San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 31

sponsors 2 special programs 4 Film Listings 12 panels & workshops 31 parties & special events 32 young adult picks 33

Calendar 34 Directions & Parking 37 SFJFF Year Round 38 jewish film forum membership 39 Acknowledgments 42 Ticket Information 48

20-Somethings

Comedy

French

Mothers & Sons

Connected Five Weddings and a Felony Jews in Toons Mary Lou Polish Bar Rabies Skate of Mind

Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish Five Weddings and a Felony Jews in Toons Life Is Too Long Mary Lou The Names of Love Rabies

The Names of Love Next Year in Bombay The Roundup Sarah’s Key

Intimate Grammar Mary Lou My Life with Carlos The Queen Has No Crown

Gay / Lesbian

Music & Performance

Mary Lou The Queen Has No Crown

Art & Architec ture

Coming of Age

Flawed Incessant Visions: Letters from an Architect Kun 65

Intimate Grammar Mabul (The Flood) The Matchmaker Starring David

100 Voices: A Journey Home In Another Lifetime Mary Lou Polish Bar

Animation

Drama

All Done and Dusted Connected Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish Flawed The Girl From a Reading Primer Grandpa Looked Like William Powell I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors Jews in Toons

Eichmann’s End In Another Lifetime Intimate Grammar Joanna The Juggler Little Rose Mabul (The Flood) The Matchmaker Polish Bar The Roundup Sarah’s Key Spartacus Tevye

Anti-Semitism

Bobby Fischer Against the World Eichmann’s End The Girl From a Reading Primer Joanna Little Rose Otto Frank, Father of Anne The Passion According to the Polish Community of Pruchnik Precious Life The Roundup Tevye Bay Area Interest

Between Two Worlds Connected Crime After Crime Incessant Visions: Letters From an Architect

Dysfunc tional Families

Bobby Fischer Against the World Intimate Grammar Life Is Too Long Mabul (The Flood) Mary Lou Phnom Penh Lullaby Polish Bar Former Soviet Union/Russia

Bobby Fischer Against the World

Holocaust & WWII

100 Voices: A Journey Home Eichmann’s End The Girl From a Reading Primer The Hangman I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors In Another Lifetime In Heaven Underground Joanna The Juggler Kun 65 Otto Frank, Father of Anne The Roundup Sarah’s Key Torn Israelis & Arabs

77 Steps Between Two Worlds Blood Relation The Hangman Precious Life Skate of Mind Trip to Jaffa Wajeh Literature & adaptations

An Encounter with Simone Weil Incessant Visions—Letters From an Architect Intimate Grammar Otto Frank, Father of Anne Sarah’s Key Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness Tevye

People of Color

Crime After Crime Next Year In Bombay Phnom Penh Lullaby Starring David Strangers No More Transparent Black Personal Documentaries

77 Steps Between Two Worlds Connected An Encounter with Simone Weil Five Weddings and a Felony My Life with Carlos Red Shirley The Queen Has No Crown Pol and

The Girl From a Reading Primer Inventory Joanna Little Rose The Passion According to the Polish Community of Pruchnik Phnom Penh Lullaby Red Shirley Rel ationships & Romance

Religion & Spiritualit y

100 Voices: A Journey Home Between Two Worlds Mabul (The Flood) Next Year in Bombay Starring David Torn Social Justice & Human Rights

Between Two Worlds Blood Relation Crime After Crime An Encounter with Simone Weil The Girl From a Reading Primer My Life With Carlos Phnom Penh Lullaby Precious Life Red Shirley Standing Silent Strangers No More Transparent Black Women

77 Steps Blood Relation Connected Crime After Crime An Encounter with Simone Weil Flawed The Girl From a Reading Primer Joanna Kun 65 Little Rose Red Shirley Sarah’s Key Yiddishkeit

100 Voices: A Journey Home Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness Tevye

77 Steps Five Weddings and a Felony Little Rose Mary Lou The Names of Love Skate of Mind 1

SpONsORS Presenting Sponsor

Business & Community Sponsors

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

F A M I L Y L A W G R O U P P. C .

Media Sponsors

Major Foundation & Government Support

COMMON COUNSEL FOUNDATION

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SpONsORS

FREE OUTDOOR SCREENING

In-Kind Sponsors

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY Pre-Festival Kickoff Event!

In partnership with Film Night in the Park Saturday, July 16, Union Square, San Francisco

SFJFF is proud to partner with Film Night in the Park again this year to bring a hearty helping of Jewish humor to the Square—this time, with a little drama on the side. Join us in downtown San Francisco’s Union Square for a free outdoor screening of the ultimate rom-com classic, When Harry Met Sally, directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron. Starring Billy Crystal as Harry Burns, the culturally Jewish everyman (arguably American cinema’s first), Meg Ryan as the sunny, vaguely neurotic shiksa Sally Albright, and featuring the most infamous Jewish deli scene in cinematic history (at New York’s famous Katz’s Delicatessen, no less), When Harry Met Sally asks the age-old question: can a straight man and woman truly ever be just friends?

Bring your own best friend/lover/life partner, your appetite for witty banter, and remember to pack a sweater or you’ll catch a chill. Don’t worry, we promise to respect you in the morning.

Saturday, July 16 In Union Square, San Francisco b/w Geary and Post Streets and Powell and Stockton Streets Film screens at dusk (approximately 8:45 pm) Free Admission

ABOUT FILM NIGHT IN THE PARK

Film Night in the Park, presented by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, is San Francisco’s premier outdoor film series. Films are presented in Dolores Park, Washington Square Park and Union Square on a giant outdoor screen. See www.filmnight.org for full schedule.

3 Art Direction & Design: Public Inc. www.publicdesign.com / Mende Design www.mendedesign.com

Opening Night

MABUL (THE FLOOD) north american Premiere Israel, Canada, France, Germany, 2011, 97 min., Hebrew w/ Eng. subtitles

Director: Guy Nattiv Screenwriter: Guy Nattiv, Noa Berman-Herzberg Editor: Tali Helter-Shenkar Cinematographer: Philippe Lavalette Principal Cast: Ronit Elkabetz, Tzahi Grad, Yoav Rotman, Michael Moshonov

Opening Night After-Film Bash

Celebrate more than 31 flavors of film with a fantastic array of delectable savory and sweet treats, flowing drinks, a feast of entertainment options and the best schmoozing in town at our Opening Night Bash, once again taking place after our Opening Night Film so that you can party into the night. Sway to the tunes of our musical guests upstairs in the Swedish American Hall, then flood into The Backroom to get festive with Yelp’s fun photo booth.

Thursday, July 21, from approximately 9–11 pm Swedish American Hall 2174 Market Street, between Church and Sanchez For full event details, including parking information, see page 32.

Opening Night is sponsored by a generous grant from Wells Fargo Tolstoy famously claimed that unhappy families are each uniquely unhappy—and, by extension, uniquely compelling. The makers of Mabul (The Flood), a heartfelt and exquisitely rendered drama from Israel, are destined to prove Tolstoy right. Director Guy Nattiv (codirector of Strangers, SFJFF’s opening night film in 2008), screenwriter Noa Berman-Herzberg and a brilliant cast bring such humanity and depth to this drama about a dysfunctional family that it took three top awards—including best Israeli feature—at the recent Haifa International Film Festival and six Ophir nominations (Israeli Academy Awards). The accolades are richly deserved.

On a tumble-down collective farm stretching along Israel’s Mediterranean coast, the Rosko family is quietly struggling to keep up appearances while hiding their sins, small and large, from one another. Miri (Ronit Elkabetz) teaches preschool and is having an affair; her husband Gidi (gruff Tzahi Grad), a crop-dusting pilot on the moshav, isn’t letting on that he’s been grounded and has been whiling away his days getting stoned. And their late-blooming son Yoni is practicing for his upcoming bar mitzvah, while pacifying the class bullies by selling them completed homework assignments behind the teachers’ backs.

The Rosko household, fragile already, is thrown into disarray by the unexpected return of older son Tomer (Michael Moshonov, Lebanon), an autistic boy whose institution has suddenly closed. As family pressures mount, past secrets emerge, and Yoni’s Torah portion—relating the story of Noah and the flood—comes to take on multiple meanings, not only in the two brothers’ lives but for the whole family and their extended community: as the promise of either salvation or utter inundation.

In addition to stunning imagery and technical craftsmanship, Mabul is anchored by tour-deforce performances, especially from Moshonov (seen at SFJFF in Tehilim and Bena) and young Yoav Rotman as Yoni. —Peter L. Stein DIRECTOR Guy Nattiv in person in San Francisco. Principal cast members invited.

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CASTRO (film only) CASTRO (film + bash) RODA RAFAEL OSHMAN

Thu, Jul 21 Thu, Jul 21 Sun, Jul 31 Sat, Aug 6 Sun, Aug 7

6:30 pm 6:30 pm (+ Bash at 9:00 pm) 6:30 pm 4:20 pm 6:15 pm

$30/$25 members $75/$65 members $12/$10 members $12/$10 members $12/$10 members

Castro Closing Night

100 Voices: A Journey Home United States, 2010, 91 min., English

Directors: Danny Gold, Matthew Asner Screenwriters: Danny Gold, Matthew Asner, Michael Lam, Michael Mayhew Editor: Michael Mayhew Cinematographer: Jeff “Boomer” Alred

In San Francisco Only!

Our rousing Closing Night begins with a pre-film mini-concert featuring Cantors Nathan Lam (organizer of the 100 Voices tour), Marcus Feldman (Stephen S. Wise Temple, Los Angeles), Roslyn Barak (Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco), and Sharon Bernstein (Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco), accompanied by the Castro’s Mighty Wurlitzer. You’ve never heard a cantorial quartet quite like this!

Closing Night is sponsored by a generous grant from Lela and Gerry Sarnat Film sponsored by Moses and Susan Libitzky Many of the world’s finest Jewish singers return to Poland, the birthplace of cantorial music, for a series of exuberant, history-making concerts in this musical documentary that is both uplifting and deeply moving.

“The subject of Poland for Jews brings up more questions than answers,” says Cantor Nathan Lam. “Most American Jews came from Polish lands. Jewish life itself was defined in Poland.”

But the Holocaust was disproportionately carried out on Polish soil, and Jewish ties have been painfully attenuated ever since. “So how do you reconnect with a thousand years of history that’s been so eradicated?” Lam set out to try in 2009, organizing a tour by an assembly of cantors from around the world.

100 Voices, skillfully directed by Danny Gold and Matthew Asner (son of actor Ed Asner), is the fascinating chronicle of that trip, which included a concert at the majestic Warsaw Opera House and a second at Nozyk Synagogue, the only one to survive the war. The documentary not only captures an historic and moving goodwill mission but delves into the cultural history of Jewish Poland, with special regard for the versatility and crossover appeal of the prewar hazzan (cantor). Major stars like the broodingly handsome cantor and Yiddish theater actor Moishe Oysher—whose career came complete with groupies—are captured here in rare film footage and colorful anecdotes, as well as evoked in the jazzy stylings of the memorable American cantors Alberto Mizrahi and Jacob Mendelson, doing their rendition of “Chad Gadya.” Impressive testimonials from the likes of composer Charles Fox (Killing Me Softly with His Song), returning to trace the footsteps of his Polish father, combine with eye-opening scenes of contemporary Poles’ renewed interest in Jewish culture to intone a stirring message of reconciliation and homecoming. —Robert Avila Audience Award for Best Documentary, Palm Springs International Film Festival

CASTRO (includes concert) OSHMAN RODA

Thu, Jul 28 Wed, Aug 3 Thu, Aug 4

8:15 pm 6:15 pm 6:40 pm

$25/22 members $12/10 members $12/10 members

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Centerpiece Film

Little Rose Poland, 2010, 118 min., color, Polish w/ Eng. subtitles

Director: Jan Kidawa-Blonski Screenwriters: Jan KidawaBlonski, Maciej Karpinski Editor: Cezary Grzesiuk

Cinematographer: Piotr Wojtowicz Principal Cast: Andrzej Seweryn, Magdalena Boczarska, Robert Wieckiewicz

Sponsored by Raymond Lifchez Poland’s Jewish population was decimated by the Holocaust, but anti-Semitism remained a disturbingly common aspect of the country’s nationalist rhetoric well into the postwar Communist era. Little Rose, a taut espionage thriller, opens in 1967 as news of the Six Day War comes with the message that Israel’s gains represent a grave threat to Poland. In this paranoid atmosphere, Roman Rozek trails suspected dissidents for the secret police. One of his targets is Adam Warczewski, a distinguished Warsaw intellectual known for his humanist views and Western contacts—and thus targeted by the authorities as a likely traitor to the Party. Hoping to dig up evidence of the professor’s Zionism, Rozek enlists the help of his bombshell girlfriend Kamila (Magdalena Boczarska in an award-winning performance). She proves a valuable source, trading on her intimacy with Warczewski, first as a student and then as a lover, to issue reports under the code name Little Rose. But as their affair blooms into something genuine and edifying, Kamila must reckon with her allegiances. Fans of The Lives of Others and Black Book will enjoy Jan Kidawa-Blonski’s dramatic depiction of totalitarianism’s contamination of private life. Little Rose delivers all the suspense of a spy movie, but it also assuredly zeroes in on the repressive political environment in Poland that exploded in the riots of March 1968.

—Max Goldberg Contains sexual content.

