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17th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival At Walter Reade Theater
17TH ANNUAL NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
TO BE PRESENTED JANUARY 9 TO 24, 2008
BY FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER AND THE JEWISH MUSEUM
NEW YORK - The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center will present the 17th annual New York Jewish Film Festival, January 9 through 24, 2008. One of the longest running collaborations of two arts institutions in New York City, the festival will take place at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, 165 West 65th Street, with several screenings at The Jewish Museum, Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street.
Presenting 32 dramas, documentaries, and shorts, this year’s festival highlights the range of challenging and insightful topics informing the Jewish experience. A young boy discovers a family secret; an Orthodox Jewish immigrant from Russia is drawn to the boxing ring; a young army commander makes a vain attempt to protect his troops from Hezbollah missiles and low morale; a father mysteriously vanishes in Jerusalem; a multi-generational family of bakers wins the hearts and stomachs of a community; an unusual friendship forms between a Muslim nurse and her elderly Jewish patient. “If one thing unites these films,” says Aviva Weintraub, associate curator and director of the festival, “it is the great variety embodied in the festival’s offerings. We have films about and from Jewish communities around the world–including Israel, Latin America, Europe, and the U.S.–representing work by well-established directors as well as emerging filmmakers.”
In addition to presenting one world premiere, ten U.S. premieres, and twelve New York premieres, this year’s festival honors the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel by showcasing ten Israeli films, eight of which are being screened in New York for the first time. The festival also pays homage to the late Austrian director Axel Corti. “We showed his Young Doctor Freud at the Museum a number of years ago and the response was tremendous,” Weintraub explains. “We wanted to share more of his extraordinary films with our audience, and so we organized this small tribute to him.” Three of the four Corti films in the festival focus on the period surrounding World War II. “They reveal his acute appreciation for the presence–and later absence–of Jews in 20th-century European history,” Weintraub says.
Most films will be shown at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center; two documentaries will be screened at The Jewish Museum: Praying With Lior, a film by Ilana Trachtman about a young man with Down syndrome preparing for his bar mitzvah; and the New York premiere of Making Trouble, a film about funny Jewish women across three generations.
“The range of work in this year’s New York Jewish Film Festival is especially impressive; films such as The Search for The Missing Piece, Villa Jasmin or Praying with Lior, among others, each confront complex issues in innovative, exciting ways,” says Richard Peña, program director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
The 17th annual New York Jewish Film Festival has been organized by a committee consisting of Rachel Chanoff, independent curator; Andrew Ingall, assistant curator, The Jewish Museum; Richard Peña, program director, Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Aviva Weintraub, associate curator and director of the New York Jewish Film Festival, The Jewish Museum.
Tickets for each screening are $11 for the general public; $7 for students (with valid photo ID); $7 for Film Society and Jewish Museum members. Monday through Friday before 6 pm, senior citizens with valid ID will be admitted for $7. Complete schedule and program information will be available online at www.thejewishmuseum.org and at www.filmlinc.com. Brochures can be requested by calling 212 423 3337.
The New York Jewish Film Festival is sponsored, in part, by The Martin and Doris Payson Charitable Foundation.
Additional support has been provided through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
Generous funding has also been provided by The Liman Foundation, The Jack and Pearl Resnick Foundation, Mimi and Barry Alperin, the Israel Office of Cultural Affairs in the USA, the French Embassy, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York and Mexicana Airlines.
11/29/07
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November 30th, 2007 at 12:04 pm