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New York Jewish Film Festival
January 10 - 25, 2007
World Cinema at New York Jewish Film Festival
The 16th annual New York Jewish Film Festival (NYJFF), a collaboration between The Jewish Museum and Film Society of Lincoln Center, opens January 10 and runs through January 25.
Screenings, unless otherwise noted, are at:
The Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, 165 West 65 Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, plaza level.
Due to construction at Lincoln Center, please walk west on 65th Street for Walter Reade Theater access.
Download and print the NYJFF 2007 program brochure.
Download and print the print source list.
Read commentary and interviews with Festival directors & actors in the NYJFF Blog.
 | The Holocaust Tourist: Whatever Happened to Never Again? |
 | Nuremberg: The Nazis Facing Their Crimes |
Christian Delage's gripping documentary reconstructs the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, using rare footage from the National Archives. Judge Robert Jackson interrogates some of the most notorious Nazi war criminals including Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Julius Streicher, and Albert Speer. The film also gathers insight from contemporary interviews with Holocaust survivors and former prosecutors. Narrated by Christopher Plummer.
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1:00 PM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1:00 PM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 6:15 PM**
**The screening on January 11 at 6:15 PM will be followed by a panel discussion featuring:
Christian Delage, filmmaker, Nuremberg: The Nazis Facing Their Crimes
Istvan Deak, Seth Low Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
Budd Schulberg, Screenwriter and Novelist
Moderator: Stuart Klawans, film critic, The Nation
Chronicles of a Professional Eulogist |
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My Mexican Shivah |
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Family and friends sit shivah in Mexico City for Moishe Tartakovsky, a much beloved patriarch. Mourners include a Catholic ex-lover, an Orthodox ex-convict grandson, and a troupe of mariachi musicians. Two Yiddish-speaking spirits wryly observe the mourners while accounting for Moishe's soul. My Mexican Shivah is a charming comedy based on a story by Ilan Stavans and produced by John Sayles and Maggie Renzi, featuring a score performed by The Klezmatics.
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 3:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 8:30 PM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 3:30 PM
 | Chronicle of a Jump |
 | 5 Days |
On August 14, 2005, the brief but painful process of evacuating 8,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip was set in motion. The Israeli Defense Forces were given the task of forcibly removing all remaining activists who refused to allow their land to be taken over by Palestinians. With exclusive access to settlers and soldiers, Yoav Shamir and his seven film crews simultaneously document key players during this tumultuous period in Israeli history. Two of the most compelling portraits are of Major General Dan Harel, the head of the Israeli Defense Forces's Southern Command, and Noam Shapira, a charismatic leader of the resistance movement. Shamir's film is a moving and darkly comic account, which some critics have likened to Rashomon and 24.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 6:15 PM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 9:00 PM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 3:15 PM
Gorgeous! (Comme tuy es belle!) |
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Gorgeous! is a light comedy set in Paris about four friends who meet regularly for frank discussions about men, marriage, and children. Call it Sephardic Sex in the City. The film features Michele Laroque as Isa, a successful salon owner who falls for her British accountant. Valerie Benguigui, who had a small role in the hit French comedy Would I Lie to You? (NYJFF 1998) stars as Isa's sister Alice - an unhappily married woman who finds solace with a handsome single dad. Although each woman hails from a traditional North African Jewish home, these are worldly, attractive women struggling to balance their needs, careers, families, and love lives.
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE at screenings on 1/14 and 1/16
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 7:00 PM SOLD OUT
SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 8:30 PM
TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 8:30 PM
At Makor: 1/17 at 7:30 PM
 | Sonia |
Lucy Kostelanetz explores the life and art of her great aunt Sofia (Sonia) Dymshitz-Tolstaya, a Russian Avant-Garde painter and utopian visionary. Born into a wealthy Jewish family in St. Petersburg and inspired by the promise of the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, Sonia risked everything to make a better life for herself and others. Using interviews, archival footage, and innovative animation sequences, Kostelanetz captures the spirit of a bohemian who continued to make art under the oppressive Soviet regime. Featuring the voice of Maria Tucci as Sonia.
