Springtime in L.A.: The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival
Opening in Beverly Hills on April 26 and continuing to May 3, the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival will showcase contemporary and classic films highlighting the best in Jewish Cinema.
Of the 27 films showing, 14 are Los Angeles premieres. One World Premiere, one North American Premiere and one U.S. Premiere make for some great discoveries.
An opportunity for film lovers to celebrate the rich tapestry of Jewish history, Jewish heritage and Jewish characters, the Opening Night Red Carpet Reception at Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills evening will honor one of the entertainment industry’s most beloved figures, Ed Asner, with the Los Angeles premiere of the documentary “My Friend Ed”, directed by Sharon Baker and executive produced by Liza Asner.
For his distinguished body of work as an actor, and for his relentless commitment to activism and to preserving Jewish life.
You know him best as Lou Grant, the gruff newsroom editor who takes the world by storm. But who is Ed Asner, really? As one of the most celebrated actors of his generation, Asner has delighted audiences of all ages, from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Lou Grant” to “Elf” and “Up”. For his role as Grant, Asner is one of only two actors to win an Emmy Award for a sitcom and a drama for the same role. But he’s also an all-American activist who refuses to budge on his ideals, no matter what anyone thinks. Filled with interviews from celebrities and friends including Elliott Gould, Paul Rudd, Valerie Harper, Betty White, Ed Begley Jr. and others, all pay tribute to the life, work and determination of this true warrior for justice. (btw, I know him because my mother and his sister Eve were very good friends.)
Special guests will join in honoring him: Valerie Harper, Ed Begley Jr., Sharon Gless, Peter Jason and Ruby Modine!
“My Friend Ed” will be preceded by “Super Sex”, a delightful short film, directed by actor Matthew Modine, starring Ed Asner, Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins and Ruby Modine.
Also playing is the restored Hollywood classic, “The Great Dictator”
This 1940 American political satire, was written, directed, produced, scored by and starred Charlie Chaplin. It was the great silent movie artist’s first talking picture and an act of political courage. Chaplin plays both leading roles: a ruthless fascist dictator, and a persecuted Jewish barber. At the time, the film advanced a controversial condemnation of Adolf Hitler, fascism, anti-Semitism, and the Nazis. The Great Dictator became Chaplin’s most commercially successful film. Modern critics have also praised it as a historically significant film and an important work of satire. The Great Dictator was nominated for five Academy Awards.
A super-special bonus feature will be the in-person Q&A with legendary actor, producer and director, Norman Lloyd, who will discuss his working relationship with Chaplin. Lloyd, still going strong at 102 years old, is a national treasure. The discussion will be moderated by Stan Taffel, Chaplin expert and President of Cinecon Classic Film Festival.
This is a community program and is free and open to the public sponsored by Los Angeles City Councilmember, Paul Koretz and the Department of Cultural Affairs.
Sunday, April 30, 4:15 pm
Laemmle’s Town Center, Encino
As the Centerpiece program, L.A. denizin and veteran filmmaker Henry Jaglom will present his latest film, “Train to Zakopané” in its World Premiere.
Adapted from his long-running play of the same name, and based upon true events that occurred in the life of Jaglom’s father, this story reveals humanity in the most unlikely of places — prejudice. A compelling love story that lays bare how compassion and intolerance can, even in the most unusual of circumstance, be one. A successful Russian businessman meets a captivating young nurse in the Polish army on a train-trip to Warsaw in 1928. He is faced with a life-changing dilemma when he discovers that the nurse he is drawn to — and who is enchanted by him — is fiercely anti-Semitic. Will he reveal to her he is Jewish? Will he move toward love, or will he move toward revenge? Starring Tanna Frederick and Mike Falkow.
Q&A to follow with director Henry Jaglom and cast, moderated by David Suissa, President of Jewish Journal
And for Closing NIght, “Restoring Tomorrow” will have its L.A. Premiere.
Today, religious institutions are losing younger members and even closing their doors at an alarming rate. Modeled after the great movie palaces, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple was built in 1929 by the legendary movie moguls and showbiz congregants of the time. There Louis B. Mayer would meet his equal in G-d and Rabbi Magnin on Rosh Hashanah every New Year.