DIRECTOR Jan Kidawa-Blonski and lead actress Magdalena Boczarska in person in San Francisco.

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CASTRO RODA OSHMAN RAFAEL

Tue, Jul 26 Tue, Aug 2 Sat, Aug 6 Sun, Aug 7

6:00 pm 6:30 pm 6:20 pm 6:20 pm

$12/$10 members $12/$10 members $12/$10 members $12/$10 members

Berkeley Opening Night

Sarah’s Key Northern California Premiere France, 2010, 108 min., French, English w/ Eng. subtitles

Sponsored by the Family of Marcus Hertz, in his blessed memory

Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner Screenwriters: Gilles Paquet-Brenner, Serge Joncour Editor: Hervé Schneid

In this enthralling drama adapted from the international best-selling novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, Academy Award nominee Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient, I’ve Loved You So Long) plays a Paris-based American journalist researching one of France’s most notorious (and notoriously overlooked) wartime episodes. The more she learns, the more the long-ago incident hits close to home, turning her own world upside down.

Cinematographer: Pascal Ridao Principal Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Aidan Quinn

In Berkeley Only!

Attendees of the Berkeley Opening Night screening are invited to enjoy a lively post-film reception in the Roda courtyard, catered by Bistro Liaison.

In modern-day Paris, Julia Jarmond (Scott Thomas) and her French architect husband are preoccupied with preparations to move into the renovated Marais apartment of his childhood.

Meanwhile, at the magazine where she works, Julia is investigating the so-called Vel d’Hiv roundup of 1942, in which thousands of Paris’s Jewish citizens were herded into the city’s Vélodrome d’Hiver stadium in hellish conditions before being transported out of France to Auschwitz. (It wasn’t until 1995 that the French government officially apologized for its role in the affair, which was conducted by the Vichy police; it is also dramatized in The Roundup, page 27.)

Deftly intercutting dramatic historical scenes with the journalist’s contemporary investigations, the film follows Julia as she begins to make startling connections between her family and a young Jewish girl caught in the roundup: the titular Sarah. The more layers Julia peels away, the more she learns about her husband’s family, about France, and finally, about herself.

Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner draws us into the gripping mystery of young Sarah’s tragic secret by smoothly interlacing both an up-to-the-minute drama and an historical epic, as present and past come together with a quietly revelatory, life-altering force. —J.T. Greenstein

RODA

Sat, Jul 30

7:00 pm

$25/$22 members

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2011 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award

Kirk Douglas It’s hard to imagine, 60 years on, the divisive paranoia of the Hollywood blacklist. Over half a century has passed since the fear of communist influence in the movies touched off an industry-wide witch hunt that destroyed the careers and lives of many of the motion pictures’ most talented actors, writers and directors. The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is deeply honored to recognize living screen legend Kirk Douglas, who in 1960 defied industry practice and the national mood by insisting on giving rightful credit to writer Dalton Trumbo for his screenplay of Stanley Kubrick’s widescreen epic, Spartacus, which Douglas produced as well as starred in. Though the decision was widely criticized at the time—earning the brickbats of John Wayne, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and the American Legion—Douglas is now recognized as having helped put an end to the legacy of the McCarthy era in Hollywood. At 94 years old, with over 87 films, 10 plays and nine books to his credit, as well as three Oscar nominations, Douglas continues to regard breaking the blacklist as his proudest career achievement.

This award also pays tribute to Kirk Douglas’s staggering achievement on screen. Born in New York to Russian-Jewish parents, Issur Danielovitch eventually changed his name and was discovered off-Broadway by Lauren Bacall and producer Hal Wallis, who cast the 30-year-old Douglas in his first starring role in The Strange Loves of Martha Ives (1946). Douglas’s defining roles in the postwar noirs Out of the Past (1947) and I Walk Alone (1948) built his reputation as the cleft-chinned tough guy, teaming him with lifelong pal Burt Lancaster, who went on to star with Douglas in half a dozen films. Kirk Douglas’s varied, intense performances for a host of brilliant directors include the driven reporter in Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951), a French colonel in Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory (1957), Vincent Van Gogh in Vincente Minnelli’s Lust for Life (1956) and the leader of the slave revolt in Kubrick’s Spartacus. Yet there are also a handful of extraordinary roles in cult favorites—such as the doomed cowhand on the run in Lonely

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Are the Brave (1962)—waiting to be discovered by future generations of movie lovers. As an added feature of our tribute, we are thrilled to screen The Juggler (page 20), in which Douglas plays a traumatized Holocaust survivor arriving in 1949 Israel.

Douglas’s interest in Judaism was renewed after a series of life-altering events: a helicopter crash in 1991, then a stroke in 1996. At 83, Douglas had a second Bar Mitzvah and now takes the time to meet for weekly study sessions with his Rabbi, David Wolpe, as well as to participate in Shabbat rituals every Friday evening.

Father, actor, director, independent producer, author and Jewish maverick: Kirk Douglas’s singular screen presence forever changed the face of American film. —Thomas Logoreci

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award honors the unfettered imagination, which is the cornerstone of a free, just and open society. Kirk Douglas will accept his award in person preceding the screening of Spartacus on Sunday, July 24.

Spartacus United States, 1960, 195 min., English

Director: Stanley Kubrick Screenwriter: Dalton Trumbo Editor: Robert Lawrence Cinematographer: Russell Metty

Principal Cast: Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons, Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis

This special Freedom of Expression Award Screening is sponsored by a generous grant from the Bonnie and Marty Tenenbaum Foundation.

Based on Jewish writer Howard Fast’s 1951 novel, with a script by famed blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, the restored, ferociously bold Spartacus is one of the final pre-CGI widescreen epics made during the glory days of the Hollywood studio system. Thracian slave Spartacus (SFJFF Freedom of Expression honoree Kirk Douglas) is bought by Roman trader Batiatus (an Oscar-winning role for Peter Ustinov) and cruelly trained to become a gladiator for the entertainment of his masters. Pushed over the edge, Spartacus starts a rebellion that sets the empire on fire. Back in Rome, two opposing senators, the wise Gracchus (Charles Laughton) and the snaky Crassus (Laurence Olivier), use the revolt to make a bid for absolute power. The tremendous battle sequence between Spartacus’s outnumbered slaves and Crassus’s legions is a thrilling 35mm Technirama spectacle that can only be truly experienced on the big screen. The production history of Spartacus, meanwhile, is nearly as legendary as its story. A week into shooting, director Anthony Mann quit (or was fired) after producer Douglas proved dissatisfied with the footage he’d seen. Taking over was a brash Jewish kid from the Bronx, 30-year-old Stanley Kubrick, who had just quit (or was fired) from the set of Marlon Brando’s One-Eyed Jacks. Into this hothouse of ego and talent were added Fast and Trumbo, politically committed writers who had been jailed during the Hollywood Red Scare (Fast writing most of the novel in prison). Spartacus’s finale—the classic moment when the beaten slaves refuse to identify their leader, each declaring, “I am Spartacus!”—calls to mind the McCarthy-era witch hunts as it closes a monumental drama that went on to win four Academy Awards. Blatantly copied since by Braveheart (1995) and Gladiator (2000), the towering performance created by Kirk Douglas in Spartacus, alternately tender and tough, is the original deal. —Thomas Logoreci There will be one 10-minute intermission.

CASTRO

Sun, Jul 24

1:00 pm $18 general/$16 students, seniors/$14 members

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Copyright © Goldwyn Pictures

JEWS IN TOONS: AN UPROARIOUS EVENING WITH KRUSTY, KYLE AND OTHER FAVORITES What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.

—Yiddish Proverb I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose. —Woody Allen Following the three episodes, Mike Reiss, writer and producer for The Simpsons and creator of The Critic and Queer Duck, will have us in stitches as he shows clips and shares anecdotes from his illustrious career, which includes four Emmys and a Peabody Award (though the unsurpassed highlight was creating this year’s SFJFF trailer).

Total program approx. 100 minutes. SFJFF’s Comedy Night continues with Life Is Too Long (page 21).

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Sponsored by Vera and Harold S. Stein, Jr. in honor of Peter L. Stein for his dedication to SFJFF and his commitment to the values of Jewish films Who wants to sit alone in front of a tiny screen, chuckling with nobody? Join us for an evening of collective laughter as we (re)introduce you to classic Jewish episodes from three top-notch animated series, capped by hilarious insights from longtime writer-producer of The Simpsons, Mike Reiss.

It is said that laughter is both contagious and healing—and God knows we all need it.

You won’t want to miss this one-of-a-kind, one-time-only uproarious event.

Family Guy: "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" United States, 2004, 23 min.

Director: Dan Povenmire

Peter, wanting to make his son Jewish so he will grow up smart, takes him to Vegas for a quickie bar mitzvah. Highlights include Peter singing “I Need a Jew” and send-ups of Seinfeld, Woody Allen, The Graduate and William Shatner as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

South Park:“The Passion of the Jew” United States, 2004, 23 min.

Director: Trey Parker

Cartman leads a campaign against the Jews after seeing The Passion of the Christ.

Meanwhile, Stan and Kenny try to get a refund from Mel Gibson and discover that he is completely insane. Predates Gibson’s most recent real-life anti-Semitic rant.

The Simpsons: “Like Father, Like Clown” United States, 1991, 23 min.

Directors: Brad Bird and Jeffrey Lynch

When the Simpsons have Krusty the Clown over for dinner, he says grace in Hebrew and laments his estrangement from his father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky (voiced by Jackie Mason).

Lisa and Bart try repeatedly to reunite them, going so far as to dress Bart as an Orthodox Jew.

CASTRO

Mon, Jul 25

7:00 pm

$12/$10 members

Spotlight On

POLAND AND THE JEWS Few countries have had a more troubled history with its Jewish population than Poland in the 20th century. Approximately three million Polish Jews were put to death by the Nazis during World War II; of the surviving generation, thousands were pressured to leave in anti-Semitic purges in the 1960s. Yet grouped by nationality, Poles also represent the largest number of people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. Today, despite (or perhaps because of) this painful history, Poland is experiencing a budding resurgence of interest in Jewish life, including among non-Jews.

It is in this light that we present a trove of films, from or about Poland, that illuminate these seeming contradictions. Highlights include:

100 Voices: A musical documentary that showcases the rich tradition of

Jewish culture and cantorial art in Poland. (See page 5.)

Little Rose: A taut espionage thriller zeroing in on Poland’s repressive political environment, fraught with anti-Semitism, in the late 1960s. (See page 6.)

Joanna: A drama set in World War II Warsaw, where a lonely woman hides a little Jewish girl at great peril to herself. (See page 20.)

Torn: A documentary about a Polish priest who discovers his Jewish

roots and wants to convert back to Judaism. (See page 30.)

Plus the short films Passion According to the Polish Community of Pruchnik, Red Shirley, The Girl From a Reading Primer and Inventory.

Films in Focus

FACING THEIR OWN CAMERAS: PERSONAL DOCUMENTARIES This year’s SFJFF lineup features a breathtaking display of personal documentary filmmaking: essays, confessionals, autobiographies, op-eds, riffs and rants. Many of the filmmakers will be accompanying their films.

An Encounter with Simone Weil: Julia Haslett turns her lens on herself in relation to 20th century French philosopher Simone Weil.

(See page 16.)

77 Steps: Arab-Israeli filmmaker Ibtisam Mara’ana moves to Tel Aviv, falls

Five Weddings and a Felony: Twentysomething Josh Freed’s

in love with her Jewish-Canadian neighbor and makes a raw, personal film about their relationship. (See page 12.)

warts-and-all comic self-portrait documents his inability to commit to a relationship. (See page 16.)

Between Two Worlds: Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman’s personal

My Life with Carlos: German Berger-Hertz’s personal journey back to

essay asks what matters to American Jews today; followed by a panel in San Francisco. (See page 13.)

Chile retraces the final days of his idealistic father, who was executed in the aftermath of the 1973 military coup. (See page 22.)

Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and

The Queen Has No Crown: Tomer Heymann uses home movies and

Technology: Tiffany Shlain’s imaginative think-piece on our über-wired

world. (See page 14.)

his ever-present video camera to explore both the personal and the larger politics of belonging, displacement and sexuality in this portrait of an Israeli family. (See page 26.)

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film listings

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org 12

77 STEPS north american Premiere Israel, 2010, 56 min., Hebrew, Arabic, English w/ Eng. subtitles

Director: Ibtisam Mara’ana Editors: Erez Laufer, Halil Efrat, Miri Laufer Cinematographers: Ibtisam Mara’ana, Shahar Reznik

Co-sponsored by Carl and Gay Grunfeld If only more reality programming were like this creative documentary: personal, raw, nuanced and thought-provoking. Filmmaker Ibtisam Mara’ana (Lady Kul El-Arab, SFJFF 2009) leaves her childhood home in Fureidis, an Arab village near Haifa, to make a life for herself in Tel Aviv—and make a movie about her journey. Early in the film, we meet Ibtisam’s neighbor Jonathan, a Jew from Montreal who has recently emigrated to Israel and soon becomes her boyfriend. The portrait of their charming cross-cultural relationship soon gets complicated, unfolding against the backdrop of the 2009 Gaza violence: glimpses of Ibtisam and Jonathan’s Facebook photo albums or scenes of them making dinner together give way to footage of the couple’s anti-war activity, their reluctance to reveal their relationship to inquisitive parents, and an extraordinary return visit with Jonathan’s Canadian grandfather to the kibbutz he helped found, where a heated political argument erupts. What emerges is a melancholy reminder that love can’t always conquer all. —Hagar Scher DIRECTOR Ibtisam Mara’ana in person in San Francisco and Berkeley.

