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Opening Night sponsored by Greenhut Galleries Gala Reception 5:30 PM at Greenhut Galleries 146 Middle Street, Portland Food, drink, and talk with visiting directors and other distinguished guests. Come kick-off our seventh year of the best in Jewish film with honorary hosts Judy and Norm Wilson. |
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Opening Night Feature 7:30 PM at Nickelodeon Cinemas 1 Temple Street in downtown Portland
JAMES' JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM
Award-winning South African actor, Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe, shines as charming, young James on a pilgrimage from his African village to the holy land. Upon arrival in Tel Aviv, he is arrested for entering the country illegally, only to be rescued by a mysterious benefactor. With a bit of luck and some lateral thinking, James learns to survive, but not before he is seduced by the commercialism of contemporary Israel. This delightful fable probes racism, greed, and trust with a light and often comic touch.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
Click here to read the March 3rd Village Voice review of this film.
Click here to read the March 5th New York Times review of this film.
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11:30 AM at
The Movies on Exchange
ATLANTIC DRIFT
More than 50 years ago, Hannah escaped Nazi Europe on an illegal ship bound for Palestine. She landed, instead, in Mauritius off the east coast of Africa where she was imprisoned for five years before finally making it to Israel. This feature-length documentary plays with the suspense of a thriller as Hannah and her son retrace her journey and find the answer to a long-kept family secret.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
Sponsored by North Yarmouth Academy |
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THUNDER IN GUYANA
(USA, 2003, 56 min., English)
Directed by Suzanne Wasserman, in person. In 1997, at age 77, Jewish Chicagoan Janet Rosenberg-Jagan won the presidency of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, becoming the first American-born woman elected to lead a nation. Directed by Janet's cousin Suzanne Wasserman, this documentary chronicles the life of an extraordinary woman and the complex history of Guyana. Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
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and BETWEEN THE LINES (Israel, 2001, 58 min., Hebrew w/subtitles) Directed by Yifat Kedar, in person. Amira Hass, the only Israeli journalist living in the Occupied Territories, is obsessed with reporting truth. She writes for the daily newspaper, Ha'aretz, from her home in Ramallah as the political situation continues to worsen. Filmmaker Yifat Kedar documents the dangerous, radical, and often lonely life of this courageous woman. Facilitated discussion will follow with both filmmakers in person. Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
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Women Filmmakers Forum made possible by a grant from the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
With additonal support from the Maine Women's Fund and the Women's Studies Program at the University of Southern Maine. |
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Family Program
THE FRISCO KID
Harrison Ford and Gene Wilder star in the hilarious cross-country adventure of a bewildered Polish rabbi and a gun-slinging wild-west bank robber. Celebrate the 25th anniversary of this classic Jewish Western. Rated PG.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
Sponsored by Time Warner Cable of Maine
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A collection of short films created by Israeli teenagers as a project of Lahav N.P. Association, a non-profit working in Israel and worldwide to further democratic values, social tolerance, and freedom of creation through film.
REINFORCEMENT PLAYER
Gabriel, a new immigrant from Argentina, joins the school basketball team and slowly wins approval. When he doesn't show up for practice his teammates fear the worst.
ON CREDIT
Desperate to go on the class trip to Eilat, Alex struggles to find a way to pay for the ticket.
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GOOD JERUSALEM CHILDREN (Israel, 2003, 28 min., Hebrew w/subtitles) A diverse group of high-schoolers try to discover the true character of their legendary home town. Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on the youth program films.
Parents and general audience welcome to the Youth Program at regular price. Tickets required, even for students, so please call to reserve seats. |
ALL I'VE GOT
What if life's most difficult choice comes after we die? In Keren Margalit's wonderfully imaginative feature, a 75 year-old grandmother on a cruise ship to the afterlife finds her first love - snatched away by a terrible accident more than 50 years earlier - waiting for her. When the beloved husband with whom she shared the rest of her life climbs on board, Tamara must choose. Will she return to her 23 year-old body and start over in 1955 or will she keep the memories of her rich life instead? Either way she'll hold on to one lover forever; the other's cruise will never end.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
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with A GOOD UPLIFT (USA, 2003, 13 min., English) Directed by Faye Lederman, Cheryl Furjanic, and Eve Lederman, invited Magda Bernstein, Jewish grandmother and owner of the Orchard Street Corset Shop, supports women of all shapes and sizes in their quest for the perfect bra.
Women Filmmakers Forum made possible by a grant from the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
All I've Got Sponsored by Adele Aronson, Broker, Re/Max By the Bay and Century Tire Co. and Auto Centers
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Women Filmmakers Forum - Extended
Orthodox Israeli director Anat Zuria gives voice to a subtle female rebellion within the religious world. Featuring intensely personal interviews, this groundbreaking documentary explores a previously taboo subject: Jewish laws of family purity, sexual separation, and ritual immersion.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
For over 70 years, the Abayudaya, an isolated group of 400 people in Uganda, have been practicing Judaism. Deborah Gonsher Vinik and David Vinik's inspiring film documents the entire village's formal conversion to Judaism and the subsequent worldwide debate about who is a Jew.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
Women Filmmakers Forum made possible by a grant from the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
YOSSI AND JAGGER
On a remote army base in the snow-covered bunkers of southern Lebanon, serious, conservative Israeli commander Yossi and irresistibly handsome, playful Jagger carry out a secret love affair. Based on a true story, this sexy, powerful, anti-war feature captures the mix of boredom, humor, camaraderie, and fear among a group of young people trying to survive and find happiness in a troubled time and place.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
Click here to read the September 24, 2003 New York Times review of this film.
