VENUE Brandeis University
Wasserman Cinematheque
415 South St. Waltham, MA
Festival Kick-Off: Free Event Screening
CASABLANCA (1942)
35mm screening
Followed by panel discussion:
Noah Isenberg is Professor of Media and Culture at the New School and author of We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend and Afterlife of America's Most Beloved Film.
Leslie Epstein is Professor of English at Boston University, author of King of the Jews, on of the academy award winning scriptwriter of Casablanca.
Moderated by Brandeis Professor & film historian Thomas Doherty
Co-Presented by the American Studies Program at Brandeis University and The National Center for Jewish Film.
Funding provided in part by the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Provost at Brandeis University.
DATE November 1, 2016
7:00 pm
TICKETS Free Screening. Advance tickets required.
VENUE Brandeis University
Wasserman Cinematheque
415 South St. Waltham, MA
Free Event Screening
NONE SHALL ESCAPE (1944)
35mm screening +
Q&A with Brandeis Professors Thomas Doherty & Daniel Breen
Rare screening of the only Hollywood film made during World War II to depict the events later known as the Holocaust.
Released in January 1944, the film projects forward to a postwar reckoning in which a United Nations Tribunal conducts a trial for a Nazi war criminal (Alexander Knox, in his screen debut), who is charged with the round up, deportation, and murder of a group of Polish Jews. His twisted path is traced in flashback from 1919 onward. Directed by Hungarian émigré Andre de Toth, shot by ace cinematographer Lee Garmes, and scripted by future member of the Blacklisted Hollywood Ten, Lester Cole. Also starring Marsha Hunt, Henry Travers, and Richard Crane. Columbia Pictures. 85 min. B&W.
Special event presented by
The National Center for Jewish Film
American Studies Program, Brandeis University
Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, Brandeis University
Center for German and European Studies, Brandeis University
DATE Thursday, September 22, 2016
7:30
TICKETS Free
VENUE Kendall Square Cinema
Cambridge, MA
Special Sneak Preview
Q&A with Deborah Lipstadt
Denial
Based on the acclaimed book Denial: Holocaust History on Trial, the film recounts Deborah Lipstadt's (Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz) legal battle for historical truth against David Irving (Cannes Award winner Timothy Spall), who accused her of libel when she declared him a Holocaust denier. In the English legal system, the burden of proof is on the accused, therefore it was up to Lipstadt and her legal team led by Richard Rampton (two-time Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson) to prove the essential truth that the Holocaust occurred. Directed by Mick Jackson. Written by David Hare.
NCJF Co-director Lisa Rivo and Deborah Lipstadt
NCJF Co-director Lisa Rivo, Deborah Lipstadt and NCJF Co-director Sharon Pucker Rivo
VENUE Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
465 Huntington Ave.
Screening Event Screening
Barash (Blush)
Co-Presented with Wicked Queer: Boston LGBT Film Festival
Rebellious 17-year-old Naama Barash (Sivan Noam Shimon) escapes a tense home life when she falls in love with a wild new girl in school. Best Screenplay & Best Actress, Haifa Int’l Film Festival. Director: Michal Vinik | Israel | 2015 | 90m | Hebrew w/ English subs
Screening followed by panel discussion with filmmaker Aviva Kempner and Peter Ascoli, grandson and biographer of Julius Rosenwald
This new documentary from award winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner, (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg and Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg), tells the story of Julius Rosenwald, who never finished high school, but rose to become the President of Sears. Influenced by the writings of the Booker T. Washington, the Jewish ideals of tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (repairing the world), and a deep concern over racial inequality in America, Rosenwald joined forces with African American communities during the Jim Crow South to build 5,300 schools, providing 660,000 black children with access to education.
Julius Rosenwald was one of America's most effective philanthropists. He gave away $62 million in his lifetime. Recipients of his seminal Rosenwald Fund for African American Artists included Augusta Savage, Katherine Dunham, Ralph Ellison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes. More
DATE Thursday, Mar 17, 2016
7:00 pm
TICKETS FREE (first come seating)
VENUE Massachusetts College
of Art & Design, Tower Auditorium
621 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA
Screening Event - New NCJF Release
Raise the Roof
Screening followed by panel discussion with film subjects Rick & Laura Brown and the artists who worked on the project, filmmakers Cary & Yari Wolinsky, film interviewee Brandeis University Professor Antony Polonsky, and architectural historianTom Hubka
Inspired by images of the magnificent wooden synagogues of 18th century Poland--the last of which were destroyed by the Nazis--artists Rick & Laura Brown of Handshouse Studio set out to reconstruct a replica of the stunning, mural-covered Gwozdziec synagogue.
Working with a team of 300 artisans and students from around the world, using only period hand tools and techniques, the Browns finally realized their dream. In 2014, the show-stopping reconstruction was unveiled as the centerpiece of the new POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in Warsaw. More
November 1, 2015 Raise the Roof
Special Guests: Filmmakers Cary and Yari Wolinsky, with film subjects Rick and Laura Brown
The Vilna Shul | Boston, MA
November 4, 2015 Raise the Roof
Special Guests: Filmmakers Cary and Yari Wolinsky, with film subjects Rick and Laura Brown
Tufts University Art Gallery | Medford, MA
October 28, 2015 Mamele
The Boston Synagogue | Boston, MA
Q&A and reception with Tamar Frankel
Boston University law professor, former member of the Haganah and early member of the Israeli Air Force
In 1948, a group of Jewish American pilots answered a call for help. In secret and at great personal risk, the smuggled planes out of the U.S., trained behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia and flew for Israel in its War of Independence. Above and Beyond is their story.
Filmed in the U.S., Israel and the United Kingdom, "Above and Beyond" is produced by Nancy Spielberg and directed by Roberta Grossman, with cinematography by Harris Done, special effects by Industrial Light & Magic, and an original score from Hans Zimmer's Studio.