Preceded by

WAJEH Israel, 2010, 16 min., Arabic w/ Eng. subtitles

Director: Murad Nassar

Wajeh, a coffee maker, sells his coffee at the Qalandia checkpoint, near Ramallah. That makes him a well-known, central figure with an important role in the lives of the thousands of people who cross the checkpoint every day.

The film Wajeh is part of Coffee—Between Reality and Imagination, a cinematic collaboration between young Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers.

RODA JCCSF

Sat, Jul 30 Sun, Jul 31

11:30 am 12:00 pm

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

blood relation

Directors: Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman Screenwriters: Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman Editor: Kenji Yamamoto Cinematographer: Marsha Kahm

West Coast Premiere United States, 2011, 70 min., English

Sponsored by Hannah Kranzberg “For courageous, compassionate, determined Gail Dolgin; we honor your unwavering commitment to justice and pursuit of truth, ’unto its innermost parts.’

We miss you.”

Who speaks for Jews today? How wide are the boundaries of pluralism? In this thought-provoking personal essay, Berkeley-based filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman (Blacks and Jews, SFJFF 1997) embark on an intimate, far-ranging exploration of the ideological fissures running through contemporary Jewish life. Snitow and Kaufman (the latter founding director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival from 1980 to 1993) turn their searching questions and camera on some recent flashpoints in American Jewish identity, from campus debates over divestment from Israel to the explosive controversy stemming from SFJFF’s 2009 screening of the film Rachel. They interview a cross-section of Jewish leaders and activists in an attempt to better understand what Jewish engagement means today and, in particular, to measure the imprint of Israel—its politics and culture—on young Jews. In stimulating personal perspectives, the directors reveal their own fraught and touching family histories—Kaufman the daughter of an esteemed poet-translator and an ardent Zionist; Snitow the son of a left-wing activist with secrets—as they search for clues about how Jewish identity is transmitted and how each generation reshapes, reclaims or rejects its parents’ definition of community values.

northern California Premiere Israel, 2009, 75 min., color, Arabic, Hebrew w/ Eng. subtitles

Director: Noa Ben Hagai Editor: Erez Laufer Cinematographer: Rani Einav

When her grandmother dies, Jewish Israeli filmmaker Noa Ben Hagai discovers a packet of carefully preserved letters from a woman named Pnina, her grandmother’s sister, who had left home one day in 1940 at age 14 and never returned. She reemerged 27 years later, a mother of eight living in a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus. Baffled by the silence shrouding her great-aunt’s existence and curious to hear stories about her unfathomable journey, Ben Hagai interviews her uncles and aunts, as well as neighbors who grew up alongside Pnina and her siblings in the agricultural village of Yavniel. Did Pnina run away to convert to Islam after striking up a friendship with the family maid? Was she kidnapped by an Arab vegetable merchant who offered her a ride and later married her?

Or did her parents expel Pnina after she became pregnant by Yavniel’s golden boy, who refused to marry her? As this exceptionally powerful story unfolds, Ben Hagai’s quest to uncover the truth stirs up painful, unsettling memories and emotions—and shines a harsh light on seven decades of Israeli-Palestinian relations that have seen little in the way of progress and far too much in the way of deterioration. —Hagar Scher

—Susan Berrin Official Selection, Jerusalem International Film Festival DIRECTORS Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman in person.

Followed in San Francisco by a panel discussion taking up key questions raised by the film: Panelists: Rabbi Irwin Kula, President, Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership Riv-Ellen Prell, Professor and Chair of American Studies, University of Minnesota Len Saxe, Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies, Brandeis University Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman, Co-directors Moderator: Michael Krasny, Host, KQED-FM’s Forum (More on page 31.)

CASTRO RODA

Thu, Jul 28 Wed, Aug 3

5:30 pm 6:30 pm

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Sat, Jul 30 Wed, Aug 3

11:30 am 12:25 pm

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Bobby Fischer Against the World

Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology

United States, 2010, 92 min., English

United States, 2011, 82 min., English

Director: Liz Garbus Editors: Karen Schmeer, Michael Levine Cinematographer: Robert Chappell

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Sponsored by Denis Bouvier

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Director: Tiffany Shlain Screenwriters: Carlton Evans, Ken Goldberg, Sawyer Steele, Tiffany Shlain Editors: Dalan McNabola, Tiffany Shlain

Co-sponsored by Roselyne Chroman Swig in honor of Tiffany Shlain

A Jewish boy grows up to be a virulent anti-Semite and one of the most famous men on the planet. Sound like the tagline of a Hollywood movie?

It’s the real-life saga of chess legend Bobby Fischer. This outstanding documentary by Liz Garbus (Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech, SFJFF 2009) follows Fischer’s journey from child prodigy to world chess master (at 29) to paranoid hatemonger. Centering on the famous 1972 World Championship match between American Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky, the film plays out like a taut Cold War drama. Exquisitely composed interviews meanwhile combine with rare archival footage to lay bare an exceptional but lonely life. Fischer, whose single mother was more devoted to anti-war protests (meriting a 900-page FBI file) than to her son, grew up isolated and neglected. He was the center of media attention from a young age but never equipped for a life in the spotlight. When Fischer stops playing chess and forfeits his title, he goes into what his fans refer to as his “wilderness period.” More than a curriculum vitae of the man considered by many to be the greatest chess player ever, Bobby Fischer Against the World is a complex, fascinating study of genius and madness joined at the hip. —Jay Rosenblatt Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival, 2011

The kaleidoscope of clips and mind boggling animation in this wide-ranging documentary are so entertaining one could happily watch the whole movie with the sound off. But it would be a shame to miss Tiffany Shlain’s meditations on modern life and technology. Shlain has an unusually long lens on our current state of connectivity: the Bay Area–based filmmaker founded the Webby Awards in the internet dark ages of 1996 and used Facebook and Twitter to crowd-source some of this, her first feature length documentary.

Among her earlier works, The Tribe (SFJFF 2006) explored American Jewish identity through the history of the Barbie doll; here she brings that same creativity to examining the human need to link up. While the film opens with Shlain pondering her addiction to her cell phone, it morphs into a poignant tribute to her father, Leonard Shlain, a Mill Valley surgeon and best-selling author whose insights into history won him fans from Al Gore to Björk. He was diagnosed with brain cancer as Shlain began writing the film, and his struggle becomes a major focus of her investigations. Sharing narration duties with the sonorous Peter Coyote, the filmmaker delves into everything from the honeybee crisis to her family’s “technology shabbat” to her struggle to bear a second child, all in an effort to understand our need to connect. —Emily Kaiser Thelin

SUBJECT Dr. Anthony Saidy in person in San Francisco.

Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival, 2011 DIRECTOR Tiffany Shlain in person.

CASTRO RODA OSHMAN RAFAEL

Sat, Jul 23 Mon, Aug 1 Tue, Aug 2 Sat, Aug 6

2:00 pm 6:30 pm 6:35 pm 2:10 pm

cASTRO

Sat, Jul 23

4:30 pm

Crime After Crime

Eichmann’s End: Love, betrayal, death

United States, 2011, 95 min., English

West Coast Premiere

Director/Editor: Yoav Potash Cinematographer: Ben Ferrer

Germany, Israel, 2010, 90 min., German, Hebrew, Spanish

Sponsored by Zaentz Media Center, Wareham Development, and Berkeley FILM Foundation in memory of our dear friend and colleague Gail Dolgin Bay Area filmmaker Yoav Potash’s documentary is the shattering chronicle of Deborah Peagler, an African American woman from Los Angeles sentenced to 25 years-to-life for her part in the 1983 murder of her horribly abusive boyfriend. Nearly two decades into her term, a new California law was passed granting domestic violence survivors like Peagler the opportunity to have their cases reopened. Rallying to her cause are two idealistic pro bono attorneys—Nadia Costa, a marathon runner, and Joshua Safran, an Orthodox Jew—who are convinced that suppressed evidence could free Peagler in a matter of months. Over the next five years, Potash’s camera captures in unflinching detail the legal battles waged amid a labyrinth of injustice and sheer corruption. Despite the near obsessive work of her lawyers, growing media attention and even the support of her dead boyfriend’s family, Peagler remained behind bars even after she was diagnosed with cancer. Potash’s film is not only a testament to the unbreakable spirit of Peagler and her attorneys but a call for reexamining the cases of hundreds of thousands of women wrongly imprisoned across the United States. Crime After Crime is a staggering experience that will leave every viewer pondering the very meaning of justice. —Thomas Logoreci

Director/Screenwriter: Raymond Ley Cinematographer: Dirk Heuer Principal Cast: Axel Milberg, Herbert Knaup, Ulrich Tukur

Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust, managed to escape to Argentina at the end of World War II. Many know the story of how Mossad agents traveled there in 1960 in order to bring him to justice in Israel. Most do not know the improbable story revealed in this film: how a youthful flirtation between one of Eichmann’s sons and Silvia Hermann, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, led to Eichmann’s capture. Eichmann’s End combines historical reenactments with interviews and documentary footage to bring this unknown story vibrantly to life. Featuring actors with credits including Run, Lola, Run and The Lives of Others, the film drops the viewer into 1950s Buenos Aires, where Jewish refugees and unrepentant Nazis variously harbor dreams of revenge and vindication. Simultaneously, it documents the dogged efforts of Fritz Bauer, the state public prosecutor in Frankfurt, to bring Eichmann to justice even as elements within the German government conspired to shield war criminals from prosecution. In the face of initial skepticism on the part of German and Israeli authorities, Silvia and her father, Lothar, relentlessly pursue their suspect. As the tension mounts, it becomes clear both will risk everything to ensure that Eichmann is caught and made to pay for his crimes. —Mark Valentine

Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival, 2011 DIRECTOR Yoav Potash and SUBJECT Joshua Safran in person.

SFJFF Board and staff join Wareham Development, Zaentz Media Center and the Berkeley FILM Foundation in dedicating this screening to the memory of filmmaker Gail Dolgin (1945–2010), who was a devoted Board Member and SFJFF advocate. Crime After Crime, of which she was Associate Producer, exemplifies her deep commitment to the principles of free expression, her creative mind, and her abiding curiosity for exploring cinematic and spiritual frontiers.

CASTRO

Sun, Jul 24

6:00 pm

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Mon, Jul 25 Mon, Aug 1 Sun, Aug 7

5:00 pm 4:25 pm 2:10 pm

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An Encounter with Simone Weil california Premiere United States, Italy, Sweden, 2010, 85 min., color and black & white, English

Five Weddings and A Felony

Director: Julia Haslett Editor: Julia Haslett Cinematographer: Thomas Torres Cordova Principal Cast: Soraya Broukhim

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

“Attention is the rarest and purist form of generosity,” said Simone Weil, one of the great thinkers of the 20th century. Weil, who was raised by a secular Parisian Jewish family and lived during the rise of Fascism in Europe, paid close attention to the hardships of the poor and disempowered. Filmmaker Julia Haslett turns her lens on this French philosopher, whose 16 books were published only after her death in 1943. Through interviews with Weil’s editors, family and intellectual descendents, Haslett eloquently traces the trajectory of Weil’s intellectual identity as it shifted over time; Weil was a trade unionist, a Marxist, an anti-Stalinist, a pacifist, a fighter in the Spanish Civil War and a Christian-influenced mystic.

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“We read writers of such scathing originality for their personal authority, for the example of their seriousness, for their manifest willingness to sacrifice themselves for their truths,” wrote Susan Sontag of Weil. Haslett’s intimate documentary boldly explores her own artistic encounter with Simone Weil.

When Haslett takes the process of biography to an extreme—hiring an actor to play Weil so she can better understand this intellectual pioneer—she bring us into the heart of her creative process in an act of aesthetic bravery and attentiveness worthy of Weil herself. —Nancy K. Fishman DIRECTOR Julia Haslett in person.

West Coast Premiere United States, 2010, 76 min., English

Director/ Screenwriter/ Cinematographer: Josh Freed

In 1986, documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee made Sherman’s March, an epic deadpan journey through the American South, drawing a comic parallel between his romantic conquests and the destructive path made by the Union general. Now, 25 years later, Josh Freed begins his own firstperson camera-march through love lost and found but with a decidedly Jewish twist. Freed opens his comic essay with home video footage of his Chicago bar mitzvah. Oddly inspired by his adolescent obsession for Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre, the 12-year-old bespectacled boy toasts himself in an on-camera rant of self-loathing. Eventually, his insecurity and love for the movies lead him to pick up the camera and record his sometimes-embarrassing misfires with women. Freed’s filmed efforts at commitment falter until he meets the incredibly adorable and wise secondgrade teacher Paulina, who sees through Josh’s act but finds herself falling for him anyway. The sad and funny fact that Josh cannot understand what she sees in him—the classic Groucho conundrum of not wanting to join any club that would have him as a member—lies at the heartbreaking core of the film. Five Weddings and a Felony is a freewheeling portrait of friendship, family and love that manages to be charming, galling, funny, cringe-inducing, and always compelling. —Thomas Logoreci DIRECTOR Josh Freed in person.

