San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Attention, Documentary Filmmakers: 6 Lessons from the Making of 'Shoah.'

Adam Benzine — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 14:30:00 GMT

Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah," which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, is widely considered to be the most important Holocaust film ever made, and regularly ranks among the greatest documentaries of all time.

The nine-and-a-half-hour-long epic took the maverick French filmmaker 12 years to make, beginning in 1973 and ending in 1985. During that time, Lanzmann and his crew amassed more than 225 hours of footage – some of it secretly obtained at great risk. The film was groundbreaking on its release, eschewing traditional archival footage and instead relying almost entirely on first-person testimony to paint a horrific portrait of mass murder in the Nazi death camps.

One need only look at two of the most revered films of this year – Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Look of Silence" and László Nemes' "Son Of Saul" – to see the influence of Lanzmann's work.

Now 89 years old, the French master sat with me for a week to discuss, in great depth, the difficult years he spent making his magnum opus; tracking down death camp survivors, secretly recording the testimony of former SS officers (a task that at one point resulted in him suffering a severe physical beating), his battles with producers and financiers and an exhausting half-decade spent editing.

The resulting documentary, "Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah," was bought by HBO in April and will have its U.S. premiere at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival on Tuesday, July 28 before airing on HBO in 2016.

READ MORE: Meet the First-Time Director Behind 'Son of Saul'

Here are six key lessons from the making of a masterpiece:

1. Find the heart of your film

"Shoah" was a commissioned work, of sorts. In 1973, the director-general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs challenged Lanzmann to make a film about the Holocaust, as seen "through Jewish eyes."

The decision to accept was a heavy one. In one sense, Lanzmann immediately understood the weight of the challenge. But on the other hand, "I knew nothing about the Shoah," he recalled. "I knew what everybody knew, 'six million Jews.’"

"I was telling myself: 'Very well, I agreed to do this, but what is my theme? The heart of the Shoah, what is it?'"

Lanzmann floundered, initially, overwhelmed by the scale to the task he had committed to undertake. But eventually, he found his main focal point: death in the gas chambers. "Once I understood my theme, it was a huge relief and I knew what I had to do," said Lanzmann.

The film would not try and examine the causes of the Holocaust, but instead, would focus on the process of mass murder, becoming a technical examination of how – rather than why - the atrocity happened, using first-person testimony and present-day landscape portrayal.

Find the heart of your film, be sure you understand what it is really all about.

"'Shoah' is not a film about survival. And it's not a film about survivors," Lanzmann said. "'Shoah' is a film about death."

2. Sometimes, you have to lie.

"Shoah" was a difficult film to make on almost every front, and its journey to screen was filled with controversy.

Among the biggest challenges Lanzmann faced was raising money to continue shooting over such a long period. At one point, he accepted money from a backer on the condition that the film be delivered within two years, with a running time of no more than two hours. The filmmaker took the money, even as he knew full well that he would not be able to meet the terms of delivery. "I had to lie to everybody," he said. "I had to promise people 'I will finish next year, next year.'"

The toll of having to lie to people who had trusted him – friends and supporters – was a heavy one for Lanzmann. But as he saw it, there was only one correct way to make the film, and it couldn't be rushed.

At the other end of the scale, Lanzmann also lied to the Nazis who appear in the film. Initially, he reached out to several former SS officers in good faith, explaining who he was and what he was trying to do. Unsurprisingly, they refused to talk.

So, after procuring a fake passport, and using a fake name, the filmmaker started introducing himself as a researcher, conducting oral interviews for an academic thesis. The information he gathered would only be published anonymously, in print, he promised.

In reality, he was filming these encounters with a hidden camera, capturing every last boast and detail for the big screen. Their faces appear in "Shoah," uncensored, for the world to see. Lanzmann faced some criticism for his methods upon the film's release, but he remains defiant.

"I don't see why I should've kept my word," Lanzmann reflected in a 1985 interview. "Did they keep their word? They didn't respect the first moral order, which is the order of life. They didn't respect this fundamental priority, why shouldn’t I lie to these people?"

3. Earning trust can take time.

At the heart of his masterwork are Lanzmann's interviews with 'Sonderkommandos' – Jewish captives who were forced to work as slave labor in the death camps during the war. Their testimony is harrowing.

In many cases, Lanzmann spent days beforehand sitting with his subjects – without a camera or crew, or even so much as a notepad – just talking, listening and learning their stories. He researched. He met with their families and explained what he was trying to do. He earned their trust.

Filming with the Sonderkommandos proved emotionally draining, and not every survivor he met agreed to speak on camera – some just couldn't bring themselves to do it.

In one of "Shoah"'s most famous scenes, Abraham Bomba, a barber who was forced to cut women's hair moments before they were sent to their deaths in the gas chamber, breaks down midway through his testimony, unable to speak.

Lanzmann pushes him to go on; a tough decision he sayy he was able to make only by having won Bomba's trust beforehand.
It wasn't a sadistic move, as some critics later claimed. "It was, on the contrary, a brotherly situation," Lanzmann said. "What he had to say, the things he had seen... were at the very limit of inhumanity."

4. You need support.

As much as filmmaking is a collaborative business, it can also be lonely work. As the director of your film, you should find you have the final word. But when things become difficult and a project gets stuck, you can find yourself alone. Not knowing which way to turn, creatively, can make for a depressing situation.

It's at this point you need a support network. Not just your crew and collaborators, but friends and lovers outside the filmmaking circle, who can help guide you through the fog. For Lanzmann, that support came from Simone de Beauvoir, the great feminist and philosophical icon, with whom he had shared a more than seven-year romantic relationship.

"Simone de Beauvoir was my best friend," Lanzmann recalled, "and when I had doubts or difficulties, she supported me greatly and encouraged me.

"When I threw myself into the work of 'Shoah,' it was normal that I would talk to her about it. We didn't just talk about my film; we spoke about everything together. We talked about the world and the state of the world."