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 9:00PM
SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 3:45 PM
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1:30 PM
Love and Sacrifice |
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Based on a book by Isidore Zolotarefsky, Love and Sacrifice is a prime example of shund escapist melodrama born on the Yiddish stage. Shot over two days in a New York City loft on a miniscule budget, the film portrays a long-suffering middle-class matron who goes to prison for shooting the man who compromises her. Producer Joseph Seiden described it in his original advertising copy as follows: You'll see a tender yet mighty picture drama. Hot with a living breath of a story as old as the ages, new as tomorrow!' Love and Sacrifice was restored by The National Center for Jewish Film.
SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY THE FILM'S STAR, ESTA SALZMAN.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 1:30 PM
 | Nina's Home |
In this compelling drama, Nina is the tireless director of a children's shelter in France at the end of World War II. When a group of young Polish and Russian survivors arrive from concentration camps, cultures clash and chaos ensues. Despite differences in language, religious observance, and experiences of war, the children gradually discover the courage to live again in the wake of catastrophe. Nina's Home is the late director Richard Dembo's final film and stars the riveting Agn's Jaoui, director of Look at Me (NYJFF 2004). See also the related film Our Children.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 6:15 PM
MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 3:00 PM
TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1:00 PM
Hungry Hearts |
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Based on the short stories of Anzia Yezierska, the first writer to bring stories of American Jewish women to a wide readership, Hungry Hearts focuses on a family fresh-off-the-boat from Eastern Europe. With scenes filmed on the Lower East Side, this bittersweet classic captures the hopes and hardships of Jewish immigrants. Hungry Hearts features a new score created by the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. Hungry Hearts was restored by the National Center for Jewish Film.
MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 12:30 PM
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 | Our Children (Unzere Kinder) |
In this last Yiddish feature made in Poland, virtuoso comedy duo Shimon Dzigan and Israel Shumacher play all the parts in a dramatization of Sholem Aleichem's story Kasrilevke is Burning. The audience consists of children from the Helenowek Colony, an orphanage and school for Holocaust survivors near Lodz. When audience and performers exchange roles, the kids demonstrate the healing power of music, dance, and storytelling. J. Hoberman writes that Our Children is "not only among the first films about the Holocaust, it is also the first to critique its representation." Our Children was restored by The National Center for Jewish Film. Presented in conjunction with Nina's Home.
MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 5:30 PM**
TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 3:30 PM**
**Both screenings introduced by: J. Hoberman, Senior Film Critic of The Village Voice and author, Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds.
 | White Terror |
The documentary White Terror reveals a new generation of racist and anti-Semitic publishers, music producers, and Internet entrepreneurs who exploit the benefits of globalization, new technology, and youth culture. Daniel Schweizer infiltrates three skinhead strongholds: a center of propaganda production in Stockholm; a community of white power families who gather for Sunday barbeques in Dallas; and in Moscow, an underworld of street gangs and ex-soldiers united under the pretext of Slavic nationalism.
MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 8:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 8:30 PM
The Rape of Europa |
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Based on Lynn Nicholas' award-winning book, The Rape of Europa documents the systematic theft, deliberate destruction, and miraculous survival of Europe's art treasures during the Second World War. The film interweaves the history of Nazi art looting with the stories of contemporary restitution cases, including Gustav Klimt's portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. It also tells the dramatic story of the unprecedented heroic efforts of the U.S. 'Monuments Men' who safeguarded and returned displaced art at the end of the war. Narrated by Joan Allen. FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE
At The Jewish Museum
- Tickets available only at The Jewish Museum.
