Jason goes to SFJFF to see CENSORED VOICES

Once again with two lovely ladies. The real pursuit of the day was to eat as much ice cream as possible--in 4 different places, starting with Bi-Rite and ending here:

But that's another story, and this blog is nominally about the movies. So along the way we stopped off at the beautiful Castro Theatre (the first time for both of them, quite a thrill!) for my final screening of SFJFF 2015.

First the short THE ARREST. In an alternative reality, Palestinian police officers break down a Jewish family's door and start arresting people while the occupants are completely confuses as to what's going on.

And then the feature CENSORED VOICES. Shortly after the six day war in 1967, several soldiers recorded audio interviews on kibbutzes. These were censored by the Israeli Army, and only recently released. Director Mor Loushy tracks down the soldiers (at least, the ones who are still alive and willing to speak) and built a film of them listening to their old interviews and responding today. And she edits in archival footage of the war. Not the same people who are on the audiotape, but it gives perspective on the differences between what was shown at the time and what was going through the mind of the soldiers. Not surprisingly, the interviews give a pretty solemn, depressing account of war (war is hell, whatever the cause) and it's interesting to hear the realization of when they went from being David to Goliath, and the frustration about being a country that routinely has to fight a war every now and then. No easy solutions, but a solid meditation on the military history of Israel.

Total Running Time: 95 minutes
My Total Minutes: 405,319

Jason goes to SFJFF--Day 8

Okay, the last night of the festival in Palo Alto. A month ago Thursday:

First up was MY SHORTEST LOVE AFFAIR, a frank and sexy drama about a pair of lovers who reunite after 20 years apart and after one night of passion they learn two things. First, they're going to become parents. Second, that they don't really work well as a couple. Over the nine months of the pregnancy they argue, they fight, they're...pretty awful to each other. But they always get back together and at least try to make it work. Whether or not that's a good idea is up to the viewer to decide (spoiler alert: it's not.)

And finally we ended the Palo Alto week with a screwball comedy, MR KAPLAN. Septugenarian Uruguayan Jew Jacob Kaplan worries that his life hasn't amounted to much. Certainly compared to great figures like Winston Churchill or Simon Weisenthal. As his abilities fade (and he loses his driver's license) he becomes obsessed with an old German man living nearby whom his graddaughter calls "the Nazi." Is he, perhaps, an actual Nazi war criminal who has escaped detection for so many decades? Perhaps he can play the Weisenthal to this man's Eichmann? Along with a drunk ex-cop Kaplan hires to be his chauffeur, the game is afoot. And of course, wacky hijinx ensue.

Total Running Time: 176 minutes
My Total Minutes: 405,120

Jason goes to SFJFF--Day 7

A month ago Wednesday. Two movies.

THE ARMOR OF LIGHT tackles a very interesting, important, and timely subject--how in the world is "pro-life" consistent with "pro-gun rights?" Okay, that was oversimplified, which gives the wrong idea about this smart and thoughtful movie. As is the hero of this movie, minister Rob Schenck, a devoutly pro-life (also spoiler alert--born Jewish, hence it's inclusion in the festival) activist who has a crisis of faith/culture about the pro-gun tendencies in his flock. Taking a hard stand against abortion while justifying gun violence just doesn't sit with him, and so throughout the movie he goes on a sort of spiritual quest and then (the beginnings of) a political fight to be pro-life and pro-gun control. In the Q&A afterwards, director Abigail Disney (granddaughter of Roy Disney) talked about rolling out both the movie and the political/religious message. So look for more to come of this soon.

And then THE LAW, probably not programmed the same night by accident. It's a French thriller about...the legislative process. In particular, the 1975 French law that legalized abortion, and Simone Veil, the Health Minister and Holocaust survivor who shepherded it through the legislative labyrinth. Emmanuelle Devos gives a fantastic performance, and the end result is surprisingly tense, exciting, and even sexy...for a film about getting a law passed.

Total Running Time: 177 minutes
My Total Minutes: 404,944

Jason goes to SFJFF--Day 6

One film a month ago Tuesday, PLASTIC MAN: THE ARTFUL LIFE OF JERRY ROSS BARRISH. And I'm such a shmuck I didn't get this up in time to tell you there would be a retrospective of his films at the Roxie. However, this movie is still playing there, so you should stop reading this and just go see it. It's awesome. Oh, and then think about how the title both refers to his artwork in plastic and how he has changed his life so many times that he's sort of a plastic man himself. That's all I'll say.

Running Time: 74 minutes
My Total Minutes: 404,767

Jason goes to SFJFF--Day 5

Catching up after falling over a week moth behind. I have a whole week's worth of Jewfest films to tell you about.

Let's start with THE GO-GO BOYS: THE INSIDE STORY OF CANNON FILMS. Life is full of weird coincidences sometimes. I hadn't thought about legendary 80s (mostly) low-budget (mostly) action studio Cannon Films in years, and now I've seen two documentaries about them just a few months apart. The first one, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS, I saw at SFIFF, and was an exhaustive look at the studios prolific output, novel business model (quantity over quality, give the directors freedom but no money, and one big hit can sustain you for another year or two) and reasons behind its eventual failure (straying from that model.) And behind it all were two men--Menahem Goran and Yoram Globus, but ELECTRIC BOOGALOO didn't go into much detail about the men, other than that they were the Israeli brains behind it all. So THE GO-GO BOYS makes a perfect pairing, and I think I saw them in the right order--celebrate the movies first, then learn about the guys who made them. Their origins as Israeli filmmakers (starting out with Chaim Topol's SALLAH SHABATI) their relationship, their contrasting personalities that both made them huge players and eventually led to their parting ways. And this film even features interviews with both of them, before Golan sadly passed away just...wow, a year ago tomorrow (Globus, well into his 70s, is still producing films in Israel.) Pretty cool, and if there's any studio that deserved two documentaries about it in 2015, it had to be Cannon.

And then MANPOWER, a multi-layered slice-of-life of working class (sometimes illegal foreign workers) men in Israel. Focusing on Meir, a police officer with a stellar record who is put in charge of a special operation targeting foreign workers. One of those workers is a Nigerian housecleaner who works hard and stays out of trouble, but still risks deportation. Other stories intersect, and I'm sorry I didn't write this right away because I forget a lot of the details. But with sensitivity and humor it showcases the struggles of many different working class people just trying to live a little bit of a good life.

Total Running Time: 177 minutes
My Total Minutes: 404,693

Jason goes to SFJFF--Day 4

Let's finish up last weekend before next weekend starts. Another full day in Palo Alto on Sunday.

First up, FAMOUS NATHAN, a story of a titan of hot dog industry, and also a story of a man, his friends, his employees, and his family, all told by his grandson Lloyd Handwerker. He uses a mix of archival footage, home video (sometimes not in the greatest condition) and new interviews to tell the rags-to-riches story of a near-illiterate immigrant who worked hard; sold hot dogs; cared about price, quality, and most of all people; and through that built an empire. It's also the story of sibling rivalry, as one brother continues in the business but the other (the director's father) leaves and actually runs a competing Snack Time restaurant for a while. It's a bit of a roller coaster ride at times (appropriate for Coney Island, I suppose) and in the end I really, really wanted a hot dog. BTW, for theater concession food, the hot dogs at the Cinearts Palo Alto are not too bad.