Co-presented by Brandeis University American Studies Department, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Alumni Association and The National Center for Jewish Film
WOMAN IN GOLD stars Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann, who, with lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), fights to reclaim Gustav Klimt's iconic painting of Maria's aunt, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer," stolen by the Nazis.
2014
DATE Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014
7:00 pm
VENUE
Mandel Center for the Humanities, Rm. G03
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA FREE Refreshments to follow
Special Event - Free Screening with Filmmaker
The Passage of Walter Benjamin A new documentary by Judith Wechsler
Q&A with Filmmaker Judith Wechsler, NEH Professor Emerita of Art History at Tufts University
Program presented by Brandeis University's Center for German & European Studies, History of Ideas Program; Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections
The luminous glass covered commercial walkways of 19th century Paris, know as the Paris Arcades (or "Passages" in French), profoundly inspired the renowned literary and cultural critic Walter Benjamin. From 1927 to 1940, Benjamin worked on a massive, unfinished work about which he wrote, "My book, Paris Arcades, is the theater of all my struggles and all my ideas."
Filmmaker Judith Wechsler, who gained access access to the Benjamin archives in Berlin, weaves together marvelous archival film of Paris and Berlin in the 1920s & 1930s, manuscripts, letters, prints, photographs from the Bibliotheque National in Paris, and interviews with leading Benjamin scholars Susan Buck-Morss, Howard Eiland, Elie Friedlander, and Erdmut Wizisla.
More information
DATES Friday, October 31, 2014 &
Sat., November 1, 2014
8:00 pm
Sunday, November 2
2:00 pm
VENUE
ICA/Boston
100 Northern Avenue
Boston, MA
Screening @ Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston
Wot? No Fish!!!
A collaboration between Danny Braverman and Nick Philippou
“A small gem.” –The Times
"One of the best shows I’ve seen.” –The Guardian
For more than 50 years—from the 1920s to the 80s—East End shoemaker Ab Solomons drew a picture for his wife, Celie, on the little brown envelope in which he was given his weekly wages. Sweet and often self-deprecating, these wage-packet drawings chronicle Ab and Celie’s family life through its everyday ups and downs. From falling in love to quarrels about fish balls, audiences are taken on a funny and moving journey against the backdrop of a changing city and turbulent times.
In 2007, writer and performer Danny Braverman discovered the lost art of his great uncle Ab in a shoebox stuffed with thousands of wage packets. Together with director Nick Phillippou, Braverman brings the Solomons’ story to life on stage in a captivating performance that will resonate with audiences of all ages.
“A small show…about big things: the connections that bind us together through the generations, the unknowability of the past and what goes on in other people’s marriages, the way that the hidden histories and everyday lives of ordinary people are as important as the narratives you find in the newspapers or history books.” —The Guardian
Co-Presented by The National Center for Jewish Film
DATES Sunday, November 9, 2014
2:15 pm
VENUE
Coolidge Corner Theatre
290 Harvard St
Brookline MA
Screening @ Boston Jewish Film Festival
Havana Curveball
Event Screening & Post Film Discussion
with San Francisco Filmmaker Ken Schneider
& Film Subject Mica Jarmel-Schneider
FAMILY FRIENDLY! Recommended for ages 8 and up.
Dreaming of baseball and taking to heart his Rabbi's dictate to help "heal the world," 13-year old Mica launches a grand plan to send sports equipment to less fortunate kids in Cuba, knowing that Cubans share his love of baseball. Cuba also holds a mysterious pull, as the country that gave his grandfather refuge during the Holocaust.
Mica's parents--award winning filmmakers Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider----follow their son's triumphs and frustrations as he navigates every curveball thrown in his way.
Screening at the Boston Jewish Film Festival (Nov. 5-17)
Co-Presented by The National Center for Jewish Film
Sponsored by Gann Academy
Soft Vengeance:
Albie Sachs & the New South Africa
Film + Discussion + Reception with
Justice Albie Sachs & Filmmaker Abby Ginzberg
The remarkable Albie Sachs: anti-apartheid activist, lawyer, and South African Constitutional Court Judge.
Imprisoned, tortured, exiled, blown up by a car bomb...
He still fights for justice and reconciliation.
Judge Albie Sachs
As a young man, Albie Sachs defended those committed to ending apartheid in South Africa. For his actions as a lawyer, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement in Cape Town, tortured through sleep deprivation and forced into exile. In 1988, he was blown up by a car bomb set by the South African security forces in Maputo, Mozambique, which cost him his right arm and the sight of one eye, but miraculously he survived and eventually recovered. Returning to South Africa following the release of Nelson Mandela, Sachs helped write the groundbreaking new constitution and was appointed by President Mandela as one of the first eleven judges of the new Constitutional Court.
Filmmaker Abby Ginzberg
Trained as a lawyer, Ms. Ginsberg has produced over thirty films, including the award-winning documentaries Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice and Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson's American Journey.
Co-Presented by:
International Center for Ethics, Justice & Public Life, Brandeis University Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice, Brandeis University The National Center for Jewish Film
DATES Sunday, March 30, 2014
3:30 pm
VENUE
West Newton Cinema
1296 Washington St, Newton, MA
Special Advance Screening - New England Premiere
Introduction by Antony Polonsky
The Last of the Unjust A New Film Directed by Claude Lanzmann (Shoah)
"A historic film." -- The New Yorker
"A monumental film."-- Film Comment
"Fascinating and Impressive... portrait of an individual whose actions still defy comprehension, and the self-portrait of an artist consumed by the past."-- The New York Times
"Utterly fascinating. A reminder of another way documentaries can be made: simply, agonizingly, without comedy or narcissism, and with unforgettable, almost unbearable power." -- Esquire
"This is a mesmerizing film." -- Wolf's Entertainment Guide
With Shoah, Claude Lanzmann re-oriented our understanding of the defining event of the 20th century. 30 years after that cinematic milestone, Lanzmann does so once again.
