A Bridge of Books
Documentary, USA, 2001, video, 13 min
Director: Sam Ball
English

Opened in 1997, the headquarters of the National Yiddish Book Center is a lebedike velt - a lively world full of books, people, programs and exhibitions. The Center was founded in 1980 when current President Aaron Lansky discovered thousands of priceless Yiddish books - books that had survived Hitler and Stalin - were being discarded and destroyed. Since then, the Center has recovered over 1.5 million Yiddish books, with the number growing every day. Director Sam Ball takes us on a fascinating tour of what has been called "the greatest cultural rescue effort in Jewish history."
Sunday March 9, 2003 at 10:00 AM - Sabes JCC Auditorium.

Motel the Operator (Motel der Operator)
Feature, USA, 1939, Video, 88 minutes
Director: Joseph Seiden
Yiddish with English Subtitles

Set in the sweatshops of New York City's garment district, Motel der Operator is a classic Yiddish melodrama that also serves as an important historical document of the American labor movement. Motel, a poor but hard-working man, loving husband, and new father, leads garment workers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife Esther and infant son are left destitute. The fate of her family now uncertain, Esther takes drastic measures to ensure the safety and health of her child. Newly restored and re-mastered, the film features superb performances by well-known American-Yiddish actors, including the incomparable comic actress Yetta Zwerling. Rich in beautiful song, Motel der Operator is a standout in its genre, a bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of Yiddish Theater.
Sunday March 9 at 10:00 AM - Sabes JCC Auditorium. Sponsored by the Yiddish Vinkl

Last Dance
Documentary, USA, 2002, video, 84 minutes.
Mirra Bank, director.
English.
Nudity

Creator of such beloved works as “Where the Wild Things Are” and “In the Night Kitchen,” author and illustrator Maurice Sendak entered into new creative territory when he teamed with the world renowned Pilobolus-Dance Theatre to create a groundbreaking dance piece about the Holocaust: “The Selection.” On paper, this partnership seemed an ideal one; in practice, however, the sparks flew as the competing visual and physical energies of the writer, dancers, and artistic directors attempted to wrest control of the project from one another. When the dust settled, all involved succeeded in creating a beautiful, stark work that won rave reviews from critics and patrons alike. Director Mirra Bank provides an intimate, “fly on the wall” perspective of this dynamic, humorous (and often vexing) creative process.

Winner, Film and Video - The Arts, San Francisco International Film Festival, 2002
“One of the thrills of the movie is watching the improvisatory trial-and-error process as the dancers explore psychological themes, contorting their graceful, amazingly limber bodies into visual representations of relationships and emotional states.” Stephen Holden, New York Times
Monday March 10, 2003, 7:00 PM - Oak Street Theater
Sunday March 16, 2003, 7:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater
Special Guests: Judith Brin Ingber, choreographer and dancer; Lou Fancher, dancer and book illustrator

Nowhere In Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika)
Germany, 2002, 35mm, 138 minutes
English and German with English Subtitles
Director: Caroline Link

Filmed on the striking, expansive plains of Kenya, Nowhere In Africa is an inspiring tale based upon author Stefanie Zweig's best selling autobiography. As the Nazis rise to power in Europe, Jewish lawyer Walter Redlich makes a daring escape from Germany to colonial Kenya. Soon after, his wife Regina (Juliane Koehler from Aimee and Jaguar) and five-year-old daughter, Jettel, join him at the dusty African farm that will become their new home. Their initial transition is a rocky one, particularly for Regina, who longs for her comfortable home in the Prussian town of Breslau. In time though, Walter, Regina, and Jettel are rolling up their sleeves, tilling the fields, planting the crops and battling hordes of locusts. With the help of Owuor, the family cook, and Suesskind, the farm hand, the Redlich family gradually succeeds in building friendships with their Kenyan neighbors. But the Great War soon reaches their corner of the globe. When the guns are finally silenced, the Redlichs face a difficult decision; to return to post-War Germany or stay in their adopted homeland of Africa. With its stunning photography, grand themes and international cast, Nowhere In Africa is an epic in the truest sense of the word.