Next up was a great documentary (on a side note, I was recounting my favorite movies of the festival a few days ago to a work friend, and I stopped and realized I was just rattling off all the documentaries. So good job with the documentary selections this year!) AUTISM IN LOVE follows the lives of 4 people who are on the autism spectrum ranging from Rain Man-esque to sort of awkward Aspies (call back to the other autistic-person-seeks-romantic-partner movie I saw this year) who are in various different stages of romance. There's the frustrated guy who just wants to fit in. There's the loving, devoted husband who is dealing with his wife dying of cancer, but can't express himself right. And then there's the couple who have put up with their quirks for several years and might just be ready to take it to the next level. What struck me is that their romantic troubles aren't a whole lot different from mine (well, I've never dealt with a dying spouse, but the others...) Far from being oddballs, I thought their troubles were so relatable by the end I started wondering if maybe I'm on the spectrum but just haven't been diagnosed. It's my understanding that that fact that I empathized so well probably means I'm not...

Anyway, up next was a nice little crowd-pleaser, DOUGH. Nat (Jonathan Pryce) is an English kosher baker who runs the little bakery that his father and grandfather ran before him. His son doesn't want the business, though, he's a successful lawyer. And the big chain store across the street wants to buy him out--and the whole block. But he stands firm, even though he needs a little help. that help comes in the form of his cleaner's son Ayyash, a Muslim immigrant from Darfur. Of course there's mistrust, and of course that mistrust thaws. But Ayyash is also a small-time pot dealer (smart enough not to smoke his own, he's just looking for some money) and wacky hijinx ensue when he accidentally stashes his pot in the dough...and the resulting baked goods are a huge hit. A funny, reasonably charming film that's not too heavy and doesn't challenge you to think too much. I'm not surprised this was the San Francisco opening night film.

Next up was PAPA WAS NOT A ROLLING STONE, an autobiographical narrative film from French director Sylvie Ohayon. With a nice mix of comedy and drama, the story is all about Stéphanie “Fifi” Mortier, a high school student who lives in one of the poor suburbs where French Jews and Muslims co-inhabit apartment buildings. At least Fifi is a good student, so she has some options. Maybe dance. Maybe go to university. Maybe just have fun sexy times with her boyfriend all the time... After all, getting impregnated by a Muslim is kind of a family tradition that led to...her existing. Meanwhile she has to deal with her flaky mother and abusive step-father. It all adds up to a pretty good coming of age film, with an excellent mix of drama and comedy.

And finally I ended the night and the weekend with RED LEAVES, a fascinating and well-made fictional look into the lives of Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Patriarch Meseganio Tadela (Debebe Eshetu) makes a fateful decision--he sells his apartment and instead of buying a new one he announces that he will simply live with his children. All of them, in their different apartments, shuttling back and forth. After all, he's the patriarch, isn't that his right? Well, his children aren't quite as pleased with his plan as he is. They all have their lives, families, and more of an Israeli lifestyle than an Ethiopian one. The movie isn't narrative driven, it's more of a slice-of-life (which I know bored some of my friends) but just look at the Eshetu's expressive, weary face and director Bazi Gete's probing, documentary-style direction and feel the loss of culture that Meseganio feels.

And that was the end of the first weekend of SFJFF.

Total Running Time: 445

My Total Minutes: 404,516

Jason goes to SFJFF--Day 3

A full day of movies in beautiful (and easier for me to get to) Palo Alto. Let's jump right in.

First up WELCOME TO LEITH, a very tense documentary about a  town of 24 in North Dakota. And then a new guy moves in. He's an old man, seems kind of lonely. His name is Craig Cobb, and he started buying up lots of land all over Leith. And then people learned what he's up to. He's an infamous white supremacist and he plans to get enough like-minded people to move to Leith and take over, completely democratically. And then the town reacts. Filmmakers Michael Nichols and Christopher Walker get remarkable access to people and town proceedings, getting very candid interviews on both sides, as well anti-racist activists (like the Southern Poverty Law Center, who've had a file on him for a long time.) Tensions are clearly at a boiling point for a long time, and you just wait for something to explode, wondering who will do something really stupid and dangerous first. A fascinating story about how to react to open racism in a land that also values free speech.

And then I needed something a little lighter, so the next program delivered, starting with the short YIDLIFE CRISIS: BREAKING THE FAST. An episode of a web series, this one is about Yom Kippur in Montreal, and the struggle of poutine vs piety.

That was the lead-in to THE MUSES OF ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER. I haven't read Singer since I was a child, and even then we were more of a Shalom Aleichem family. But I know him as a comical Jewish writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, (one of the) only Yiddish writers to win. Of course, what I've read of him I read in English, and this documentary is the story of his translators. After Saul Bellow translated his Gimpel the Fool, he was worried it was so good that people would give Bellow the credit instead of him. So he chose to direct the translations himself--and collected what he called a "harem of translators" to do it. All women, all fairly young and pretty. And he clearly enjoyed it. Yeah, he was kind of a dirty man...or maybe that's just his legend. Many translators were sure he slept with all of them but her, and of course they can't all be right. Beyond that what I found most fascinating is how he worked closely on the English translations but intentionally changed things--not just idioms, but entire endings are different in the Yiddish and English versions. He knew in Yiddish he was writing for a Jewish audience and in English he was reaching out to a non-Jewish audience. Which makes it even more interesting that for translations to other languages (even Hebrew) he wanted the translators to start with the English version. A fascinating and funny look at the man, his translators, and the act of translation. Kind of makes me want to read (or re-read) some of his stories.

And then the next film was ONCE IN A LIFETIME. Umm...due to a scheduling goof of mine, I ended up watching this two days in a row. And it holds up to multiple screenings. Here's what I said just the day before:

And then ONCE IN A LIFETIME is a fresh take on the "inspiring teacher" genre. Madame Guégen has taught for 20 years, and for some reason she still likes it, despite an uncontrollable class who can bring a substitute teacher to tears. So she challenges them to take on an after-school project, to enter the annual contest about World War II and the Shoah sponsored by the French education ministry. The subject is the experience of children and adolescents in Nazi concentration camps. And her students don't know where to begin. Many are Muslim, and have a very different opinion of Jews, almost all are afraid of failure, and none of them work well with others. But sure enough, her persistence, patience, encouragement, and a little discipline transforms the kids. Which would all be kind of cliche, except that it's portrayed with such realism and sincerity. It definitely helps that Ahmed Dramé, who plays one of the students, actually lived this. The story is based on his experience, and it fosters a reality that makes it all work. It means that when they visit a Holocaust memorial or speak to a survivor, or are shocked by pictures they find...it's not just triggers for an emotional response in the audience, it's the reality of kids who haven't thought much about this history to wake up. Seeing a kid get angry when he finds out the French could've saved their Jewish children (the Germans really didn't want them) but didn't carries an intensity that probably wouldn't have worked as well if it didn't earn the realism by then. A very good film.