At the center of The Last of the Unjust is Benjamin Murmelstein, the last President of the Jewish Council in the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia and the only "Elder of the Jews" not to have been killed during the war. A rabbi in Vienna following the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, Murmelstein fought bitterly with Adolf Eichmann, week after week for seven years, managing to help around 121,000 Jews leave the country, and preventing the liquidation of the ghetto.
In a series of interviews Lanzmann shot in 1975, Murmelstein, a charismatic, wry and authentic storyteller, candidly reflects on his unique historical role, one for which he was both demonized and celebrated. Lanzmann's new epic documentary provides an incisive view of a complex, beguiling character and exposes without artifice the savage contradictions of the Jewish Councils.
Brandeis Graduate School of Arts & Science Blog Read
Thursday, Oct 3, 7:30 pm
Museum of Fine Arts (Alfond)
Screening Complete
In the Shadow (Ve Stinu)
Back by Popular Demand from The National Center for Jewish Film's Spring Festival Jewishfilm.2013
A noir thriller set behind the Iron Curtain in 1950s Prague, this suspenseful crime drama follows police captain Hakl (Ivan Trojan, 4 time Czech Lion winner) as he investigates a seemingly mundane robbery. Hakl defiantly continues his investigation after a “specialist” from East Germany (Sebastian Koch, The Lives of Others) tries to pin the crime on the Jewish community.
Czech Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Film
"A sleek, gorgeously old-fashioned noir that is stylish, yet clean and controlled... recalls the Coen Brothers' masterful Miller's Crossing." –Indiewire
"A scathing, expertly directed political commentary." –Hollywood Reporter
Czech Republic/Poland/Israel | 2012 | 106m | Czech w/ English subtitles | Director/Writer: David Ondricek
Wednesday, Oct 9, 5:00 pm
Museum of Fine Arts (Alfond)
Screening Complete
Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary
Journey of Ruth Gruber
Event Celebrating Ruth Gruber’s 102nd Birthday
Special Guest: Executive Producer Patti Kenner
For seven decades foreign correspondent and photojournalist Ruth Gruber didn’t just report the news…she made it! Born in 1911 to Russian Jewish immigrants, Gruber photographed the Soviet Arctic, escorted Holocaust refugees on a secret war-time mission, and reported from the Palestine-bound ship Exodus in 1947. Read More
Winner - Audience Award, Teaneck International Film Festival
Winner - Best Documentary, Miami Jewish Film Festival
Winner - Best Documentary, Denver Jewish Film Festival
Winner - Best Documentary, Berkshire Int'l Film Festival
Winner - Best Documentary, Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival
"Ruth Gruber is remarkable... indefatigable...
a riveting raconteur... an inspiration." –New York Times
USA | 2009 | 73m | English & Hebrew Hebrew w/ English subtitles | Director: Bob Richman
Ahead of Time was produced under the aegis of The National Center for Jewish Film as part of the Center’s Fiscal Sponsorship Program.
Wednesday, Oct 9, 7:30 pm
Museum of Fine Arts (Alfond)
Screening Complete
Special Event with Thomas Doherty,
author of Hollywood and Hitler 1933-1939
Rare Screenings of Sons of Liberty (1939) and
I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany (1936)
In his acclaimed new book, Hollywood and Hitler 1933-1939, Brandeis University professor Thomas Doherty reconstructs what Hollywood produced for the big screen during the years of the emerging Nazi threat, and how the Jewish backgrounds of many of the Hollywood studio executives shaded their actions. As Europe hurtled toward war, a proxy battle waged in Hollywood over how to conduct business with the Nazis, how to cover Hitler and his victims, and whether to address or ignore Nazism in Hollywood feature films. Did Hollywood lie low, or stand tall and sound the alarm?
35mm prints on loan from Library of Congress
Sons of Liberty
Part of the series of Technicolor “patriotic shorts” released by Warner Bros. in the late 1930s, Sons of Liberty, directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) and starring Claude Rains, tells the story of heroic patriot Haym Salomon, the Jewish American financial backer of the American Revolution. (USA | 1939 | 20m)
I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany
The true life story of Isobel Lillian Steele ("A Hollywood Girl in Naziland!”) imprisoned by the Nazis for espionage in 1934. Steele wrote the screenplay and starred as herself. Despite fervent opposition from the Nazi counsel in Los Angeles, this independent production was the first American anti-Nazi film to win a Production Code seal. (USA | 1936 | 72m)
Did Hollywood lie low, or stand tall and sound the alarm? Read more about Dohery's new book in New York Times, Hollywood Reporter & The New Yorker.
Saturday, Oct 12, 7:30 pm
Museum of Fine Arts (Remis)*
Screening Complete
God’s Neighbors (Ha-Mashgihim)
Back by Popular Demand from The National Center for Jewish Film's Spring Festival Jewishfilm.2013
In Meni Yaesh’s provocative drama, Avi (Roy Assaf) and his testosterone-fueled gang of Orthodox extremists terrorize Tel Aviv’s Bat Yam neighborhood, harassing “immodestly” clothed women, store owners open on Shabbat, and Arabs who stray onto their turf. Ari begins to question his behavior when beautiful, independent Miri (Rotem Zisman-Cohen) moves to the neighborhood.