2003 Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film
Germany’s entrant in the 2003 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film
Washington DC Jewish Film Festival, Audience Award for Best Feature Film
Jerusalem International Film Festival, Mayor’s Prize for Best Feature
Saturday March 15, 2003, 8:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater
Special Guest: Richard W. McCormick, Associate Professor, Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch

It's About Time (Zmani)
Documentary, Israel, 2001, video, 54 minutes.
Elona Ariel & Ayelet Menachem, directors.
Hebrew w/ Eng. Subtitles.

A brilliant portrait of the Israeli psyche and the notion of time in general. In this mosaic of dialogues with a little girl, a psychiatrist, an Olympic swimmer, a news editor, a lifeguard, a stand-up comic and other Israelis, Middle Eastern time coexists with Western time, Jewish time rubs shoulders with secular time. From the moment of birth, man is timed. But for Israelis, time ticks double speed--pursued by a glorious past, an uncertain future, and a dubious present.

Winner, Best Director and Best Script, Jerusalem International Film Festival, 2001
Tuesday March 18, 2003 at 7:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater (Israeli Mini Series) together with It Kinda Scares Me

It Kinda Scares Me (Tomer Ve-Hasrutim)
Documentary, ISRAEL, 2001, video, 58 minutes
Director: Tomer Heymann
Hebrew with English subtitles

A fascinating fly-on-the-wall account of youth worker Tomer Heymann (also the filmmaker) and the gang (Hasrutim, in Hebrew), a teenage youth group from the town of Azur, near Tel Aviv. Shot over two years by Heymann, the film documents the relationship between the mild-mannered Tomer and a gang of tough, nihilistic estate-boys, who steal and trash his motorbike after their first meeting.
Tomer and the boys work on developing a play based on their own experiences, and through this he introduces them to various artist-friends, hoping to broaden their horizons. Together they candidly discuss sex, violence, alienation and other issues in what seems like a carefully constructed piece of group therapy. But this is thrown into turmoil when the homophobic teens learn that Tomer is gay. While the gang is forced to re-evaluate their ideas about him in light of their discovery, Tomer has cause to examine his own role as youth worker and filmmaker of this film. An honest and sincere document of teenage life told with great warmth, humor and immediacy.

Best Documentary, Israeli Academy Awards, 2001
Best Documentary Award, Haifa International Film Festival, 2001
Tuesday March 18, 7:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater as part of the Israeli Mini Series together with It’s About Time
Special Guest: Barak Heymann, producer and screenwriter

Shanghai Ghetto
Documentary, USA, 2002, 35mm, 97 minutes
Director: Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann
English

During Hitler’s rise to power, many German Jews scrambled to obtain entry visas to America, Britain, and other havens. But as Nazi persecution steadily increased, their chances of finding safe refuge declined. By the end of the 1930s, most countries had closed their doors, and it was virtually impossible to obtain entry visas for the few remaining places of sanctuary. In fear and desperation, several thousand German Jews fled eastward to a place that would still accept them, the only place in the world that didn’t require visas:
the Japanese-occupied city of Shanghai in China. Forced to leave their money and possessions behind, the German Jews arrived in Shanghai practically penniless. Befriended by local Jewish and Chinese residents and aided by American Jewish organizations, the refugees struggled to construct a cohesive community in a squalid, impoverished part of town. Eventually, they built up a rich cultural and educational life within the “Jewish Ghetto,” spending the war in relative peace-unaware of the tragic events taking place in Europe.

“So often we hear stories of European Jews who stayed in their home countries, only to perish in Nazi death camps. In that sense, "Shanghai Ghetto" is a salute to those who were blessed not only with savvy and courage, but something between an uncanny sense of foresight and an unforeseen stroke of good fortune.” John Petrakis, Chicago Tribune.
Thursday March 20, 2003 at 7:00 PM - Lagoon Theater
Special Guests: Vivian Neiger, born in the Shanghai Ghetto; Dr. Joseph Ling, resident of Shanghai during WWII and former VP of 3M; Mr. Delin Qu, Kaifang Jew and Attorney at Law

Between the Lines (Le’an at Nosa’at)
Documentary, Israel, 2001, Video, 58 minutes
Director: Yifat Kedar
Language: Hebrew/Arabic/English w/subtitles