All I'll add is that Ahmed played Malik, who is sort of the class clown. And his transformation is perhaps the best of all (no surprise, since he co-wrote it.)

And then next up was RAISE THE ROOF, a really amazing documentary about learning, architecture, building, history, art, culture, and Jewish history in Poland. Professor Rick Brown runs Handshouse studios, where he's a big proponent in learning by doing. And his "doing" is building historical creations using traditional tools and techniques, so learning isn't just learning how to build, but learning about the life, techniques, and cultures of builders from the past. He--with his students and his wife--has built Egyptian obelisks, human-powered medieval cranes, and bushnell submarines. And now their goal is a traditional Polish wooden synagogue, with a multi-tiered roof and a beautiful, colorfully painted ceiling. All of them in existence were destroyed by the Nazis, so all they have to go on is pictures and notes from scholars at the time. Meanwhile, in Warsaw another group is building a museum dedicated to the history of Polish Jews (after all, despite waves of pogroms, prior to the Nazis they had been an integral part of society for a thousand years, and it would be a shame if all they're remembered for is their end.) So a multi-year project is launched to build the roof structure, learn the paint dye techniques of the time, practice, learn, practice, learn, and eventually...created incredible beauty. Which you can see if you happen to be in Poland and go to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. But Rick and his wife Laura were there for the Q and A afterwards, and mentioned that they'd love to build another one, this time in America. So hopefully that will happen. Better yet, take their class and help build it yourself (note: I have no idea when/if that will happen. I guess follow their website for details?)

And finally, I ended the night with A LA VIE. The story starts in Auschwitz--specifically, the evacuation of Auschwitz. There Hélène is a survivor, and so is her best friend, the Dutch girl Lili. Sadly their friend Rose didn't make it. Back in Paris, she marries her old sweetheart, despite him being impotent from Nazi medical experiments. But she keeps putting ads in Yiddish international papers hoping to find Lili. And finally, one day it works. So they arrange for a weekend getaway at Berck-sur-Mer by the sea to catch up and party. And who should join them, to the surprise of Hélène, but Rose, not dead after all (in fact, living in Montreal with a pretty wealthy husband!) The brief holiday is full of surprises, drama, love, friendship, and... Hélène catches the eye of a handsome young man who works at Club Mickey, a Disney-themed seaside park for the kids. And after all, having an impotent husband, as nice as he is, has gotten to her...A sweet story about recovering from the childhood trauma of the Holocaust and finding a way to once again celebrate life.

And that was the start of the big first weekend of SFJFF for me.

Total Running Time: 456 minutes
My Total Minutes: 404,071

Jason goes to Jewfest North--Day 2

I suppose I should be a little more professional (I do get press tickets here after all) and call it by its right name--the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Okay, this will be the only time I call it by my nickname for it. 

So anyway, I skipped opening night to catch the Thrillpeddlers' Club Inferno (and because the opening film will be playing later at a time that's convenient for me) but I was up at the Castro for a couple of films Friday night (ummmm...yeah, instead of Seder. I remember when this festival didn't play anything on Friday night, but that's beside the point.) A couple of good French films last Friday night.

THE ART DEALER is a story about art stolen from Jewish families by the Nazis prior to and during WWII. But it tells the story as a sort of crime thriller, with intrigue, mystery, and political obstruction. Esther's husband is an art dealer. He brings home a beautiful painting to research and appraise it. By sheer coincidence, her father is there and reacts to it. A little searching, and she finds out that this beautiful (and expensive) painting used to belong to her grandparents. And her searching leads to much more. Up to 200 paintings that were...well, maybe stolen, maybe (semi-)legally transferred to her great-uncle. The intrigue gets a little complicated, but it involves Nazis (of course) but also collaborators, and a French government that's unwilling and uninterested in settling the accounts and returning stolen art to the rightful heirs (in no small part because that art has ended up in some pretty famous museums.) As Esther digs further, sinister forces close around her, and threatens her family, career, sanity, and maybe even her life. A cool, neo-noir take on a fascinating issue of injustices long left unresolved.

And then ONCE IN A LIFETIME is a fresh take on the "inspiring teacher" genre. Madame Guégen has taught for 20 years, and for some reason she still likes it, despite an uncontrollable class who can bring a substitute teacher to tears. So she challenges them to take on an after-school project, to enter the annual contest about World War II and the Shoah sponsored by the French education ministry. The subject is the experience of children and adolescents in Nazi concentration camps. And her students don't know where to begin. Many are Muslim, and have a very different opinion of Jews, almost all are afraid of failure, and none of them work well with others. But sure enough, her persistence, patience, encouragement, and a little discipline transforms the kids. Which would all be kind of cliche, except that it's portrayed with such realism and sincerity. It definitely helps that Ahmed Dramé, who plays one of the students, actually lived this. The story is based on his experience, and it fosters a reality that makes it all work. It means that when they visit a Holocaust memorial or speak to a survivor, or are shocked by pictures they find...it's not just triggers for an emotional response in the audience, it's the reality of kids who haven't thought much about this history to wake up. Seeing a kid get angry when he finds out the French could've saved their Jewish children (the Germans really didn't want them) but didn't carries an intensity that probably wouldn't have worked as well if it didn't earn the realism by then. A very good film.

Total Running Time: 200 minutes
My Total Minutes: 403,616

Jason goes to Jewfest North--August 3rd

My one day at the Castro, and my last day at the festival. There were a lot of good movies at Jewfest this year, and I managed to see a fair number, but nowhere near the amount I usually see.

SALOMEA'S NOSE: This autobiograph-ish short tells the story of a family's "day of tragedy" when baby Salomea's brothers were playing around and accidentally broke her nose. And then in hiding from it, ended up injuring themselves as well. Life-long injuries to everyone all on the same day.

THE STURGEON QUEENS: That short was the lead in to this delightful documentary about multiple generations of famed New York smoked fish shop Russ & Daughters. Now I'm not a New Yorker, so I didn't know about this place in advance. But when the opening shot of the movie is Justice Ginsberg talking about her favorite fish from Russ & Daughters, I sit up and take notice. This place is apparently an institution there, surviving all the changes to the neighborhood. What in retrospect might seem like a forward thinking progressive step in naming the fish shop after the daughters (when everyone else was bringing their sons into the business and naming their shops as such) was really just a pragmatic business choice. Russ had no sons, and his daughters cut fish well (the standard, of course, is if you can read the New York Times through the lox.) That pragmatism carries through to the days where they hire a Latino to cut fish for their still predominantly Jewish customers. Two of the original daughters--100-year-old Hattie Russ Gold and 92-year-old Anne Russ Federman, the original "Sturgeon Queens"--are still alive and are absolutely adorable in the movie, as their grandchildren are now running the shop (and expanding into a cafe.) It seems every generation of Russes tries their hand at something else--lawyer, businessman, whatever--but they always seem to be drawn back to the store by some genetic magnet. And that continuity, even as the world changes, and they change along with it, is pretty cool. Although it's unthinkable that the original store would sell something called a Heebster Sandwich, I gotta say it sounds pretty damn delicious and the next time I'm in New York I'll have to try it out.