Winner - Critics Best Film SACD Award, Cannes Film Festival Winner - Foreign Press Award, Hamburg Film Festival Winner - Best Actor & Best Debut Feature,
Jerusalem Int'l Film Festival Winner - Church of Iceland Award, Reykjavik Film Festival Israeli Academy Awards - 7 Nominations & Winner for Best Actor & Best Supporting Actor
Israel | 2012 | 98m | Hebrew w/ English subtitles
Director/Writer: Meni Yaesh
Read The Jewish Advocate Review
Sunday, Oct 13, 12:00 pm
Museum of Fine Arts (Remis)
Screening Complete
50 Children: The Rescue Mission
of Mr. & Mrs. Kraus
New England Premiere
Special Guests: Director Steven Pressman &
Dr. Robert Williams, US Holocaust Memorial Museum
In 1939, when much of the world closed its eyes to rising Nazi terror, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a Jewish American couple from Philadelphia, risked everything to save Jewish children. Travelling to Nazi-controlled Vienna, the Krauses executed a bold plan that brought the largest group of children into the U.S. during that time. Narrated by Alan Alda.
"Heart-wrenching, thrilling and above all relevant." –New York Times
"Every so often, a documentary comes along with a story so good, it's easy to imagine it as a feature film. '50 Children' is one such documentary." –Philadelphia Daily News
USA | 2013 | 63m | Director/Writer: Steven Pressman
50 Children was produced under the aegis of The National Center for Jewish Film as part of the Center’s Fiscal Sponsorship Program.
Event co-sponsored by
Read The Jewish Advocate Review
Sunday, Oct 13, 2:30 pm
Museum of Fine Arts (Remis)
Screening Complete
Closed Season (Ende der Schonzeit)
Back by Popular Demand from The National Center for Jewish Film's Spring Festival Jewishfilm.2013
Post film discussion with Dr. Dov Fogel,
Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute
On a remote farm in the Black Forest during WWII, a German peasant couple (Hans-Jochen Wagner and Brigitte Hobmeier) allow a young Jew (Christian Friedel) to hide on their farm despite their own anti-semitism and neighboring Nazis. In this intense psycho-sexual drama, intimate secrets are revealed and hidden motivations emerge, tightening the power dynamics. Charged with eroticism, emotional intrigue and unexpected twists, the film is bookended by poignant scenes set in 1970s Israel. Please note: Adult Content
Germany/Israel | 2012 | 100m | German w/ English subtitles
Director: Franziska Schlotterer
Read Midnight East Interview with Franziska Schlotterer
Thanks to our co-presenters, co-sponsors & colleagues!
VENUE Modern Theatre at Suffolk University
DATES Saturday July 20, 2013
7:00pm
National Center for Jewish Film at Outside of the Box
Scenes from the Archives
of The National Center for Jewish Film
7:00pm "Scenes from the Archives of The National Center for Jewish Film"
& Live Klezmer music
8:00pm “King of the Schnorrers” - Robert Brustein & Hankus Netsky's new klezmer musical
Free admission. Tickets are currently all reserved, but standby line will form at 7pm to distribute unclaimed tickets.
VENUE
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
DATES
Thursday July 25, 2013, 8:00 pm
Sunday July 28, 2013, 1:00 pm
The National Center for Jewish Film & Boston French Film Festival present
The Dandelions (Du vent dans mes mollets)
JEWISHFILM.2013 ENCORE SCREENING
About the Film: Sassy nine-year-old Rachel Gladstein (Juliette Gombert) lives with her adoring but overprotective Tunisian-Jewish, meatball fixated mother (Agnès Jaoui) and distracted Holocaust survivor father (Denis Podalydès) in 1980s provincial France. Rachel forms a bond with her eccentric child psychologist Madame Trebla (Isabella Rossellini) and a new best friend, wild-child classmate Valérie (Anna Lemarchand).
Adapted from a novel by Raphaële Moussafir and featuring engaging performances by a cast of A-list actors, The Dandelions brims with quirky charm and humor, imaginative production design, and an unpredictable story suspended between realism, pathos, and flights of fancy.
"Sweetly entertaining..." -Variety
France | 2012 | 89m | French w/ English subtitles | Director: Carine Tardieu
VENUE
Wasserman Cinematheque,
Brandeis University
DATE Thursday, March 21, 2013
7:15 pm
New England Premiere Event
A Letter to Wedgwood:
The Life of Gabriella Hartstein Auspitz
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
About the Film: Gabriella Hartstein was born in 1914 in born in Mukacevo, Austro-Hungarian Empire (later Czechoslovakia), a thriving and cosmopolitan Jewish city where secular Hungarian Jews co-existed with Hasidim and Zionists. When British Colonel Josiah Wedgwood came to the city in 1922 to speak about Christian Zionist support for a plan to create the State of Israel, eight-year-old Gabriella was selected to greet the esteemed visitor. Gabriella become a respected teacher and ardent Zionist. In 1938, following the invasion of Czechoslovakia by German-backed Hungarian fascists, Gabriella wrote to Wedgwood for help. Astonishingly, Wedgwood (by then Lord Wedgwood) interceded, eventually bringing Gabriella and her brother to England. The 55 minute film is based on Ms. Labson's 2004 memoir, My Righteous Gentile.
Post film discussion with Gabriella Hartstein Auspitz
Reception to follow
Sponsored by The National Center for Jewish Film, Center for German and European Studies, Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, Facing History and Ourselves, Harvard Hillel Worship and Study Minyan, Harvard University Center for European Studies.
VENUE
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline
DATE
Sun, March 3, 2013
7:15 pm
Co-presented by The National Center for Jewish Film
Never Forget to Lie
SPECIAL EVENT SCREENING WITH DIRECTOR MARIAN MARZYNSKI
About the Film: Emmy Award winning filmmaker Marian Marzynski was born in Poland and survived the Holocaust as a Jewish child hidden by Christians. In Never Forget to Lie, the most recent of Marzynski's critically-lauded autobiographical films, the director explores his own wartime childhood and the experiences of other child survivors, teasing out their feelings about Poland, the Catholic Church, and the ramifications of identities forged under circumstances where survival began with the directive "never forget to lie."