Preceded by

FLAWED Canada, 2010, 13 min., English

Director: Andrea Dorfman

Artist Andrea Dorfman traces a budding romance between herself and a plastic surgeon through her masterful watercolors. But it’s not about whether girl can get along with boy; it’s about whether girl can accept herself, imperfections and all. —Joshua Moore

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Sat, Jul 30 Sun, Jul 31

1:15 pm 11:00 am

JCCSF RODA

Sat, Jul 30 Sun, Jul 31

8:55 pm 8:45 pm

the Hangman West Coast Premiere Israel, 2010, 60 min., Hebrew w/ Eng. subtitles

In Another Lifetime Director: Netalie Braun Editor: Joelle Alexis Cinematographer: Avigail Sperber

West Coast Premiere Austria, Germany, Hungary, 2010, 94 min., German, Hungarian w/ Eng. subtitles Director: Elisabeth Scharang

Co-sponsored by the Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund Shalom Nagar is a Yemeni Jew living in Israel and working as a ritual butcher who blesses both the animal and the customer. Turns out as a young man, he was also the prison guard of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi chief who organized the transportation of Jews to the camps. For six months Nagar stayed in the same cell, even tasting Eichmann’s food to make sure he would not be poisoned. At Eichmann’s execution, he was the only guard who didn’t want to pull the lever. Ordered to do so, he afterwards had nightmares for a year. The Hangman is a fascinating and complex portrait of an endearing and wise man who experienced up close what Hannah Arendt referred to as the “banality of evil.” Nagar’s simple, refreshing voice from the margins of Israeli society bears a profoundly humanistic message.

“We’re in this world as tenants," he says. "The only thing we take with us is our good deeds.” —Jay Rosenblatt Preceded by

I WAS A CHILD OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS

Screenwriters: Peter Turrini, Silke Hassler Editor: Alarich Lenz Cinematographer: Jean-Claude Larrieu Principal Cast: Johannes Krisch, Peter Vegh, Ursula Strauss

In the chaotic final days of World War II, a group of Hungarian Jews is on a forced march towards the Mauthausen concentration camp. Reaching a sleepy Austrian village, the 19 starving and exhausted men and women are locked in the barn of a surly farmer and his sullen wife (Revanche’s Johannes Krisch and Ursula Strauss). When one of the captives, a half-mad Budapest opera singer, proposes staging a Strauss operetta for the locals, everyone suddenly begins to cling to a very slender reed of hope. In this Holocaust period piece, based on a play by screenwriters Silke Hassler and Peter Turrini, Austrian journalist and documentary filmmaker Elisabeth Scharang does something remarkable: She strips away virtually all artifice, instead utilizing real locations illuminated by the naturalistic, almost vérité camera work of Jean-Claude Larrieu (Elegy). Scharang achieves a bittersweet, fable-like tone throughout, meanwhile ratcheting up the suspense as the farmer and his wife slowly rediscover their humanity in the joy of music shared with their Hungarian prisoners, and dark outside forces threaten to stop the show before it starts. In Another Lifetime’s culminating shot—a 60-year flash-forward that simply frames the face of a supporting character—is an astonishing image that will haunt the viewer long afterward. —Thomas Logoreci Preceded by

Canada, 2010, 15 min., English

Director: Ann Marie Fleming

ALL DONE AND DUSTED

A daughter of survivors likens her relationship to the Holocaust to a drug addiction, being forever tied to it, in Ann Marie Fleming’s beautiful and inventive animated adaptation of Bernice Eisenstein’s acclaimed illustrated memoir—a poignant and wry exploration of grief and resilience through the enduring quality of family bonds. —Jay Rosenblatt

United Kingdom, 2010, 3 min., English

Director: Vera Neubauer

Moving out of her family home, filmmaker/animator Vera Neaubauer had to dispose of some of her possessions. Witness an original and moving time of reflection through the painstaking technique of stop motion animation.

—Joshua Moore

JCCSF RODA OSHMAN

Sun, Jul 31 Tue, Aug 2 Sat, Aug 6

4:45 pm 4:40 pm 4:30 pm

CASTRO RODA OSHMAN RAFAEL

Tue, Jul 26 Tue, Aug 2 Wed, Aug 3 Sun, Aug 7

3:45 pm 8:55 pm 8:30 pm 1:40 pm

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In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery United States Premiere Germany, 2011 90 min., German, Russian, English w/Eng. subtitles

Incessant Visions-Letters From an Architect

Director/Screenwriter: Britta Wauer Editor: Berthold Baule Cinematographer: Kaspar Koepke

Co-sponsored by Sinai Memorial Chapel Chevra Kadisha and the Goethe-Institut Before presuming that a film about a cemetery must be a deadly serious affair, consider the following: Astonishing fact #1: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery in Berlin contains 115,000 graves sprawled across one hundred acres of magnificent parkland, making it the largest active Jewish burial ground in Europe.

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Astonishing fact #2: It has been in continuous operation under Jewish authority for 130 years, including during the Nazi regime, which, curiously, left the cemetery and its archives undestroyed.

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Astonishing fact #3: This film—yes, a film about a cemetery—won the coveted Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival.

In Heaven Underground is a lush, surprising and utterly absorbing journey into the lively stories hidden among the stones, pathways and woodlands of the Weissensee Jewish Cemetery. Not simply a chronicle of the cemetery’s famous philosophers, writers and artists—though its residents are a “whowas-who” of German Jewish achievement—the film brims with everyday life. We meet Benny Epstein, a Florida man, as he visits his grandmother’s grave for the first time; we hear how neighbors fell in love among the tombstones; we follow ornithologists for whom Weissensee is a valuable habitat for goshawks; and, most memorably, we meet Rabbi William Wolff, in his 80s, whose puckish insights into the foibles of the living help explain the staying power of this remarkable place. —Peter L. Stein

CASTRO roda

Sun, Jul 24 Sat, Aug 6

11:00 am 4:40 pm

United States Premiere Israel, 2011, 70 min., German, Hebrew w/ Eng. subtitles

Director/ Editor: Duki Dror Cinematographer: Philippe Bellaiche

Co-sponsored by George Krevsky Gallery Duki Dror (My Fantasia, SFJFF 2005; Taqasim, SFJFF 2003) is a documentary filmmaker who embraces his subjects with a keen eye and curious intellect. In this creative homage, Dror illuminates the life of German Jewish Expessionist architect Erich Mendelsohn. The visionary Mendelsohn, a contemporary of Walter Gropius and influenced by artists such as Franz Marc and the Blue Rider group, produced work embodying a kind of organic dynamism. His story unfolds through letters exchanged with his wife, Luise, an accomplished cellist. Dror gently breathes life into the correspondence of two passionate artists who helped each other weather a turbulent time in history. Mendelsohn’s career followed the jagged trajectory of many German Jewish émigrés fleeing Nazism; he worked in England, Israel and, finally, the Bay Area, where he taught at UC Berkeley.

Mendelsohn’s drawings pulsate with energy and his buildings are stunning.

Among his accomplishments, he designed the Einstein Tower, Schocken department stores and the Universum Cinema in Germany; the Mt. Scopus Campus of Hadassah Hospital and the Weitzman House in Israel; and private homes and a hospital in the Bay Area. Dror deftly juxtaposes the architect’s original designs with contemporary images, weaving in reflections from Mendelsohn’s granddaughter, other architects and the people who use these unique structures today—a testament to the integrity and timelessness of visionary design. —Nancy Fishman DIRECTOR Duki Dror in person in San Francisco and Berkeley.

CASTRO RODA RAFAEL

Thu, Jul 28 Sun, Jul 31 Sat, Aug 6

3:15 pm 4:10 pm 12:15 pm

Jews in Shorts: Focus ON DOCS

Intimate Grammar West Coast Premiere Israel, 2010, 110 min., Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles

(Red Shirley, Kun 65, The Girl From a Reading Primer)

Director/Screenwriter: Nir Bergman Editors: Einat Glaser-Zarhin Cinematographer: Benjamin Chiram Principal Cast: Evelyne Kaplun, Yehuda Almagor

Co-sponsored by by the Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund Aharon is a boy who refuses to grow up—not in the Peter Pan way, but like a distant relative of Oskar, the young boy in Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum who stops growing due to uncomfortable circumstances. Aharon is the young son of the Kleinfeld family of Jerusalem in the early 1960s. With a senile grandmother, an absent-minded father, a bitter and domineering mother, friends who compete over his young romantic desires and echoes of the Holocaust in the background, Aharon has stopped developing on the outside even as he creates an exaggerated inner world where a bizarre language takes over reality. By turns melancholy and poetic, allegorical and painfully real, Intimate Grammar brings together two great talents who have excelled in the creation of moving stories about adolescents: author David Grossman (on whose The Book of Intimate Grammar the film is based), one of the most internationally celebrated Israeli voices (See Under: Love, Someone to Run With); and filmmaker Nir Bergman, whose depictions of young lives include the poignant Broken Wings (developed from his short Sea Horses, SFJFF 2004) and the character of the troubled teen athlete of In Treatment (SFJFF 2009). Intimate Grammar won the Sakura Grand Prix at the Tokyo International Film Festival. —Donny Inbar

The adage “truth is stranger (and more fascinating) than fiction” certainly applies to this year’s collection of not-so-short shorts, three documentary portraits of three unique women: a fiery wise-cracking 100-year-old Polish immigrant, who happens to be the cousin of rocker Lou Reed; an imaginative painter and Holocaust survivor from Hungary; and the inspirational globetrotting nurse who was a featured character in a beloved children’s book in Poland. —Joshua Moore red shirley Israel, 2011, 28 min., color, English Directors: Lou Reed

Iconic rock musician Lou Reed makes his impressive directorial debut in this tête-à-tête between Reed and his cousin Shirley, a Polish immigrant and union organizer on the eve of her 100th birthday. kun 65 Israel, 2010, 24 min., color, Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles Director: Tal Maim Yoffe

Filmmaker Tal Haim Yoffe finds an oil painting on the street. Taking it home, he learns it was painted by a Holocaust survivor. The next day they meet. What follows is an inspirational trip to Budapest, where a fascinating personal history is revealed.

THE Girl From a Reading Primer Poland, 2010, 29 min., color, Polish w/Eng. subtitles Director: Edyta Wróblewska

An archival image-infused animated portrait of Alina Margolis-Edelman, who as a child met the author of the most popular Polish reading primer and afterward appeared as one of the main characters in the book. After attending nursing school—an unusual place in the Warsaw Ghetto—Alina married a leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. They later immigrated to France and joined Doctors Without Borders, helping to save the lives of children worldwide.

JCCSF RODA OSHMAN RAFAEL

Sun, Jul 31 Mon, Aug 1 Sat, Aug 6 Sun, Aug 7

6:30 pm 8:40 pm 8:45 pm 3:50 pm

CASTRO RODA

Tue, Jul 26 Wed, Aug 3

11:45 am 4:30 pm

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North American Premiere Poland, 2010, 105 min., Polish w/Eng. subtitles

the Juggler Director/Screenwriter: Feliks Falk Editor: Krzysztof Szpetmanski Cinematographer: Piotr Sliskowski Principal Cast: Urszula Grabowska, Joachim Paul Assbôck, Sara Sara Knothe

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Co-sponsored by Fred Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation

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Joanna

Director Feliks Falk spins a gripping story about Joanna (Urszula Grabowska), a Polish woman to whom fate presents a split-second choice: whether to hide a young Jewish girl she finds sleeping in a church. When seven-year-old Rose is separated from her mother in German-occupied Warsaw during a roundup, she seeks refuge in the pews where Joanna goes to pray. Joanna, a piano teacher waiting to hear news of her soldier husband whom she has not seen in years, takes the child home. They embark on a relationship that helps to heal their respective losses. The contrasts between the bleak streets of Warsaw, the terror-ridden and paranoid interactions between the Poles and the warmth of Joanna’s home and heart sharply highlight the strain of trying to live normally during wartime.

Joanna’s family wonders why she has become increasingly isolated, while Joanna faces difficult decisions if Rose is to survive.

Falk, part of a school of Polish directors called “The Cinema of Moral Anxiety,” expertly directs Grabowska, who gives a tour-de-force performance as a woman separated from her husband and struggling with fear.

Falk’s experience as a painter and a theater director are evident in the gray palette of wintertime Warsaw and in the shades of gray that war brings to bear on morality. —Nancy Fishman

United States, 1953, 84 min., English

Director: Edward Dmytryk

Screenwriter: Michael Blankfort Editors: Aaron Stell, Harry Gerstad Cinematographer: J. Roy Hunt Principal Cast: Kirk Douglas, Milly Vitale, Paul Stewart

The Juggler is a rare gem that rounds out our tribute to Kirk Douglas, SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award recipient (see page 8). In one of Hollywood’s earliest depictions of a Holocaust survivor, Douglas plays Hans Muller, a German Jew, who was a famous juggler before he was sent to a concentration camp; he stayed alive, but his wife and children did not. Muller is now one of the thousands of refugees who have come to Israel following World War II. Tormented by his past and survivor guilt, Muller’s grief is palpable and he is quick to anger—he confuses other families for his own and lashes out at authorities. Disoriented by his new surroundings, and thinking he has killed a policeman, he flees across the country, meeting an aimless teenage orphan along the way. At a kibbutz Muller finds the possibility of love with Ya’El, a young woman farmer who is committed to helping get the new Jewish state on its feet. The inimitable Douglas imbues the role of Muller with a savage intensity. But The Juggler (produced by the legendary Stanley Kramer) is more than a harrowing character study; it is also a unique and fascinating portrait of a young Israel that portends the societal fissures that are to come. —Jay Rosenblatt New 35mm print

DIRECTOR Feliks Falk in person in San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto.