SOME VACATION: The next show started with this short, a funny, animated, autobiographical story of a father who combines a family vacation with his traveling salesman job.

HAVANA CURVEBALL: And the feature was a cool movie about charity, a mitzvah, and learning about other cultures and international politics. Bar Mitzvah boy Mica has a great idea. He heard about how poor Cubans were, and how much they loved baseball. He loves baseball too, and is dismayed to hear they don't have proper baseball gear there. So he organizes a drive to collect gear--bats, balls, gloves, etc.--and send them to a charity in Cuba. But he quickly learns it's not that easy. It's illegal to mail anything to Cuba from the United States. So his family takes a roadtrip to Canada. And he ships out the package...and he hears nothing from it. Now I have to stop and say his parents are filmmakers and this is their film, so maybe all of this doesn't happen if he didn't have such engaged parents who could recognize a great story. Anyway, it's a struggle to get any news from the Canadian mail, but he sticks with it. This is his project, and he'll see it through even if it means going to Cuba himself. Spoiler alert, he goes to Cuba. He meets his baseball-loving contemporaries there. He sees how they fight over the gear he brings. And it's beautiful...and confusing...and sometimes difficult. It's a great story of cross-cultural learning and coming-of-age at the same time.

EL CRITICO: Then it was time for a little clever light comedy. Víctor Tellez is a jaded film critic who especially despises the cliches of romantic comedy. So of course he falls in love and starts living all those ridiculous rom-com cliches--even a ridiculous run through the rain in a pretty hilarious climax. I also particularly liked how his reviews start going soft and he praises things that his colleagues would never like and so they tease him horribly. That's maybe a little too on the nose, but I can attest it's absolutely true.

LITTLE HORRIBLES: MINIBAR: And the final show started with this short, wherein our heroine has no self-control and bribes her little sister into taking blame for ransacking the minibar at the hotel where they're staying on vacation.

LITTLE WHITE LIE: And then the day ended with a really remarkable true-life oddity. Lacey Schwartz never questioned her identity growing up. She was a white, Jewish daughter of white, Jewish parents. It didn't really matter that her skin was dark. That was just because of her Sicilian great-grandfather, right? The thing is...she's pretty obviously black to look at her. And everyone treated her as black. And when she applied to Georgetown she was questioning it enough that she didn't check a box next to any race but sent a picture...so they admitted her as a black student. Sure enough, when she confronts her mom (after she and her father were divorced) she admitted to an affair with a black family friend who was undoubtedly her father. That's a good 45 minutes into the movie (ummm...I guess I should've said SPOILER ALERT!) Anyway, it's a fascinating story of race, identity, and most of all a family that really, really, has a hard time communicating.

Total Running Time: 302 minutes
My Total Minutes: 369,044

Jason goes to Jewfest North--Tuesday, July 29

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

Jason goes to Jewfest North--Monday, July 28th

I missed the opening weekend of this year's San Francisco Jewish Film Festival due to other commitments, but I was in Palo Alto (just a block away from my job) for two films Monday evening.

ABOVE AND BEYOND: THE BIRTH OF THE ISRAELI AIR FORCE. This was a fascinating documentary about the early days of Israel, the Arab nations set to attack them, and the small rag-tag bunch of foreign volunteers--all of them WWII veterans--who formed the Israeli Air Force. Plots to smuggle planes into the country, planes fixed up practically by chewing gum and baling wire, and missions more dangerous than any they faced in the great war. This is just a really cool, exciting story, and the survivors are really engaging, wonderful people (especially the guy who swears all the time. He was definitely the star.)

THE SECRET LIFE OF URI GELLER: PSYCHIC SPY? So...this movie is completely tainted for me because I had recently seen AN HONEST LIAR: THE AMAZING RANDI STORY. And Randi spent a great deal of effort debunking Uri Geller. So for me, the question of whether Uri Geller was secretly a psychic spy working for the CIA (or Mossad, or both) is irrelevant--I already believe he's a fraud who was exposed by the Amazing Randi. In fact, I have no doubt that the CIA or Mossad approached him, and he did some "work" for him...I just think his work was bullshit. This movie even mentions Geller's infamous failure on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. They mention that the show hired a "stage magician" (Randi, of course, although IIRC he volunteered his services, the show didn't hire him.) who manipulated the props to stymie Geller. But the movie presents that as some sort of immoral chicanery on their part, not as pretty solid evidence that Geller is a fraud. But I suppose that's just the take of the movie--Geller is a very interesting character, and I doubt they could have gotten so many interviews with him if it was all about debunking him. Instead, we see Geller relish in the sort of 'I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you' moments. It's obvious that he's a great showman, loves being the center of attention, and that claiming to be authentic is a big part of fame. It's unfortunate that it's not as obvious that he's nothing more than a very gifted stage magician.

Total Running Time: 179 minutes
My Total Minutes: 367,973

Jason goes to SFJFF--Thursday, August 8th

And that's it for me. The festival continued a few more days in other venues (the Grand Lake in Oakland, the Rafael Film Center, etc.) but I was done as of two Thursdays ago.

First up I saw OUT IN THE DARK, a drama, thriller, and gay love story set in Tel Aviv and the occupied territories. Nimr is a Palestinian and a grad student in Tel Aviv with a promising future ahead of him. He's also gay, and he takes the big chance of going dancing in a gay Tel Aviv nightclub. Well, that gets him on the radar of the police. Not that it's illegal to be gay, but it's great blackmail material--become an informant or his student visa will be revoked and he'll have to go back home...and if anyone back home finds out about his dalliances, he's as good as dead. In Israel, even in liberal Tel Aviv, he's an outsider viewed with suspicion for being Palestinian. Back home in the occupied territory, he has to keep his lifestyle a secret. And his only friend (and lover) is Roy, a sweet kid from a wealthy family who thinks he--with the help of his father's connections--can solve anything. It's a tense and provocative story about a very difficult situation.

And finally, I ended my time at the festival with THE STRANGE CASE OF WILHELM REICH. Reich was a German-born psychoanalyst, controversial in Germany first for his explicit dealings with sexuality (specifically, the negative effects of sexual repression) and then for being Jewish...at the wrong time to be Jewish in Germany. But the movie only touches on that briefly, and really focuses on the later years of his life, when he lives in America and is a controversial experimental scientist...or crackpot...or both. He invented and marketed a box that if you spent time in it it would increase your vitality and potency. But it's just a box. Maybe similar to a sensory deprivation tank today. He also experimented in controlling the weather, and had a machine that allegedly could make it rain. He seems to be the kind of guy who in a sane world would be a harmless kook, maybe taking some money from some suckers (for the record, the movie depicts him as completely sincere in his beliefs and research and it shows some success stories from his work) but pretty much harmless. But this wasn't a sane world, this was 1950's American Red Scare paranoia-land. So he's hauled into court over trumped-up charges, and foolishly chooses to defend himself. Well, his life is a matter of public record, so it's no spoiler to say that he was pretty much doomed. But his influence in psychology is still remarkable and while his physical research into "orgone" and cloudbusting might be the work of a crackpot, the shock therapy and lobotomization common in mainstream psychiatry that persecuted him at the time is significantly more damaging.

