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CATEGORY: FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY
Quotes about Peace of Mind: Peace of Mind broke through the curtain of fear and
disinformation that has existed for so long between Israelis and
Palestinians. By bypassing the usual suspects- politicians and media
personalities – we were given a fresh and uncensored view of the
conflict. The innocence and honesty that is portrayed by the Palestinian
and Israeli youth make this film very special… "An enlightening and moving experience…poses
searching questions and undermines preconceptions." "An extraordinary documentary…promotes
coexistence and understanding of realities, anxieties, fears and
hopes." "Powerful…expresses the desire of youth to
develop brave friendships…after years of conflict, suspicion and
violence." |
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Press: Partial Listing: The New York Times, Newsday, Jerusalem Post, The
Independent (AIVF), NY Times UPFRONT Magazine Cover Story, The Forward,
Sun Journal/ Maine, NJ Jewish Standard, Palm Beach Daily, Maine Sun
Journal. Awards: Hamptons International Film Festival * Audience Award: Best Documentary. Canyonlands Festival: Most Inspiring Film
Festivals: Partial List: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa Cinemateques in
Israel; The Hamptons International Film Festival, Sundance, Human Rights
Watch, Canyonlands, Northhampton, Jewish festivals in: Montreal, Palm
Beach, Denver, San Francisco, Jewish Festivals in: Boston, Portland, San
Diego, Sacramento, Tucson, North Carolina, St. Louis, Hartford,
Rochester, Seattle, Denver Showing Sunday March 3 at 3:00pm at the
Minneapolis JCC. Back to Top
One Day CrossingYEAR: 1999 MINNESOTA
PREMIER Screened at New Directors/MOMA, March 2000, Film Society of Lincoln
Center; SFJFF Summer 2000. Made in
homage to the director’s grandmother who saved three of her five children, and
her uncle who was killed at age 6 in Budapest. PRIZES:
Winner of a 1999 Ralph Lauren Polo Development Fund grant. |
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YEAR: 1999
All
My Loved Ones
was inspired by the real life experiences of English stockbroker Nicholas
Winton, who saved hundreds of Czech Jewish children from the Nazis in 1939. Prizes: Czech Lion 1999 - Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Festróia -Tróia International Film Festival 2000 - Special Mention; Film Festival Finale Plzen - Audience Award, Prize IGRIC -Best Photography and Best Editing. ** Hartford Jewish Film Festival ** Boston Jewish Film Festival ** San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Audience favorite awards at
many Jewish Film Festivals. "A wonderful, moving, lovely story of a Jewish
family in Prague before the war broke out. How I wish I could write like
that--such a beautiful story about little things, and such drama, and such
wonderful actors, and music, and fabulous photography. It will have a New York,
L.A., Miami release, so if you hear about it playing, I do say Go See It!"
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YEAR: 2001 A grandson creates a loving portrait of his elderly grandparents, Tsipa and Volf Gamburg. Over a period of six years, San Francisco filmmaker Daniel Gamburg lets them tell their own story of love, loss and love again. Screened at the 2001 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
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YEAR: 1992 David Opatoshu, the late Yiddish actor, plays Jake, a Holocaust survivor, who meets Paul in a Los Angeles health club. Paul's boyfriend is dying of AIDS. They share stories of guilt, survivorship, strength, and love.