With a topic as heavy as the Holocaust, that support proved invaluable. Lanzmann and de Beauvoir would talk long into the night, the former telling the latter of the things he had learned during his interviews with survivors and former Nazis.

"She never let me lose hope," he says, "Never."

5. It can't be easy.

It’s oft repeated that it took Lanzmann 12 years to make Shoah, but less often remarked upon is that five years of that time was spent on the monumental task of editing.

Imagine sitting down with a Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere timeline that stretches to 10 hours in length, with some 225 hours of material to sort through.

Now imagine taking away the computer and undertaking that editing on film, splicing together hours and hours of reels. "There was so much material I had to watch and re-watch, several times over and even dozens of time," Lanzmann recalled.

The filmmaker learned to be patient and to stay true to his vision. "You need to have a very special relationship with time," he said. Imagine that you’re climbing a mountain, with only one correct route to the top. Filmmaking can be hard, but then again, it is supposed to be. If it weren’t, you wouldn’t feel a sense of achievement at the end.

"I'm a very meticulous man, very stubborn," Lanzmann said. "Every time I undertook editing and I found it easy, I said: 'That doesn’t work. It can't be easy.'"

6. Success doesn't always bring closure.

What do you hope to achieve with your film? Awards, festival invitations and a profitable balance sheet? TV deals, great reviews and the respect of your peers?

How about the simpler goal of happiness, closure and the ability to move on with your life?

"I am proud of what I achieved, definitely, yes," Lanzmann told an American journalist in 1985. "But it didn't relieve me from anguish... I think it is the other way round."

Thirty years later, he still appears to carry the emotional baggage of his magnum opus. As much as mine is a film about Lanzmann and his work, "Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah" also serves as a portrait of the suffering inherent in the artistic process.

"I lived all these months after the end of 'Shoah' as a sort of bereavement," Lanzmann confides, 30 years on from his film's release. "It took me a very long time to be able to recover."

Lanzmann has gone on to make five films since completing his 1985 masterpiece, but four of those (including 2013's "The Last of the Unjust") have been made using outtake material from "Shoah." Death, in a sense, has become his life's work.

"You cannot finish a film like 'Shoah' exploding with joy," he told me. "I was proud of what I achieved, definitely, yes, it is the deep truth. But joy... joy is something else."

Adam Benzine is the writer, producer and director of the HBO film "Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah" For the past four years, he served as the Associate Editor of Realscreen magazine, covering the global business of documentaries. A British journalist based in Toronto, he is a regular fixture at most major documentary, film and TV industry festivals and markets, including Sundance, SXSW and the Toronto International Film Festival; and frequently chairs panel sessions and Q&As with filmmakers and execs, at events such as Hot Docs, IDFA, the Realscreen Summit and Sheffield Doc/Fest.

"Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah" will play at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival on July 28, July 30 and August 4. It will air on HBO in 2016. Check out sfjff.com for ticketing information.

READ MORE: Attention, Documentary Filmmakers: 6 Tips for Getting Your Subjects to Open Up on Camera

Jewish Film Institute Launches VOD Platform of 35 Titles (Exclusive)

Ryan Lattanzio — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 15:57:56 GMT

The Jewish Film Institute's new VOD platform, JFI On Demand, includes festival favorites from the SFJFF archives over the past three decades, including "5 Days" by Yoav Shamir, "Aliyah" by Elie Wajeman, "Out in the Dark" by Michael Mayer, "Forgiveness" by Udi Aloni, "Live and Become" by Radu Mihaileanu and more.

The 35th edition of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival returns to the Bay Area this year from July 23 to August 9, 2015 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, the CinéArts Theatre in Palo Alto, the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, The California Theatre in Berkeley, and the Lakeside Theater in Oakland. Since 1981, the festival has screened over 1500 films.

READ MORE: Noir City and Jewish Film Festival Compete for San Francisco Cinephiles

To view all 35 film titles on JFI On Demand, visit jewishfilminstitute.org.

Noir City and Jewish Film Festival Compete for San Francisco Cinephiles

Meredith Brody — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 17:15:50 GMT

A new fashion among San Francisco film festivals: adding another branded event during the year, months before or after the annual festival. Both the Silent Film Festival and Noir City have winter film events — Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir, uses the December Christmas-themed evening to reveal the program for the upcoming January Noir City. This year's theme, for lucky Noir City 13: the bonds of matrimony, or, as Eddie intoned: "Engagement ring, wedding ring, suffering."

This year the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival's all-day, six-film Winterfest 2015 was scheduled opposite the second day of Noir City, making life difficult (but not impossible) for an intrepid (and compulsive) festival-goer. It was cleverly programmed: first a German fiction film, "Let's Go," directed by Michael Verhoeven, about an expatriate woman reflecting on her Jewish family's life when returning to Germany after the death of her father; then a moving documentary, "Yalom's Cure," about a well-known Stanford philosopher/therapist/writer, Irvin Yalom, who appeared at the Roxie for a Q&A; followed by another documentary, "The Decent One," found footage illuminating the letters and diaries of Nazi Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler.

Enough tears! The ensuing documentary, "Deli Man," features interviews with delicatessen owners (and, as an extra added incentive, promised nosh from noted local modern delicatessers Wise Sons). Then a powerful narrative film, "Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem," Israel's submission for the 2015 Academy Awards (alas, it did not get nominated), about a woman's years-long quest to get a religious divorce from her recalcitrant husband (which played Cannes, TIFF, the Mill Valley Film Festival and more). And, to end the evening on a light note,, a Jewish zombie romcom from last year's Sundance film festival, "Life after Beth," starring the delicious Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan and John C. Reilly.