Total Running Time: 207 minutes
My Total Minutes: 336,944

Jason goes to SFJFF--Wednesday, August 7th

I'm way behind on this blog, so here goes. With a couple of weeks ago Wednesday, still at the SF Jewish Film Festival.

First up I saw JOE PAPP IN FIVE ACTS. Now I'm not a New Yorker, so I didn't actually know Joe Papp before this movie. He was a theater man in New York. But not just any theater man, he was the founder of the New York Public Theater. He brought Shakespeare to Central Park, he did it for free, and he got famous actors to appear in it. He was also a communist who got caught up in the Red Scare. And he was a secret Jew, only coming out and admitting he was Jewish when rabbis complained about the anti-semitism in The Merchant of Venice. And he became a powerful Broadway producer, with huge hits such as Hair and A Chorus Line. The movie itself is a fun, breezy, fast-paced affair that starts with plenty of hero worship but doesn't shy away from some less flattering portrait later in his life, when perhaps he becomes too isolated from his success. But this isn't a movie to dwell on how power corrupts. It's more about the incredibly charismatic and dedicated man who became so powerful in the first place.

And then I stuck around for ALIYAH, a deliberately-paced story of an aimless young French man. Alex deals a little drugs, he fixes his brother's problems, he...wanders through life. Then his cousin Nathan visits from Israel, and tells him of his grand plan to open a restaurant in Israel. Alex sees an opportunity out of his doldrums. But there are complications. First, he needs money to buy into the restaurant so he increases his dealing a bit. Second, he meets a new woman, and she might just be interesting enough to keep him in town. Aliyah is the word for Jewish immigration to Israel, and this is a particularly ambiguous kind of immigration story. Unfortunately, I found it kind of slow and boring. But maybe that's just me.

Total Running Time: 172 minutes
My Total Minutes: 336,737

Jason goes to SFJFF--Tuesday, August 6th

Another night, another two movies. And last Tuesday night started with a real treat, 3 episodes of season 4 of ARAB LABOR. I first got into this popular Israeli comedy last year when I saw three episodes of season 3 at this festival. Since then I bought season 1 and have season 2 and 3 on the way.

In season 4, Amjad is out of work, being unable to capitalize on his recent fame on Big Brother. Plus his wife Bushra is pregnant...and he reacts incorrectly to that news. So he finds himself living out of a tent, inadvertently leading a protest movement, and a star again. That is parlayed into a new position as a consultant on Arab affairs...only one problem, he's so modern and liberal he has no idea how Arabs react to anything. Meanwhile Meir and his wife (remember, he's Jewish she's an Arab--they're very modern and liberal) are also out of work. To make ends meet they might have to move to the Arab neighborhood. But he loves her and after some time in a tent is convinced to do that. Or one step further--move to the occupied territory. Which is difficult until the Jewish telecom company thinks he's a brave lone settler and they hook up phone lines and Internet access, which all his Arab neighbors are happy to share. Turns out this unwelcome Jew was actually a miracle. As funny as always (and my cousin can attest that it's funny even if you jump into the middle of it) and of course it pushes a lot of hot buttons.

And then I saw THE LAST SENTENCE, A Swedish biopic about journalist and editor Torgny Segerstedt. Shot in beautifully photographed black and white it tells the story of a brave man and his few friends who stood up to Hitler. Sweden was officially neutral in the war, but those in power basically rolled over for the occupying Germans. But not Torgny, he and his magazine attacked the Nazis in print with the combination of wit an anger the times called for. As the powers that be clamp down on him more, he continues to print (or in one piece of brilliance, prints a headline only (about the death camps) and leaves a blank space where the objectionable article was.) While war throws his country into chaos, he is haunted by the ghosts of women in his life--his mother and his (Jewish) mistress. The movie is long (running just over 2 hours) and as I'm not a Swede I didn't get all the references there. But the choice of black and white was perfect, the cinematography was gorgeous, and the final scene was poignant and brilliant. (SPOILER ALERT: An ill and aged Torgny gets confirmation that Hitler is dead, then allows himself to die. That's the last sentence) An excellent look at a man whom he and his friends saw as a valiant knight riding into a battle against existential evil armed with nothing more than a pen.

Total Running Time: 204 minutes

My Total Minute: 336,565

Jason goes to SFJFF--Monday, August 5th

Two more shows a week ago Monday.

First up, the short documentary AFTER. An alternately haunting and mundane look at prepping Auschwitz for the daily tourists.

And then the feature, THE CUTOFF MAN. Moshe Ivgy, arguably Israel's greatest actor, is excellent as the quiet, desperate man. His job is to cutoff the water to people who can't pay, hence the title. It also puts him in position to be hated by those people, and so he is cut off in that way. And when the government decides that with local elections upcoming you don't want to piss off any voters so they suspend any cutoffs,...he's out of a job. Which is too bad, because he's got a lot of drinking to do...oh, and a wife...and a kid that's about to go in the army. Ivgy is always fascinating to watch, and as always does a great job. The movie itself is slow...very slow. If you like that, I suppose it's good. For me, I was often bored.

Then the second show of the night was IN THE SHADOW, a really cool film noir set in Prague in 1953. Hakl  is the best detective on the force, and when a seemingly ordinary jewelry store smash-and-grab gets taken over by State Security, he gets a little miffed and a little curious. As it turns out, the ex-SS East German in charge of the investigation is an expert at rooting out criminal behavior by Jews who are funneling money to Israel. So maybe that's what he finds...whether that's what really happened or not. Great drama and suspense, and just dripping with noir genre sensibilities--even the opening scene has the classic trench-coated figure in a dark alleyway lit only by the glow of his cigarette--classic! I can see why this was the official Czech entry to the 2013 Academy Awards.

Total Running Time: 189 minutes
My Total Minutes: 336,361

Jason goes to SFJFF--Sunday, August 4

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival moved south to Palo Alto (and East to Berkeley, but who cares about that?) last Saturday, and I...was busy elsewhere (Go Quakes!) But I was there for a full day on Sunday--four movies.

