11th annual Mellon
Denver Jewish Film Festival
February 7 - 16th 2008
Our 2007 Festival was Presented by the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture, and the Festival offered an exciting mix of feature films and documentaries from around the world, spiced with no-holds-barred discussions with directors, actors, critics and scholars. Opening Night brought a gala party and the presentation of the Mizel Center’s Cultural Achievement Award to Gay Curtiss-Lusher, in recognition of her involvement with the Leah Cohen Festival of Jewish Books and Authors and many other programs at the Center.
Films :
Live and Become
Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007
Director: Radu Mihaileanu
France/Belgium/Italy/Israel/
2005/140 minutes
Hebrew, French, Amharic with English subtitles
This inspirational epic has opened many Jewish film festivals to huge acclaim, and has been the recipient of numerous audience choice awards. This magnificent drama is based on the modern Exodus: the trek of Ethiopia’s Jews to Sudan, where jetliners waited to carry them to freedom. The story reveals one boy’s struggle as he attempts to understand his Ethiopian mother’s parting request to “Go, live and become.” Fruit stands, forks, socks, and running water become objects of fascination for the newly renamed Schlomo, as do whites — lordly, protective and sometimes cruel. Young Schlomo is a stranger to Israel in ways his adoptive family cannot imagine, as he is plagued by two secrets. But with their help he fulfills his birthright, learning that even when tolerance is limited, determination need not be.
Ira and Abby
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Director: Robert Cary
USA/2006/100 minutes
English
Abby may be the world’s worst health-club sales consultant, but gosh, people love her. Writer and star Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) teams with an all-star cast (including Fred Willard, Jason Alexander, Robert Klein, Judith Light and a hilarious walk-on by B.D. Wong) in this thigh-slapping, back-fat-melting romantic comedy. We counted half a dozen laugh lines that have an honest shot at achieving buzzphrase status, and tell us the subway mugging scene doesn’t rival the deli scene from When Harry Met Sally. This could be the date movie of the new millennium… but make it the second date.
POST-FILM DISCUSSION
Led by Jennifer Westfeldt and Jon Hamm.
Sponsors
Evan and Jennifer Dechtman
In-Kind: Ceavco Audio Visual
La Maison de Nina (Nina’s Home)
Saturday, February 10 at 9 p.m.
Director: Richard Dembo
France/2005/106 minutes
French with English subtitles
Nina resists the notion that her Jewish children’s boarding house has become an orphanage, but when word of the gas chambers reaches France, she and her staff realize that many of the children will never see their parents again. Traumatized deportees from the East clash with the home’s French-born residents in this historical drama. Is criminality in the name of survival acceptable? Are Shabbat candles symbols of oppression? Is freedom found in studying French or Talmud? The real-life Homes of Hope remained open until the 1960s, helping Europe’s Jewish orphans find the confidence to lead their own lives. Colorado premiere.
Sponsor
Elaine Gantz Berman in honor of her mother, Sarita Gantz
Knowledge Is the Beginning: Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Director: Paul Smaczny
Germany/2006/90 minutes
English; Hebrew, Arabic, German with English subtitles
Introduced by KVOD music host Steve Blatt
Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian intellectual Edward Said weren’t so naïve as to think assembling a few dozen musicians would solve the world’s problems. Yet the orchestra they created allowed young Israelis and Arabs to see each other as fully human for the first time. Audiences love them in Spain and Germany. But will their parents, their governments — will the musicians themselves — tolerate a performance in Ramallah? “The impossible is much easier than the difficult,” maestro Barenboim says. Colorado premiere.
POST-FILM DISCUSSIONLed by Melodye Feldman, founder and director of the internationally known organization Seeking Common Ground and its flagship program, Building Bridges for Peace.
Sponsor
Jimmy Winokur
Media Sponsor
Colorado Public Radio
Moshe Safdie: The Power of Architecture
Sunday, February 11, 2007 at 2:30 p.m.
Director: Donald Winkler
Canada/2004/91 minutes
English
Born of pioneering parents in Haifa and educated in Canada, Moshe Safdie launched his architectural career to save the world from two American housing trends: Suburban single-families for the affluent and decrepit high-rises for the poor. His first building, Habitat 67 in Montreal, brought suburban comforts to a new urban landscape. Safdie projects include the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Toronto’s airport, the Peabody Essex Museum and many U.S. civic buildings. In this documentary, Safdie reflects on his early years in pre-Israel Haifa, his vision for Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter, and the ways buildings can influence individuals and societies — maybe even help to bring peace to the Middle East. Colorado premiere.
POST-FILM DISCUSSION
With Donald Winkler. The Canadian director’s documentaries have dealt primarily with the world of art and culture.
Sponsor
RNL Architecture/Planning/Interiors
Ne Quittez Pas! (Local Call)
Sunday, February 11, 2007 at 5:00 p.m.
Director: Arthur Joffé
France/2004/101 minutes
French with English subtitles; English
Felix hallucinates. He knows it’s a problem, but he deals. Until, that is, he starts getting phone calls from his father. His two-years-dead father. Collect calls. The bills are out of this world too: 15,000 euros a minute! A rabbi suggests swapping tefillin for telephone and reaching out through prayer. Reviewers have noted that the original title (roughly, “Don’t give up”) better captures the film’s message of persevering with a troubled relationship even when it seems too late. Local Call starts as a madcap comedy and progresses into a heartfelt meditation on paternal trauma and filial devotion. Colorado premiere.
POST-FILM DISCUSSION
With Dr. Caryn Aviv, a Marsico Lecturer and affiliated faculty member of the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver.