Documentary filmmaker Yifat Kedar follows Ha'aretz newspaper reporter Amira Hass for two years, beginning in 1999 when Israelis were optimistic about the peace process. Hass reports from the Territories, and is the only Israeli journalist to live within the PA in Ramalla. The only child of a mother, who survived the Holocaust, Hass grew up in a militant communist home to become a respected journalist obsessed with uncovering and reporting the truth. From her unique vantagepoint, she predicts that the situation is on the verge of exploding. The quality of her daily life deteriorates as the political situation worsens, but still she remains in Ramalla.

Between the Lines won the first prize "Spirit of Freedom Award" in The International Jerusalem Film Festival (2001)
Saturday March 22, 8:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater (As part of the Israeli Mini-Series)
Followed by a panel discussion on media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict

Kinky Friedman: Proud To Be An Asshole From El Paso
Documentary, The Netherlands, 2001, video, 54 minutes.
Director: Simone de Vries
English

Kinky Friedman: Proud to be an Asshole from El Paso is as irreverent and outrageous as its title. The inimitable Richard "Kinky" Friedman first appeared in the 1970's with a distinctive repertoire of country-rock tunes that blended the salacious satire of Frank Zappa with the social consciousness of Bob Dylan to create a heady brew that provoked as much as it entertained. Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys were truly one of a kind and their songs, including such trenchant ditties as 'They Don't Make Jews like Jesus Anymore' and 'Ride Em, Jewboy', which dealt with the Holocaust, were to put it mildly, the stuff that engendered protests. With his career flagging in the 80's, Kinky remade himself into a mystery writer. His fifteen (to date) acclaimed novels feature a Manhattan gumshoe named, you guessed it, Kinky Friedman, who investigates murders and other assorted crimes, filtered through a Southern-Jewish prism that lets him stand out from the pack. With testimonies from fellow musicians, Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett, as well as gushing praise from rabid fan Bill Clinton and comments from Kinky's supportive father, the film paints a rich portrait of a reclusive, (slightly sad) but forthright individual. It's proof positive that Friedman deserves more than the cult status he's been saddled with over the years. It's a real treat.
Sunday March 23, 2003 7:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater
5:30 PM Texas Chili Party ($5) - Reservations a must - Call (952) 381-3499

Ponar
Documentary, Israel, 2002, video, 54 minutes.
Director: Racheli Schwartz
Hebrew and Yiddish with English Subtitles

The Jews used many ways to struggle against the Nazi system. One way, perhaps the most heroic and least familiar, was the cultural struggle. Against the threat of impending death, the horrors of daily existence and in the most impossible conditions, a life full of rich, creative and spiritual culture was established. The film is set in Ponar, the Vilna ghetto, during the years 1940 to 1943 and tells the amazing story of the song contest that was held in the ghetto in the year 1943, a few months before it was destroyed. The film focuses on one particular song and its composer, an 11 year old boy named Alek Wolkovsky. The song is called Ponar in Hebrew, “Shtilar Shtilar” (quietly) in Yiddish. The words of the song, which tell of the gloom and doom that had befallen Vilna, were turned into a lullaby so that the Nazis would not be able to understand. Sixty years later, the director, Racheli Schwartz, found the child - composer, Alexander Tamir, who had since become a professor of music and a renowned pianist. The film accompanies Alexander on his return, 60 years later, to his hometown. The emotional and moving journey to the past exposes how culture and art overcame the destruction, and reaches a peak when Alex gets on to that very same stage, in the Jewish theater in the ghetto. He plays the song that won the competition, which has almost become an anthem. A young Israeli singer, who is the same age as the singers who prepared for the competition in 1943 but were killed before they could actually compete, accompanies Alexander Tamir’s music.
Tuesday March 25, 2003 at 7:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater (Israeli Mini-Series)
Special Guest: Jake Hurwitz, Co-chair, Get Tzsavvy About Tzedakah Worker Training Mission to Vilna, Prague and Minsk, 2002, a mission of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation

A Dream of Mother (Shalom shel Ima)
Documentary, Israel, 2000, video, 27 minutes
Director: Chava Schein (Hadassah College of Technology)
Hebrew and Ethiopian w/English subtitles

A Dream of Mother is the story of Dasesh, a 19-year-old Ethiopian girl living in Israel with her father and stepmother. For five years since their separation, Dasesh has been dreaming of the arrival of her biological mother from Ethiopia and is anxious to be re-united with her. When she finally arrives, Dasesh finds her and her mother's worlds are vastly different.
Thursday March 27, 2003 at 6:30 PM - Minneapolis Institute of the Arts (Israeli Mini Series) together with Foreign Sister

Foreign Sister (Ahot Zara)
Feature, Israel, 2000, 35mm, 86 minutes
Director: Dan Wolman
Amharic, Hebrew, w/English subtitles

Poised for a full-blown mid-life crisis Naomi, just before the breaking point, meets Negist, an Ethiopian Christian illegal worker. Naomi seems to have everything; a loving husband, wonderful children and a comfortable home but she is caving in to the predictability of her life. When she hires Negist to help in her house, Naomi’s life changes. Parallels emerge between the world of the two women as they bond in friendship despite their differences of age, race, and class. Naomi is exposed to the world of illegal migrant workers and to the racial attitudes prevailing in Israel toward the hardships these workers encounter. The events of this award-winning film take place against the backdrop of Israeli society in which more than 300,000 foreign workers live. Since the 1980s some 80,000 Ethiopian Jews have arrived in Israel with great public fanfare. Few are aware that among these immigrants are a community of several thousand Ethiopian Christians. Director, Dan Wolman is one of Israel’s leading filmmakers and in 1999 was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Jerusalem’s International Film Festival. “Foreign Sister is a small masterpiece, a gripping drama that grabs you with its honesty and doesn’t let go until the end credits. Slow and methodical, it takes its time to tell its story and doesn’t feel like it has to hurry. After the rapid fire pacing of most Hollywood films, this is a great relief; Writer-director Dan Wolman has done an outstanding job.”

First Prize, The Wolgin Award, Jerusalem Film Festival, 2000
Thursday March 27, 2003 at 6:30 PM- Minneapolis Institute of the Arts (Israeli Mini Series) together with A Dream of Mother
Hors d’ oeuvres reception preceding film at 5:30 PM. For reservations send check for $10 to Sabes JCC, Attn: Foreign Sister reception.

Gloomy Sunday (Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod)
Feature, Germany/Hungary, 1999, 35mm, 112 minutes
Director: Rolf Schübel
German w/English subtitles

Don't let the title fool you. This film is anything but gloomy. The film begins in the present. A wealthy businessman has returned to a Budapest restaurant for the first time in years. After his meal, he requests a song only to collapse of a heart attack as it is played. The film takes us back fifty years. László (Joachim Król) and Ilona (Erika Marozsán) run the same restaurant in pre-war Budapest. Hoping to improve business, they hire a pianist, the somber but talented András (Stefano Dionisi). Ilona soon finds herself torn between the two men. A regular, Hans (Ben Becker), a German camera salesman, also takes an interest in Ilona. She rejects his advances, but they all become friends. After the Nazis occupy Budapest, Hans returns to the scene, but now as an SS officer. Despite their previous camaraderie, tensions rise to dangerous levels when the friends are reunited. Integrated into the plot is the melody, Gloomy Sunday, composed by András for Ilona. The haunting ballad makes the restaurant famous, but it also seems cursed when people begin committing suicide to it. Avoiding clichés and melodrama, Gloomy Sunday is an affecting romantic drama; and the ironic twist ending is one you won't soon forget.