By Phone: 212.423.3337; In Person: Lobby Admission Desk
TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2:30 PM -- screening only
TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 6:00 PM** -- screening & panel discussion
At The Walter Reade Theater
- Tickets available only at FSLC
By Phone: 212.875.5600; In Person: The Walter Reade Theater Box Office; Online: www.filmlinc.com
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 6:00 PM -- screening only
**January 16 at 6:00 PM at The Jewish Museum
Panel discussion to follow this screening features:
Richard Berge, Filmmaker, The Rape of Europa
Monica Dugot, Senior Vice President, Director of Restitution, Christie's
Harry Ettlinger, U.S. "Monuments Man"
Lynn H. Nicholas, author of The Rape of Europa, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
Moderator: Ruth Beesch, Deputy Director for Program, The Jewish Museum
Family Matters |
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Two gay men, one straight woman and a baby comprise this alternative Jewish family in Israel. Dafna is an accomplished musician with a maternal instinct who can't wait for Mr. Right. For eleven years, Itamar has been in a committed relationship with Kai, his German, non-Jewish partner, and together they decide to parent with Dafna. But their triangulated kinship starts to dissolve when tensions and jealousies emerge. Documentarian David Noy follows the family for an intensive two year period from planning to pregnancy to birth.
PRODUCER YORAM IVRY IN ATTENDANCE
FOLLOWED BY
Sisai |
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In a documentary portrait of a young Ethiopian man and his adoptive family in Israel, Sisai is focused on getting married to his pregnant girlfriend and establishing his own family. But startling news of his birth father's existence, and revelations about the true identity of his birth mother, draw him closer to his roots and result in a pivotal trip to Ethiopia.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 6:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 3:00 PM
At Makor: 1/23, 7:30 PM
 | Toots |
Father, brother, gambler, bum. Toots Shor was the owner of the legendary saloon on West 51st Street. Directed by his granddaughter, Toots is a provocative, loving, and unmistakably authentic portrait of the self-made, unapologetic man who became the unlikely den-mother to the icons of 1940s and 1950s America. The film features remarkable footage and candid interviews with Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Frank Gifford, Yogi Berra, and Gay Talese, among others.
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1:00 PM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 6:00 PM
Pigeon |
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In a remote Swedish town, Sandra, a troubled young woman, develops an unexpected friendship with Lilly, a secretive Holocaust survivor. Although Lilly bears the memory of forbidden love during wartime, she encourages Sandra to open herself up to the attentions of a handsome worker from Poland. Awarded a Crystal Bear at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival, Four Weeks in June features nuanced performances by Tuva Novotny and celebrated Danish actress Ghita Narby (Freud Leaving Home NYJFF 1995). FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 8:15 PM
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 7:00 PM
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 3:30 PM
 | What a Wonderful Place |
Set in a dreary border town in the Negev, What a Wonderful Place interweaves an ensemble of characters in a multi-layered narrative concerning foreign workers in post-Intifada Israel. Franco is an ex-cop turned human trafficker who develops an intimate friendship with Jana, a Ukrainian prostitute. Zeltzer is a melancholy landowner whose only honest relationship is with one of his Thai workers. Aloni, a tough ranger who persecutes the Thai farmers, depends on Eddie, his father's Filipino caretaker. Eyal Halfon's bittersweet and disturbing film features brilliant performances by Uri Gavriel (The Syrian Bride) and Evelyne Kaplun (Yana's Friends NYJFF 2001). Winner of four Israeli Academy Awards.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 9:30 PM
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 8:30 PM
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 8:15 PM
The Cantor's Son |
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Singer Moishe Oysher made his screen debut in this Yiddish musical drama about a wayward youth who tries to make it in America. Described by J. Hoberman as an 'anti-Jazz Singer,' The Cantor's Son parallels Oysher's own struggle to reconcile his cantorial calling with a career in show business. The film, shot on location in the Lower East Side and the Poconos, features a score by Second Avenue Yiddish-theater legend Alexander Olshanetsky including the sentimental ballad Mayn Shtetele Belz. The Cantor's Son was restored by The National Center for Jewish Film.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 1:30 PM**
