Press Coverage

Celebrating two decades of bringing Jewish films to light

At 41, the National Center for Jewish Film (NCJF) at Brandeis University is internationally known for archiving, preserving, and restoring films about the Jewish experience. It’s also known for an impressive film festival that turns 20 this year. Running through May 21 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Coolidge Corner Theatre, and West Newton Cinema, the festival’s notable offerings include four films anchored by women characters wrestling with how the past informs the present...

Read the full Boston Globe story by Loren King

Lost and found: Film details discovery of interview with Israel’s first prime minister

As the National Center for Jewish Film celebrates the 20th year of its annual film festival, it once again hosts a number of outstanding documentaries — not just about serious subjects like David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, but also about more light-hearted topics, like hummus and a multigenerational folk-rock group...

Read the full Boston Globe story by Peter Keough

The National Center for Jewish Film’s Eclectic Festival Lineup

Since its founding in 1976, the National Center for Jewish Film (NCJF) has spearheaded the revival of Yiddish film, and in recent years has also served as a remarkable clearinghouse for modern Jewish cinema. Now in its 20th year, NCJF’s annual festival has consistently featured an impressive lineup of Jewish-themed films, and this year is no exception. A mix of movies and documentaries come to Boston from Israel, Russia, Germany and the United States...

Read the full Jewish Boston story by Judy Bolton-Fasman

Read about NCJF's festival in the Jewish Advocate

'Ben-Gurion – Epilogue’ shows the importance of archives

In “Ben-Gurion – Epilogue,” director Yariv Mozer endeavors to raise a mirror to Israeli society today. Drawing primarily upon filmed interviews conducted by the U.S.- born anthropologist Clinton Bailey in 1968, five years before Ben-Gurion’s death, Mozer brings to vivid life the profound humanity of the father of modern Israel. For Mozer’s peers among the current generation of educated Israeli secularists, Mozer offers reconnection to the foundational ideals of the Jewish state and the aspiration to make Israel a more virtuous, hopeful, joyful country.

Read the full Jewish Boston story by Barbara S. Lamont as a PDF

'Film archive's essential role in modern Jewish history

EDITORIAL | MAY 26, 2017

Providentially for the Jewish people, Thomas Edison’s perfecting of the motion picture in the last decade of the 19th century coincided with the rise of Zionism; this enabled the documentation of the two most meaningful events in Judaism since the destruction of the Second Temple – the founding of the modern State of Israel and the Holocaust – as well as events in Jewish life and history both profound and prosaic.

Read the full Jewish Boston story as a PDF

Haute Living

Critic’s Pick - National
Boston Events
May 22, 2017

The Museum of Fine Arts wrapped up The National Center for Jewish Film’s 20th Annual Film Festival this weekend. The festival introduced new independent films and restored classics from around the world with visiting filmmakers and scholars attending many screenings. This year’s festival included Avi Nesher’s film Past Life, which tracks the late 1970s odyssey of two sisters, an introverted classical musician and a rambunctious scandal sheet journalist, as they unravel a wartime mystery that has cast a dark shadow on their lives.

Read the full Jewish Boston story as a PDF

NCJF Fest Reviews by Gail Spilsbury:
"Paradise"

"Fanny's Journey"

"Past Life"