I was torn between the Jews and the Noirs, especially after Friday night's thrilling, rather over-the-top sold-out opening night in the 1400-seat Castro Theatre. A glorious new 35mm print of the San Francisco-set "Woman on the Run" (1950), restored by the Film Noir Foundation in conjunction with the UCLA Film & Television Archive (largely financed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charitable Trust), debuted, followed by an archival 35mm print of the also San Francisco-set "Born to be Bad" (1950).

The always-exquisitely-produced Noir City evening also featured a quick-cut noir montage by Muller protege Serena Bramble, a delightful video from Reel SF comparing the actual shooting locations for "Woman on the Run" (gasp! some were shot in Los Angeles!) with how those locations look today, and, after "Born to be Bad," a screening of its alternate, rather more sly ending shown outside the United States.

And, mysteriously, the ever-increasingly theatrical Eddie Muller, clad in what he was quick to point out, earlier, was his own dinner jacket, crawled onstage during the intermission, bound and gagged, presumably by his two glamorous peignoir-clad Miss Noir City colleagues, dark-haired Evie Lovelle and redheaded Audra Wolfmann. I was so flummoxed by the sight that I don't remember the storyline behind the skit.

Also playing Noir City over the weekend were Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion" and Ida Lupino's "The Bigamist," both of which I've seen many times before. Sam Wood's "Ivy," though beautifully mounted, was something of a disappointment -- especially after seeing Joan Fontaine's considerably more witty and nuanced performance of a less-murderous femme fatale in "Born to be Bad." Eddie Muller continued his theatrical turn by appearing in a full-on period English tailcoat, complete with tricky ascot-like tie and fancy vest, dressed by Decades of Fashion, one of Noir City's advertisers and supplier of one of its nightly raffle prizes.

Narcissistically (of course), I rate the seductiveness of each Noir City based on how many new-to-me screenings are offered, and by that system, Noir City 13 suffers in my esteem, especially after last year's internationally-themed Noir City 12, which featured many rarities. But Noir City films, no matter how familiar, will benefit from being seen on the huge Castro screen, in the presence of the attentive and responsive Noir City audience. Will we ever get a chance to see any of these films on the big screen again?

Sunday offered two screenings each of Douglas Sirk's "Shockproof" (screenplay by Sam Fuller), starring the then-married-in-real-life Cornell Wilde and Patricia Knight, and his "Sleep, My Love" (independently produced by Mary Pickford), with Claudette Colbert tormented by Don Ameche (understandably distracted by the sexy Hazel Brooks), and rescued by Robert Cummings -- a fabulous double bill. Monday, Martin Luther King Day, offered two screenings each of "The Thin Man" and "After the Thin Man," neither really noirs, but, as the excellent Noir City 13 program book allowed: "In honor of this year's festival theme, NOIR CITY steps from its sinister shadows to pay tribute to the most marvelous (fictional) marriage in the history of the movies, the blithe and boozy union of Nick and Nora Charles." (And here's where I part company with the fanatical 35mm print fanatics: both of these copies were worn and well-used, especially "The Thin Man," which often jumped out of frame and was missing a bit of dialogue at a changeover or two. I would have preferred a glossy projected DVD.)

I chose the earlier pairing of each, happy to have a couple of free evenings to catch up with DVRed television and the like, because for the next week or so I'd be irresistibly drawn to the Castro on a nightly basis. And nightly reassured as to the blessings of my (somewhat accidental) single state.

The 34th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival: A Religious Experience

Meredith Brody — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 14:30:00 GMT

After attending religiously for a number of years (pun forgivable), I realize that the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival now joins the two San Francisco festivals I consider unmissable: The SF Silent Film Festival, and Noir City. Like them, it has an enthusiastic and loyal audience, some of whom see every single film on offer, made possible because the festival unspools, mostly, in one theater at a time.

A more appropriate title, these days, might be the Bay Area Jewish Film Festival, because it travels all over: at SF's venerable Castro Theatre, there were 11 days of screenings. Meantime, there were six days of films shown at the CineArts in Palo Alto. I attended the week-long section which followed in Berkeley's California, followed by a three-day weekend at the glorious Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, which overlapped with three days of screenings at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. A few special events were presented at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Rayko Photo Center in SF, and the New Parkway Theater in Oakland.

The appreciative and vocal audience lifts the experience, as does the fact that I have a built-in companion: it's my father's favorite film festival. I go to altogether too many movies alone, so it's a special treat. It does skew the schedule, however: three movies is pretty much his limit -- as well as the limit of my mother's tolerance for his absence -- so rather than choosing what I see from catalogue descriptions or knowledge of the filmmakers' work, we tend to go to the first or second movie of the day and see whatever's on offer afterwards. Real life intrudes, too: since it's in our hometown, we push "pause" for pre-existing Oakland A's tickets, doctor's appointments, and such.

Still, we managed to see 25 different programs over 10 days, and, thanks to the festival's witty and eclectic programming, we enjoyed nearly everything we saw. Perhaps my favorite was the emotional, well-directed, and brilliantly-acted "Run Boy Run," directed by the unknown-to-me German Pepe Danquart (whose filmography includes mostly documentaries), in which a young boy survives the Holocaust in Poland through his wits, charm, and the occasional sympathetic farmer. A contemporary revelation at the end increased its power. My father's favorite was "Mamele," a 1938 family comedy starring the girlish Yiddish theater star Molly Picon, beautifully restored by the National Center for Jewish Film, and introduced by NCJF co-director Lisa Rivo. "I could see that again tomorrow," my father said.