CASTRO OSHMAN RODA RAFAEL

Wed, Jul 27 Mon, Aug 1 Wed, Aug 3 Sat, Aug 6

6:15 pm 6:00 pm 8:45 pm 6:35 pm

CASTRO RODA

Thu, Jul 28 Mon, Aug 1

11:30 am 12:00 pm

Life is Too Long United States Premiere Germany, 2010, 86 min., German w/Eng. subtitles

Mary Lou Director/Screenwriter: Dani Levy Cinematographer: Carl-Friedrich Koschnick Principal Cast: Markus Hering, Meret Becker, Veronica Ferres

Sponsored by Michael Ehrenzweig What do you get when you cross a screwball comedy with an existential crisis? A new Dani Levy movie, that’s what. Levy, the Berlin-based Jewish writer-director (Go for Zucker! SFJFF 2005; My Fuhrer and Freedom of Expression Award, SFJFF 2007), has created a lovable, pitiable alter-ego in Alfi Seliger, a nebbishy and hypochondriac filmmaker trying to get back in the game even while his wife is cheating on him, his kids don’t like him and he suspects he has colon cancer. Even his psychiatrist thinks he should just end it all. But the heightened comic reality of Life Is Too Long soon gives way to surreal existential questions: Is Alfi’s life authentic or is the cosmic joke that he is actually trapped inside a movie (a Dani Levy movie, no less)?

Such themes place this delightful and mind-bending romp somewhere between Fellini’s 8 1/2 and Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories—only goofier. As Alfi, Markus Hering is superb, in a film that features a who’s who of the German movie firmament, including Veronica Ferres (Saviors in the Night, SFJFF 2010) as the pushy wife of a big producer, Udo Kier as Alfi’s shrink, and onetime international bombshell Elke Sommer as (get ready for this) Alfi’s Jewish mama. —Peter L. Stein Preceded by

GRANDPA LOOKED LIKE WILLIAM POWELL United States, 2010, 5 min., English

West Coast Premiere Israel, 2010, 150 min., Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles Director: Eytan Fox

Screenwriter: Shiri Artzi Editor: Ron Omer Cinematographer: Yaron Scharf Principal Cast: Ido Rosenberg, Maya Dagan, Svika Pick

Sponsored by The LGBT Alliance of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment, A Wider Bridge, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, and Keshet Doused in sequins and charm, this enthralling new miniseries has been called Israel’s answer to Glee—and for good reason. Infectious pop songs and high-energy choreography explode onto the screen between colorful plot twists, hearty doses of high school ennui and candid explorations of LGBT life in contemporary Israel. Acclaimed director Eytan Fox (The Bubble SFJFF 2007, Yossi & Jagger) brings us the story of Meir, a young man searching for his mother, Miriam, who mysteriously abandoned him on his 10th birthday. Meir clings to her memory through their mutual love of theatricality, dress-up and 1970s Israeli pop star Svika Pick, whose portrait hangs above the family mantle. (Pick, who penned the song that launched to stardom Israeli drag queen Dana International at Eurovision 1998, appears as himself and provides the series’ sugary soundtrack.) Convinced that Miriam fled to Tel Aviv to become Pick’s backup singer, Meir heads for the big city, leaving behind a love triangle involving a hunky basketball player and his BFF, Shuli. In the city Meir befriends Ori, an Israeli Idol contestant who moonlights in drag as Miss Sunshine. Soon Meir, slathered in rhinestones, emerges from his cocoon as Mary Lou and becomes one of Tel Aviv’s most celebrated drag queens. Winner of an Israeli Emmy Award for best miniseries in 2010, and shown here in one fabulous screening.

—Shira Zucker

Director: David Levy

Sometimes a memento only reminds you how little you actually know someone. Such a thing happened to director David Levy when he came to possess his Grandpa Herman’s high school autograph book from 1924. But can one object bridge the divide between two disconnected souls, two generations apart? —Joshua Moore

CASTRO OSHMAN RODA RAFAEL

Mon, Jul 25 Thu, Aug 4 Sat, Aug 6 Sun, Aug 7

9:30 pm 8:30 pm 6:45 pm 8:55 pm

CASTRO

Sun, Jul 24

8:30 pm

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the Matchmaker

My Life with Carlos

Israel, 2010, 112 min., Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles

Northern California premiere

Director/Screenwriter: Avi Nesher Editor: Isaac Sehayek Cinematographer: Michele Abramowicz Principal Cast: Adir Miller, Dov Navon, Maya Dagan

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Sponsored by Deborah Blank, dedicated in loving memory of her boyfriend, David Jay Feldman. Also in memory of her best friend, Edmond Ezra, whom she met over 40 years ago on her first journey to Israel

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In this affectionate, bittersweet feature, Israeli director Avi Nesher (The Secrets, SFJFF 2008) conjures up the port city of Haifa in the late 1960s, weaving together stories of coming of age and coming to terms with the past. Arik Burstein is a teenager whose summer vacation explodes with novel attractions, namely the sexy Iraqi-Jewish-American niece of his best friend and a seedy downtown movie theater run by Sylvia and a group of Jewish dwarfs (based on historical persons) who met at Josef Mengele’s clinic in Auschwitz. But it is Yankele Bride, a matchmaker and shady businessman from the Old World, who captivates Arik with his peculiar talents for bringing the misfits of Haifa together in love. Among the additional heroes in Arik’s summer adventures are Meir, a reclusive librarian, and Clara, a Holocaust survivor from Poland whose attempts to battle horrors and sleepless nights are heartbreaking. Nesher’s vibrant film mixes tensions between youth and maturity, between Eastern European– influenced Israeli socialism and the infiltrating trends of the American 1960s, and between the Israeli Sabras and the Holocaust refugees from “there” who will never make a true home “here.” Like Nesher’s other films, The Matchmaker richly reflects the unique Israeli mosaic and is bound to turn into a cherished classic. —Donny Inbar

JCCSF OSHMAN RODA RAFAEL

Sat, Jul 30 Mon, Aug 1 Sat, Aug 6 Mon, Aug 8

6:30 pm 8:30 pm 8:55 pm 8:55 pm

Chile, Spain, Germany, 2009, 82 min., Spanish w/Eng. subtitles

Director: German Berger-Hertz Screenwriters: German Berger-Hertz, Joaquim Jorda, Roberto Brodsky Editors: Andrea Chignoli, Danielle Fillios Cinematographer: Miguel Menz

Filmmaker German Berger-Hertz’s personal journey back to Chile retraces the final days of his idealistic father, Carlos, who was executed in the aftermath of the 1973 military coup. Berger-Hertz’s mother, a Jew who had escaped persecution in Eastern Europe, did not take the new order lying down. At the height of the repressive regime, she braved arrests and beatings, marching with hundreds of other women through the streets seeking justice for their missing loved ones. Eventually, Berger-Hertz and his mother were forced to flee Chile. Now, four decades after Carlos’s death, the filmmaker returns to a democratic Chile to confront the past, following the path taken by his father in the last weeks of his life. Berger-Hertz imbues My Life with Carlos with a spare, formal beauty as his camera combs the lonely roads and desert landscapes where his defiant father was “disappeared,” and renders this personal portrait a son’s quest to understand not only his father, but his country. —Thomas Logoreci Preceded by

GRANDMOTHERS Brazil, 2009, 12 min., color, Portuguese, w/Eng. subtitles

Director/ Screenwriter: Michael Wahrmann

On his 10th birthday, Leo receives socks from one grandmother and underwear from the other, but from his grandfather he gets an old Super-8 camera. With the camera, Leo finds out that Monica Lewinsky is Jewish, Bill Clinton is the president of America and the numbers tattooed on his grandparents’ arms are responsible for his chubbiness. —Joshua Moore

CASTRO RODA

Mon, Jul 25 Thu, Aug 4

12:45 pm 4:30 pm

the Names of Love

Next Year in Bombay

Director: Michel Leclerc Screenwriters: Baya Kasmi, Michel Leclerc Editor: Nathalie Hubert Cinematographer: Vincent Mathias Principal Cast: Jacques Gamblin, Sara Forestier, Zinedine Soualem

Bay Area Premiere France, 2010, 102 min., French w/Eng. subtitles

northern california Premiere France, India, 2010, 55 min., English

Directors: Jonas Parienté, Mathias Mangin Editor: Luc Forveille Cinematographers: Jonas Parienté, Mathias Mangin

Co-sponsored by Craig Harrison’s Expressions of Excellence!™

Co-sponsored by Bill Falik, Diana Cohen and Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue), A Global Jewish Community

What happens when a tightly-wound Jewish scientist falls for a young Algerian sexpot in modern-day France? Cultures, mores, quirks and tragic family histories collide—to surprisingly humorous effect.

Jews have been living in India for over 2,500 years. Some claim that their ancestors arrived as traders on India’s southwest coast in the sixth century BCE. Others claim that they are descended from exiles that fled the destruction of the Second Temple in the first century CE. Next Year in Bombay introduces us to the surprising diversity of India’s Jewish populations as well as the challenges they face in maintaining their culture and traditions as their populations dwindle. With a great soundtrack propelling it forward, the film takes us from rural Maharashtra to Bombay and deep into Andhra Pradesh. Along the way, we meet lay leaders struggling to serve the needs of their isolated rural communities as well as a dynamic young couple torn between their desire to see Judaism thrive in India and their commitment to providing their children with a Jewish education only possible if they move to Israel. —Mark Valentine

By hook, by crook and by routine wardrobe malfunction, the charming and carefree Baya Benmahmoud seduces right-wingers in order to convert them to the left, embracing a literal interpretation of the motto “make love, not war.” When she mistakenly propositions socialist Arthur Martin and he politely declines (he has to perform a goose autopsy), the spark of recognition is kindled in both hearts: They’ve just met someone very rare.

The complications and the comedy soon bubble to the surface. Over one hilarious family dinner , the parents—an anti-nuclear power ex-hippie, an Algerian artist whose family was massacred by the French, a nuclear physicist who served in Algeria with the French army and a stern Jewish mathematician—trip over their entendres. While taking jabs at French pop culture, political figures and even French cinema, The Names of Love doesn’t dance around French politics. It dives in and hits the most exposed, topical nerves: Arab-French relationships, the role of the veil, nationalism, anti-Semitism and, of course, sexual liberation. If you don’t fall in love with this whimsical, cheeky and slyly intelligent romantic comedy, you’ll at least fall in lust. —Shira Zucker Contains nudity.

Preceded by

Preceded by

STARRING DAVID Netherlands, 2010, 19 min., Dutch w/Eng. subtitles

Director: Ester Gould

David is a 12-year-old highflier. He’s ambitious, witty and Jewish. “Well, almost Jewish,” he admits. His father is Jewish, but his mother is not, so according to Jewish law he’s not Jewish. David will attempt to change all that, of course, before his upcoming bar mitzvah. —Joshua Moore

DON’T TELL SANTA YOU’RE JEWISH Canada, 2010, 4 min., English

Director: Jody Kramer

A little girl, encouraged by her mother, sits on Santa’s knee at her hockey club’s Christmas Party so she can get a present. The only catch is she’s got to remember NOT to tell him she’s Jewish, in this brightly animated short addressing the anxiety of not fitting in. —Joshua Moore CASTRO OSHMAN

Sat, Jul 23 Thu, Aug 4

7:00 pm 6:10 pm

CASTRO OSHMAN RODA RAFAEL

Thu, Jul 28 Thu, Aug 4 Sat, Aug 6 Sun, Aug 7

1:30 pm 4:00 pm 2:20 pm 11:20 am 23

Copyright © by Universal Pictures

Otto Frank, Father of Anne United States Premiere Netherlands, 2010, 75 min., Dutch, German w/Eng. subtitles

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Director: David de Jongh

24

Screenwriters: David de Jongh, Hans Dortmans Editor: Boris Gerrets Cinematographers: Erik van Empel, Peter Brugman

Phnom Penh Lullaby United States Premiere Poland, 2010, 104 min., English, Cambodian w/Eng. subtitles Director: Pawel Kloc

Screenwriters: Pawel Kloc, Przemyslaw Niczyporuk Editor: Jacek Tarasiuk Cinematographer: Przemyslaw Niczyporuk

Sponsored by the Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation

Co-sponsored by American Jewish World Service

Every reader of Anne Frank’s diaries knows her father Otto as “Pim,” but his role in the book extends far beyond the Amsterdam attic. Otto was the only Frank to survive the Holocaust, and after the war he dedicated his life to the diaries, working tirelessly to ensure the book’s status as one of the 20th century’s signal literary testaments. David de Jongh’s documentary draws upon a wealth of archival footage and interviews to fashion a sympathetic but complex portrait of a man driven by pride and grief. The film traces Frank’s old-world deference back to his early years as an assimilated German Jew and details his obsession in maintaining Anne’s memory. His correspondences with young readers are especially revealing: He answered every note personally and went to great lengths to encourage readers’ identification with Anne, going so far as to sign certain letters “Pim.” De Jongh interrogates Frank’s misleading claims that he merely proofread Anne’s original diaries and weighs the still controversial brightening of the original material for a smash Broadway production and film. Frank’s zeal to promote the diaries led him to questionable compromises and interpretations, but as de Jongh’s evenhanded film makes clear, Anne’s diaries are unthinkable apart from Otto’s devotion. —Max Goldberg

All is not as it seems in the harrowing, unforgettable Phnom Penh Lullaby. Polish documentary filmmaker Pawel Kloc opens with lyrical, carefully composed shots of the Southeast Asian capital, where we meet a very unlikely family. Twitchy Ilan Schickman, a naive Israeli émigré, makes a meager living reading tarot cards to support his Cambodian girlfriend, Saran, and their two daughters, two-year-old Marie and six-month-old Jasmine. Gradually, Kloc’s camera begins to uncover the disturbing reality of the family’s nightly existence. On a particularly evil stretch of road lined with rats, crime and prostitution, Ilan plies his card trade while Saran drinks herself to near oblivion. Worst of all, the infant daughters are in tow, constantly eyed by street lowlifes intent on selling the girls on the black market. These sequences are intercut with grainy hidden-camera footage capturing ugly exchanges with pimps and drunk tourists eager to exploit children. Kloc constantly keeps the audience off-balance in his narrative scheme, mirroring this desperate world that seems to be teetering on the brink of madness. But one thing is certain: This unflinching portrait of a family adrift easily makes Phnom Penh Lullaby one of the strongest docs of the year. —Thomas Logoreci DIRECTOR Pawel Kloc in person.

