Paul Simon’s Grammy-winning album Graceland– an irresistible and groundbreaking fusion of American and South African pop music — was an immediate hit when it was released in 1986. It also proved to be a lightning rod for controversy, after South African leaders protested that Simon had broken the cultural boycott of the nation’s oppressively racist apartheid regime. In this documentary, premiering at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Paul Simon returns to South Africa which formally ended apartheid in 1994. The film follows Simon as he reunites with his South African collaborators, and revisits the controversy the album caused, while luminaries like Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Lorne Michaels, David Bryne and Sir Paul McCartney share their thoughts on what the album meant to them.
Directed by Joe Berlinger | 2012 I USA/South Africa I 101 minutes I English
Sponsored by Ben Badiner & Family and the Robert Badiner Memorial Fund.
Also being sponsored by our community partner, the Jewish Community
Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC).
Tickets: $10 for Fitness members & general public
$8 for JCC premium & community members
Noodle
Sunday, October 14 at 2pm
Grand Jury Prize at the Montreal World Films Festival 2007
Audience favorite: 2009 MJFF
Upon returning home from work one day, Miri, an Israeli flight attendant, is recruited by the family’s Chinese housekeeper to watch her young son. When the housekeeper mysteriously fails to return, Miri begins a quest to reunite the child with his missing mother and in turn finds new meaning in life. A feel-good, heart-warming comic-drama that’s not to be missed!
A film by Ayelet Menachemi | 2007 I Israel/China I 95 minutes I Hebrew with English Subtitles
Presented in partnership with the Israel Center of the
Minneapolis Jewish Federation
Jellyfish (Meduzot), weaves together the intersecting stories of three different women while creating a pessimistic portrait of modern Israeli life. A waitress takes in an apparently abandoned child at a local beach; a bride who accidently ruins her chance at a dream Caribbean honeymoon; a non-Hebrew-speaking domestic worker who has left her son behind in her native Philippines. This unlikely trio separately winds their way through Israel’s most cosmopolitan city, Tel Aviv, as they struggle with issues of communication, affection and destiny while at times finding an uneasy refuge in its tranquil seas. A poignant, often witty and beautiful film.
A film by Etgar Keret & Shira Geffen | 2007 I Israel/France I 78 minutes I Hebrew with English Subtitles
Tickets: $10 General; $8 JCC members and students
*Etgar Keret will be speaking at the JCC on Wednesday, November 14th at 7:00pm. Attend BOTH the screening of Jellyfish and Etgar’s talk for the great deal of $16! Events separately (Film: $8/$10 and Speaker $10/$12)
Official Selection for the 2007 Cannes International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and the Telluride International Film Festival
The Ceremonial Police Band of Alexandria, Egypt arrives at an Israeli airport to find themselves without a host or transportation. Trapped in a middle-of-nowhere desert town, the group members try to figure out what to do and where to go. In desperation, two of the musicians accept an invitation from a sexy café owner to bunk at her residence and the remainder of the band rooms with a local family. As the days roll on, the co-mingling of these Egyptian musicians and Israeli residents imparts each individual with insights into his cultural identity and that of the others. Conflict, tensions and unlikely romances blossom in this veritable comedy of errors.
2008 I Israel I 89 minutes I Hebrew, Arabic, English with English Subtitles
Tickets: $10 Fitness members & general public;
$8 JCC premium members, community members & students