Other fiction standouts included Diane Kurys' typically slick and attractively-cast "For a Woman," another in her autobiographical series, starring Benoit Magimel and Nicholas Duvauchelle (both hubba-hubba, as far as I'm concerned), and the lush, pillowy Melanie Thierry. Set in Lyon just post-war, the set design and costumes were an additional pleasure (which I refuse to call guilty). The Israeli "Funeral at Noon," about an unhappy 50s housewife (played by the compelling Hilla Vidor) stuck in a joyless marriage in the sticks, was spare and unsettling. I liked "Super Women," about a group of cashiers, mostly Russian immigrants, who work in an Israeli supermarket, but many (including my father) found it too arty and unsettling, especially its ambiguous ending. It was amusing to see the very modern actress, Neta Riskin, who starred in "Anywhere Else," about an Israeli girl studying in Germany who visits her fractious family in Israel, turn up as an Orthodox Jewess in "Shtisel," an Israeli nighttime TV soap opera, three episodes of which were shown. We agreed that we were hooked and would return if the festival showed more episodes, as they said they might. "Transit," which followed the travels of undocumented Filipinos in Israel, whose Hebrew-speaking children face deportation, also unsettled its audience, with its depiction of an unfeeling Israeli bureaucracy. Israeli spies, tracking down Muslim terrorists in Buenos Aires in 1994 with dogged determination (and propulsive filmmaking) in "God's Slave," was more satisfying.

The documentaries were typically strong. Doug Block's charming and funny "112 Weddings," in which he revisits a dozen of the couples whose weddings he videoed, happened to be playing on HBO the very day I saw it, which reminded me how much better (and more fun) it is to see a movie on the big screen, surrounded by laughing and engaged people, than alone in a room not-quite-fully-engaged by a small screen. It's the kind of movie that, afterwards, I say "I could watch another two or three hours of that stuff." It was great to see "Father and Son," about a road trip, shot and cut by the father-and-son documentarians Marcel and Pawel Lozinski, with my own father. Two versions exist; we saw the son's version, and agreed we wished both had been programmed, as we would have loved to have seen the father's, also. They got along surprisingly well, considering that the son had abandonment issues which his largely-absent father did not want to discuss.

It was also moving to see "My Own Man," a documentary by David Sampliner that was ostensibly about becoming more manly when he was about to become a father, but was actually about dealing with his issues with his own demanding and rigid father. I had seen "Natan," a stylish investigation into the mysterious and maligned Jewish filmmaker Bernard Natan, who rescued the seminal Pathe studio, last year in Telluride, and was happy to see it again.

Oddly, despite the ongoing unrest, there were no protesters or picket lines that we saw, unlike other years. The only movie that touched upon the current predicament was the too-cool "Striplife," a documentary shot by Italians that followed the daily life of several inhabitants of Gaza, including a young broadcaster, some kids doing parkour, a farmer, and a soccer player. Its showing was marred by technical difficulties -- a recurring problem during the first few days at the California Theatre -- but its somewhat lackadaisical cinema verite style didn't help.

I loved the haimishe, mouth-watering "The Sturgeon Queens," about the storied Russ and Daughters smoked-fish emporium (since 1914) on Houston Street, and there was what should have been the perfect after-party in an adjacent courtyard, featuring many of the delicacies we'd just seen onscreen. The clever ones didn't stick around for the Q & A with director Julie Cohen; I skedaddled a few minutes before it finished, so I was able to fill a plate with smoked fish and salad relatively unscathed, but once the hordes descended, they were six-deep around the central table and I left to the sounds of disgruntled whining. (By the time I got there, the lox was only a memory.)

Plus, let's face it, the state of Jewish deli in the Bay Area is pretty much a disgrace, despite the concerted efforts of such young bloods as Wise Sons -- who, I hasten to point out, did not cater this event. I love their sincerity, but a deli that closes at 3 p.m.? Please. From the list of sponsors and contributors to the San Francisco, I learn about a new place: Shorty Goldstein's. It closes at 3:30 p.m., and isn't even open on the weekend, but Bay Area Jews in search of deli have learned to take what they can get. Luckily the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is there for their filmgoing needs!

Attending the First-Ever Winter Edition of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Meredith Brody — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 18:20:04 GMT

In the San Francisco Bay Area as elsewhere, long-established film festivals intent on expanding their brand are putting on additional events. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, traditionally a summer fest -- and this year moving up a bit, to May 29 through June 1st -- has a several-year history of dazzling special programs, including presenting Abel Gance’s Napoleon, with a 48-member orchestra, conducted by Carl Davis in the American premiere of his score; the nine surviving Hitchcock silents, and this winter’s centennial tribute to Charlie Chaplin. The springtime San Francisco International Film Festival has an ever-expanding Fall Season that comprises half-a-dozen programs devoted to various national cinemas, including Hong Kong, France, and Italy.

And the venerable San Francisco Jewish Film Festival just presented its first-ever Winter Fest, an eclectically-programmed five-film marathon held at the single-screen 1910-vintage Vogue Theater in Pacific Heights.

The program began at noon with Daniele Thompson’s latest frothy romantic comedy (she’s come a long way from “Queen Margot), “It Happened in St. Tropez,” (a literal translation of the French title, “Des gens qui s’embrassent,” would be “People Who Kiss”). The action takes place in photogenic Paris and New York as well as St. Tropez, as a wealthy and musical Jewish family quarrels and makes up during opulent weddings and yacht cruises. Charm is expended by a large and attractive cast, including Kad Merad, Eric Elmosnino, and the glamourous Monica Bellucci. Having just coincidentally watched Thompson’s last frothy romantic comedy, “Change of Plans,” on TV, I was amused to see another recipe flash by at the end of the credits. “Change of Plans,” which revolves around a dinner party, featured Roman Polanski’s recipe for bigos, a meat-heavy Polish stew, in its credits. The penultimate scene in “St. Tropez” takes place at a festive dinner chez Maxim, and the recipe for its renowned pommes soufflés

The second film was an equally frothy romantic comedy, "Cupcakes," from Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox ("Yossi and Jagger"), about an accidental musical group comprised of assorted neighbors of all ages and sexual predilections (three straight women, one lesbian, one gay guy) who miraculously become Israel's entry for the kitschy Universong (read: Eurovision) contest. Highjinks and love affairs ensue. It's brightly-colored and easy to take, and the fact that none of the actresses had undertaken any plastic surgery was something of a pleasant surprise.

