Films
A Matter of Size
Israel, Germany, France / 2009 / 90 Minutes / German, Hebrew, Japanese with English subtitles / Directors: Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor
Sunday, April 25 6:00 pm / Tuesday, April 27 4:00 pm (Amherst Theatre)
This charming Israeli comedy combines sumo wrestling, love and self acceptance. When 342 pound Herzl loses his job as a cook and starts working as a dishwasher in a Japanese restaurant, he discovers the world of Sumo where large people are honored and appreciated. With a few large friends, and help of Kitano, the restaurant owner and former Sumo coach in Japan, he pursues the sport where size is an asset. Shots of the four huge guys wearing red fighting mawashi, as they jog, perform graceful ritual warm-ups, and wrestle are both funny and beautiful. While training, they learn the wisdom of sumo and realize that love and success will only come from being true to themselves. Rated: PG-13
- Thirteen nominations, winner of 3 Ophir awards - Israeli Academy of Film and Television
The film will be introduced by Charles Bray of the SumoKids Foundation of Buffalo
www.mennemshafilms.com (go to Movies, click film title)
A Secret
France / 2007 / 105 minutes / Hebrew, Yiddish, French, German with English subtitles Director: Claude Miller
Monday, April 26 6:00 pm / Thursday, April 29 6:00 pm (Amherst Theatre)
Ordinary Jewish people in extraordinarily savage times. A Secret follows the saga of a Jewish family in post-World War II Paris. François, a solitary, imaginative child, invents for himself a brother as well as the story of his parents’ past. But on his fifteenth birthday, he discovers a dark family secret that ties his family’s history to the Holocaust and shatters his illusions forever. This moving film portrays simple people caught up in forces beyond their control. A Secret raises troubling questions about collective memory and the heartbreaking story of betrayal and sacrifice in occupied France. Adapted from Philippe Grimbert’s celebrated, wrenching family history, Memory.
- Best Actress in a supporting role - 2008 César Awards (nonimated for ten César Awards)
- Winner Grand Prix des Amériques - 2007 Montréal World Film Festival
http://extranet.strandreleasing.com/login.aspx
At Home in Utopia
USA / 2008 / 57 minutes / English and Yiddish with English subtitles / Director: Michal Goldman
Monday, April 26 4:00 pm (Amherst Theatre) preceded by The Kiddush Man
Eighty years ago they built nonprofit cooperative housing based on social justice… In the mid-1920s, thousands of immigrant Jewish garment workers catapulted themselves out of the urban slums and ghettos by pooling their resources and building cooperatively owned and run apartment complexes in the Bronx. Adjacent to the newly opened subway corridor and in the midst of empty fields, they constructed the United Workers Cooperative Colony, a.k.a. “the Coops,” where they practiced the utopian ideals of an equitable and just society. At Home in Utopia captures their epic struggle across two generations as the Coops’ residents experiment with breaking down barriers of race and ethnicity and championing radical ideas that would someday transform the American workplace. Director Goldman spent eight years fund raising, interviewing, filming and editing to create a fascinating documentary on this influential social experiment.
www.filmmakerscollab.org trailer at www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxxfzohnbgc
Broken Promise
Slovakia, Czech Republic, USA / 2009 / 124 Minutes / Slovak with English subtitles / Director Jiri Chlumsky
Tuesday, April 27 8:00 pm / Thursday, April 29 1:30 pm (Amherst Theatre)
A film about what keeps us alive and the chances that decide one man’s life. This complex, historically rich film is based on the true story of young Martin Friedmann, born in 1926 in Western Slovakia. Martin’s lives a carefree young life playing soccer and assisting with bell-ringing in a local church. As he approaches Bar Mitzvah age, life in his town of Banovce begins to change. Martin narrowly escapes deportation to a concentration camp thanks to his extraordinary soccer talent and some good luck. Narrowly escaping deportation and concealing his Jewish origins, Martin’s episodic journey takes him into adulthood and away from home - from work camp, to Catholic infirmary, to monastery, and among Soviet-led partisans on the battlefield. A visual feast employing breathtaking cinematography, this gripping drama explores collective and individual anti-Semitism among invaders and liberators alike.
Rated: PG-13
- Slovakia’s submission for the 2010 U.S. Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
This film is sponsored in part by the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo
Brothers
Switzerland / 2008 / 116 Minutes / Hebrew with English subtitles / Director: Igaal Niddam
Saturday, April 24 8:00 pm / Sunday, April 25 1:30 pm (Amherst Theatre)
Two Jewish brothers, driven apart, meet again in Israel after years of silence. Dan works the land, living in a secular kibbutz with his family in the south of Israel. His brother Aaron is a religious New York lawyer who comes to Jerusalem to take a case defending the rights of Torah students to refuse military service. The two brothers struggle to come to terms with their religious and political beliefs when they reunite in Israel after twenty-five years of silence. This film opens a subtle, yet essential debate on the question of the separation of state and religion in Israel as well as the circumstances that tear families apart and bring them together again.