Filmmaker Andy Abrahams Wilson has a humorous heart-to-heart about sexual orientation with his cantankerous, loveable grandmother.
Lesbian filmmaker Ellen Flanders meditates on Yiddish, loss, and the construction of memory through language.
Sponsored by Videoport.
THE SWEETEST SOUND
Tired of being mistaken for anyone who might share his name, filmmaker Alan Berliner decides to rid himself of the dreaded Same Name Syndrome. His solution: invite all the Alan Berliners in the world over to his house for dinner. This fast-moving, entertaining documentary examines the power and meaning of names and identity.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
Larry Selman is a 60-year-old developmentally disabled activist who collects thousands of dollars for charity every year. When he can no longer afford the rent, his neighbors, including filmmaker Alice Elliott, create a trust fund to keep Larry on Bedford Street. Academy Award nominee for Best Short Film.
Hasidism, rock 'n' roll, and romance on the NYC subway.
and TUNANOODA
Grandpa Sol recounts his glory days on Manhasset beach while he prepares lunch for his grandson. Animated short.
Magda Bernstein, Jewish grandmother and owner of the Orchard Street Corset Shop, supports women of all shapes and sizes in their quest for the perfect bra.
8:00 PM at The Movies on Exchange
Adapted from an acclaimed Austrian novel, this intense feature expertly intertwines the stories of Hermann Gebürtig, an Austrian Holocaust survivor now successful composer living in New York, a German journalist who has recently discovered his father's Nazi past, and a Viennese Jewish actor cast in a film about Auschwitz. 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.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
The life of a Nazi officer balances on the edge of a Jewish barber's razor blade.
at the Center for Maine History
Free Luncheon for Seniors. Limited to the first 60 seniors.
ROBERT CAPA: IN LOVE AND WAR
From the moment British magazine Picture Post published Robert Capa's 1938 photographs of the Spanish Civil War with the caption "The Greatest War Photographer in the World" - until the day he died - Capa has widely been considered the best. Anne Makepeace's feature-length documentary highlights dozens of Capa's images to tell the story of his mythic life from his childhood as Endre Friedmann in Hungary to his years in Paris and Hollywood to his tragic death on assignment in 1954.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
The Seniors Free program is made possible by a grant from the Second Abraham S. and Fanny B. Levey Foundation and is co-sponsored by Piper Shores and the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine.
A HOME ON THE RANGE
Jack London, California vigilantes, McCarthyism, the Cold War, and agribusiness all come to life in this quintessentially American story of how a group of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe find their new home as chicken ranchers in Petaluma. A heartwarming documentary.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
Focusing on Benjamin Briscoe, who followed in his father's footsteps to become the second Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin, this documentary shines a light on the little-known and fascinating history of Irish Jewry. Today, as their population dwindles, Dublin Jews have launched an effort to revitalize their once vibrant community.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
8:00 PM at The Movies on Exchange
Elia Suleiman's "touching, provocative and wonderfully strange" (A.O. Scott, NYTimes) feature sketches his hometown of Nazareth as a place consumed by ferocious absurdity. A series of vignettes from neighbors dumping garbage into each other's yards, to lovers holding hands at a checkpoint, to a flying ninja woman fuel this controversial film's dark humor. An intentionally slow pace and stretches of silence help capture the surreal dreams and nightmares of Palestinians and Israelis living in uncertain times. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes.
Click here to read the New York Times review of this film.
Flickschmooze to follow at Casco Bay Books;
From the moment British magazine Picture Post published Robert Capa's 1938 photographs of the Spanish Civil War with the caption "The Greatest War Photographer in the World" - until the day he died - Capa has widely been considered the best. Anne Makepeace's feature-length documentary highlights dozens of Capa's images to tell the story of his mythic life from his childhood as Endre Friedmann in Hungary to his years in Paris and Hollywood to his tragic death on assignment in 1954.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
7:30 PM at The Movies on Exchange
In 1974, Louis Kahn was found dead -- alone, bankrupt, and unidentified -- in the men's room at Penn Station. An Estonian Jew, Kahn had risen from poverty to become one of the most important architects of the twentieth century. In this striking documentary, Nathaniel Kahn travels the world from Maine to Bangladesh, struggling to piece together the mysterious life of the famous father he never really knew.
Click here to read the 2004 Program Book essay on this film.
Click here to read the March 29, 2003 New York Times review of this film.
9:30 PM
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Check out last year's schedule here. Here's what we screened in previous years: 2002 2001 2000 1999. |