The National Center for Jewish Film and Brandeis University in association with The Consulate General of Israel to New England will present Jewishfilm.2003: From Vienna to Naharayim from March 27 to April 6, 2003 . This year’s 6th annual spring film fest will present 10 Boston area premieres from 9 countries.

Opening with Austria’s entry to the Academy awards, Gebirtig, which is set in Vienna, the festival covers a wide range of Jewish experiences in the diaspora, before closing with a new Italian film celebrating the heroic Giorgio Perlasca, who saved over 5000 Hungarian Jews.

Highlights of the festival include Armin Muehler Stahl’s stunning performance in Bronstein’s Children; the award-winning Czech documentary Power of Good; a newly restored Yiddish film A Vilna Legend; preceded by a live performance of Yiddish music; and a special program of films about Argentina to benefit the Argentinean Jewish Relief Campaign.

In celebration of Israel Independence Day (a month early due to the academic calendar) the festival will present the New England Premiere of Rutenberg – a sweeping biographical saga of Pinchas Rutenberg – the driving force behind the creation of electrical power in Naharayim (Two Rivers) on Saturday April 5th. Several filmmakers plan to attend, including Lukas Stepanik, co-director of Gebirtig; Andrzej Krakowski, filmmaker of Farewell to My Country, and the Canadian director of Undying Love, Helene Klodawsky.

The festival will showcase the work of two local filmmakers: John Friedman’s Stealing the Fire, a hair-raising investigative expose about the Iraqi nuclear weapons, documents the direct link between German Nazi technology and Saddam Hussein’s weapons. Leib Cohen’s amusing short Advice and Dissent, made at The Film Shack in Roxbury, features Rebecca Pidgeon, Eli Wallach and John Pankow. Both filmmakers will attend their screenings.

Undying Love, a delightful documentary about love and renewal after liberation from the concentration camps, incorporates extensive footage from the archives of The National Center for Jewish Film, which contains the largest collection of Jewish films in the diaspora.

All screenings will take place in the Edie and Lew Wasserman Cinematheque in the Sachar International Center located on the Brandeis campus in Waltham, MA.

BOSTON PREMIERE
7 PM Thursday, March 27

Gebirtig
Austria, 2002, 115 minutes, color, 35mm
German and Yiddish with English subtitles
Directors: Robert Schindel and Lukas Stepani

Filmmaker Lukas Stepanik invited
Discussant: Sabine von Mering, Brandeis University
Sponsor : The Austrian Cultural Forum New York, The Center for German and European Studies and The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry

BOSTON PREMIERE
8 PM Saturday, March 29

Bronstein's Children
East Germany, 1990, 98 minutes, b & w, 35mm
German with English subtitles
Director: Jerzy Kawalerowicz

Discussant: Barton Byg, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Sponsor: The Goethe Institut, Boston and DEFA Film Library at UMass, Amherst

BOSTON PREMIERE
2 PM Sunday, March 30

Farewell To My Country
USA/ Poland, 2002, 99 minutes, 16mm
Director: Andrzej Krakowski

Guest: Filmmaker Andrzej Krakowski
Discussant: Antony Polonsky, Brandeis University
Sponsor: The American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies and The Sarnat Center for the Study of Anti-Jewishness

BOSTON PREMIERE - RESTORED 35MM PRINT
4:30 PM Sunday, March 30

A Vilna Legend
(reissue of Tkies Kaf 1924)
USA, 1933, 60 minutes, B&W,
Yiddish narration with English subtitles
Director: George Roland
Narrator: Joseph Buloff
1924 Credits: Director: Zygmund Turkow

WITH LIVE PERFORMANCE
Traditional Yiddish folk melodies by A Besere Velt, the Yiddish Community Chorus of The Workmen’s Circle.
Discussant: Sharon Pucker Rivo, National Center for Jewish Film
Sponsor: The Workmen's Circle and The Rita J and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation

BOSTON PREMIERE
7 PM Sunday, March 30

Stealing the Fire: The Secret Story of Iraq & the Bomb
USA. 2002, 95 minutes, color, video
Directors: John Friedman and Eric Nadler

Guest: Filmmaker John Friedman
Sponsor: Facing History and Ourselves and The American Jewish Committee

BOSTON PREMIERE
BENEFIT FOR THE ARGENTINIAN JEWISH RELIEF CAMPAIGN
7 PM Thursday, April 3

Legado (Legacy)
Argentina, 2001, 72 minutes, video
Spanish and Yiddish with English subtitles
Directors: Vivián Imar and Marcelo Trotta

SCREENING WITH
BOSTON PREMIERE
Unheard Voices
Argentina, 2001, 10 minutes, video
Director: Beth Toni Kruvant

Discussant: Alberto Limonic, Chairman of the Argentinean Jewish Relief Campaign

BOSTON PREMIERE
ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY PROGRAM
8 PM Saturday, April 5

Rutenberg
Israel, 2002, 90 minutes, 35mm
English and Hebrew with English subtitles
Director: Eli Cohen

Guest: Actor Menashe Noy invited
Discussant: Hillel Newman, Consul of Israel to New England
Sponsor: The Consulate General of Israel to New England and The Goodman Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel

BOSTON PREMIERE
2 PM Sunday, April 6

Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good
Czech Republic, 2002, 64 minutes, color, 35mm
Director: Matej Minac

Sponsor: The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life

BOSTON PREMIERE
4 PM Sunday, April 6

Undying Love
Canada, 2002, 87 minutes, color, video
English and Yiddish w/ Eng. subtitles.
Director: Helene Klodawsky

Guest: Helene Klodawsky

SCREENING WITH
Advice and Dissent
USA, 2002, 21 minutes, color, 35mm
Director: Leib Cohen

Guest: Filmmaker Leib Cohen
Sponsor: Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women (HIRIJW)

BOSTON PREMIERE
7 PM Sunday, April 6

Perlasca
Italy, 2002, 126 minutes, color, video
Italian with English subtitles
Director: Alberto Negrin 

Guest: Pierluigi Squillante, Consul General of Italy to New England
Discussant: Antony Polonsky, Brandeis University
Sponsor: The Dante Alighieri Society of Massachusetts