New Filmmakers at Jewish Film Fest
The annual "New Filmmakers' Weekend" comes to the Jewish Film Festival, with top talent in attendance.
New Filmmakers at Jewish Film Fest
Steven Rea, Inquirer Movie Columnist and Critic
Year in and year out, a key component of the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival has been its “New Filmmakers Weekend” series. And for PJFF 29, this is that weekend: From Saturday through Monday, May 1-3, eight entries will be screened, accompanied by their respective directors. It’s a chance to see a diverse and dynamic range of work, from docs to drama, comedies to controversy. Among the titles in the program:
HAG: The Story of the Hasidic Actors’ Guild, a serio-comic mix of truth and fiction centering around – and directed by – Yisrael “Izzi” Lifschutz, who has acted in and/or consulted for Stranger Among Us, A Price Above Rubies, the indie hit Pi and other films.
B-2247: A Granddaughter’s Understanding, a short in which filmmaker Sara Greenberg travels to Eastern Europe with her grandparents, survivors of the Holocaust, to witness and remember the world they lived in.
Off And Running, screened at the 2009 Q-Fest, comes from Philadelphian Nicole Opper, one of Filmmaker magazine’s 25 new faces to watch. Her docfollows an African-American girl adopted by two Jewish lesbians, and the girl’s struggle to find the balance between her biological and cultural identities.
Nymphs In The Mist, Israeli director Yoram Sachs rom-com, about a broken-hearted video store clerk who gets talked into making a movie -- as a way to meet lots of cute Tel Aviv women and take his mind off of the girl who left him. Sachs will be on hand to explain himself. For complete schedule and ticket info, go to www.pjff.org, or call 215-545-4400.
The reel “Robin Hood.”
Steven Rea's previous blog posts can be found here. Read his most recent columns and reviews, here. He also curates the movie stars and bicycling photo blog, Rides A Bike. Reach Steven at srea@phillynews.com.