Marzynski began his 40-year career as a journalist and popular television show host in Poland. A wry observer of life and a pioneer of European cinéma-vérité, Marzynski, has worked alongside Roman Polanski and taught many American filmmakers including Gus Van Sant. In addition to his landmark documentary Shtetl, Marzynski's films include Settlement and dozens of films broadcast on PBS's Frontline and European TV. More
VENUE
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
DATES
Wed, Feb 27, 2013
7:30 pm
Remis Theater, MFA
Thurs, Feb 28, 2013
5:30 pm Remis Theater, MFA
Fri, Mar 1, 2013
7:30 pm
Alfond Theater, MFA
Sun, Mar 3, 2013
12:30 pm
Alfond Theater, MFA
Wed, Mar 6, 2013 3:30 pm
Alfond Theater, MFA
Co-presented by The National Center for Jewish Film
How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire
LIMITED THEATRICAL RUN
About the Film: British filmmaker Daniel Edelstyn became mildly obsessed after discovering his grandmother’s journals in the attic of his family home. Maroussia Zorokovich, born into a wealthy Ukrainian Jewish family, was a budding writer and dancer before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution rewrote her destiny and sent her into exile. When Edelstyn travels to the Ukraine in search of his roots and discovers that the vodka distillery opened by his great grandfather in 1904 is still in operation, he decides—despite his utter lack of business experience—to become a liquor entrepreneur and import the vodka to the UK. This funny, charming documentary employs an ambitious mixture of vérité cinematography and inventive animated sequences created by and starring the artist Hilary Powell (Edelstyn’s wife). More
2012
DATES
Opening November 30, 2012
VENUE Coolidge Corner Theatre
Brookline, MA
Mahler on the Couch
LIMITED THEATRICAL RUN - BOSTON AREA PREMIERE
Mahler on the Couch comes to the Coolidge following extended limited theatrical runs at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago.
About the Film: This exuberant imagining of the real-life marriage of Gustav Mahler (Johannes Silberschneider) and his tempestuous wife Alma Schindler Mahler (the luminous Barbara Romaner) is a sensory feast of art, sex and celebrity in fin-de-siècle Vienna. Chafing under her agreement to give up her own musical ambitions, Alma seeks passion in the arms of the young, dashing architect Walter Gropius, which sends a tormented Mahler to Sigmund Freud for consultation. “Cameos” by Gustav Klimt and Max Burckhard. Moving and funny (the sessions with Freud are sly gems) the film is filled with Mahler’s sublime music conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Beautifully written and directed by Percy Adlon (Bagdad Café) and his son Felix Adlon. More
DATE Thursday, November 29, 2012
7:30pm
VENUE The Jackie Liebergott
Black Box Theatre
Paramount Center, 559 Washington St, Boston
Special Evening with The National Center for Jewish Film
The Pianist of Willesden Lane
Starring Mona Golabek
Adapted & Directed by Hershey Felder, Star of George Gershwin Alone
Presented by ArtsEmerson
When young Jewish pianist Lisa Jura (Mona Golabek's mother) is swept up on the Kindertransport, everything about her life is upended except her love of music. Set in Vienna and London during WWII, The Pianist of Willesden Lane features Golabek performing some of the world's best piano music in this poignant tribute to her mother. "Critics Choice." - Los Angeles Times
Post Performance Q&A with NCJF's Sharon Pucker Rivo & Ms. Golabek, who is also the producer of the new documentary Finding Leah Tickotsky distributed by NCJF
DATE
Saturday, October 13, 2012
7pm
VENUE
Modern Theatre at Suffolk University
525 Washington Street, Boston
Image Courtesy Deutsche Cinemathek
The National Center for Jewish Film, Goethe-Institut Boston, Non-Event & Modern Theatre at Suffolk University present
This Ancient Law (Das alte Gesetz) 1923 German Silent Film
World premiere performance
of original electronic musical score by Thomas Köner
First screening in USA since 1924
The film will be introduced by Veronika Fuechtner, Dartmouth College
About the Film: Das Alte Gesetz (1923) is a rarely screened film by one of the greatest German directors of the silent film era, E. A. Dupont, who also directed the much acclaimed 1925 film, Variety. Das alte Gesetz tells the story of Baruch Mayr, the son of an orthodox rabbi from Galicia, who decides to break from the family tradition and leave the shtetl to become an actor in Vienna. The film is notable not only for Dupont’s distinctive visual technique style, but also for its evocative depiction of Jewish life and the atmosphere of Viennese theater. (Germany, 128 min.) Silent with German and English intertitles
About the Music: The score by Thomas Köner was specially commissioned by the Goethe-Institut Boston. This will be its world premiere performance.
Thomas Köner is a pioneering multimedia artist whose main interest is the combining of visual and auditory experiences. Over his long, celebrated career, he has moved between installation work, sound art, minimal soundscapes, and (as one half of Porter Ricks) gloriously repetitive dub techno. The themes that run through his music — concepts of time and subtle shifts in sound color — also extend to his work as photographer, video installation artist, and internet artist.
Köner attended the music college in Dortmund and studied electronic music at the CEM-Studio in Arnhem. Until 1994 he worked for the film industry as editor and sound engineer. In the early 1990s he started to compose film soundtracks and music to accompany historic silent films for the Louvre Museum and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Thomas Köner has been nominated for the 2012 Naim Jun Paik award.
DATES
Sunday, August 5, 2012
2:40 pm
Thursday, August 9, 2012
7:30 pm
VENUE
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Remis Auditorium
Co-presented by The National Center for Jewish Film
This is Your Life: Holocaust Stories
UCLA FESTIVAL OF PRESERVATION
Special program of 3 newly restored episodes of the NBC 1950s television program This is Your Life which featured Holocaust survivors
One of American television's most popular programs, This Is Your Life paid tribute to hundreds of notable people on NBC from 1952 until 1961. Hosted by the effervescent Ralph Edwards, the show featured famous sports figures, musicians and actors (including 23 Oscar winners), but also ordinary people who had overcome tremendous obstacles. Among the "regular" people profiled, were three women who had survived the Holocaust.