The intensity and seriousness of the third offering, "Bethlehem," Israel's official entry for the foreign film Oscar, almost induced whiplash in us. It didn't make the five-film cut, but bears a certain similarity to the Palestine entrant, "Omar," which did. "Bethlehem," which played at numerous film festivals including Telluride and Toronto, is about the complicated relationship between an Israeli secret service operative and his informant, a Palestinian teenager who is the brother of a well-known terrorist. The shocking and abrupt ending left us shaken.

And wasn't exactly the perfect lead-in for what I found to be the almost-inexplicable fourth film of the day, the American independent (and oddly-titled) "A Short History of Decay," about a 35-year-old novelist-screenwriter/slacker who moves in with his aging parents in Florida when his girlfriend tires of supporting his unpublished ass. I was perplexed that SFJFF programmer Jay Rosenblatt had introduced it as his favorite film of the day's line-up (especially after "Bethlehem"). Pleasant acting turns by Linda Lavin (as a woman with the mildest-ever case of Alzheimer's on record: she does all the cooking and is more lucid than any of the other characters, save a charming manicurist, played by Kathleen Rose Perkins) and Harris Yulin (who similarly endures the mildest of strokes on record) as the slacker's parents don't make up for the weak script and uneven turns by the comely Bryan Greenberg and considerably less-comely Benjamin King, as the equally-feckless brother who cheats on his wife, loses his job, and shows up in Florida hoping for a $200,000 handout. Oy! And, except for the fact that some of the actors happen to be Jewish, it didn't seem like a Jewish film at all.

Perhaps we would have enjoyed the last film of the day, "S#x Acts," an Israeli movie described as a "frighteningly honest depiction of blossoming teenage sexuality," but we had a date with the season finale of "Downtown Abbey," across town.

But in only two weeks we intend to sample the SF Jewish Film Festival's next special event, "Hummus, Falafel, and Brisket -- Oh My!," on March 9, a series of three culinary documentaries (with food available for purchase). Like the Sonoma, Napa, and Center for Asian American Media film festivals, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has learned that mixing film with food also brings them in.

SFJFF Announces New Executive Director

Indiewire — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:48:42 GMT

Dana Doron, president of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival's Board of Directors, today announced that Lexi Leban has been named the festival's new Executive Director.

Leban, also a filmmaker and professor, has been a longtime member of the Bay Area film community and has worked with a handful of other area festivals.

Full festival release follows:

I’m very excited to announce that we have hired Lexi Leban to be our new Executive Director. She will begin her employment at the Festival on November 7, 2011.
We chose Lexi from a large pool of applicants from around the world. I want to thank the members of the search committee: fellow board members Amanda Berger, Sandee Blechman, Gale Mondry, Janet Schneider and Dan Wohlfeiler; KC Price, Executive Director of Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; and Debbie Findling, Deputy Director for the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.
A longtime member of the Bay Area film community, Lexi has worked in all aspects of film, from production to distribution. She’s also worked with numerous film festivals, including the Mill Valley Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Global Social Change Film Festival in Bali.
Lexi is currently Academic Director of the Digital Filmmaking & Video Production Program at the Art Institute of California, where she built the department from its inception. She’s taught interactive media and prepared a whole new generation of filmmakers for careers in today’s rapidly changing environment. Her most recent feature documentary, Girl Trouble, which follows young girls in San Francisco’s juvenile justice system, aired on PBS’s acclaimed series Independent Lens in January of 2006, and won Best Bay Area Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival. To see clips, visit www.lexileban.com.
Besides a commitment to our mission, Lexi brings a commitment to first-class programming about Jewish life and issues of importance to our diverse community. We are particularly excited to have someone who has her breadth of experience working with young filmmakers and new media, which will be absolutely vital in keeping us meaningful and relevant to new generations.
Lexi’s been coming to the festival for more than ten years, but we’re still eager to have her meet as many of you as soon as possible. Once you do, I am confident that you will share the board and staff’s excitement about Lexi and the future of the SFJFF under her leadership.
Warm Regards,
Dana Doron
President, SFJFF Board of Directors

31st San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Announces Lineup

Indiewire Staff — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:43:27 GMT

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, reportedly the oldest and largest Jewish film festival in the world announced their lineup. The 31st SFJFF is opening with the North American premiere of "Mabul," an Israeli family drama directed by Guy Nattiv, and will close with "100 Voices: A Journey Home," a documentary about a pilgrimage taken by 72 cantors to Poland to celebrate the legacy of their art form. Actor Kirk Douglas will be present to accept the festival's Freedom of Expression Award.

Below find the full release:

Screening the World’s Best Jewish Films for Over 30 Years
31st San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Rides Again
July 21-August 8, 2011

Kirk Douglas, Jewish Cartoons, Polish Cinema Are Among the Many Highlights
Jewish culture and life is a rich swath of material from which many, many talented minds have spun stories reflecting the diversity and depth of experience unique to its people. The 31st San Francisco Jewish Film Festival screens this year’s selection of cinema stories on July 21-August 8, 2011 at the Castro Theatre and the JCCSF in San Francisco, Roda Theatre (at Berkeley Repertory Theatre) in Berkeley, the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. The first and still the largest of its kind, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) continues to search the world for the best stories told on film, presenting them as a starting point for discovery and discussion and celebration that highlight 5771 years of culture. For ticket information, please contact the box office at 415-621-0523, or visit the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival online at www.sfjff.org.
SFJFF31 is Executive Director Peter L. Stein’s valedictory festival after 8 years of dynamic leadership. Together with filmmaker/program director Jay Rosenblatt, associate programmer Joshua Moore and the staff of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, they are proud to present 38 narrative and documentary features and 19 short films that are a focused snapshot of world cinema through the Jewish lens. Among these are 28 premieres, including one International Premiere, 4 North American Premieres and 5 United States Premieres. This year’s screenfest will kickoff with MABUL (THE FLOOD), an incisive portrait of a broken family from acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv (STRANGERS, OFFSIDE). The 2011 Festival is overjoyed to present its Freedom of Expression Award to Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas along with archival screenings of SPARTACUS and THE JUGGLER. SFJFF31 also spotlights a wealth of stories about Poland and its Jews with a Centerpiece presentation of Jan Kidawa-Blonski’s LITTLE ROSE, along with Feliks Falk’s dramatic JOANNA, and the documentaries TORN by Ronit Kertsner and the Closing Night film 100 VOICES: A JOURNEY HOME by Matthew Asner and Danny Gold. And from the lighthearted side of the Jewish psyche comes JEWS IN TOONS: AN UPROARIOUS EVENING WITH KRUSTY, KYLE AND OTHER FAVORITES with a special appearance by longtime “The Simpsons” writer/producer Mike Reiss.

