What’s That Buzzing Sound?

by David Horowitz

Why, it’s all the anticipation for the 17th installment of the Washington Jewish Film Festival!

Take a break from your Chanukah shopping and join the excitement. Tickets are on sale now, and advance purchase is recommended, as many screenings sell out. For complete ticketing information, see the Web site at http://www.wjff.org/

Check back frequently for multiple daily updates to this blog. We’ll be recapping the parties, the events, and the screenings, as well as posting interviews with special guests and filling you in on what’s coming up.

The Festival kicks off in the Nation’s Capital on Thursday Nov 30 with Daniel Burman’s Family Law, the official 2007 submission from Argentina for the Foreign Language Academy Award competition. A reception will follow.

Described as the “Woody Allen” of Latin America, Daniel Burman’s latest film is the third installment in his semi-autobiographical trilogy, which includes Waiting for the Messiah and Lost Embrace, previously screened at WJFF. Ariel (Daniel Hendler), now a law professor and father, is having an early midlife crisis and is struggling to adjust to his adult responsibilities.

The festival has grown this year to 9 venues, and spans 45 films from 15 countries over 10 days (through Dec 10). One theme in many of this year’s films is the complexity of family relationships.

Venues in this year's Festival include the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater at DCJCC; Avalon Theatre; Landmark Bethesda Row; AFI Silver Theatre; National Gallery of Art – East Building; Goethe Institut, Washington; Embassy of Switzerland; National Museum of Women in the Arts; and Busboys and Poets

Countries represented in this year's Festival include: Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA, Vietnam

New this year is the WJFF Decade Award, which honors a filmmaker whose body of work spans a period of at least 10 years and has made a significant contribution to Jewish cinema. The inaugural recipient of the award is Eytan Fox. His groundbreaking films over the years 1994-2005 have looked at the pluralism of contemporary Israeli life, often with a GLBT focus. Yossi & Jagger, Walk on Water, Song of the Siren, Time Off, and the Israeli television series Florentene, have all been popular with previous WJFF audiences.

On Saturday, Dec 2, Mr. Fox will be presented with the Award and will participate in a discussion with NPR’s Neda Ulaby. He will also show sneak preview clips from his upcoming film The Bubble. A reception will follow. Retrospective screenings of Yossi & Jagger, Walk on Water, and Florentene will be held during WJFF 17 on Thursday-Sunday, Nov 30 through Dec 3. Check the Festival Web site for details and tickets.

The Festival closes on Sunday Dec 10 with the DC Premiere of Henry Meyer’s Four Weeks in June. Winner of the Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, this poignant film from Sweden looks at the unlikely friendship between a struggling young woman and her Jewish neighbor. A reception, with special guest producer Peter Kropenin, will follow.


Additional highlights in this year’s Festival include:

• Lisa Alessandrin’s steamy comedy You’re So Pretty, a French Sephardic Sex and the City meets Desperate Housewives;


• Brother’s Shadow, a family saga with Scott Cohen and Judd Hirsch;


• Steel Toes, a courtroom drama starring David Strathairn as the Jewish court-appointed lawyer assigned to defend a skinhead accused of a racially motivated murder;


• Portnoy’s Complaint meets Office Space in director Jeremy Weinstein’s wacky debut comedy, Wil;


• Toots, Kristi Jacobson’s documentary about her grandfather, the legendary Toots Shor, includes interviews with Jackie Gleason, Walter Cronkite, Mike Walace, Lauren Bacall, Yogi Berra, and Whitey Ford;


• The World Premiere of Saved by Deportation, the documentary by Slawomir Grunberg and Robert Podgursky, tells the little-known story of Polish Jews who were saved from the Nazi death camps by Stalin’s deportation of Russian-occupied Eastern Poland;


• In the critically acclaimed documentary 51 Birch Street, filmmaker Doug Block examines the hidden truths in his parents’ ostensibly happy 54-year marriage;


• Blues by the Beach is the unplanned and unscripted documentary that resulted from the film crew’s coincidental presence (coming from work on another project) at Mike’s Place on the Tel Aviv beachfront, during the April 2003 terrorist bombing of the bar. Filmmaker Jack Baxter will be in attendance.


• MacArthur “genius grant” award winner Alan Berliner (Nobody’s Business, The Sweetest Sound) turns the camera on himself with his new documentary, Wide Awake, that looks at insomnia and one person’s impact on the whole family. Local filmmaker Aviva Kempner will introduce the film and Berliner.


• Vaan Nguyen grew up in Israel speaking Hebrew, but her parents had fled Vietnam in 1979 and were among 200 “boat people” who were granted refuge in Israel. The Journey of Vaan Nguyen tells the story of her quest to travel back to Vietnam.


• Swiss director Gabrielle Antosiewicz is 30 and looking for a Jewish husband in Zurich. In Matchmaker: In Search of a Kosher Man, she invites suitors to her house to bake challah and talk about what they’re looking for in a mate.


• 18-J is a collection of 10 shorts by South American directors (including opening night’s Daniel Burman) that were made in response to the terrorist bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, which killed 86 people and wounded 300.


• Freida Lee Mock’s Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner follows Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Kushner for three years, interviewing his collaborators, and looking at stories and personal accounts from his hectic life.


• Tomer Heymann’s Paper Dolls looks at a group of drag performers from the Philippines who came to Israel in search of a better life and work as caretakers for elderly Jewish men.


• A special works-in-progress screening of local filmmakers Carolyn Projansky and Susan Barocas’ documentary, Breaking the Rules: The Untold Story of White Resistance to Apartheid.

by David Horowitz