UCLA Film Archive has restored these these much discussed but rarely seen shows. Broadcast in 1953, 1955 and 1961, these episodes of This Is Your Life predate even the use of the term Holocaust "Survivor." The 1953 episode profiling Hanna Bloch Kohner is perhaps the first time the story of a Holocaust survivor was broadcast on American television.
"It may come as a surprise to learn that the Holocaust was not ignored on American television in the early postwar years...Today, viewers of this and the other episodes of This Is Your Life that deal with the Holocaust might find them strange, but they are also intriguing. These telecasts challenge some widely held assumptions about how Americans first learned about the Holocaust and about the nature of television during its early years. Indeed, watching these episodes can be an uncanny experience," -- Jeffrey Shandler
Three 30-Minute Episodes of This is Your Life
Screened in 35mm
This is Your Life: "Hanna Bloch Kohner" (NBC, 5/27/1953)
Director, Producer, Screenwriter: Axel Gruenberg, Host: Ralph Edwards
This is Your Life: "Ilse Stanley" (NBC, 11/2/1955)
Director: Richard Gottlieb, Producer & Screenwriter: Axel Gruenberg, Host: Ralph Edwards
This is Your Life: "Sara Veffer" (NBC, 3/19/1961)
Director & Screenwriter: Axel Gruenberg, Producer: Al Paschall, Axel Gruenberg, Host: Ralph Edwards
Read more about these groundbreaking materials from historians Jan-Christopher Horak & Jeffrey Shandler |Download PDF
Preservation funded by Righteous Persons Foundation and the Ronald T. Shedlo Preservation Fund. Preserved in cooperation with the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation from 35mm picture and soundtrack negatives and 16mm kinescopes. Laboratory services by Cinetech, Audio Mechanics and DJ Audio, Inc. Special thanks to: Ralph Edwards Productions; David Osterkamp and Alan Silvers; and Patrick Loughney, Gregory Lukow, Mike Mashon, Rob Stone, Ken Weissman, George Willeman, and members of the Library of Congress Moving Image Section and Film Laboratory staffs.
DATES
April 18 - April 29, 2012
VENUES
Museum of Fine Arts
Institute of Contemporary Art
West Newton Cinema
The National Center for Jewish Film's 15th Annual Festival
Jewishfilm.2012
The National Center for Jewish Film co-presents
One Night Stand
INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL BOSTON
A funny behind-the-scenes journey from blank page to live stage, as top Broadway and TV writers, actors, and directors produce original short musicals in 24 hours. Featuring Richard Kind, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Rachel Dratch.
DATES
Thurs. March 22, 1:00 pm
11:00am-12:45pm
VENUE
Bright Screening Room, Paramount Theater, Emerson College, Boston
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Annual Conference
NEW ENGLAND ARCHIVE SHOWCASE HIGHLIGHTING
THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR JEWISH FILM
"Jews in Focus: Images from the NCJF Vault" multi-media presentation by Sharon Pucker Rivo
"NCJF Archive in Action" presentation by Lisa Rivo
Special thanks to Eric Schaefer of Emerson College.
The National Center for Jewish Film presents
Being Jewish in France (Comme un Juif en France)
LIMITED THEATRICAL RUN OF THE HIT DOCUMENTARY
CELEBRATION OF FRANCOPHONE MONTH
Being Jewish in France comes to the MFA following its wildly successful limited theatrical runs at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Yves Jeuland's sweeping new documentary explores the rich and complex history of Jews in France, the first country to grant Jews citizenship. Beginning with Revolutionary cries of Vive la France in Yiddish, the film explores the explosive Dreyfus Affair, the Vichy government's collaboration with the Nazis, and the absorption of Sephardic Jews from Arab countries in the decades after WWII. Being Jewish in France confidently continues into the 21st century, investigating charges of rising antisemitism and the county's complex attitudes toward Israel. Narrated by Mathieu Amalric, star of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
DATES
Sat. March 24, 2012
6:30 pm
Sun. March 25, 2012
2:00pm
VENUE
Bright Family Screening Room, Paramount Center,
Emerson College, Boston
ArtsEmerson &
The National Center for Jewish Film present
American Matchmaker (Amerikaner Shadkhn)
TWO SCREENINGS AS PART OF SERIES
GOTTA DANCE: THE AMERICAN MOVIE MUSICAL 1929-1953
Leo Fuchs, the "Yiddish Fred Astaire," stars in this musical comedy as Nat Silver, a debonair and wealthy Jewish-American businessman whose recent engagement (his eighth) goes awry. Ulmer’s last Yiddish movie was also his most modern, an art deco romantic comedy about male ambivalence and Jewish assimilation.
Gotta Dance: The American Movie Musical 1929-1953 is a survey of the American film musical, a genre whose uniquely American exuberance and optimism entertained audiences through the dark years of the Great Depression and reached its apex in the 1940s and 50s.