Preceded by

INVENTORY Poland, 2010, 9 min., Polish w/Eng. subtitles

Director: Pawel Lozinski

Three explorers painstakingly decipher inscriptions on gravestones in the lushly overgrown Jewish cemetery of Warsaw in this quiet, contemplative jewel of a film. —Joshua Moore

CASTRO RODA OSHMAN

Wed, Jul 27 Tue, Aug 2 Sat, Aug 6

11:30 am 12:30 pm 2:30 pm

CASTRO RODA

Wed, Jul 27 Sat, July 30

3:30 pm 4:10 pm

Polish Bar

Precious Life

Northern California premiere United States, 2010, 96 min., English Director: Ben Berkowitz Screenwriters: Ben Berkowitz, Ben Redgrave

Editors: Craig Hayes, Julie Janata Cinematographers: Tommy MaddoxUpshaw Principal Cast: Vincent Piazza, Judd Hirsch, Richard Belzer

Young and ambitious Reuben Horowitz (Boardwalk Empire’s Vincent Piazza) leads a double life. By day he works at a downtown Chicago jewelry store for his uncle Sol (Judd Hirsch), who has been grooming Reuben to take over the family business. But his wild nights are spent honing his DJ skills at a seamy strip joint (the Polish Bar of the title). Rebelling from his Orthodox family’s conventional values and longing to unleash his wax-spinning talent at a top-rated club, Reuben cooks up a get-rich-quick scheme selling drugs to the bar’s customers. His rowdy friends—the bar’s bouncer and a sassy pole-dancer—are in on the deal. The danger, thrill and dollars—and the promise of a free-wheeling life as a virtuoso DJ—impress Reuben far more than his cousin Moises, a young Hasidic Jew who tries to prick Reuben’s conscience into a return to faith and the family fold. But as Reuben’s scheme spins out of control, he is put on a collision course with the people and values he holds most dear. Featuring a breakout performance from rising star Piazza, and fine supporting turns from Hirsch and Richard Belzer, Polish Bar is a raucous and gritty urban hip-hop drama with a powerful Jewish moral core. —J.T. Greenstein Contains mature themes and sexual content.

DIRECTOR Ben Berkowitz in person.

Israel, 2010 86 min., Hebrew, Arabic w/Eng. subtitles

Director: Shlomi Eldar Editor: Dror Reshef Cinematographer: Shlomi Eldar

Sponsored by the Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund Popular journalist Shlomi Eldar made his career as a war correspondent for Israeli television. His beat was Gaza, the crowded strip of land on the Mediterranean coast where 1.2 million people live. After Hamas came to power, Gaza was closed to him. He looks instead to hospitals—one of the few remaining bridges between Israelis and Palestinians—for stories. He follows a lead to a desperate Palestinian family at Israel’s Tel Hashomer Hospital trying to save their immune-deficient baby boy, Mohammad. Eldar goes public with the story and within hours an Israeli comes forward with an anonymous gift of $50,000 for a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

Eldar’s camera pulls us deeply into a politically fraught story, hoping that his reportage will make a difference. Suddenly, he captures a moment of unflinching candor when the baby’s mother blurts out that she hopes her son will become a martyr to recover Jerusalem. As the mother struggles to address both her desperate desire to protect her son and harsh criticism from her Gaza community, Eldar tries to bridge the gulf with a humanism laced with hope, in this internationally acclaimed film feted last fall in a New York Times column by Thomas Friedman. —Janis Plotkin Winner of the 2010 Ophir (Israeli Academy Award) for Best Documentary.

Introduced in San Francisco by Rabbi Irwin Kula (President, Clal —The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership)

CASTRO RODA OSHMAN RAFAEL

Sat, Jul 23 Sat, Jul 30 Tue, Aug 2 Sat, Aug 6

9:15 pm 9:30 pm 8:45 pm 8:55 pm

CASTRO RODA OSHMAN

Mon, Jul 25 Sat, Aug 6 Sun, Aug 7

3:00 pm 12:20 pm 12:10 pm 25

LT CU HT IG LA TE -N

the Queen Has No Crown North American Premiere

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Israel, 2011, 85 min., Hebrew, English w/Eng. subtitles

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Rabies

Director/Screenwriter: Tomer Heymann Editor: Ido Mochrik Cinematographer: Tomer Heymann

Documentary filmmaker Tomer Heymann’s personal and poignant works (such as Paper Dolls, It Kinda Scares Me and Black Over White) have earned him an international following as well as a six-film Close-up in SFJFF 2008. His new film is his most honest and personal yet, as he turns his ever-present camera on his own family: five brothers raised on a collective farm in Israel, who each, for his own reasons, has wrestled with leaving the country (and their indomitable mother) behind. Deploying his family’s 8- and 16mm home movies and his own persistent (or what some of his relatives call obsessive) video camera, Heymann documents a fascinating Israeli family saga. Heymann’s themes are both extremely private (his coming out as a gay man, his up-and-down romantic life, his mother’s increasing sense of abandonment) and subtly reflective of a changing Israeli society, where the choice of exile is at painful odds with a powerful sense of nationhood. Exploring the politics of belonging, displacement and sexuality, this refreshing documentary examines the hard decisions one family has to make as well as the intractable bonds that unite them in the face of difficult personal and societal circumstances. —Donny Inbar DIRECTOR Tomer Heymann in person in San Francisco and Berkeley.

West Coast Premiere Israel, 2010, 90 min., Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles

Directors/Screenwriters/ Editors: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado Cinematographer: Guy Raz Principal Cast: Ania Bukstein, Danny Geva, Lior Ashkenazi

With more Academy Awards nominations than any other country in the Middle East, Israel has earned a reputation as a leading originator of independent film. Yet despite the proliferation of family dramas, warrelated films and fascinating documentaries, Israeli cinema has gone light on traditional genre movies. Brace yourself for Rabies, Israel’s first-ever horror flick. Shot in 19 days on a shoestring budget, this gruesome slasher pays homage to its American B-movie roots with a winking, camp-heavy script and an impressive A-list cast (Lior Ashkenazi, Ania Bukstein and Danny Geva, to name a few).

A woman with a dark secret is ensnared in an underground trap by a psychotic serial killer, deep within an Israeli forest. Brother Ofer races to rally help before the killer returns. Meanwhile, a grizzled forest ranger, a pair of rogue cops and four good-looking youths who took a wrong turn en route to the tennis courts get drawn into a roiling ocean of misunderstandings. A ferocious bloodbath ensues. First-time directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado have said the film is an allegory of the state of Israel.

Is it a wickedly clever polemic on fear and rage in Israeli society? Or just an excuse to see someone caught in a bear trap? Either way, consider yourself warned: There will be blood. —Shira Zucker Screened at Tribeca Film Festival, 2011 Contains violence including brief sexually explicit content of a nonconsensual nature.

CASTRO RODA OSHMAN

Wed, Jul 27 Sat, Jul 30 Sun, Aug 7

9:00 pm 1:45 pm 4:15 pm

CASTRO

Thu, Jul 21

10:00 pm

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness

the Roundup France, 2009, 120 min., French w/Eng. subtitles

Director: Rose Bosch Screenwriter: Yan Malcor Editor: David Ungaro Cinematographers: Gad Elmaleh, Jean Reno, Mélanie Laurent

The infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup is the focus of this gripping drama starring Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) and Jean Reno (The Professional). Two days after Bastille Day in 1942, French gendarmes carried out an extensive raid of Jews in Greater Paris. More than 13,000 were arrested, consigned to several miserable days in Paris’s Vélodrome d’Hiver stadium before being shipped to the Drancy internment camp and finally to Auschwitz. Long a taboo subject in France—Jacques Chirac issued a public apology only in 1995—the raid and its political backdrop are brought to stirring life in writer-director Rose Bosch’s detailed scenario.

At the film’s outset, the tight-knit Montmartre community sustains the illusion of normalcy even as Jews are forced to wear the yellow badge and radios broadcast xenophobic diatribes. During the chaos of the initial raid, we see both the acts of extraordinary heroism that kept Vichy forces from fulfilling their intended quotas and the moral dissembling of a French elite all too prepared to cave to (and benefit from) Nazi pressures. The Roundup reaches a stunning zenith in its recreation of the abysmal conditions of the stadium, where a small city’s worth of Jews awaited their tragic fate and a few brave citizens protested with acts of compassion. —Max Goldberg Winner of eight Audience Awards at international film festivals.

CASTRO RODA OSHMAN RAFAEL

Tue, Jul 26 Thu, Aug 4 Sun, Aug 7 Mon, Aug 8

8:55 pm 8:45 pm 8:30 pm 6:20 pm

West Coast Premiere United States, 2011, 93 min., English, Yiddish w/Eng. subtitles

Director: Joseph Dorman Editors: Aaron Kuhn, Amanda Zinoman, Kenneth Levis Cinematographer: Edward Marritz

Free Matinees are generously supported by the Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation Tevye the Milkman, the central character of Fiddler on the Roof, is far better known than his creator, Sholem Aleichem. Yet Aleichem’s contributions to Jewish culture are far greater than just giving voice to Tevye and his laments over rapidly changing shtetl life. Aleichem chronicled the wrenching shifts that dramatically reshaped eastern European Jewry as a whole in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Often referred to as the “Jewish Mark Twain,” Aleichem came of age as the cloistered culture of the shtetl was being punctured by an increasingly globalized economy.

Industrial production was displacing small-town craftsmen and the younger generation was being pulled by a desire to assimilate into Russian culture. Aleichem captured these challenges with an acerbic humor that was evident at the age of 13 when he created an alphabetic glossary of the epithets that his stepmother frequently hurled at him and his siblings.

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness presents a riveting portrait of the man who transformed Yiddish from a vernacular language into a literary one. Interweaving excerpts from his work (read by the actors Peter Riegert and Rachel Dratch) with interviews, photographs and archival footage, the film brings to life a lost world of Yiddish culture on the cusp of a historic transformation. —Mark Valentine

CASTRO RODA OSHMAN

Tue, Jul 26 (free) Tue, Aug 2 (free) Wed, Aug 3 (free)

1:30 pm 2:30 pm 4:00 pm 27

Skate of Mind Northern California premiere

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Israel, 2010, 64 min., Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles

28

Standing Silent Director: Karin Kainer Editor: Itai Segev Cinematographers: Guy Pitchon, Karin Kainer, Michael Levy, Mohammed Kahil

Meet the lost boys of Tel Aviv: the skater-im. These adrenaline junkies forsake jobs, romantic relationships, even a roof over their heads to master the perilous art of skateboarding. The tragic hero of this documentary is Mohammed Kahil, an Israeli-Arab skateboard champion struggling to escape the “ghetto” life and make a home with his Jewish girlfriend, Alina.

The charming dreamer runs with a crew who meet in the parking lots, back alleys, median strips and sordid public spaces of Israel’s pleasure capital to perform daring tricks. These boy-men eschew the Israeli ethos of military service, capitalist pursuits and domesticity—and risk bruises, broken bones, public disdain and run-ins with security guards and police—to do what they love most. Featuring an excellent, pulsating soundtrack by Israeli rock star Rami Fortis, the film offers a glimpse of what the culture of skateboarding looks like in the absence of American corporate sponsorship—and the carefree promise of a brighter future. —Hagar Scher Preceded by

A TRIP TO JAFFA Israel, 2010 15 min., Arabic, Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles

Director/ Screenwriter: Eitan Sarid

California Premiere United States, 2010, 82 min., English

Director: Scott Rosenfelt Editor: Ellen Goldwasser Cinematographer: Massimo Alesseo

The child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church have been part of the national discourse for the past several years. While it is tempting, even convenient, to believe that this problem is confined to one particular community, the truth is that any community can fall victim to this scourge. Phil Jacobs, a reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times, knows this all too well, having uncovered shocking revelations from victims reporting abuse by prominent members of Baltimore’s Orthodox Jewish community.