First up was FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED, which I saw with my first cousin once removed who lives in Palo Alto. Director Alan Berliner, this year's Freedom Of Expression Award recipient, turns the camera on his family, specifically Edwin Honig, his cousin once removed who was a celebrated poet and translator (knighted by the king of Spain) but who is now wasting away from Alzheimer's dementia--hence the "once removed" takes on a double meaning. Honig gave him permission (when it first started setting in) to record the process, and the result is this movie. Several times it's a little difficult to watch (especially when his deepest memory--of his 3 year old little brother dying while running after him across the street--surfaces) and we were warned before the movie that this would be the case. But I found it surprisingly funny. Late in the movie Berliner tells Honig he's proud of how he (Honig) "never stopped being a poet." And that is very true. No matter how much Honig forgets, no matter how many times he has to be reminded of who Berliner or other family members are, he always has a love of playing with words. Even when he can't form a rhyme more complicated than "Up, down, and all around" there's a joy in just saying those words. Or at the very end, when he's not even verbal, there's a beat to his grunts and moans that...works. Don't get me wrong, Alzheimer's is horrible, and this movie shows it. But it also shows that there's some core to our sense of self, that we're more than the sum of our memories. Or, if we live our whole lives thinking we're the sum of our memories, what is left when our memories are taken away? Because there's still something there, and it's pretty amazing.

Next up was THE ZIGZAG KID, the opening night film of the festival but I waited until it was conveniently down south. It's a funny, exciting, sprawling action-comedy about Nono, the police inspector's son who always seems to get into trouble. After his latest antics ruin a friend's bar mitzvah, he is sent to live with his boring, strict uncle. But a mysterious letter left in his luggage sends him on a wild adventure with his new mentor. An adventure that pairs him up with the world's greatest thief (who always leaves a zig-zag charm in place of the treasure he steals, hence the title.) And one that sends him in search of a famous singer. And it sends him on a search to discover his past. But let's not get too serious, this movie is about pure fun. Adventure, crime, romance, and discovery. Very cool.

Then we switched gears again for SOLDIER ON THE ROOF, a verite-style documentary about Jewish settlers in Hebron on the West Bank. Filmmaker Esther Hertog lived with the settlers for three years, and the result is this movie. She steps back and lets the settlers tell their own story. We see them talk about faith, about the importance of this land (it's the site of Abraham's tomb) and about the wonderful Jewish community they have there. And they talk about how much they hate their Arab neighbors. Jewish kids throw rocks at them and taunt them to retaliate, knowing that the soldiers will step in and save them. The soldiers know this, too, and they're really interesting. They see their job as keeping the peace, and they know usually the Jews are the instigators (especially the children) and they actually work pretty hard to be fair and reasonable...up to a point. They're still there to protect the Jewish settlers, but more importantly to keep things from escalating and erupting. Not using force is the goal. On the Arab side...well, it's hard not to feel sympathy for them, but they do push back in their own way. In the opening scene one old Jew is trying to show a hillside view of the city for the camera. Arabs come, insist they have a right to stand there, too, and constantly block him from view and chant over what he's trying to say. And I know that's pretty minor compared to what they put up with, but it just comes off as a dick move on their part. Ultimately, everyone gets to show what they are, and it's not that pretty on either side, but it is fascinating.

And finally, I ended the day with ALL IN, a romantic comedy from Argentina (by the way, that's quite a few mood swings--documentary about a guy deteriorating from Alzheimer's, kid's adventure-comedy, documentary about Jewish West Bank settlers, and romantic comedy. A tip of my cap to the programmer who came up with that.) Uriel is a single father of two who runs the family finance company. He's also an accomplished ladies man, and an excellent poker player. After all, they both take the same skill--bluffing. But when he runs into his old girlfriend Gloria they rekindle what they had, and it's nice...except that he tells a few lies that will come back to haunt him--like that he's a show promoter who is working on reuniting their old favorite band. See, he also has a habit of making promises that he doesn't quite keep (like getting his daughter a fish after he bought her fish tank.) But with some fast talking, quick thinking, and the help of a punk-rock rabbi, he might just make everything work. Very funny.

Total Running Time: 366 minutes
My Total Minutes: 336,172

Jason goes to SFJFF--Castro Closing Night

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival bid farewell to it's main venue for another year last Thursday night. The festival continues for over a week, but it's not at the Castro anymore. I was there for the "Closing Night" feature (less than halfway into the festival.)

RUE MANDAR is a French-Jewish comedy about tradition, family, and remembering where you came from (that sounds so Jewish it would belong in the festival even if the characters weren't Jews.) When the widowed matriarch of the family passes away, all her children show up. They muddle through the Jewish funeral service--it's clear none of them are religious. Then they set about dealing with their loss in different ways. The centerpiece of their grief and strife is the old apartment on Rue Mandar--the street where they grew up. Do they keep it or sell it? Do they renovate it? Or--as it so happens--do they all go a little insane? One decides all this apartment talk--and thoughts of life passing him by--has convinced him to renovate his own apartment. He and his wife have talked about it, but that didn't mean she was ready for a Polish construction crew to barge in while she was still in her bathrobe having breakfast. One daughter is a psychiatrist, who just stops listening to her patients. Some want to hold on to the place--and the memories--while one clears the place out and has a "mourning special" street sale of all the stuff.

They say comedy is very culturally based, and hence doesn't play well in foreign territories. And I confess there were times I was perplexed by situations and what seemed to be a leisurely pace. But there was enough universality (or Jew-niversality?) in this that I quite enjoyed it.

And that was SFJFF at the Castro. Now for a week in Palo Alto (just a half block from my work) and the festival is over...for me...for another year.

Running Time: 95 minutes
My Total Minutes: 335,806

Jason goes to SFJFF--Wednesday July 31

I was back at the Castro for two more SFJFF movies last Wednesday, starting with the highest-selling show in the history of the festival.

First up was the short SHANGHAI STRANGERS by Joan Chen. I had already seen it at CAAMFest, and here's what I wrote then:

SHANGHAI STRANGERS, directed by Joan Chen. Christmas Eve, Shanghai. A brief power outage, a British man and a Chinese woman get to talking. He compliments her child, she reveals something to him that she's never told anyone. But somehow this stranger is just the right person to take her confession.

Yeah, that's all true but I skipped right over the Jewish content. Her confession is about an affair she had with a man whom she was showing an old apartment--an apartment with ties to the Jews who lived in Shanghai in the middle of the 20th century. In fact, Shanghai--a war torn city that people were fleeing from--kept taking in Jewish refugees long after all other ports refused them. A pretty powerful and beautifully shot movie.

And then the feature, AMERICAN JERUSALEM: JEWS AND THE MAKING OF SAN FRANCISCO. San Francisco has a large--and largely secular--Jewish community. But it doesn't have a "Jewish" neighborhood. That's because the Jewish community came with the origins of San Francisco--as part of the 1849 gold rush. And Jews--often fleeing German kingdoms that were passing laws against them--stayed in San Francisco at twice the rate of any other group. And they were the merchants (most notably, Levi Strauss) who supplied the gold miners. Sure, they came to find gold, too, but as they were reduced to being merchants back in Europe (many places had banned Jews from owning land, so they couldn't farm) they knew just what the fast-growing tent city on the port of San Francisco needed. And the Jews there were also generally secular--young, male, and embarking on a difficult journey where keeping kosher was near impossible. So that character informed the nature of San Francisco Jews--secular and completely integrated...white, even. And the movie doesn't shy away from that. The San Francisco Jews were just as guilty as anyone of racism against the Chinese laborers. Or when Eastern European Jews fleeing pogroms arrived around the turn of the century, the established Jewish community pretty much forced them to integrate and hide their Jewishness. The movie doesn't avoid these episodes, but they're overshadowed by the heroic stories of Jewish leaders. And I should say that none of them were bigger, more iconic, and more American-Dream-heroic than Adolph Sutro, the self-made millionaire who became the first Jewish mayor of a major American city, and is enough of a dominant, charismatic character that he should have his own movie just about him.