DATE
Monday, March 5, 2012
7:30pm
VENUE
Wasserman Cinematheque,
Brandeis University
The National Center for Jewish Film presents
Black Bus(Sororet)
VENUE
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Remis Auditorium
View trailer
The National Center for Jewish Film presents
Free Men
SPECIAL EVENT | SNEAK PREVIEW
DIRECTOR ISMAËL FERROUKHI IN ATTENDANCE
In 1942 German-occupied Paris, a young Algerian immigrant named Younes (break-out star Tahar Rahim) is arrested for black marketeering. To avoid jail, he agrees to spy on a Paris Mosque suspected of helping Muslim resistance fighters and North African Jews. At the Mosque, Younes befriends the charismatic Algerian singer, Salim Halali. After discovering Salim's secret and the hidden work of the Mosque, Younes is transformed from police collaborator to freedom fighter. Directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi. French w/ English Subtitles, 99 min, Drama
Official Selection - Cannes International Film Festival Official Selection - Toronto International Film Festival
"[Tahar Rahim] has an undeniable screen presence that recalls a young Robert DeNiro [and] Lonsadale is, like always, a pleasure to watch." –The Hollywood Reporter
"An eye-opener! An absorbing drama… that engages both the heart and the mind." –Screen Daily
Co-sponsored by Consulate General of France in Boston & American Islamic Congress Special Thanks: Rachel Langus and Film Movement
Mon. Jan. 23, 2012, 7:00 pm
Wasserman Cinematheque,
Brandeis University
Free and open to the public. SOLD OUT
The National Center for Jewish Film co-presents
"Sex Segregation in Israel: Where Do You Sit?"
Film & Lecture Special Event
Black Bus (Sororet)
NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE SCREENING
Film Tralier
Jewish Forward article on gender seperation
Jewish Forward article on protesting gender seperation
JTA article on gender seperation
Jewish Forward- When women can't even say thank you
Forward Sisterhood Blog- How modesty turns women into sex objects
Filmmaker Anat Zuria (Purity and Sentenced to Marriage) introduces us to Shulamit, a photographer, and Sarah, a blogger, whose decisions to leave their close-knit Haredi communities in Israel means their estrangement from their families and friends. The women document their daily lives, which include riding on the Haredi-run mehadrin so called "Black Buses," where women are allowed to sit only in the back. Israel, 76 min, director Anat Zuria
Screening followed by Lecture - Pnina Lahav
"The Woes of WOW: The Women of the Wall as a Metaphor or Israel-Diaspora Relations"
To watch a video of Pnina Lahav's lecture, click here.
Pnina Lahav, teaches constitutional law, political and civil liberties and foreign affairs at Boston University. She has published widely on both American and Israeli constitutional law and is the author of the acclaimed biography Judgement in Jerusalem: Cheif Justice Simon Agranot and the Zionist Century. Professor Lavah will trace the relationship between women's exclusion in religious and public spheres, both in Israel and in the Jewish diaspora.
Presented by Hadassah Brandeis Institute and The National Center for Jewish Film
Co-sponsored by: the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life; the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project, which is funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation; the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department; the Film Studies Department; Women's and Gender Studies; the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 7pm
PROGRAM INFO (PDF)
Nahum N. Glatzer (right) and Martin Buber at Brandeis University 1951
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE SCREENING
Nahum N. Glatzer and the German-Jewish Tradition
Introduction: Director Judith Glatzer Wechsler
Panel Discussion with Wechsler and Brandeis professor Jonathan Sarna
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Mandel Center for the Humanities Auditorium G3, Brandeis University
Filmmaker and art historian Judith Glatzer Wechsler’s new documentary is a moving portrait of the life and work of of her revered father and scholar Nahum N. Glatzer (1903-1990). Glatzer was professor of Jewish history and philosophy in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University from 1951-1973. A foremost disciple of philosopher Franz Rosenzweig, Glatzer succeeded Martin Buber at the University of Frankfurt in 1932. Fleeing Hitler, the Glatzers immigrated to Palestine in 1933 and then on to the US, where he served as editor in chief of Schocken Books and published early English editions of Franz Kafka. With over 260 books and articles on Jewish history, philosophy, and midrashic literature, Glatzer was a pioneer in the field of Jewish Studies at Brandeis and throughout the United States.
Judith Glatzer Wechsler (Brandeis ’62) has directed 23 films and written numerous books on subjects including Daumier, Cezanne, and Comedie Francaise. Tufts University Professor of Art History emerita, Wechsler has taught at Harvard, MIT, RISD, University of Paris, and Hebrew University. In 2007 she was awarded a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Presented by: The Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, with the support of the Martin Weiner Fund; The National Center for Jewish Film; The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
PROGRAM INFO (PDF)
PUBLIC LECTURE
Sharon Pucker Rivo, NCJF Executive Director Representation of the Holocaust in Film
Presented by Boston College’s Center for Christian-Jewish Learning Part of the Jewish-Christian Lecture Series
Boston College
Monday, September 19, 2011, 3–9 pm
PROGRAM INFO (PDF)
CONFERENCE
“Measure Their History”:
Antony Polonsky’s The Jews in Poland and Russia
Antony Polonsky’s three-volume magnum opus provides a comprehensive political, social, economic, and religious survey of the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe from 1350 to the present. To mark its publication, this symposium will consider the impact of Professor Polonsky’s work on the field of Eastern European Jewish Studies. Panelists: David Engel (New York University), Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska (Maria Curie-Sklodowska University) & Adam Teller (Brown University). Keynote address by Ruth Franklin, senior editor at The New Republic. The closing program will be a film tribute to professor Polonsky drawn from the Collection of The National Center For Jewish Film presented By Sharon Pucker Rivo, Executive Director & Co-Founder of NCJF.