With candor and sensitivity, Standing Silent profiles Jacobs, himself an Orthodox Jew, as he and his newspaper mount a relentless multi-year pursuit of sexual predators despite pressures to keep these embarrassments silent or deny them altogether. As Jacobs’s crusade builds momentum, rather than being celebrated for his efforts, he instead faces ostracism from an insular community preoccupied with shielding itself from shame and external scrutiny. Recipient of a Sundance Documentary Filmmaker Grant, this taboo-breaking film captures the unwavering commitment of Jacobs and the survivors who have put their trust in him as together they strive to bring this problem out of the shadows and into the light where the guilty can be confronted and justice served. —Mark Valentine DIRECTOR Scott Rosenfelt and SUBJECT Phil Jacobs in person in San Francisco and Berkeley.

Two Arab brothers share their desire to visit the city their family once called home, but are divided by their motives. One brother wants to buy his girlfriend a ring at the same store his father and grandfather bought rings for their brides. The other wants to get laid. —Hagar Scher The film A Trip to Jaffa is part of Coffee—Between Reality and Imagination, a cinematic collaboration between young Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers.

JCCSF RODA

Sun, Jul 31 Thu, Aug 4

8:50 pm 2:30 pm

JCCSF RODA RAFAEL

Sun, Jul 31 Mon, Aug 1 Mon, Aug 8

2:15 pm 2:00 pm 4:30 pm

Strangers No More Northern California premiere United States, 2010, 40 min., English, Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles

Tevye

Directors: Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon Editor: Nancy Baker Cinematographer: Buddy Squires

United States, 1939, 96 min., Yiddish w/Eng. subtitles Directors: Maurice Schwartz Screenwriter: Maurice Schwartz

Co-sponsored by The David R. Stern Fund of the Common Counsel Foundation It’s impossible not to be profoundly moved by this Academy Award–winning documentary about Tel Aviv’s Bialik-Rogozin School, a K-12 public school that has opened its doors to students from 48 countries, including many refugees escaping nightmarish pasts. Every person featured in this film is a hero, from Mohammed, the big-hearted teen who fled Darfur after witnessing the execution of his father and grandmother—and who plans to return home after graduation and open a school—to Bialik-Rogozin’s bighearted teachers who work small miracles every day, transforming the lives of traumatized young people and helping them become happy, confident individuals. The school’s visionary principal makes an eloquent argument that our Jewish legacy demands we play an active role in solving the plight of displaced people. “We cannot change the past,” she says.

“We can live just the present and be optimistic that we can influence our future.” —Hagar Scher Academy Award Winner, 2011 DIRECTOR Karen Goodman invited.

Editor: Sam Citron Cinematographer: Larry Williams Principal Cast: Maurice Schwartz, Miriam Riselle, Rebecca Weintraub

When you read the short stories, monologues and novels of Sholem Aleichem (the pen name of Sholem Rabinovitch, 1859–1916), the colorful characters seem to spring off the page and get a life of their own. Yet this prodigious and prolific Yiddish author found himself struggling with the dramatization of his own work, which often flopped on the New York Yiddish stage. For that reason, the great Jacob P. Adler refused to play Tevye the Milkman, the protagonist of a series of short stories about a Jewish farmer and his daughters. Luckily, Maurice Schwartz, the actor-director of the Yiddish Art Theater, later produced and starred in the play, eventually adapting it for this 1939 classic Yiddish-language film shot in New Jersey.

Those who know Fiddler on the Roof may be surprised by Aleichem’s own dramatic adaptation, which takes more liberties than the musical creators did while presenting a much older Tevye and focusing mostly on the scandalous elopement of Chava and the gentile Fyedka. The dialogues alone will delight anyone with an affinity for Yiddish language and culture, and Tevye’s struggle to uphold tradition in the face of social tumult remains archetypal. Tevye was the first film not in English to be added to the Library of Congress’s prestigious American Film Registry, and will be shown in a restored print from The National Center for Jewish Film. —Donny Inbar 35mm restoration and new English subtitles by The National Center for Jewish Film,

Preceded by

www.jewishfilm.org

TRANSPARENT BLACK Israel, 2010, 20 min., English, French, Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles

Director: Roni Geffen

It is estimated that there are over 20,000 African refugees in Israel. Many have fled armed conflicts in their native countries. Transparent Black provides us with a glimpse into their struggle to find work in Israel and to feel at home in a country that needs their labor but where some resent their presence. —Mark Valentine

CASTRO RODA OSHMAN

Sat, Jul 23 Thu, Aug 4 Sat, Aug 6

12:00 pm 1:00 pm 1:00 pm

CASTRO RODA

Wed, Jul 27 Wed, Aug 3

1:20 pm 2:15 pm 29

SFJFF THANKS OUR CO-PRESENTERS! Torn international Premiere

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Israel, 2011, 72 min., Hebrew w/Eng. subtitles

30

Director/Editor: Ronit Kertsner Cinematographer: Ron Katzenelson

Can a person be a practicing Jew and a Catholic priest? Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel’s mother left him as a baby on the doorstep of a Polish gentile family in 1943. She told her neighbor, “You say you are religious, so take him in the name of Jesus whom you so believe in.” These words were prescient, for Jakub joined a seminary at 18 and began a lifelong journey in the priesthood. At 35, Jakub’s Polish mother revealed to him that he was Jewish. He continued working as a priest and teaching at the Catholic University in Lublin until age 67, when he was moved to try living in Israel. Encouraged by Michael Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Jakub journeys to Israel where his dual identity as a Polish Jew and a Catholic priest confounds many of those he encounters. Ronit Kertsner’s (Menachem and Fred, SFJFF 2009) heartfelt and insightful documentary captures a poignant search for identity while raising questions about who is a Jew and what being Jewish means. —Nancy K. Fishman DIRECTOR Ronit Kertsner in person.

Preceded by

THE PASSION ACCORDING TO THE PEOPLE OF THE POLISH COMMUNITY OF PRUCHNIK Austria, 2009, 30 min., Polish w/Eng. subtitles

Director: Andreas Morrath

This truly bizarre vérité documentary chronicles the Easter customs of the small Polish town of Pruchnik, in southeast Poland. The townspeople’s telling of the Passion of Jesus includes the making of a larger-than-life stuffed burlap-sack effigy of Judas—replete with rosy cheeks and a large hooked nose. —Nancy K. Fishman

JCCSF RODA OSHMAN

Sat, Jul 30 Sun, Jul 31 Tue, Aug 2

3:45 pm 1:30 pm 4:00 pm

Each year SFJFF invites community organizations to help spread the word about the Festival and films of interest to a wide range of audiences. We call these outreach partners “co-presenters.” SFJFF is solely responsible for programming our films and events.

We thank our 2011 outreach partners and co-presenters: 3rd i’s San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival The Alliance for Middle Eastern Peace (ALLMEP) Alliance Française de San Francisco Another Hole In The Head Film Festival Anti-Defamation League, Central Pacific Region Arab Film Festival Arts & Ideas at the JCCSF Bay Area Women in Film & Media - BAWIFM BJE Jewish Community Library Building Jewish Bridges California Film Institute Cartoon Art Museum Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) Central Pacific Coast Region Hadassah Congregation Beth Am-Los Altos Hills Congregation Beth Sholom, San Francisco Congregation Kol Shofar, Tiburon Congregation Sherith Israel, San Francisco Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum Diablo Valley Hadassah Film Noir Foundation Frameline Freight & Salvage Coffee House Goethe-Institut San Francisco Guardian Arts Series The Hub at JCCSF The JCCSF Adult Programs Department JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa)

JFCS Holocaust Center Israel Center Jewish Community Center of the East Bay Jewish Family & Children’s Services of San Francisco Jewish Family & Children’s Services of the East Bay Jewish Music Festival Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation The Jewish Theatre San Francisco InterfaithFamily.com KlezCalifornia The Kritzer/Ross Émigré Program of the JCCSF Kung Pao Kosher Comedy Lehrhaus Judaica Marin Chapter of Hadassah The Mechanics’ Institute The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, San Francisco/ Northern California Chapter New Israel Fund Progressive Jewish Alliance RJeneration San Francisco Cinematheque San Francisco Film Society Shalom Bayit Silent Film Festival Temple Isaiah, Lafayette Temple Sinai of Oakland United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) Women’s Film Festival Year of Civil Discourse Initiative The Young Adult Community at Congregation Emanu-El

pANELS, WORKSHOPS AND CONVERSATIONS Many of SFJFF’S screenings are followed by Q&A’s with visiting artists, directors and producers.

In addition we have planned the following extended conversations and discussions. For updates on expected guests, please visit www.sfjff.org.

Panel Discussion

Workshop

Thursday July 28

How To Talk About Controversial Films Without Fighting

Immediately following the 5:30 pm screening of Between Two Worlds

Sunday July 31 Castro Theatre

Free of charge for ticket holders to the screening The personal essay film Between Two Worlds raises provocative questions about who speaks for Jews today, and what values the next generation of American Jews is embracing, especially regarding Israel. A group of thoughtful scholars, joined by the filmmakers, will help tease out the issues.

Moderator: Michael Krasny Host, KQED-FM’s Forum Panelists: Rabbi Irwin Kula President, Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership Renowned speaker on spiritual engagement; author, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life Riv-Ellen Prell Professor and Chair of American Studies, University of Minnesota Author and scholar of gender, class and Jewish identity Len Saxe Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies, Brandeis University Author and researcher on development of Jewish identity Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman Co-directors, Between Two Worlds

Fisher Family Hall, JCCSF Bagel Breakfast: 9:00–9:30 am Workshop: 9:30–11:00 am Repeats Sunday, July 31, at 4:00–5:30 pm Roda Theatre, Berkeley Admission Free!

Seeing a controversial film can sometimes get us charged, in anger or frustration. Often the tendency is to talk to people who think just like we do and reinforce our own views. Come learn key skills for having vibrant, open and honest conversations on difficult topics. Film clips will be used to help stimulate and engage us in discussion.

Facilitator: Rachel Eryn Kalish This program is part of the Year of Civil Discourse (YCD), a joint project of the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jewish Community Federation, in close partnership with the Northern California Board of Rabbis and the Jewish Federation of the East Bay. www.jcrc.org/ycd.htm

Keeping It Local: Films and Conversations on Bay Area Themes A strong group of documentaries this year highlights people and subject matter close to home. In addition to Between Two Worlds (see above), don’t miss these programs and Q&A’s with local tie-ins: Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology: Tiffany Shlain’s imaginative think-piece on our über-wired world.

Filmmaker in person on 7/23. (See page 14.)

Crime After Crime: Yoav Potash’s gripping chronicle of injustice in the California justice system. Filmmaker and subject in person 7/24.

(See page 15.)

Incessant Visions—Letters From an Architect: Erich Mendelsohn’s visionary designs included several Bay Area buildings; filmmaker Duki Dror in person in SF 7/28 and Berkeley 7/31. (See page 18.)

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Join Us for

parties & special events Pre-Festival Kick-off Saturday, July 16 Free Outdoor Screening: WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

We’re serving up romance with a little drama on the side at SFJFF’s prefestival screening of beloved rom-com classic When Harry Met Sally in San Francisco’s Union Square. In collaboration with the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation’s Film Night in the Park, the city’s most popular outdoor screening organization, SFJFF is pleased to bring the winning combination of Meg Ryan’s charm and Billy Crystal’s dry wit to the big screen. Warm clothing recommended, picnic gear optional.

For more information, see page 3.

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Union Square, San Francisco At dusk (approximately 8:45 pm)

Thursday, July 21

Thursday, July 28

Opening Night Post-Film Bash

Closing Night Celebration at the Castro

Following the Opening Night screening of Mabul (The Flood), join us for a fantastic array of savory and sweet treats, hosted bars by some of the Bay Area’s best purveyors of food and drink, schmooze with filmmakers and special guests and tap your feet to the swinging tunes of the Wayne De La Cruz Duo at the Opening Night Bash. Don’t forget to bring your sweet tooth downstairs to The Backroom where you will find drinks, desserts, music, and a fun photo booth provided by our pals at Yelp.com and even more surprises yet to come. It’s all happening at the historic and spacious Swedish American Hall, upstairs from the Café du Nord. Tickets are $75/$65 for Jewish Film Forum members and includes ticket for film at the Castro.

Join us for a special evening of musical enlightenment. Preceding the Castro Theatre screening of 100 Voices: A Journey Home, visiting cantors Nate Lam and Marcus Feldman will be joined on stage by local Hazzanot Roslyn Barak of Temple Emanu-El and Sharon Bernstein of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav for a riveting, soulful vocal performance of Jewish ceremonial melodies. With accompaniment on the Castro Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer, you won’t want to miss this fascinating and rousing celebration of “Jewish gospel.” In keeping with SFJFF tradition, Closing Night guests will also enjoy treat-filled gift bags.

8:15 pm at the Castro Theatre

Saturday, July 30 Berkeley Opening Night

Berkeley audience members will be treated to a special one-time-only screening of enthralling detective drama Sarah’s Key on Opening Night at the Roda Theatre. All guests are invited to enjoy delicious post-film noshing courtesy of “French food for the soul” gourmet ghetto favorite Bistro Liaison, great wine from Hagafen Cellars of Napa Valley along with fabulous conversation in the courtyard of the Roda Theatre.