“With a sweeping romantic momentum from the first scene to the last, the picture and its incredible music capture our hearts and hold them every spellbinding second.” Steve Rhodes-Internet Reviews.
Saturday March 29, 2003 8:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater
Special Guest: Leslie Morris, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies and Associate Professor of German, Univ. of Minnesota

Strange Fruit
Documentary, USA, 2001, video, 56 minutes
Director: Joel Katz
English

One of the most important protest songs ever written, "Strange Fruit" was a staple in Billie Holiday's career. Its lyrics were read on the floor of Congress during ultimately unsuccessful efforts to pass Federal anti-lynching legislation, and it has been recorded by dozens of artists since it was written in the mid-1930's. While many people mistakenly assume that "Strange Fruit" was written by Holiday herself, the words and music were actually composed by Abel Meeropol, a New York City public school teacher and a Jew of Russian immigrant origin who published music under the name Lewis Allan. Meeropol's best-known composition was "The House I Live In", most famously performed by Frank Sinatra. The film tells a dramatic story of American race relations and explores various aspects of social activism. The film also includes a devastating recitation of the lyrics by Abbey Lincoln and equally powerful musical performances by Holiday (from a 1958 BBC broadcast) and Cassandra Wilson. A must see for music lovers.

Director's Statement
STRANGE FRUIT was first inspired by a letter to the editor of the New York Times Book Review in late 1995. In this letter Robby and Michael Meeropol (the sons of Strange Fruit's composer, Abel Meeropol) write in response to some of the questions about "Strange Fruit" raised by Ned Rorem in his review of a Stuart Nicholson biography of Billie Holiday. It struck me that this brief, four paragraph letter read quite like the script for a film, including plot twists and dramatic turns that sounded almost too unimaginable to be actual history. I began further researching the subject matter shortly after reading this letter, and filmed the first interviews during the summer of 1998.The story of "Strange Fruit" also resonates with parts of my own background. In 1968, when I was ten years old, my father (a Jewish man from Brooklyn) began teaching at Howard University, where he continued as a Professor in Chemical Engineering until his retirement in 1986. As a Jew starting work at the pre-eminent African American university during the height of the Black Power movement, he was in a unique and sometimes difficult position. Over the years there he went through a wide range of experiences and emotions about this. Black/Jewish relations was thus a frequent subject of discussion at the dinner table I grew up at. Six years ago I began to teach myself, at a public university which has a highly diverse student body (New Jersey City University). Thus I sometimes feel that I am carrying on the mantle of my father's work. It has been a unique pleasure for me to produce STRANGE FRUIT. I have tried to see it as an opportunity to try to heal some of the wounds around race which my father suffered and which all Americans suffer. Joel Katz 12/22/01
Sunday March 30, 2003 7:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater

The Secret
Documentary, ISRAEL, 2001, video, 47 minutes
Director: Ronit Krown Kertsner
English, Polish with English subtitles

Thousands of Poles have a secret. They have found out in adulthood that they're really Jewish, given by their parents, when they were babies, to Christians for safekeeping during the Holocaust. Now that they know the truth, they have to decide what this means for them, as Poles and as Jews. In this remarkable film, Ronit Krown Kertsner profiles some of them, including determined young men and women who have formed an organization to learn about Judaism. Most shockingly, she also interviews a middle-aged priest, who found out he was a Jew at age 35, twelve years after he had entered the priesthood. Many of these new found-Jews have also become estranged from their disapproving families after making the decision to practice Jewish customs and rituals. That's not easy to do in a country with few Jews and strong vestiges of anti-Semitism. A story of troubled souls who only now are beginning to find themselves and their place in the world.
Wednesday April 2 at 7:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater as part of the Israeli Mini Series along with Secret Lives

Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII
Documentary, USA, 2002, video, 72 minutes
Director/Producer: Aviva Slesin

In 1939 there were 1.5 million Jewish children in Europe and by the end of World War II, fewer than 1 out of 10 had survived. Many of those who did were rescued through the courageous action of non-Jews who sheltered these children, hiding them from the Nazis at great personal risk to themselves and their families. Very few Jewish parents survived the war. Those who did returned for their children; as for those children, who were orphaned by the war, the Jewish community reclaimed many. These separations were heartbreaking and disruptive for both the children and their rescuers, and many did not see each other again for decades. Aviva Slesin's intensely personal documentary tells the remarkable stories of some of these children and their rescuers. An inspirational account of ordinary people behaving extraordinarily, SECRET LIVES reveals courage and strength of character under the worst conditions in the history of human conflict. Slesin was herself one of these "hidden children" and her experience gives her great insight into the lives of those who participate in SECRET LIVES.