Sherman Hall Hassenfeld Conference Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Conference is a joint project of: The Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, The National Center for Jewish Film
Sunday, September 11, 2011, 11:00 am
PROGRAM INFO (PDF)
Nathan the Wise
New England Premiere
1922 German Silent Classic | New Restoration
Live music accompaniment by After Quartet | New original score by Aaron Trant
Special screening on the 10th anniversary of the events of September 11
Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St | Brookline, MA Buy
Tickets
Presented by Goethe-Institut Boston & The National Center for Jewish Film In cooperation with The Center for German and European Studies at Brandeis University, the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry at Brandeis University, and the Department of Near East and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, The Coolidge Corner Theatre & the American Islamic Congress
"Not an exaggeration to say that this is the Jewish film event of the year." --The Jewish Advocate
Boston Globe Art Fuse The Jewish Advocate The Jewish Advocate Boston Phoenix The Boston Music Intelligencer
April 2 & 3, 2011
DOUBLE FEATURE
Mamadrama: The Jewish Mother in Cinema | Film Page A Letter to Mother 1938 Yiddish Feature Restored by NCJF | Film Page
Presented in conjunction with Merchant of Venice (starring F. Murray Abraham) at ArtsEmerson Films introduced by NCJF Executive Director Sharon Pucker Rivo
The Paramount Center | Downtown Boston
Presented by ArtsEmerson and The National Center for Jewish Film
Irish Film Festival Boston The first Irish documentary about the Holocaust.
Special
Guests From Ireland: Director Gerry Gregg & Film Protagonist Tomi
Reichental
Somerville Theater | Somerville
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University | Waltham, MA FREE
Presented by Irish Film Festival Boston and The National Center for Jewish Film
The National Center for Jewish Film's 14th Annual Film Festival
Jewishfilm.2011 premieres 16 films (7 fiction features & 9 documentaries) in a vibrant program of new independent and classic cinematic treasures from around the world. The Boston Phoenix calls NCJF’s annual festival “one of the season’s cinematic highlights” and the Tab raves “the topnotch quality of some of these films could easily pull in an audience at a commercial art house.”
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University| Waltham, MA Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Regent Theater | Arlington, MA
Somerville Theater | Somerville, MA
The National Center for Jewish Film's 13th Annual Film Festival
NCJF presents thirteen films—six fiction feature films and seven documentaries, from six countries. Twelve films are New England Premiere screenings including NCJF's most recent film resotration, the American-made 1935 Yiddish feature Bar Mitzvah staring superstar Boris Thomashefsky in his only film role
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University | Waltham, MA Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
March 9, 2010 , 5:00 pm
Screening of "Arab Labor" Pilot Episode
Special
Guest: Series Creator Sayed Kashua
A celebrated novelist, screenwriter and journalist, Sayed Kashua is also the creator of the hit Israeli TV series "Arab Labor" (Avoda Aravit), a sitcom based on his weekly column in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. One of the top-ten most popular shows on Israeli TV, "Arab Labor," which is filmed in Arabic and Hebrew with a mostly Arab cast, is the first Israeli sitcom to feature an Israeli Arab protagonist. Widely acknowledged as a fresh and unique literary voice, Kashua is the author of two best selling novels, Let it be Morning and Dancing Arabs, which he is currently adapting for the screen.
Brandeis screening will have English subtitles. Book sale and signing will follow.
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University | Waltham, MA FREE
Sponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
in cooperation with The National Center for Jewish Film
2009
October 18, 2009 , 7:00 pm
PROGRAM INFO (PDF)
Filmed by Yitzak
USA Premiere
Special
screening in commemoration of the 14th anniversary of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.
Special
Guest: Nadav Tamir, Consul General
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University | Waltham, MA
Presented by The Consul General
of Israel to New England and The National Center for Jewish Film
October 4, 2009, 7:00 pm
Focus Features
A Serious Man
Pre-Release Sneak Preview
Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
On October
4, NCJF introduced the Coen Brothers' new film A
Serious Man to the Boston area at a special pre-release
screening.
Special Guests: A
Serious Man stars Michael Stuhlbarg and Aaron Wolff
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University | Waltham, MA
The
Boston Globe Michael Paulson's Boston Globe blog Brandeis Now Brandeis Justice
June 11, 2009, 7:00pm
The Troupe (Ha'lahaka)
Special Screening - Israeli Classic Film | New England Celebrates Israel @ 61
Avi Nesher's 1979 cult musical comedy revels in the friendships, romances and rivalries within an Israeli army entertainment troupe shortly after the 1967 Six-Day War.
A Chorus Line in IDF fatigues, The Troupe is one of Israel's most beloved films
Rarely screened in the US
35MM Print
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University | Waltham, MA
Screening Presented by CJP and The National Center for Jewish Film
The National Center for Jewish Film's 12th Annual Film Festival
14 films screen at Brandeis University and Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston New England Premiere of the latest NCJF classic Yiddish film restoration The Jester
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University| Waltham, MA
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
March 22, 2009, 7:00 pm
PROGRAM INFO
Harvard Film Archive
Cinema and the Shoah:
An Evening with Jean-Michel Frodon
Special
screening of None Shall Escape (1944) and discussion with renowned film critic, scholar and former
editor of Cahiers du cinema Jean-Michel Frodon.
Harvard Film Archive | Cambridge, MA
Presented by Harvard Film Archive & The National Center for Jewish Film
2008
June 23, 2008, 7:30 pm
PROGRAM INFO
From Boston to Dnepropetrovsk:
A Story of Jewish Renewal
Premiere Screening | Dessert reception to follow
A film about the miraculous rebirth of the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk & the Boston-Dnepropetrovsk partnership.
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University | Waltham, MA FREE
Presented by Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston & The National Center for Jewish Film
March 1, 2008, 7:30 pm
PROGRAM INFO
Children of the Sun
New England Premiere | Special Advance Screening with Israeli Director Ran Tal
This award winning, richly layered and intimate portrait of the Kibbutz movement has taken Israel by storm. Brilliantly assembled from over eighty amateur and home movies taken at kibbutzim between the 1930s and 1970s, Children of the Sun marries images of the utopian experiment with the frank and poignant remembrances of Kibbutzniks.
Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University | Waltham, MA
Presented by the Consulate General of Israel to New England & The National Center for Jewish Film
Download Poster (PDF)
UCLA FESTIVAL OF PRESERVATION
Back
to Top