A Coming of Age Family Drama on Opening Night and a Cantorial Closing Night
SFJFF is proud to open this year’s festival with the North American premiere of MABUL (THE FLOOD), directed by Guy Nattiv. The members of the Rosko family lead lives of silent desperation, each hiding dark secrets from the other members of the unstable family. Wife and mother Miri (Ronit Elkabetz) is having an affair, husband and father Gidi (Tzahi Grad) has lost his job but maintains the charade of his normal workday routine, and son Yoni (Yoav Rotman) desperately navigates the deadly waters of adolescence alone. When older autistic brother Tomer (Michael Moshonov) returns to the family, the building pressure explodes. The sharp performances of the cast earned the film 6 Ophir nominations, the Israeli equivalent of the Oscars. SFJFF is delighted to welcome Nattiv to the Opening Night film presentation, which is followed by a fun and festive party at Swedish American Hall.
Closing Night ends the Castro Theatre run on a musical note with Matthew Asner and Danny Gold’s 100 VOICES: A JOURNEY HOME. 100 VOICES documents the journey of 72 cantors (Jewish ritual singers) who travel to Poland, the original home of cantorial music, to honor the form’s foundations and traditions. The film focuses on 6 cantors and through their personal recollections and experiences and through the use of archival footage, they exemplify the survival and beauty of a musical art against all forces. Visiting cantors Nathan Lam (organizer of the 100 VOICES tour) and Marcus Feldman join local cantors Roslyn Barak and Sharon Bernstein for a rousing pre-film vocal performance with accompaniment by the Mighty Wurlitzer.
For Berkeley’s own Opening Night screening, SFJFF31 presents a one-time screening of SARAH’S KEY, starring Kristin Scott Thomas as a journalist researching the infamous roundup of Paris’s Jews in 1942, and who discovers her family’s connection to it. This screening will be followed by a reception in the Roda Theatre courtyard. And a new tradition begins for our new South Bay venue—a celebratory Opening Night toast at the Oshman Family JCC before the screening of Feliks Falk’s JOANNA with the director in attendance.
Kirk Douglas Honored with Freedom of Expression Award
On Sunday, July 24, SFJFF31 will present its Freedom of Expression Award to Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas on the stage of the Castro Theatre in celebration of the 50th anniversary of SPARTACUS and Douglas' proudest professional achievement: breaking the Hollywood blacklist by insisting on a screen credit for Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten. Douglas, who is Jewish (born Issur Danielovitch) and is now 94 years old, has made over 87 films, appeared in 10 plays and has 9 books to his credit. He continues to regard breaking the blacklist to be his proudest career achievement. SFJFF’s Freedom of Expression Award honors the unfettered imagination, which is the cornerstone of a free, just and open society. Previous winners include Walter Bernstein and Norma Barzman, two veteran screenwriters who survived the darkest years of the Hollywood Blacklist; local independent filmmaker, found footage alchemist and film educator Jay Rosenblatt (now Program Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival); prolific and political Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai; provocative Berlin-based filmmaker Dani Levy; weaver of archival film tales Péter Forgács; filmmaker and curator Aviva Kempner; and Israeli-Arab satiric genius Sayed Kashua.
Spotlight on “Poland and the Jews” Includes Centerpiece Film LITTLE ROSE
In addition to the trip back to Poland in 100 VOICES, SFJFF31 uncovered a trove of films from and about Poland, marking a re-emergence of a proud cinema tradition. In the Centerpiece slot, Jan Kidawa-Blonski’s LITTLE ROSE is a Cold War espionage thriller that opens as news of the Six Day War arrives. In this paranoid atmosphere, a blond bombshell (Magdalena Boczarska) is hired by the secret police to spy on a renowned intellectual (Andrzej Seweryn) suspected of subversive views. The “he loves” and “she loves” become entangled with the intrigues of the State security machine. Boczarska will attend the Castro Theatre screening. Film and theater director Feliks Falk’s JOANNA proposes the altruistic dilemma—what would you risk to save another during World War II in Nazi-occupied Poland? Joanna is a gentile who discovers an abandoned 8-year-old Jewish girl and faces this dilemma, knowing that any choice she makes will be life-changing. SFJFF is delighted to welcome Falk in person in San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto. The documentary TORN by Israeli Ronit Kertsner reveals the poignant dilemma faced by a Polish priest who discovers he was born Jewish and wants to embrace his new-found identity without giving up his Catholic calling. Kertsner will be attending the screenings. The documentary PHNOM PENH LULLABY by Polish filmmaker Pawel Kloc follows the naïve and desperate Israeli tarot card reader Ilian Schickman, his girlfriend Saran and their infant daughters as they struggle to make a living in the redlight district of the Cambodian capital. Their descent down the rabbit hole is unflinching. Director Pawl Kloc will be attending the screenings.

