The Egg Cream contains neither eggs nor cream – It was a product of necessity and hardship, but a source of joy and sweetness. Through archival images and a tour of egg cream establishments led by the filmmaker and his young daughter, the film examines the Jewish experience in America and the mythology of a simpler time.
Film: 15 minutes
Directors: Nora Miller, Peter Miller
Production country: USA
Year: 2018
September 5th 1972, the tenth day of the Munich Olympics—the Palestinian terrorist group Black September stormed the Israeli athletes’ quarters. The world watched live on television as eleven hostages were taken and later killed. For the first time, this story will be told through the eyes of four women who were directly impacted by that day: an athlete, a widow, and two undercover agents. Their fates were changed forever as their wellbeing and life views were impacted by the trauma. A film about love and death; conflict and reconciliation; war and peace.
MATURE THEMES, SOME GRAPHIC IMAGES
Film: 78 minutes
Director: Francine Zuckerman
Production Country: Canada
Year: 2019
Nadia is a 20-year-old Arab girl who has a secret love affair with Nimer, a PLO activist. They move to England, where Nimer is caught by the authorities and Nadia is left alone. A slick character fixes her with an Israeli passport of a Jewish girl that enables her to return to Israel.
Twenty years later Nadia is now Maya, a successful choreographer who is married to a Jewish official at the Ministry of Justice, Yoav. They have two children. But her past catches her up when Nimer reappears. Yoav notices his wife”s distress and realizes that she”s hiding something. Their relationship is on the verge of crisis.
Film: 115 minutes
Director: Tova Ascher
Production countries: Israel, United Kingdom
Year: 2015
Albert Einstein, the most famous scientist of all time, was a world-renowned celebrity. He was greeted like a rock star when he appeared in public. An anti-war firebrand, Einstein also spoke out on issues ranging from women’s rights and racism, to immigration and nuclear arms control. But today, his image has been neutered into that of a charmingly absent-minded genius. He was, in fact, a powerful force for social change and a model for political activism. Using a wealth of rarely-seen archival footage, correspondence, and new and illuminating interviews, filmmaker Julia Newman makes the case that Albert Einstein’s example of social and political activism is as important today as are his brilliant, ground-breaking theories.
Film: 80 minutes
Director: Julia Newman
Production country: USA
Year: 2020
Community Partner:
Albert Einstein: Still a Revolutionary Read More »
“Dutch filmmaker Jean van de Velde captures a dark period in South Africa’s recent history, balancing a nail-biting political thriller with spectacular courtroom intrigue.”
In 1963, apartheid is rampant in South Africa. Nelson Mandela and nine other defendants, including Jewish anti-apartheid fighters, are arrested on a farm for conspiring to commit sabotage and treason against the repressive South African government. Tenacious white Afrikaner lawyer Bram Fisher steps up to the challenge as lead counsel whose defendants faced a possible death sentence. Fisher risks his career and family to defend Mandela and his inner circle in this historical thriller set in South Africa’s incendiary segregation era. As Mandela fights to expose South Africa’s corrupt, unjust system, Fischer attempts to hide his own ties to the resistance. This riveting drama combines nail-biting political and courtroom intrigue to explore South Africa’s seminal struggle against racism, and it highlights the little-known Jewish figures who sought to end entrenched discrimination in their country.
CONTAINS VIOLENCE
Film: 123 minutes
Director: Jean van de Velde
Production country: Netherlands
Year: 2018
An Act of Defiance Read More »
Curmudgeonly widower Nat Dayan (Jonathan Pryce) clings to his way of life as a Kosher bakery shop owner in London’s East End. Understaffed, Nat
reluctantly enlists the help of teenager Ayyash (Jerome Holder), who has a secret side gig selling marijuana to help his immigrant mother make ends meet. When Ayyash accidentally drops his stash into the mixing dough, the challah starts flying off the shelves and an unlikely friendship forms between the old Jewish baker and his young Muslim apprentice. Dough is a warmhearted and humorous story about overcoming prejudice and finding redemption in unexpected places.
Film available to watch Sept. 10-12 in the USA only.
Note: This presentation is supported by Congregation Beth Israel and is a part of CBI’s Selichot program. The film is available to all.
Cast: Jonathan Pryce
Director: John Goldschmidt
Writer: Jonathan Benson
Two great films and a panel discussion in one program:
A CANTOR’S HEAD (2020) – One of the world’s leading cantorial masters departs the bema, prompting questions about the dwindling tradition of Jewish sacred music. Cantor Jack Mendelson has been dubbed the Michael Jordan of Hazzanut. He has inspired legions of admirers worldwide, combining spiritual exploration, communal bonding and dazzling showmanship. But after years of service, his operatic voice is no longer wanted by his congregation. Running the gamut of emotions, Cantor Mendelson, his protégés, and other musical luminaries explain the magic of this centuries-long art form, and what its loss represents.
A CANTOR’S TALE (2005) Explores chazzanut past, present and future through the prism of Chazzan Jack Mendelson”s career. In addition to heavenly singing, the film visits a bar-mitzvah at the legendary Beth El Synagogue in Borough Park and interviews luminaries such as Ben-Zion Miller, Mati Lazar, Alberto Mizrahi, Alan Dershowitz, Neil Shicoff, Dr. Larry Hoffman, and Debbie Friedman.
A Cantor’s Tale Panel Program: The Past Present, and Future of Jewish Cantorial Music on Sunday October 18 at 2:00PM Central.
Co-presented by AJFF, Congregation Agudas Achim, and Temple Beth Shalom.
Cast: Cantor Jack Mendelson
Director: Erik Greenberg Anjou
A Cantor’s Head/A Cantor’s Tale screening (FREE) Read More »
Yoav, a successful architect, has everything he’s ever wanted. His lover of 15 years, Dan, is a younger lawyer who adores him. Alma is a successful artist and Yoav’s best friend—she is like a mother and a sister to him.
However, when Alma announces she is pregnant, it ignites Dan’s desire to become a father himself. But Dan’s parental urges have the opposite effect on Yoav, who is haunted by long-buried demons. Yoav’s tight grasp on his life begins to come apart, leading to self-destructive behavior that threatens to destroy his relationship with Dan, unravel his friendship with Alma, and cost him everything.
MATURE THEMES, STRONG SEXUAL CONTENT
Film: 90 minutes
Director: Yuval Hadadi
Production country: Israel
Year: 2019
Community Partner:
Composer Benjamin Till explores what it means to be British and Jewish in this quirky and heartwarming musical film. Till set about finding 100 British Jews, one born in every year between 1918 and 2017. Each scene features a person who is a year older than in the prior scene, reflecting the true celebration of the diversity of Jewish people. A ”musical postcard from British Jewry to the rest of the world.”
Film: 12 minutes
Director: Benjamin Till
Production country: UK
Year: 2018
“This is not a Holocaust film but rather a drama that looks at life beneath the simple surface in a quaint Hungarian village after WWII.”
Two orthodox Jewish men, dressed in black, arrive at the train station of a small Hungarian village on a hot August day in 1945, one year after the German troops have left. Their homecoming disrupts the established rhythm of life in the village, where preparations are underway for the wedding of the town clerk’s son. The clerk fears the men may be heirs of the village’s’ deported Jews and expects them to demand the return of their illegally seized property. Their reappearance forces the local residents to confront and come to terms with the horrific events of the previous year. Based on the acclaimed short story HOMECOMING by Gábor T. Szántó.
MATURE LANGUAGE, MATURE THEMES
Film: 91 minutes
Director: Ferenc Török
Production country: Hungary
Year: 2017