- A selection of the 2009 European Film Academy
Bruria
Israel / 2008 / 90 Minutes / Hebrew with English subtitles / Director: Avraham Kushnir
Tuesday, April 27 1:30 pm / Wednesday, April 28 8:00 pm (Amherst Theatre)
Bruriah has everything: betrayal, death, God... sex. Bruriah, a most learned woman, lived in the second century with her husband Rabbi Meir. This was a time when the Rabbis declared that women were “light-minded.” Her husband tricked her to prove that point and when she found out, the humiliated Bruriah committed suicide. This story of Bruriah infiltrates and creates turmoil in the life of a religious, Jerusalem family in 2008. The heroine of the film, named Bruriah, struggles with a life of excommunication which followed the publication of her father’s book on the meaning of the Bruriah story. Bruriah decides to search for the one copy of the book which may have survived. Her husband Yaakov opposes her quest as that book, if found, represents a threat to the way of life that he has created for his family. But Bruriah is unwilling to give up. The search for the book becomes a quest in which she faces the compromises she has made in her life, her desires, and her limitations. Hadar Galron, co-writer and star of Bruriah is a playwright (“Mikve”), actress, screenwriter (“The Secrets,” co-writer of “Bruriah”) and comedian.
Rated: PG-13
Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueburger
Australia / 2009 / 103 Minutes / English / Written and directed by: Cathy Randall
Sunday, April 25 4:00 pm / Wednesday, April 28 6:00 pm (Amherst Theatre)
Funny and honest, often just downright hilarious and occasionally outrageous. Esther Blueburger is a 13-year-old Jewish outcast at her posh private school. Things are no better at home, where her controlling mother pressures Esther to conform. After escaping her own Bat Mitzvah, Esther bumps into Academy Award Nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes (“Whale Rider”) as Sunni, a rebellious girl from the local public school. The two girls form a friendship, and Esther begins attending Sunni’s school under the guise of a Swedish exchange student. She revels in the easygoing nature of the public school and enjoys spending time with Sunni’s friends until her gained popularity and peer pressure cause problems. This film is a funny, smart movie about life’s unending quest to fit in and learning that it is best to just be yourself.
- Nominated for 4 awards and winner Young Actor’s Award - 2009 Australian Film Institute - Best Actress nomination - 2009 Film Critics Circle of Australia
www.montereymedia.com/theatrical/films/
Holy Land Hardball
USA / 2009 / 84 Minutes / English / Directors: Erik Kesten, Brett Rapkin
Monday, April 26 1:30 pm / Thursday, April 29 4:00 pm (Amherst Theatre)
Other than players, fields and fans… they had everything. Holy Land Hardball follows the formation of the Israel Baseball League (IBL) by Larry Baras, a Boston bagel bakery owner with no sports management experience. Stirred to action by a midlife crisis, Baras recruits a diverse collection of executives and ballplayers for the IBL, the first ever professional baseball league in the Middle East. The team’s challenging task: to draw Israelis to America’s pastime, a game they’ve gone 5,767 years without. Amid a skeptical media, disgruntled players, delayed stadium preparations, customs snafus, and a rapidly approaching Opening Day, remains the question: If I build it, will they come? From tryouts to the fateful first game, Holy Land Hardball is a wildly entertaining story that transcends sports, and speaks to the power of pursuing a pipedream in the face of impossible odds.
“You don’t have to be Jewish or understand a box score to embrace this crowd pleasing national pastime documentary,” Variety
The Kiddush Man
USA / 2008 / 11 Minutes / Hebrew with English subtitles / Director: Yitz Brilliant
Monday, April 19 7:30 pm (JCC Benderson) preceding My Flag
Monday, April 26 4:00 pm (Amherst Theatre) preceding At Home in Utopia
A reminder to make sure we don’t just look at life, but that we truly see it. This short yet poignant film is set in a sunny Jerusalem synagogue over several Shabbat mornings. A bored young boy sneaks out of the service to raid the Kiddush lunch buffet and is confronted by an angry older congregant who is responsible for setting up the lunch. When the boy sneaks out once more, the “Kiddush Man” is not around. As the boy goes searching for him, he discovers the reason for the anger and connects with the old man on a different and touching level.
- Winner Best Short - New York Jewish Student Film
www.windriderforum.org/2009/12/15/now-playing-the-kiddush-man
My Flag
Canada / 2008 / 58 minutes / Hebrew with English subtitles / Director Igal Hecht
Sunday, April 18 3:30 pm (JCC Benderson) Part of the Israel Independence Day Celebration
Monday, April 19 7:30 pm (JCC Benderson) preceded by The Kiddush Man
The blue and white of the Israeli flag has never been more closely analyzed and inspected
than in this film.
On the Eve of Israel’s 60th birthday, Canadian-Israeli filmmaker Igal Hecht travels from one end of Israel to the other for six months, asking Israelis one simple question: “What does the Israeli flag mean to you?”. This heartfelt, comedic documentary explores the crisis of identity that many in Israel now face and offers an insight into what the future holds for the nation.
