica prison, or when the American Indian Movement stood up to the federal government at Wounded Knee, they asked Kunstler to be their lawyer. To his daughters, it seemed that he was at the center of everything important that had ever happened. This powerful film not only recounts the historic causes that Kunstler fought for; it also reveals a man that even his own daughters did not always understand, a man who risked public outrage and the safety of his family so that justice could serve all.
-Sundance Film Festival, 2009 -New Orleans Human Rights Film Festival, Winner, Grand Jury Award for Best Feature, 2009
Zrubavel
Director: Shmuel Beru
Country: Israeli / USA, 2008 / Feature
Duration: 72 Min.
Language: Amharic, Hebrew, w/ Eng. subtitles
View trailer>
The first Israeli film by a team of Ethiopian Israelis. Itzhak, soon to be a bar mitzvah, dreams of becoming the Spike Lee of Israel and films a documentary about the neighborhood’s residents. He comes from an Ethiopian immigrant family led by his grandfather. A janitor, Gita insists on sending his son to a pretentious school despite the principal’s refusal to accept the boy. His dream is that his children will become accepted in Israel in a way he will never be. A chain of events ignites a clash of generations – the Ethiopian traditions cherished by Gita and his wife, and the younger generation’s desire to assimilate.
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