Work of nine nations in Jewish film festival

By JEWISH REVIEW

article created on: 2009-04-01T00:00:00

The 17th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival gets under way this month.

The festival, presented by the Institute for Judaic Studies and the Northwest Film Center, offers 12 films this year representing the work of directors in Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Israel, Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland and the United States.

The festival runs from April 16 to April 26, with no films being shown during the hours of Shabbat. All films will be screened at the Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum.

“This year’s festival is truly a Jewish journey, we’re going to take you from a bat mitzvah with the charming, star-struck Nelly to Amos Gitai’s gripping post-Shoah drama, starring the eternal Jeanne Moreau. In between, in locales from China to Paris, this festival sheds contemporary light on all the great Jewish themes: the strength of love and family, the blessing of survival, the entanglements of memory and the power of a really great show tune.”

The festival begins on a Thursday night this year with the German film “Max, Minsky and Me.” Over the ensuing opening weekend will come two Israeli films and a Kazakh-Russian-Polish-Israeli joint effort.

The following Monday the festival will present the Israeli film that many hoped would take away Israel’s first-ever Oscar this year for Best Foreign Language Film. “Waltz with Bashir” already had been named by the American National Society of Film Critics as the best overall picture of 2008, and it took the Golden Globe as best foreign language film.

Even the director who did win the Foreign Language Oscar—Yojiro Takita for “Departures”—acknowledged afterwards that “Waltz” had been the favorite from the outset.

Now Portlanders will have a second chance (the film ran commercially in Portland in January) to judge the film for themselves. A Michael Fox review of this startling animated film appears on this page.

The film treats a sensitive topic for Israel and Jews, the murder of hundreds of civilians by a Lebanese Christian militia group known as Phalangists at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in September 1982. The camps had been surrounded by IDF forces following the assassination of Phalangist leader and president-elect Bashir Gemayel. The IDF forces allegedly permitted the Phalangists to enter the camps.

Rabbi Joshua Stampfer will introduce this film.

The PJFF is a joint project of the Institute for Judaic Studies and the Northwest Film Center. Several Jewish organizations and individuals help to make the festival possible. This year those co-sponsors include Cedar Sinai Park, Congregation Neveh Shalom, Mittleman Jewish Community Center, Portland Jewish Academy, Aspen Mitzvah, Jerry and Helen Stern, Jim Winkler, Diane Solomon and the Jewish Review.

Individual film sponsors include Portland Center Stage, The Catholic Archdiocese of Portland and the MJCC.

Tickets for the film festival are priced at $7 for general admission and $6 for members of the Portland Art Museum where the films are screened. Festival passes at $50 this year are a bargain for those who want to see at least eight of the films. The pass also entitles the holder to express entry, no waiting in line.

Passes and tickets can be purchased on line at www.judaicstudies.org or by phone at 503-246-8861. Tickets may also be purchased at the door before performance times.
 
The Portland Art Museum is located at 1219 SW Park Ave.