**Screening introduced by Sharon Rivo, co-founder and Executive Director of The National Center for Jewish Film.
 | Naturalized |
 | Matchmaker: In Search of a Kosher Man |
New Yorkers complain about the paucity of available Jewish men, but try finding a Hebrew hunk in little Switzerland! In this witty documentary, filmmaker Gabrielle Antosiewicz gets to know her most promising suitors by inviting them to bake a challah. While the dough is rising, viewers learn about the travails of Internet dating and the secrets hidden beneath an Orthodox woman's wig.
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 6:30 PM
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 6:00 PM
At Makor: 1/24, 7:30 PM
The Longing: The Forgotten Jews of South America |
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The Longing is a moving documentary portrait of South Americans who, after discovering that their Jewish ancestors converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition, undertake profound, personal journeys of faith. Dismissed by local Jewish authorities, these determined men and women choose to study via the Internet with an American Reform rabbi who ultimately arrives in Ecuador to complete the conversion. FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 4:00 PM
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1:30 PM
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 6:00 PM
 | Matzes |
 | Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School |
Hineini, Hebrew for 'Here I am,' chronicles the story of one student's courageous fight to establish a gay-straight alliance at a Jewish high school in the Boston area. Shulamit Izen enters ninth grade longing to connect more deeply with her Jewish faith while embracing her lesbian identity. This film depicts the transformative impact of her campaign on peers, teachers, administrators, and parents. Irena Fayngold, director, Shulamit Izen, subject of the film, and Idit Klein, producer, will attend both screenings.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 3:30 PM
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 8:00 PM
David |
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 | News From Home/News From House |
The final production of Amos Gitai's documentary trilogy concerns a West Jerusalem house and its Palestinian and Israeli inhabitants. Gitai returns to observe the changes of the building's residents and of the neighborhood portrayed in his 1998 work, A House in Jerusalem. Like an archaeologist digging under multiple layers, Gitai reveals a complex labyrinth of destinies. Gitai's past NYJFF films include Berlin-Jerusalem (1993), Kedma (2003), and Alila (2004).
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 3:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 8:15 PM
The First Time I Was Twenty |
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It's the swinging sixties in the suburbs of Paris. Hannah, a zaftig 16 year-old played by the charming Marilou Berry (Look at Me, New York Film Festival 2004), auditions for her school's all-male jazz band. Though the odds are against her, she uses her brains, talent, and perseverance to overcome sexism and anti-Semitism. Lorraine Levy's impressive debut feature celebrates misfits, underdogs, and outsiders everywhere.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 6:00 PM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 3:30 PM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 8:30 PM
ADDITIONAL SCREENINGS AT MAKOR/STEINHARDT CENTER OF THE 92ND STREET Y
Gorgeous! (Comme tuy es belle!)
January 17 at 7:30 PM
Screening followed by the NYJFF Directors' Party.
Family Matters and Sisai
January 23 at 7:30 PM
Naturalized and Matchmaker: In Search of a Kosher Man
January 24 at 7:30 PM
Makor/Steinhardt Center
35 West 67 Street (between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue)
Click here for more information and tickets for these screenings or call 212.601.1000.
SCREENING SCHEDULE
Wed 1/10 1:00 Holocaust Tourist/Nuremberg
1/10 3:30 Eulogist/My Mexican Shivah
1/10 6:15 Chronicle of a Jump/5 Days
1/10 8:30 Eulogist/My Mexican Shivah
Thurs 1/11 1:00 Holocaust Tourist/Nuremberg
1/11 3:30 Eulogist/My Mexican Shivah
1/11 6:15 Holocaust Tourist/Nuremberg
1/11 9:00 Chronicle of a Jump/5 Days
Sat 1/13 7:00 Gorgeous!