Combining classic architecture with the techniques of Hollywood set design, the over-65,000-square-foot landmark is adorned with stunning stained-glass, opulent murals and a soaring gold dome. Over the years, the temple fell into disrepair, so much that the structure was on the verge of collapse. Even amid a Jewish exodus to West Los Angeles, senior Rabbi Steven Z. Leder undertakes an epic and audacious $150 million renovation, seeking not only to restore the building’s physical majesty, but to create a center for Jewish life and social services for an ethnically diverse neighborhood. The seemingly impossible task is documented by filmmaker Aaron Wolf, grandson of beloved Rabbi Emeritus Alfred Wolf, who served the Wilshire Boulevard Temple for decades. (btw, I was friends with Aaron’s sister Judy until her untimely death)
Additional highlights of the festival include:
‘The Wedding Plan”
Romantic Comedy/Drama/Israel/2016/110 minutes
Directed by Rama Burshtein / Starring Noa Kooler and Oz Zehavi
Hebrew with English subtitles
Director Rama Burshtein (“Fill the Void”) brings a new delightful story of hope and perseverance. At 32, Michal (Noa Kooler), an Orthodox Jewish woman, is finally looking forward to the comfort and security of marriage, when she is blindsided by her fiancé’s decision to call off the wedding with only a month’s notice. Unwilling to return to lonely single life, Michal decides to put her trust in fate and continue with her wedding plans, believing Mr. Right will appear by her chosen date. Confident she will find a match made in heaven, she books a venue, sends out invitations and buys a wedding dress, as her skeptical mother and sister look on with trepidation.
In another aside, this reminds me of the Arab Critics Nominated film “Withered Green” in which the women take the matter of marriage into their own hands. Read about Cannes’ upcoming Arab Critics Awards here.
Winner of the 2016 Best Screenplay and Best Actress awards at the Israeli Film Academy (Ophirs) and Official Selection 2017 Tribeca Film Festival
Drama/USA/Israel/2017/81 minutes
Co-written and Directed by Joshua Weinstein
Co-written and Produced by Alex Lipschultz
Starring Menashe Lustig
Yiddish with English subtitles
Critics’ Pick! Debuted at the Sundance and Berlinale Film Festivals!
Deep in the heart of New York’s ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, Menashe, a kind, hapless grocery store clerk, struggles to make ends meet and responsibly parent his young son, Rieven, following his wife Leah’s death. Tradition prohibits Menashe from raising his son alone, so Rieven’s strict uncle adopts him, leaving Menashe heartbroken. Meanwhile, though Menashe seems to bungle every challenge in his path, his rabbi grants him one special week with Rieven before Leah’s memorial. It’s his chance to prove himself a suitable man of faith and fatherhood, and restore respect among his doubters.
Performed entirely in Yiddish, Menashe uses intimate, handheld camerawork to drop us inside and humanize a hermetically sealed world of Heredi, working-class men debating in crowded shuls or seeking counsel in the rabbi’s library. And yet Menashe is in many ways an outsider in this tight-knit circle, as he bucks convention and ruffles feathers to stay true to himself.
Q&A with Producer Alex Lipschultz and Rob Adler Peckerar, Director of Yiddishkayt
In partnership with Yiddishkayt
My own reaction to this film when I saw it at Sundance was intense. It gives such a realistic and not the kindest view of Orthodox Society. I believe it is a common trait of all Orthodox (sic Fundamentalist) societies and is quite appealing in general, though not in the specific. Seeing the Orthodox community working together as a community brings a warm recollection of my own five years among the Lubavitchers. It also brings to mind the total insularity and the resulting prejudices against most “others” that is shared in such societies. This is the ultimate “bubble” and it lacks compassion for differences.
“Bye Bye Germany”/ “Es war einmal in Deutschland…”
Drama, comedy/Germany/Luxembourg/Belgium/2017/101 minutes
Directed by Sam Garbarski
Starring Moritz Bleibtreu, Mark Ivanir and Antje Traue
German with English subtitles
The story picks up where most German period pieces end — after WWII. With the Nazi regime effectively dismantled, a group of Jewish friends want to find a way to America and away from the land that for the last several years had them face to face with death. David, (Moritz Bleibtreu “Run Lola Run”, “Munich”) is a Holocaust survivor who starts up a linen business with partner Max (Mark Ivanir, “Homeland”, “The Human Resources Manager”) and other former concentration camp inmates, exploiting the guilt of their German customers to raise money to emigrate.
But U.S. special agent Sara Simon (Antje Traue, “Woman in Gold”) who is investigating his case, is asking uncomfortable questions about David’s wartime past, even suggesting he may have been a Nazi collaborator.
Introduction by Deputy Consul General, Katherin Steinbrenner of the German Consulate
Q&A with actor Mark Ivanir
Sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany
The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival is a program of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. LAJFF was founded in 2005 by Hilary Helstein to build community awareness, appreciation and pride in the diversity of the Jewish people through film. The mission of LAJFF is to preserve and celebrate the rich Jewish heritage; to cultivate Jewish values and the quality of Jewish life in the community (not only for the affiliated but unaffiliated); and to create and maintain a sense of community by providing important and exciting programming for individuals, families and organizations.
Tickets, venues and all information can be found at: http://www.lajfilmfest.org