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YEAR: 2000 On the day of her father's funeral, a woman draws on his legacy of love to come to terms with her sexual identity. Seen at the Boston Jewish Film Festival, November 2001. |
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COUNTRY: Poland A
Letter to Mother's tale of family
disintegration and poverty serves as a metaphor for the displacements facing
European Jews in 1939. One of the last Yiddish films made in Poland before the
Nazi invasion, the film tells the story of a mother's persistent efforts to
support her family. While her husband lives in America, Dobrish struggles to
care for her three children in pre-WWI Polish Ukraine. After her family is
pulled apart by severe poverty and the turmoil of war, Dobrish and her family
make their way to New York and turn to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
in search of a brighter future. Released on September 14, 1939,
two weeks after the German blitzkrieg over Poland, this film opened to packed
audiences at the Belmont Theater in New York. Hailed by the New York Times as
one of the best Yiddish films to reach America, A Letter to Mother was the highest grossing Yiddish film of its time. A
Letter to Mother was director Joe Green's
last film and his "favorite from among his own films... may convey
something of the flavor of Green's childhood." J.Hoberman, Bridge
of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds
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YEAR: 2000 |
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This story is situated in the remote industrial town of Satki in the Urals
in the days between Stalin's death and Beria's execution (1953). Under the roof
of a primitive house a mixed community experiences a collective fate: a war
invalid Jora (a Jewish photographer who makes his living by producing
pornographic films), a German just released from a prison camp and a mute
Tartar. A state militiaman holds the dominant position, maneuvering between his
old and new loves - the latter is a girl evacuated from blockaded Leningrad who
has nowhere to return to. A woman looking for consolation in alcohol also lives
here, as does a former informer, living alone in bitterness. Despite the
disputes and feuds, all adhere to one principle: if the doors aren't locked, you
are a welcome guest. The film's protagonists are a sample of the "unified
organism" of Soviet society and the house is the eloquent symbol of the
Stalin era. The director dedicated the film "to our parents" - the
generation which managed to be happy despite the shocking living conditions. The
entire scale of black-and-white and color was used in shooting the film. Amateur
actors also contributed to the film's strength.
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Young at HeartCOUNTRY: USAYEAR: 1987 LANGUAGE: English Video 30 min. Winner of the 1987 Academy Award for documentary subject, this is an especially endearing film about a widow and widower, both artists, who meet in their eighties, court and marry. It is a joyous, moving, amusing and delightful film that reinforces the positive and creative. Showing at 1 pm Wednesday, March 13, at the Minneapolis JCC. |
THE JEWISH MOTHER IN CINEMA
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YEAR:2000 16mm, 76 min. LANGUAGE: English “The
Jewish mothers that I know and love are sexy, smart, and strong, but I have
never seen this mother in Hollywood movies, and I set out to find out why,”
Filmmaker Monique Schwarz Mamadrama
combines film clips, cultural commentary, interviews with Hollywood and Israeli
filmmakers and footage from Schwarz’s earlier films in an exploration of the
image of the Jewish mother in film beginning with early silent and Yiddish films
up through contemporary movies. Hollywood directors Paul Mazursky, Paul Bogart,
Larry Peerce and actress Lainie Kazan reflect on their Jewish mothers. Critics
Patricia Erens, J. Hoberman, Michael Medved, Amy Kronish and Sharon Rivo discuss
the changing image of the Jewish mother on screen. Israeli filmmakers Avram
Hefner and Zepel Yeshurun and actress Gila Almagor illustrate the uniqueness of
Israeli filmic images. Mamadrama
includes selections from Come Blow Your Horn, Goodbye Columbus, Next Stop
Greenwich Village, Jazz Singer, Portnoy’s Complaint, Where’s Poppa, Torch
Song Trilogy, a compilation of rare Yiddish films and recent Israeli features.
Post-film discussion led by Professor Riv-Ellen Prell, University of Minnesota. |
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YEAR: 2001
Student film (Columbia). Four women trying to free themselves of a secret that
has lasted 50 years. Prizes: Awarded the Zuruckgeben, Stiftung fur Judische
Frauen in Kunst und Wissenschaft. Received the New Line outstanding filmmaking
award. Description
from Washington Jewish Film Festival: All her life, filmmaker Caterina Klusemann believed she was of Venezuelan-Polish Catholic ancestry. Unbeknownst to her, both her grandmother and mother were Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Matrilineal is her intensely personal documentary that follows these three generations of women after this truth is revealed. Knit together from home movie footage, the film challenges the notion that trauma must be inherited and shows how, when the silence is finally broken, a family can be brought together. Showing with
Mamadrama Wednesday March 13 at 7:30 at the Minneapolis JCC |
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Filled with hope and humour, trials and tribulations, this entertaining documentary captures the passion of Jewish singles looking for a match in today's America and the extent to which they will go to find a "catch." From Morristown, New Jersey to Crown Heights, Brooklyn to Dallas, Texas to San Diego, California, the film introduces viewers to diverse styles of matchmaking. Witness a rabbi and rebbetzin's probing questions as they interview prospective clients the "old style" (but with a laptop); sit-in on a round table session with 24-enthusiastic suburban matchmakers as they ponder the dating lives of their clients; see how singles are searching and finding their Jewish better halves over the Internet. A film that brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Have I got a nice Jewish boy/girl for you!"
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Uncle Chatzkel
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Late Marriage
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