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OPENING NIGHT GALA THE FIRST ISRAELI IN SPACE
Israel 2003, 70 min English/Hebrew w/subtitles Director: Neil Weisbrod West Coast Premier! 7:30 PM, SATURDAY MARCH 13, CINERAMA The story of Ilan Ramon—child of a Holocaust survivor, heroic Air Force pilot, Israel’s first astronaut, and ambassador of good will—is a profile in courage. If space is the final frontier, then those who explore it are our advance scouts, not for one tribe but for all humanity. Ilan and six others lost their lives when the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated 16 minutes before it was scheduled to land. Based on the footage of the Israeli film crew that followed him for over 4 years as an astronaut-in-training at the NASA Facility in Houston, this is an extraordinarily rewarding film. Community Partners:
SPECIAL GUEST: DIRECTOR, OREN RUDAVSKY HIDING AND SEEKING How did some Jews who experienced the Holocaust maintain their faith in God? Hiding and Seeking tells the story of a father (co-director Menachem Daum) who tries to alert his two sons to the dangers of insularity and intolerance. Daum’s sons, both full-time Yeshiva students in Jerusalem, call him “a doubter and a seeker,” but he’s troubled by their sense of religious certainty, and by an Orthodox world that Daum finds increasingly hostile to outsiders. The answer, he decides, lies in a family trip to Poland, where his sons may meet the Christian farmers who saved the life of their maternal grandfather during World War II. What follows is what the Village Voice calls “that rarest of travel films, one that makes the gradual voyage of a soul toward enlightenment palpable.” Community Partners:
SPECIAL GUESTS: DIRECTORS, DEBRA GONSHER VINIK AND DAVID VINIK MOVING HEAVEN AND EARTH From gun running for the Irish Republican Army during Ireland’s War of Independence to smuggling fellow Jews escaping from the Holocaust into Palestine, this film tells the untold story of how Irish Jews participated in the creation of both Ireland and Israel. The result of filmmaker Valerie Lapin Ganley’s journey of personal discovery is a sincere and touching document weaving together contemporary interviews with rare and often breathtaking archival material. Co-presented by:
SPECIAL GUEST: DIRECTOR, GABRIEL BIBLIOWICZ FOOLISH ME In 1944, two Polish Holocaust survivors mysteriously find respite at a cafe in Palestine. Andrej vacillates between silence and erratic boisterousness, while Yankel can barely persuade himself to come inside. An enormous chasm yawns between them and the non-survivor Zionist patrons of the cafe. A fantastical Israeli film that hauntingly portrays the black hole of the Holocaust. Community Partner:
SPECIAL GUEST: DIRECTOR, JONATHAN METZGER BIT BY BIT Little does he know it but for J, a lovable 25-year-old slacker, reality is about to become hair-raisingly complicated. To his own surprise and the highly vocal disgust of his eccentric Jewish family and long-suffering girlfriend, J finds out that his life’s dream has come true: he has qualified as a contestant for the Nintendo World Cup games. There’s only one problem: the games take place during Passover. And now J must choose: does he play the game and lose the love of his family and partner? Or is there perhaps some way he can win both? Bit by Bit never misses, offering a fresh take on Jewish High Holiday and family mishegas, Swedish style. www.sfsales.net/movie.asp?id=728
SPECIAL GUEST: DIRECTOR, ANN COPPEL A JOURNEY OF SPIRIT A Journey of Spirit tells the story of singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman. One of the preeminent women in contemporary Jewish culture, Debbie has integrated contemporary melody with Jewish liturgy to transform Jewish sacred music, making the text accessible to a large and diverse audience. Viewers are treated to a lively and heartfelt exchange as Seattle director Ann Coppel’s film illuminates the debate about contemporary versus traditional prayer music.
SPECIAL GUEST: DIRECTOR, GREGG LACHOW IT'S ALL MY FAULT Inspired by the American classic Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West (born Nate Weinstein), SJFF Artistic Director Gregg Lachow offers us an experimental movie about a beleagured film curator. Inundated with films on the Holocaust, the crisis in the Middle East, anti-semitism, and speed dating, he seeks a spiritual basis for avoiding the problems of the world.
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