Jews in Toons: Irreverent Comic Classics and Special “Simpsons” Guest
From the sidesplitting standup comedy of the Borsht Belt to the Jewish humor that pervades Hollywood film and sitcoms, there has long been a place for self-reflective Jewish wit within American popular culture. Now a new set of bold, irreverent and colorful Jewish characters have become legendary in beloved cartoons. SFJFF is pleased to present the special program Jews in Toons: An Uproarious Evening with Krusty, Kyle and Other Favorites, featuring classic Jewish-themed episodes of such popular animated series as “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy” and “South Park,” With a special appearance by longtime producer/writer of “The Simipsons,” Mike Reiss.

“We are so thrilled to be presenting this night of comedy and the opportunity for collective and cathartic laughter,” remarked Program Director Jay Rosenblatt.
Watch Krusty the Clown come clean about his terse relationship with his Rabbi father (voiced by Jackie Mason), laugh with South Park’s ‘only Jewish kid’ Kyle as he embarks on a quest for a refund after seeing Mel Gibson’s THE PASSION OF CHRIST, and squirm in your seat as Family Guy dad Peter implores son Chris to convert to Judaism ‘so he’ll grow up smart.’ Join us for a highly animated and very funny evening at the Castro Theatre.
Extending the evening’s merriment will be a post-screening talk by Mike Reiss, who has won 4 Emmys and a Peabody Award during his 18 years as a writer-producer for “The Simpsons.” Among his other qualifications as a comic genius include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Animation Writers Caucus, credits as editor of “The National Lampoon,” co-creator of the animated series “The Critic,” creator of Showtime’s hit cartoon “Queer Duck,” and stints as a writer for “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” “ALF,” and “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.” Reiss is also the creative genius behind the SFJFF31 trailer, which stars Queer Duck himself.
Features from Around the World
As always, SFJFF takes an international tour of the world to glimpse the breadth and variety of the Jewish experience. From Israel comes 77 STEPS by Ibtisam Mara’ana who documents her journey from her Arab Muslim village to make a new life for herself in Tel Aviv; BLOOD RELATION by Noa Ben Hagai is her search for the truth of her great aunt’s past life; and Nir Bergman’s INTIMATE GRAMMAR, a beautiful narrative based on a 1991 David Grossman about the teenage son of a dysfunctional family in Jerusalem in the 60s. In MARY LOU, Eytan Fox (YOSSI & JAGGER, WALK ON WATER) returns with a story of Meir, a drag performer with family issues and 70s glam-rock in his heart; THE MATCHMAKER by Avi Nesher, about Arik’s Felliniesque summer vacation involving a sexy girl, a group of Jewish dwarves who run the downtown movie theater, and the fabulous matchmaker Yankele Bride; PRECIOUS LIFE, Shlomi Eldar’s documentary about Palestinian/Israeli relations through the filter of the hospitals they both share; Karin Kainer’s SKATE OF MIND, a portrait of the “skater-im” and the struggles of the alternative lifestyle in mainstream Israel; TORN, Ronit Kerstner’s documentary portrait of a Catholic priest who began life as a Jewish baby left on a Polish gentile’s doorstep and is now searching for his true past; and Duki Dror’s (MY FANTASIA, THE JOURNEY OF VAAN NGUYEN, MR. CORTISONE, HAPPY DAYS) meditation on the life and career of the architect Erich Mendelsohn, INCESSANT VISIONS–LETTERS FROM AN ARCHITECT.
From Germany, fest favorite Dani Levy (MESCHUGGE, GO FOR ZUCKER, MY FÜHRER) returns with LIFE IS TOO LONG, a screwball comedy about a B-list filmmaker trying to get back in the game while crippled by all his relations. Also from Germany, make note of IN HEAVEN UNDERGROUND: THE WEISSENSEE JEWISH CEMETERY, Britta Wauer’s exploration of the Berlin cemetery in continuous operation for 130 years. From France comes THE NAMES OF LOVE, Michel Leclerc’s absurdist comedy about a tightly-wound Jewish scientist who falls for a young Algerian sexpot; Rose Bosch’s THE ROUNDUP, the harrowing investigative account of the Vel d’Hiv roundup of Paris’ Jews in 1942; and, in a Berkeley ONLY screening, Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s narrative SARAH’S KEY revolving around some very personal circumstances during the Vel d’Hiv roundup.
In an Austrian/German/Hungarian co-production, Elizabeth Scharang’s debut feature IN ANOTHER LIFETIME is a haunting, bittersweet tale of Hungarian Jews on a death march who stage a Strauss operetta in an Austrian village in a vain hope to survive their fate. In another co-production from Chile/Spain/Germany, filmmaker German Berger-Hertz retraces the final days of his idealistic father who was executed in the 1973 military coup in Chile. And from Holland comes David de Jongh’s portrait of a devoted father and his lifelong dedication to his daughter’s memory in OTTO FRANK, FATHER OF ANNE.
American Stories
SFJFF continues to build on its stellar reputation for not-to-be-missed documentary stories about the Jewish American experience. In 2011, these include STANDING SILENT, Scott Rosenfelt’s profile of journalist Phil Jacobs whose crusade to unmask sexual predators in the Jewish community exposes him to ostracism for exposing the community to external scrutiny; BETWEEN TWO WORLDS by Alan Snitow and SFJFF founder Deborah Kaufman, which explores the ideological fissures running through contemporary Jewish life; CONNECTED: AN AUTOBLOGOGRAPHY ABOUT LOVE, DEATH AND TECHNOLOGY, Tiffany Shlain’s visual cavalcade that considers technology’s effects on modern life; and Yoav Potash’s powerful indictment of the multiple injustices in a domestic violence case in CRIME AFTER CRIME. Also enlightening is Joseph Dorman’s SHOLEM ALEICHEM: LAUGHING IN THE DARKNESS about the man who lifted Yiddish from the vernacular to the literary—as a companion piece, SFJFF is screening TEVYE, the wonderful 1939 American-Yiddish adaptation of the Sholom Aleichem’s stories that inspired Fiddler on the Roof. A lighter take is provided by Josh Freed’s wry FIVE WEDDINGS AND A FELONY, a look at his real-life inability to commit to a serious relationship that is charming, galling, funny, cringe-inducing, and always compelling. And don’t miss legendary musician Lou Reed’s directorial debut in RED SHIRLEY in the JEWS IN SHORTS program.
On the narrative side, Ben Berkowitz’s POLISH BAR centers on ambitious Reuben Horowitz (Vincent Piazza of “Boardwalk Empire”) who works in his Uncle Sol’s (Judd Hirsch) Chicago jewelry store but dreams of DJing at a top local club. Reaching for his dream, Reuben rolls the dice with his uncle Sol’s merchandise on a big drug score in this gritty, raucous drama suffused with an urban Jewish hip-hop vibe.
Politics, History, Identity and Israel
An ongoing mission of the SFJFF is to advance the understanding and dialogue around the web of politics that have clouded the Middle East for generations. This year is no different. Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman’s doc BETWEEN TWO WORLDS begins the dialogue by exploring the sensitivity about the discussion within the Jewish community itself. SFJFF will follow the SF screening with a panel discussion, led by KQED’s Michael Krasny, and featuring scholars of Jewish attitudes toward Israel. Also of interest to those interested in this subject are 77 STEPS by Ibtisam Mara’ana, BLOOD RELATION by Noa Ben Hagai, the Academy Award winning STRANGERS NO MORE by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, and the shorts A TRIP TO JAFFA by Eitan Sarid and WAJEH by Murad Nassar.
In addition, two films mark the 50th anniversary of the landmark capture and trial of Adolph Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust: EICHMANN’S END, Raymond Ley’s hybrid narrative that posits the years of Adolph Eichmann’s existence in Argentina before his capture; and THE HANGMAN, Netalie Braun’s doc portrait of the Yemeni Jew who, as a young man, was Eichmann’s prison guard and executioner.
Schmooze in Style at Festival Parties and Previews
A Film Festival without parties is like a latke without sour cream (or apple sauce). This year SFJFF celebrates its 31st birthday with ever special Opening Night bashes in SF and Berkeley and a toast to new traditions in Palo Alto, a preview presentation in Union Square, an uplifting SF Closing Night, and more good times and special treats.
This year, party with Opening Night filmmakers, festival staff and a guests after the Opening Night film at the SF Opening Night Bash, taking place at the spacious Swedish American Hall, upstairs from Café Du Nord at 2174 Market Street. Mingling, cocktailing and munching will take place from 9:00-11:00 pm. Move and groove to the live music, and visit The Backroom for a fun photobooth, a dessert lounge and more surprises. Once again, SFJFF partners with the San Francisco Neighborhood Theatre Foundation’s Film Night in the Park for a pre-festival screening in Union Square. This year’s film is the lovable rom-com WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Crystal’s Harry exchanges comic/tragic byplay (written by Nora Ephron) with America’s shiksa sweetheart Ryan’s Sally as Rob Reiner directs one of the most delectable date movie offerings ever. The free outdoor screening takes place July 16th at dusk. Wrapping the San Francisco portion of the fest’s screening of 100 VOICES will be a live performance by visiting cantors Nate Lam and Marcus Feldman, joined onstage with accompaniment from the Mighty Wurlitzer. Come over to Berkeley for the Berkeley ONLY screening of SARAH’S KEY and enjoy a nosh and a libation in the Roda Theatre Courtyard after the film. Then, come down to Palo Alto for a celebratory Opening Night toast at SFJFF’s new South Bay venue—the Oshman Family JCC—before the screening of Feliks Falk’s riveting WWII tale JOANNA.