Sponsors
The Karshmers and Yarons
Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado
Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner
Sunday, February 11, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.
Director: Freida Lee Mock
USA/2006/98 minutes
English
No matter who you are, no matter what you think your politics are, we defy you not to fall a little bit in love with Tony Kushner, a Southern Jew turned artist, activist — inspiration. Director Freida Lee Mock weaves interviews and fly-on-the-wall reporting with excerpts from Kushner’s plays, including his best-known work, the seven-hour, Pulitzer-winning Angels in America. Probing Kushner’s personal, artistic and political sides, Mock creates a
portrait of a writer who wins his audiences over by provoking giggles and jerking tears, often with the same sentence. Asked by a student what he makes of the criticism that he is too ready to find hope in tragic situations, Kushner replies, “As far as I’m concerned, it’s an ethical obligation to look for hope.” Colorado premiere.
POST-FILM DISCUSSION
With Howie Movshovitz, film critic for Colorado Public Radio, director of education for the Denver Film Society and a contributor to NPR.
Sponsor
The Strear Family Foundation
The Gefilte Fish Chronicles
Monday, February 12, 2007 at 7 p.m.
Director: David Burnett
USA/2006/56 minutes
The descendants of Abe and Minnie Dubroff still celebrate Passover together, a century later. Tap your toes to an irresistible klezmer soundtrack as “Pesach Machers” Sophie, Peppy and Rosie lead a six-week preparation process culminating in a seder that’s a lot like seders worldwide — only way bigger. Stay for the recipes! World premiere.
Hebrew High Klez Garage Band Alumni will help us celebrate the World Premiere of The Gefilte Fish Chronicles!
Miller Lobby 6:30 p.m.
Director David Burnett will introduce the film.
Sponsors
Celeste & Jack Grynberg
Included in the same admission...
The Forgotten Refugees
Director: Michael GrynszpanUSA/Israel/2005/49 minutes
What happened to the Mideast’s Jewish communities — many of which predated the Arab invasions — and why did the world ignore their vanishing? Michael Grynszpan documents a civilization that took 16 centuries to grow to a million souls, then suddenly was gone. Colorado premiere.
POST-FILM DISCUSSION
With Baghdad native David Kazzaz
Sponsor
The David and Laura Merage Foundation
In-kind Sponsors
Congregation Rodef Shalom
Moroccan Gourmet Cuisine
Lemarit Ein (Out of Sight)
Tuesday, February 13, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.
Director: Daniel Syrkin
Israel/2005/86 minutes
Hebrew with English subtitles
No note. No hint. And for her bereaved family, no clue why young, promising Talia shot herself. It’s up to Yaara, Talia’s cousin and best friend, to seek answers. A beautiful, blind mathematics student, Yaara returns from Princeton and begins asking questions that others won’t ask, piecing together a biography of Talia that others refuse to see. There are almost too many deceptions to count, but ultimately only one that really matters: deception of the self. This emotional mystery/thriller will have you questioning how people can say and do the things they do, to people they think they love. Colorado premiere.
POST-FILM DISCUSSIONDirector Daniel Syrkin invited
Sponsors
Friends of Gay Curtiss-Lusher
The Schwartz Dynasty
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 at 7 p.m.
Directors: Shmuel Hasfari, Amir Hasfari
Israel/2004/104 minutes
Hebrew, Russian with English subtitles
It’s hard being a Jew in Israel — even a dead one. In this feature, two women tussle with religious bureaucrats over burial customs. One wants the right to lie alongside her husband, a suicide; the other wants to fulfill her Russian father’s wish to be interred in Israel, but lacks proof he was Jewish. There is provocative comedy here, as mishaps and misunderstandings shed light on societal divisions. The resolution of all these conflicts is as unexpectedly delightful as it is powerfully moving. Colorado premiere.
POST-FILM DISCUSSION
With Kathryn Bernheimer, program director of the Boulder JCC, author of The Fifty Greatest Jewish Movies, and the former film critic for the Boulder Daily Camera.
Sponsors
The Reiss Family (Shira, Jeffrey, Tory & Elie)
Ozzie Malek
Grand Finale Wrap Party
Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 7 p.m.
Dessert reception follows the film featuring
Music by Mark Davenport & Ben Cohen
King of Beggars
Director: Uri Paster
Israel/2006/98 minutes
Hebrew with English subtitles
Part samurai, part savior, Fishke is a bathhouse attendant in a late 16th-Century Russian shtetl who becomes the leader of a fighting brigade of Jewish outcastes. Based on the character of Fishke der Krumer (Fishke the Lame) created by the great Hebrew and Yiddish writer Mendele Mocher Sforim, the hero struggles against both a divided Jewish community and his Russian military masters, setting up a metaphor for the Jewish people’s relationship with each other and the rest of the world, then and now. King of Beggars asks whether a new Jewish identity — one of a free people who believe in peace and coexistence — is attainable. Colorado premiere.
POST-FILM DISCUSSION
With Shahar Sorek, star of King of Beggars and five-time Israeli Tae Kwon Do National Champion. His special skills helped shape the role of Fishke.
Sponsor
MorEvents (Betsy & Gareth Heyman)
Print Sources
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The Forgotten Refugees |
Lemarit Ein (Out of Sight) and |
The Gefilte Fish Chronicles |
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Live and Become |
Ira and Abby |
Moshe Safdie: |
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Knowledge Is the Beginning: |
Wrestling With Angels: |
La Maison de Nina |
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King of Beggars |
Ne Quittez Pas! (Local Call) |
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Thanks to our Supporters!
The 11th Mellon Financial Denver Jewish Film Festival is made possible through the generosity of the following corporate and individual sponsors
