More catching up on my bloggery at Jewfest.
LITTLE HORRIBLES: ROAD RAGE. First up was this comic short about a woman stuck in traffic, how she passes the time, and how that makes the party she's going to very, very awkward.
QUALITY BALLS: THE DAVID STEINBERG STORY. So then the feature, about the very funny, prolific, and long-lasting comedian David Steinberg. From his early days cracking wise in yeshiva in Winnipeg, to his time with Second City, to his groundbreaking, censor-pushing work with the Smothers Brothers, this guy was brilliant. And then...somehow the performing bug didn't have enough of a pull on him and he very smoothly and happily transitioned to directing comedies. This guy really was a comic genius, and it's shown not just in his work but in the clear admiration of so many comedy giants (Martin Short does an impression of him, Jerry Seinfeld delivers the "quality balls" line that gives the movie its title, Larry David praises him...the list goes on and on.)
TRANSIT. And then a much more sobering film, a multi-part story of the difficulties of Filipino workers in Tel Aviv. The biggest difficulty being the harsh immigration laws that make any child under 5 subject to deportation. So while the parents travel around town doing odd jobs, they have to keep a close eye out for the cops and hide their young children away. And you have to understand this law to understand this movie. The problem is...this law makes no damn sense. Deporting children when their parents are in the country working legally is...not just wrong...not just stupid...but actually completely nonsensical. The kids only speak Hebrew, only know Israel as home, and are told they're not allowed there. So we get a story that is incredibly sad, based on a law that is incredibly cruel.
Total Running Time: 176 minutes
My Total Minutes: 368,149
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