"Saviors" & "Klezmatics" Bookend 30th San Francisco Jewish Fest Lineup

Nigel M Smith — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:09:44 GMT

A host of promising films and speciality events will make up the 30th edition of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), that runs from July 24 to August 9, it was announced earlier today.

Ludi Boeken' drama "Saviors of the Night" will serve as the festival's opening night film. Based on Marga Spiegel's memoir, the film recounts Spiegel's harrowing true story of when a family sheltered her and her loved ones during WWII. To cap the festival off on a lighter note, SFJFF selected Erik Greenberg Anjou's documentary "The Klezmatics: On Holy Ground." Billed as a concert film and backstage documentary, Anjour's film provides a behind-the-scenes look at four years in the life of the band Klezmatics.

The centerpiece slot will feature a screening of Marcos Carnevale's character study, "Anita." Actress Alejandra Manzo portrays Anita, a young adult woman with Down syndrome who lives with her mother in Buenos Aires. Carnevale's drama follows Anita as she sets off on an enlightening odyssey in search of her mother who goes missing. A film in the lineup that deals with similar subject matter is Frank Stiefel's "Ingelore;" a portrait of the director's mother and deaf Holocaust survivor Ingelore Herz Honingstein.

The program is rich with Latin American features this year. In addition to "Anita," Cristian Jimenez will screen his latest "Illusiones Opticas," itself a Chile/France/Portugal co-production. Other noteworthy additions to the lineup include Robert Guediguian's "Army of Crime," a story of anti-Fascist resistance that takes place in occupied France during 1944. The French entry, "The Wolberg Family" from director Axelle Ropert examines a Jewish family and their Basque town surroundings.

Of the documentaries, Lisa Gossel's "My So Called Enemy" stands out. In 2002, 22 Palestinian and Israeli teenage girls came to the U.S. to participate in an American "peace camp." Gossel's film follows six Jewish and Palestinian girls over seven years, and recounts their individual experiences.

In addition to its lineup, SFJFF will feature the film series "Tough Guys: Images of Jewish Gangsters in Film." Screenings include Barry Levinson's "Bugsy," Joseph M. Newman's "King of the Roaring 20s," Menahem Golan's "Lepke" and the original "Scarface" directed by Howard Hawks.