Then we were treated to a short concert by Crystal Monee Hall (currently the front woman for the Mickey Hart Band) exploring the jazzy roots of Amy Winehouse's music. And that lead into the film (originally made for Irish TV) AMY WINEHOUSE: THE DAY SHE CAME TO DINGLE. Dingle is a tiny town on the coast of Ireland that invites artists to perform in their church in front of dozens of people. The ones who choose to come usually end up loving it, and the town is awfully fond of talking about how living on the edge of the known world tends to inspire artists. Anyway, Amy Winehouse came there and gave what some regard as her greatest performance ever, and it was caught on tape. The film is about 3/4  performance (including both Amy Winehouse live in Dingle and archive footage of her self-described influences) and 1/4 interviews and people talking about her, her music, and her personality. For all the tabloid hype that was going on around her, everybody talked about how professional, courteous, and down-to-earth she was. I have to admit I never really paid attention to her until she passed away, but I've listened to her music since and she's pretty damn good. And this was a great look at her.

Total Running Time: 137 minutes
My Total Minutes: 335,711

Jason goes to SFJFF--Tuesday, July 30

I'm falling a little behind in this blog. Time to recover before I spend a week watching the films is Palo Alto.

Last Tuesday I was back at the Castro for the Centerpiece presentation of THE ATTACK by Ziad Doueiri. It's a story of Arab assimilation into Israel, being the "model Arab," and how things can fall apart so easily. Amin Jaafari is a Palestinian, an Israeli, and a widely respected and admired surgeon in Tel Aviv. In fact, as the movie opens he's getting a humanitarian award--the first Arab to receive this particular award ever. Then when a suicide bomber goes off in Tel Aviv he springs into action saving as many of the victims as he can (many women and children.) He's still a hero...until evidence appears linking his wife to the attack. He can't believe it. When her body is found with the lower half blown away--typical of suicide bombers--he still can't believe it. When the police take him away, torture him, show him evidence that she was involved...he still can't believe it. And without giving away too many spoilers, I'll just say his own investigation leads him to a very different perspective on his (previously) comfortable Tel Aviv lifestyle. It's a challenging movie--both with the unflinching scenes of violence and its aftermath, but in the societal questions it brings up. It doesn't give answers, it leaves that to the audience. But it does a great job of framing both sides of the issue.

And then I stuck around for AFTERMATH, a controversial film from Poland about anti-Semitism. Polish-American Józef Kalina returns home from Chicago after his dad passes away. He's back in his small Polish town for the first time in 20 years. Things have changed, and nothing more than how hated his brother Franciszek is. Seems Franciszek has been engaging in some behavior that has pissed off the town. He shrugs it off, and eventually we learn what he has done. He has dug up stones that were used to pave an old road. Specifically, he has dug up old gravestones. More specifically, he dug up old Jewish gravestones, that the Nazis dug up in the week that they occupied the town during the war. At first Józef doesn't understand why Franciszek is putting himself up for so much abuse just for those "Yids." And Franciszek can't really explain, other than he felt compelled to do it just out of human dignity. He's made a small memorial in his field out of the gravestones. As Józef starts to join in on the project he also starts digging up the history of the town. And in particular, their shameful history towards the Jews during WWII. Not to give too much away, but it quickly becomes apparent that the worst atrocities in town weren't committed by the Germans but by the locals. And the Kalina family was heavily involved. Another challenging movie, and one that's remarkable not just for its message about troubling history, but about the casual anti-Semitism that still persists. A friends pointed out that Poland is often characterized as "Anti-Semitism without any Jews." According to AFTERMATH, that's a pretty accurate description.

Total Running Time: 209 minutes
My Total Minutes: 335,574

Jason goes to the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival--Sunday, July 28

I'm not going quite as all-out crazy as I have in the past at this festival. In fact, it opened last Thursday night but I didn't get up to the city to see anything until Sunday. But at least I had a full day of five films.

I started with AN AMERICAN TAIL, Don Bluth's 1986 animated film about the immigrant experience, set in the world of mice. This movie came out when I was 12, and it was a big part of my childhood. I must have watched it dozens of times on video with my brothers and sisters. Oddly enough I never saw any of the sequels. Or maybe not so odd, since when Fievel went west (as promised at the end of the first movie) in 1991 I was 17, and had undoubtedly outgrown such childish entertainment. I didn't even know there were two more direct-to-video sequels and a short lived (one season) TV show until I looked it up on IMDb just now. If I decide to become obsessed, I could spend a lot of time immersing myself in the adventures of Fievel Mousekewitz. Or perhaps the sequels could become part of a future SFJFF? They do want more family programming....

Anyway, back on topic. While I had seen it so many times as a child, I don't think I really ever paid much attention or cared about the Jewish content. I just knew it was a story about American immigration, and I guess I knew in the back of my mind that they were fleeing a pogrom in Russia. I don't know why that didn't resonate more with me at the time, since one side of my family does go back to Russian Jews who immigrated to America. It sure resonates now. I also didn't think too much about what it had to say about the American immigrant experience. I was still naively believing that America is the Land of Opportunity™ and saw Fievel's struggle--getting separated from his family, preyed upon by crooks, captured by cats, etc.--as just the drama necessary for a good story. Looking at it now, it has a lot to say about the over-hyped promise of America (they sing a whole song about how there are no cats in America,) how short it falls from that promise (spoiler alert: There are cats in America,) and how America really is still the Land of Opportunity. It's just not a land where success is easy, but if you stick to and never say never, you will succeed here. Darn it, this movie might just make a patriot out of me yet.