On the Road to Tel Aviv
Israel / 2008 / 19 Minutes / Hebrew with English subtitles / Director: Khen Shalem
Sunday, April 25 8:00 pm (Amherst Theatre) preceding The Wedding Song Wednesday, April 28 1:30 pm (Amherst Theatre) preceding Operation Mural
Under the tense reality of war and terror, enemies can sometimes find themselves in the same boat (or in the same bus). It’s just another day in Israel, as a young woman and her fiancé head for the bus she’ll be taking to Tel Aviv. The young Israeli finds himself in a frightening situation when a suspicious looking Arab woman enters the same bus as his fiancée. He tries to get his fiancée out of the bus without creating too much of a scene, but panic erupts and he must now calm the situation down. It’s a story of mistrust, fear, prejudice and the thin line that separates them.
- Award winner at seven 2009 U.S. film festivals
Operation Mural
Switzerland, Morocco and Israel / 2007 / 55 Minutes / English, French, Hebrew with English subtitles / Director: Yehuda Kavah
Wednesday, April 28, 1:30 pm (Amherst Theatre)
A rare look at a fascinating chapter in Moroccan Jewish history. Operation Mural is the incredible but true story of the smuggling of 530 Jewish Moroccan children to Israel in the spring of 1961. Forty-five years after their participation in the clandestine operation, three men return to Casablanca to retrace the unfolding of this humanitarian mission. In compelling interviews, the participants relive their roles in “Operation Mural” and describe their amazing success in overcoming nearly impossible obstacles. The film provides a rare look into Israel’s secret efforts to bring immigrants out of poverty and oppression to a new homeland and vividly documents how “Operation Mural” succeeded beyond all expectations.
- Nominee for Best Documentary - 2008 Israel Academy Awards
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdMcPvKvVDA
The Wedding Song
France, Tunisia / 2008 / 100 Minutes / French and Arabic with English subtitles
/ Director Karin Albou
Sunday, April 25 8:00 pm / Wednesday, April 28 4:00 pm (Amherst Theatre)
A powerful, sensual and sexually frank film about the power of destiny. The Wedding Song traces the effects of the German occupation of Tunis in 1942 on the Arab and Jewish communities, focusing mainly on two young girls about to be married. The two teenage friends, Jewish Myriam and Muslim Nour, though far more interested in love than war, find historical circumstances affecting their wedding plans. The occupying Nazis demand “reparation payments” from the Tunisian Jews and polarize the community along ethnic lines. Myriam’s impoverished mother (played by director Karin Albou) is forced to promise her hand to wealthy, older Doctor Raoul. Meanwhile, Nour is happily betrothed to her handsome cousin Khaled, who finds brutal work with the Nazis. The Wedding Song highlights Albou’s preoccupation with feminine sexuality-from the inside of the women’s communal bathhouse to the preparation of the bride for an “oriental-style” wedding. This gorgeously crafted film takes viewers places they’ve never been before.
Rated: R
http://www.strandreleasing.com
Tickling Leo
USA / 2009 / 91 Minutes / English / Director: Jeremy Davidson
Monday, April 26 8:00 pm / Thursday, April 29 8:00 pm (Amherst Theatre)
The secrets of three generations of one Jewish family. Zak and his pregnant girlfriend Delphina travel to the Catskills to visit his estranged, eccentric poet father who lives in solitude and declining health. Zak’s uncle arrives and during the fractured family’s reunion, a dark family secret from WWII is inadvertently uncovered concerning Zak’s grandfather (Eli Wallach) and his involvement with Kasztner’s controversial freedom train and ransom arrangement to save Hungarian Jews. A fine performance by Annie Parisse, a virtuoso turn by Eli Wallach, intense emotions and a powerful narrative provide a compelling film about impossible choices in the nightmare of the Holocaust.
Rated: R
Username: TicklingLeo
Password: Tickling42Leo
Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist
USA / 2007 / 96 Minutes / English / Director: Andrew D. Cooke
Tuesday, April 20 7:30 pm (JCC Benderson)
Tuesday, April 27 6:00 pm (Amherst Theatre)
“Fascinating… A valuable record of this unique form of American art, and the iconic characters it spawned.” Jeffrey Lyons, NBC’s Reel Talk. The godfather of the American comic book, Will Eisner (1917-2005) enjoyed a career spanning 1930’s cartooning to modern contemporary graphic novels. Part of an unparalleled group of Jewish cartoonists, Eisner stretched the boundaries of storytelling, developing the comic into a mature combination of art and literature. In 1939, he created The Spirit (recently adapted as a major motion picture), a gritty crime fighter series. Much of his work incorporated the Jewish experience and struggle against anti-Semitism. This accomplished documentary features a wealth of artwork as well as interviews with comic luminaries such as Art Spiegelman and Frank Miller, novelists Michael Chabon and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and others. It is also the story of one man’s struggle against a culture often unwilling to see behind the paneled world of POW!, ZAP! and CRASH!
The film will be introduced by Emil J. Novak, proprietor of the Queen City Bookstore, one of the original comic book retailers in America.