1/13 9:00 Sonia
Sun 1/14 1:30 Love and Sacrifice
1/14 3:45 Sonia
1/14 6:15 Nina's Home
1/14 8:30 Gorgeous!
Mon 1/15 12:30 Hungry Hearts
1/15 3:00 Nina's Home
1/15 5:30 113/Our Children
1/15 8:00 White Terror
Tues 1/16 1:00 Nina's Home
1/16 3:30 113/Our Children
1/16 6:00 Family Matters/Sisai
1/16 8:30 Gorgeous!
1/16 2:30 The Rape of Europa -- At The Jewish Museum, tickets only available at The Jewish Museum
1/16 6:00 The Rape of Europa -- At The Jewish Museum, tickets only available at The Jewish Museum
Wed 1/17 1:00 White Terror
1/17 3:00 Family Matters/Sisai
1/17 6:00 The Rape of Europa
1/17 8:30 White Terror
Thurs 1/18 1:00 Toots
1/18 3:15 Chronicle of a Jump/5 Days
1/18 6:00 Toots
1/18 8:15 Pigeon/Four Weeks in June
Sat 1/20 7:00 Pigeon/Four Weeks in June
1/20 9:30 What a Wonderful Place
Sun 1/21 1:30 The Cantor's Son
1/21 3:30 Pigeon/Four Weeks in June
1/21 6:30 Naturalized/Matchmaker
1/21 8:30 What a Wonderful Place
Mon 1/22 1:30 Sonia
1/22 4:00 The Longing
1/22 6:00 Naturalized/Matchmaker
1/22 8:15 What a Wonderful Place
Tues 1/23 1:30 The Longing
1/23 3:30 Matzes/Hineini
1/23 6:00 The Longing
1/23 8:00 Matzes/Hineini
Wed 1/24 1:00 David/Great Communist Bank Robbery
1/24 3:30 News From Home/News From House
1/24 6:00 The First Time I Was Twenty
1/24 8:15 News From Home/News From House
Thurs 1/25 1:00 David/Great Communist Bank Robbery
1/25 3:30 The First Time I Was Twenty
1/25 6:00 David/Great Communist Bank Robbery
1/25 8:30 The First Time I Was Twenty
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Susan Alper, Montreal Jewish Film Festival; Olli Chanoff, Lori Cearley, The Office; Josh Ford, David Horowitz, Washington Jewish Film Festival; Leslie Friedman; Nicola Galliner, Berlin Jewish Film Festival; Cindy Greenberg, Jackie Miller, Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University; Annette Insdorf, Columbia University; Aviva Kempner; Deb Krivoy, Avoda Arts; Stuart Liebman, City University of New York; Claus Mueller, International Film and Television Exchange; Les Rabinowicz, Festival of Jewish Cinema - Australia; Sharon Rivo, National Center for Jewish Film; Sara L. Rubin, Kaj Wilson, Boston Jewish Film Festival; Peter L. Stein, Nancy Fishman, Leo Wong, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival; Alla Verlotsky, Seagull Films; The Film Society of Lincoln Center staff; Makor staff; The Jewish Museum staff, and David L and Jonathan Robbins, Festival Interns.
Selection Committee: Rachel Chanoff, Independent Curator; Andrew Ingall, Assistant Curator, The Jewish Museum; Richard Pea, Program Director, Film Society of Lincoln Center; Aviva Weintraub, Associate Curator and Director of the NYJFF, The Jewish Museum
Funders: The New York Jewish Film Festival is made possible by a lead grant from The Martin and Doris Payson Charitable Foundation.
Additional funding is provided by The Liman Foundation, The Jack and Pearl Resnick Foundation, public funds from the the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, Mimi and Barry Alperin, The Israel Office of Cultural Affairs in the USA, the Consulate General of Sweden, the French Embassy, and other donors.
Our thanks to The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, Corona Extra, and Jose Cuervo Tequila for their generous assistance.
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