Next up, and sticking with the theme of the Jewish American immigrant story being the story of America, I saw BROADWAY MUSICALS: A JEWISH LEGACY. This film has already played on PBS and is available online, but it was so much more fun to see it on the big Castro screen with a community of like-minded people (whether that community is Jews, movie fans, musical fans, or whatever.) It opens with David Hyde Pierce singing a song from Spamalot "You Won't Succeed On Broadway" (if you don't have any Jews.) That's the tone of the movie--light, funny, self-mocking,...lots of fun. But it also makes a pretty interesting and insightful argument. That Musical Theater is a uniquely American art form. That Jewish artists thrived there (and still do.) That their perspective--as outsiders in the melting pot of America--informs a great deal of their stories, even when there's no overt Jewish content. And that a whole lot of Jewish musical influences--klezmer and cantorial--hidden in musicals. I'm pretty dumb about music in general (now my sister, she's the master musician,) but I got a kick out of learning that the line "It Ain't Necessarily So" in PORGY & BESS is to a tune lifted from a common chant in Jewish worship. Or pointing out how "Rhapsody in Blue" starts with a klezmer clarinet, and mergers classical, jazz, klezmer, and blues beautifully. Or how the biggest exception to the rule--Cole Porter--had meager success starting out until he figured out he had to write "Jew music" (meaning more minor chords.) Or how the first draft of WEST SIDE STORY was actually EAST SIDE STORY and about Jews and Catholics instead of Puerto Ricans. Or, finally, the runaway success of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (by the way, I know it's kind of poor form to promote another festival in this coverage, but check this out!) Plus clips from CABARET, THE PRODUCERS (playing at the SFJFF a week from Sunday.) Plus how could I forget about Irving Berlin, the Jewish immigrant who wrote "God Bless America" as well as one of the most beloved Christmas song ("White Christmas") and Easter Song ("Easter Parade")--if that's not a success story of immigration and assimilation, I don't know what is. And there's tons more, I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of important contributors, but I only have so much time to write, and you shouldn't be wasting so much time reading this anyway. Go online or turn on PBS and just watch the movie.

Next we got into some serious fare, with HANNAH ARENDT (opening Friday at the Opera Plaza and Shattuck theaters.) In a flashback scene, Hannah asks her mentor/lover Martin Heidegger to teach her to think. He responds by warning her that "thinking is a very lonely business." And that is certainly true, but doesn't stop her from becoming one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. The loneliness probably started after Heidegger joined the Nazi party, but the movie takes place much later, after she escaped to France, was put in an internment camp, escaped, and moved to New York. In fact, it takes place in 1961, during and immediately after the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Hannah, now a respected professor and famous for her book "The Origins of Totalitarianism" offers her services to the New Yorker to cover Eichmann's trial (shown in news footage, I don't think they ever use an actor to play Eichmann, which is an interesting choice that works very well.) The editorial scenes at the New Yorker offer some comic relief, as they debate over whether she should have come begging to write for the New Yorker, like everyone else. But she goes, she observes the trial, she is restless over what she saw, and finally writes her piece, where she famously coined the phrase "the banality of evil." That Eichmann was evil not because of some sinister demon, but because he abdicated his responsibility to think. I'm sure I'm doing a bad job of explaining it. And an equally important part is her criticism of some Jewish leaders during the Holocaust. Well, her writing sparked an enormous backlash against her, which is the backbone of the movie. It's really a remarkable achievement, making a nearly 2-hour movie that's all about thinking. And it doesn't back away from it--sure there's human emotion and drama, but at it's core it really is about her ideas and about the power of thinking--and thoughtlessness. Thinking might be a lonely business, but not thinking is pure evil in its most banal form.

Next up we had a pretty cool event. We were introduced to Gideon Raff, the creator of the Israeli TV show, PRISONERS OF WAR (HATUFIM.) He also adapted that show into an American TV show--you might have heard of it, it's called HOMELAND.

Now I have to confess I've never seen HOMELAND. I've heard it's great, and now I do want to see it, but I just don't watch a lot of TV, I'm too busy watching movies in my free time. But we did get to watch the first episode of PRISONERS OF WAR on the big screen, and it was pretty cool. It starts with a deal, mediated in Germany, to release 3 (2 alive, 1 dead) Israeli POWs. This is a major difference in the American version, as Gideon explained--Israel does negotiate the release of their captured soldiers, America doesn't, so it had to open with a military operation to free them. Outside the airport, there is cheering and celebrating and waving of "Bring Them Home" banners. Inside they briefly meet the Prime Minister and then are reunited with their family in a quiet, emotional visit. They are told that soon they will be taken to a facility to get reprogrammed and re-assimilated into society after 17 years of captivity, but tonight they get to spend with their families. And this is just the start--nightmares, confusion, a daughter who is disrespectful after growing up without a father. A wonderful and intriguing start of something that I can already assume will be more about the lasting emotional  turmoil of captivity than the action-thriller genre elements. I'd definitely like to see more of that.

Then, as I alluded to above, we had a discussion with Gideon about adapting PRISONERS OF WAR to HOMELAND, and that discussion featured side-by-side clips of similar scenes from each show. It was very interesting, and clearly wasn't just a matter of setting the dialogue in Israel or America. There are many differences--subtle and unsubtle--between the two versions (as there are differences between the two countries.) A very interesting talk, and it gives me two new shows I should check out.

And finally, I ended the night with the film that puts the "-ish" in Jewish. One can argue the Jewish content of THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI (there isn't much) or whether it belongs in a festival simply on the merit of director Bill Siegel being a self-described "Husker Du Jew" (if I spelled that right. I have no idea what it means.) I don't care, it's a good movie about a fascinating man and how society changed around him. It opens with Ron Suskind on TV telling Muhammad Ali (via satellite) that he's a felon (for declaring himself a conscientious objector and refusing to be drafted to Vietnam) and then quickly cuts to Ali receiving the Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush in 2005. We sure have changed around him. He's gone from a time when stubborn sports writers and broadcasters would still call him Cassius Clay despite his constant objections to his "slave name" to a time when kids might ask "Who was Cassius Clay?" But everyone knows Muhammad Ali. We've gone from a time when the Nation of Islam was seen as a radical branch and traditional Islam was seen as peaceful to a time when the Nation of Islam is seen as the more peaceful, Americanized version of Islam, not the version the "terrorists" practice. This movie is about us--the society that changed around (and because of?) Muhammad Ali--more than it is about him. But it's also still very much about him. And particularly, the "trials" alluded to in the title--from him embracing the Nation of Islam (and the ensuing criticism,) his name change, and especially his refusal to fight in Vietnam. How he held firm while he was stripped of his title and banned from boxing. How to survive he learned to be a public speaker (considering he was almost as famous for his mouth as his punch, it's really interesting to see footage of his early, awkward attempts at public speaking.) And the narrow legal ruling where the Supreme Court eventually exonerated him and granted him conscientious objector status--well, that was pretty laughable. A fascinating story, especially from a young-ish (hell, if this movie is Jewish, I'm youngish!) guy who only knew Muhammad Ali as an icon and role model, and didn't know the time when he was hated and feared.

THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI has been picked up by Kino Lorber for a theatrical run in the fall, so watch for it! Then watch for it to come to Independent Lens on PBS.


And that was it. I initially planned on seeing a sixth show, LIES IN THE CLOSET with the short SUMMER VACATION but I was just physically beat. And I knew I had to get up early for work on Monday, and staying would mean the difference between getting home to San Jose around 11:00 pm or 1:00 am. So I'm sure I missed a couple of great movies--probably the best in the festival--and I almost never do this, but I was beat and I made the right decision for myself.

Total Running Time: 437 minutes
My Total Minutes: 335,365