Producer’s Note
SECRET LIVES has its origins in my own story. When I was 9 months old, I was smuggled out of a Lithuanian ghetto and hidden with a Christian couple, passing as one of their children. They kept me for two and a half years until my mother, the only member of my immediate family to survive, returned from a concentration camp to claim me. My rescuers, who were not paid to take me in, did so at great risk to their own lives.

For most of my life I did not focus on this early chapter of my history, but after the Iron Curtain was lifted, I found out that my rescue mother was still alive, and I went back to Lithuania to thank her for saving my life. Fifty years had gone by, and even though I did not recognize her and had no memories of my time in hiding, the feelings between us were so powerful that I was moved to make this film. I wanted to find out about the emotional connection between other hidden children and their rescuers and I wanted to explore the small pockets of goodness that flourished even in the midst of the evils of the Holocaust. SECRET LIVES is a tribute to my rescuers and others like them who transcended fear, politics, and religious beliefs to save children. They did so not knowing how long the war would last, and not knowing which side would win. I would like the film to stand as an irrefutable memorial to their courage and their humanity.
Wednesday April 2, 2003 at 7:00 PM - Sabes JCC Theater together with The Secret
Special Guest: John C. Merkle, Chair, Department of Theology, College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota


The Following films are co-sponsored by The Children’s Theatre, this Family Festival of Jewish Film is part of the What's Going ON Around CTC series. For reservations and information call the CTC Ticket Office (612) 874-0400 or www.childrenstheatre.org

Almonds and Wine
Short, Canada, 1999, video, 6 minutes
Director: Arnie Lipsey
Yiddish and English

An animated short set in an Eastern European shtetl, before the war, a young couple is introduced to each other and an arranged wedding is performed. At the height of the celebration, the convulsions of modern history intrude. A classic tale of the immigrant experience, the story is set to rollicking Klezmer music.

Saturday April 5, 2003 at 8:00 PM - The Children’s Theatre

God@Heaven
Short, USA, 1998, video, 21 minutes
Director: Joseph Neulight
English

A little boy sends an e-mail message to God.
Saturday April 5, 2003 at 8:00 PM - The Children’s Theatre

Village of Idiots
Short, Israel, 1999, Video, 12 minutes
Director: Eugene Federenko and Rose Newlore
English

Based on a familiar Jewish folktale, the charming animated story of Shmendrik, who leaves his village of Chelm in search of something better and discovers a village exactly like his own.
Saturday April 5, 2003 at 8:00 PM - The Children’s Theatre

Something from Nothing
Short, Canada, 1999, video, 23 minutes
Director: Stefan LeBlanc
English

A poor tailor makes his grandson Joseph a wonderful blanket in this warmhearted animation about love, hope and renewal set in Russian shtetl.
Saturday April 5, 2003 at 8:00 PM - The Children’s Theatre

Angel’s Foot Cake (Der Fus Tort)
Short, Canada, 2001, video, 6 minutes
Director: Sharon Katz
Yiddish and English

Drinkeleh Fresserkeh decides to make a cake in the shape of an Angel’s foot. The angels take umbrage and the fun begins. From Angel’s Foot Cake to angels’ cheesecake, Sharon Katz serves up a delightfully raucous modern Yiddish animation.
Saturday April 5, 2003 at 8:00 PM - The Children’s Theatre

Daniel's Story
Short, USA, 1993, video, 23 minutes
Director: Stephen Goodell
English

More than a million Jewish children were murdered at the hands of the Nazis. That tragic fact is difficult enough for adults to assimilate; how can one explain it to children? Daniel's Story, a production of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, attempts not only to personalize the fate of those children but also to educate youngsters about the events that led up to that terrible outcome. Daniel, age 10, is a composite of the Jewish children who experienced the war. In a child's voice and language, Daniel recalls the chain of events that took him from his happy middle-class German life to the concentration camps: racial laws that forced him out of school, the yellow star he had to wear, moving to the ghetto, losing the people he loved. Photos of real people and situations enhance the story, though none too graphic for young children's eyes.
Saturday April 5, 2003 at 8:00 PM - The Children’s Theatre