AROUND THE BLOCK
News with a Twist
San Francisco Jewish
Film Festival at the halfway point
36th Festival could be one of the
best
(Note: In a departure from satire, following is my take on the 36th annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival at about its half-way point this year.)
One of the highlights of the summer cultural season in the Bay Area is the annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. This year, its 36th, is no exception with a wide array of films, both documentary and narrative, which inspire and inform, sometimes with laughter, sometimes with tears, sometimes with controversy, but always with taste and purpose.
And, it’s not just for Jews, as this years trailer’s tag line states, “You don’t have to be Jewish to ride the J train,” referring to one of San Francisco Muni’s streetcar lines.
With that in mind, I encourage you to attend the festival if you’re in the Bay Area (it runs until August at various venues around the Bay). Here’s a link that highlights the films and the showings, so I won’t burden you with superfluous summaries (I will list my “favorites” below, however). http://sfjff36.jfi.org/festival-guide/view-all-films/. But I do want to point out one film in particular.
While it is short-handed as a filmed version of a one-man, 17 - character play, that description does not do Wrestling Jerusalem justice. It is possibly the most powerful, innovative and moving depiction of Israel, Judaism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I’ve ever seen. Last night’s showing was its world premiere and I encourage you to see it at the festival (Palo Alto – 7/28, Berkeley – 7/31, San Rafael – 8/7) or seek it out as it becomes available in other distribution channels.
Favorites
· A German Life
· A Grain of
Truth
· Baba Joon
· Disturbing
the Peace
· Fever at Dawn
· Germans and
Jews
· Joe’s Violin
· Norman Lear:
Just Another Version of You
· Robert Klein
Still Can’t Stop His Leg
· Steit’s:
Matzo and the American Dream
· The Origin of
Violence
· The People
vs. Fritz Bauer
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