Roda Theatre (at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre) Reception follows 7:00 pm screening of Sarah’s Key Monday, August 1 Swedish American Hall/Café Du Nord

2174 Market at Sanchez, Main Floor & Upstairs, SF Party 9:00–11:00 pm. Film program starts at 6:00 pm at the Castro.

Event parking available for $10 at Everett Middle School on 17th Street between Church and Sanchez, a 5-minute walk from both the party venue and the Castro Theatre! The Backroom portion of the Bash is ADA accessible.

32

NEW! Palo Alto Opening Night Toast

We’ve got a new venue, more screenings, more films … and more to celebrate! Join us before our Palo Alto Opening Night Film Joanna to ring in SFJFF’s Palo Alto run with a wine reception and some special surprises.

Free to ticketholders Oshman Family JCC Courtyard Opening Night Toast is from 5-6:00 pm

quick picks for young adults Special Recommendations for Our Best Friends Forever Last year, SFJFF launched a new giving level as part of the Jewish Film Forum- exclusively for the 35 and under crowd. This giving level, BFF@JFF, offers our young adult audience members the chance to reap insider rewards and benefits for the low annual cost of $35.

While every film in the 31st Festival program has appeal for a range of audiences, the following may be of special interest to BFF@JFF members and the 35 and under crowd. Grab your own Best Friends Forever and head to the following screenings:

CONNECTED: Get off your Facebook for 82 minutes to explore the shifting relationships between technology, social interaction, and the major issues of our time with Connected, by Tiffany Shlain.

jews in toons: Get ready to LOL at SFJFF’s Comedy Night, with back-toback screenings of Jews in Toons and Dani Levy’s Life Is Too Long.

Rabies: Prepare to squirm in your seat at a one-time-only screening

skate of mind: Amaze at Israeli skaters as they do ollies off the separa-

of Israel’s first-ever horror film, Rabies, by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado.

tion wall in Skate of Mind, by Karin Kainer.

Five Weddings and a Felony: Take your J-Date to Five Weddings and a Felony, Josh Freed’s profile of the passions and perils of young love.

polish bar: Watch a drug-dealing strip club DJ clash with his Hassidic cousin in the 8 Mile meets Fiddler on the Roof mash-up Polish Bar, by Ben Berkowitz.

For more information about SFJFF’s BFF@JFF membership level, see page 39.

33

CaSTro THEAtRE

JCCSF

San Francisco / July 21–28

san francisco / July 30–31

Time Title Page #

Time Title Page #

thursday, July 21

Saturday, july 30

6:30 PM

Mabul (The Flood) (Opening Night)

9:00 PM

Opening Night Bash at Swedish American Hall

10:00 PM

Rabies

11:30 AM

Blood Relation

13

32

1:15 PM

An Encounter with Simone Weil

16

26

3:45 PM

Torn with The Passion According to the Polish Community of Pruchnik

30

6:30 PM

The Matchmaker

22

8:55 PM

Five Weddings and a Felony with Flawed

16

9:00 AM

Workshop: Controversial Films (free)

31

12:00 PM

77 Steps with Wajeh

12

2:15 PM

Standing Silent

28

4:45 PM

The Hangman with I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors

17

6:30 PM

Intimate Grammar

19

8:50 PM

Skate of Mind with A Trip to Jaffa

28

4

Saturday, July 23 12:00 PM

Strangers No More

29

2:00 PM

Bobby Fischer Against The World

14

4:30 PM

Connected

14

7:00 PM

The Names of Love with Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish

23

9:15 PM

Polish Bar

25

Sunday, July 24 11:00 AM

In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery

1:00 PM

Freedom of Expression Award: Kirk Douglas / Spartacus

6:00 PM

Crime After Crime

15

8:30 PM

Mary Lou

21

18 9

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Monday, July 25 12:45 PM

My Life with Carlos with Grandmothers

22

3:00 PM

Precious Life

25

5:00 PM

Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death

15

7:00 PM

Jews in Toons (Comedy Night)

10

9:30 PM

Life Is Too Long with Grandpa Looked Like William Powell (Comedy Night)

21

Tuesday, July 26 11:45 AM

Jews in Shorts: Focus on Docs (Red Shirley, Kun 65, The Girl From a Reading Primer)

19

1:30 PM

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness (free)

27

3:45 PM

In Another Lifetime with All Done and Dusted

17

6:00 PM

Little Rose (Centerpiece)

8:55 PM

The Roundup

6 27

Wednesday, July 27 11:30 AM

Otto Frank, Father of Anne with Inventory

24

1:20 PM

Tevye

29

3:30 PM

Phnom Penh Lullaby

24

6:15 PM

Joanna

20

9:00 PM

The Queen Has No Crown

26

Thursday, July 28

34

11:30 AM

The Juggler

20

1:30 PM

Next Year in Bombay with Starring David

23

3:15 PM

Incessant Visions—Letters From an Architect

18

5:30 PM

Between Two Worlds (with Panel)

13

8:15 PM

100 Voices: A Journey Home (Closing Night)

5

Sunday, july 31

RODA theatre

at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Berkeley / July 30–August 6 Time Title Page #

Time Title Page #

Saturday, July 30

Wednesday, August 3

11:30 AM

77 Steps with Wajeh

12

12:25 PM

Blood Relation

13

1:45 PM

The Queen Has No Crown

26

2:15 PM

Tevye

29

4:10 PM

Phnom Penh Lullaby

24

7:00 PM

Sarah’s Key (Berkeley Opening Night + Reception)

4:30 PM

Jews in Shorts: Focus on Docs (Red Shirley, Kun 65, The Girl From a Reading Primer)

19

9:30 PM

Polish Bar

6:30 PM

Between Two Worlds

13

8:45 PM

Joanna

20

7 25

Sunday, july 31

thursday, August 4

11:00 AM

An Encounter with Simone Weil

1:30 PM

Torn with The Passion According to the Polish Community of Pruchnik

30

4:10 PM

Incessant Visions—Letters From an Architect

18

6:30 PM

Mabul (The Flood)

4

8:45 PM

Five Weddings and a Felony with Flawed

16

8:45 PM

The Roundup

16

1:00 PM

Strangers No More with Transparent Black

29

2:30 PM

Skate of Mind with A Trip to Jaffa

28

4:30 PM

My Life with Carlos with Grandmothers

22

6:40 PM

100 Voices: A Journey Home

5 27

Saturday, august 6

Monday, August 1 12:00 PM

The Juggler

20

12:20 PM

Precious Life

25

2:00 PM

Standing Silent

28

2:20 PM

Next Year in Bombay with Starring David

23

4:25 PM

Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death

15

4:40 PM

In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery

18

6:30 PM

Bobby Fischer Against the World

14

6:45 PM

Life Is Too Long with Grandpa Looked Like William Powell

21

8:40 PM

Intimate Grammar

19

8:55 PM

The Matchmaker

22

Tuesday, August 2 12:30 PM

Otto Frank, Father of Anne with Inventory

24

2:30 PM

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness (free)

27 17

4:40 PM

The Hangman with I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors

6:30 PM

Little Rose

8:55 PM

In Another Lifetime with All Done and Dusted

6 17

35

oshman family jcc

rafael film center

palo alto / August 1–7

San rafael / August 6–8

Time Title Page #

Time Title Page #

monday, august 1

Saturday, August 6

6:00 PM

Joanna (preceded by Opening Night Toast)

20

12:15 PM

Incessant Visions—Letters From an Architect

18

8:30 PM

The Matchmaker

22

2:10 PM

Bobby Fischer Against the World

14

4:20 PM

Mabul (The Flood)

6:35 PM

Joanna

20

8:55 PM

Polish Bar

25

tuesday, August 2 4:00 PM

Torn with The Passion According to the Polish Community of Pruchnik

30

6:35 PM

Bobby Fischer Against the World

14

8:45 PM

Polish Bar

25

wednesday, August 3 4:00 PM

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness (free)

6:15 PM

100 Voices: A Journey Home

8:30 PM

In Another Lifetime with All Done and Dusted

27 5 17

thursday, August 4 Next Year in Bombay with Starring David

23

6:10 PM

The Names of Love with Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish

23

8:30 PM

Life Is Too Long with Grandpa Looked Like William Powell

21

saturday, August 6

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org 36

Strangers No More with Transparent Black

29

2:30 PM

Otto Frank, Father of Anne with Inventory

24

4:30 PM

The Hangman with I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors

17

6:20 PM

Little Rose

8:45 PM

Intimate Grammar

6 19

sunday, August 7 12:10 PM

Precious Life

25

2:10 PM

Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death

15

4:15 PM

The Queen Has No Crown

26

6:15 PM

Mabul (The Flood)

8:30 PM

The Roundup

Sunday, August 7 11:20 AM

Next Year in Bombay with Starring David

23

1:40 PM

In Another Lifetime with All Done and Dusted

17

3:50 PM

Intimate Grammar

19

6:20 PM

Little Rose

8:55 PM

Life Is Too Long with Grandpa Looked Like William Powell

6 21

Monday, August 8

4:00 PM

1:00 PM

4

4 27

4:30 PM

Standing Silent

28

6:20 PM

The Roundup

27

8:55 PM

The Matchmaker

22

DIRECTIONS & PARKING Castro Theatre 415.621.6120

The Roda Theatre at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre 510.647.2949

429 Castro Street (at Market), San Francisco (www.castrotheatre.com/directions.html)

2025 Addison Street, Berkeley (www.berkeleyrep.org/planyourvisit/index.asp)

STAN YAN

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PARKING 17TH

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580 880

Public Tr ansportation

Muni Metro lines K, L, M and F / Bus Lines 33, 35, 37 and 24 BART riders transfer to Muni Metro at the following stations: Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, Civic Center.

Café du Nord/Swedish American Hall (Opening Night Bash) 415.861.5016 / 2174 Market Street, San Fr ancisco

Located on the north side of Market Street, between Church and Sanchez.

Please note that the second floor of the Swedish American Hall is not wheelchair accessible.

Driving

From Highway 101, take the Mission Street exit and go straight through the first signal.

The street ends at Market Street. Turn left onto Market. Café du Nord is on the right side of the street, one block past Safeway.

Public Tr ansportation

BART to Civic Center. F-Line streetcar to the corner of Sanchez and Market streets.

Church and Market is also a major Muni stop; the N, M, L and J lines all stop at the Church Street Station.

Parking Opening Night SF

Everett Middle School, 450 Church Street, San Francisco Enter parking lot from 17th Street, between Church and Sanchez.

13

FROM SAN JOSE

FROM CAS TRO VALLEY

FROM OAKL AND

OAKL AND

Parking

Public parking garage on Addison Street, across the street from the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

BART

The Downtown Berkeley Station on Shattuck Avenue is around the corner from the theatre.

Take a Richmond-bound train and get off at the Downtown Berkeley Station. Or, if you are coming from Richmond, take a Daly City-bound or Fremont-bound train to the Downtown Berkeley Station. On the upper level of the station, look for the “Shattuck/Addison West” exit. At the top of the stairs, turn left onto Addison Street and you will see the Roda Theatre on the right.

By Bus

AC Transit lines F, 1, 1R, 7, 12, 18, 25, 49, 51B, 52, 65, 67, 88, 604, 605, 800 and 851 stop nearby.

Oshman Family Jewish Community Center 650.223.8700 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto (www.paloaltojcc.org)

JCCSF 415.292.1233 3200 California (at Presidio), San Francisco Parking

Available in JCCSF underground parking garage at the west end of the building on California Street—$1.50/half-hour, first 4 hours; $2/hour thereafter.

Driving

Public Tr ansportation

FEDERATION WAY

Muni Lines: 1, 3, 4, 43, 2, 24, 33, 31 and 38.

PARKING ENTRANCE

OSHMAN FAMILY JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER

Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center 415.454.1222

PARKING AREA E/F

1118 4th Street, San Rafael

B

A

Golden Gate Transit: 1, 23, 25, 26, 32, 34, 60, 65, 70, 80 or 90 to San Rafael Transit at Third and Weatherton. Theatre is five blocks west and one block north.

101

4T H 3R D

Parking

580

Public parking lots are located at C and 5th Streets; C and 3rd Streets; B and 3rd Streets; Lootens and 3rd Streets.

101

Direc tions on the Campus to the Cinema

O ROAD

CENTRAL SAN RAFAEL

Public Tr ansportation

SAN ANTONI

FROM SANTA ROSA

FABIAN WAY

THE RAFAEL FILM CENTER

From Highway 101 south, take exit 400C for San Antonio Road South toward Los Altos. Merge onto San Antonio Road, turn right onto E. Charleston Road and turn right onto Fabian Way. Enter driveway and parking garage on the right.

Garage parking is free for OSHMAN members and guests.

EAST CHARLES

TON ROAD

Inside the parking garage, follow the signs to parking area E/F and park at the far end. Take the elevator to Cultural Arts Hall.

101 FROM SAN FRANCISCO

FROM SAN RAFAEL BRIDGE

37

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Presents

Programs Throughout the Year Join SFJFF all year round for screenings, sneak previews, special events, and educational and online programs.

SFJFF@JCC EAST BAY

SFJFF will continue to bring quality Jewish film programs to the “other side” of the bridge this year, with a second installment of our popular JCC East Bay screenings resuming this Fall. Stay tuned for SFJFF@JCC EAST BAY program and ticket info at www.sfjff.org.

CO-PRESENTATIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival routinely co-presents Jewishthemed films year-round with other film festivals and arts organizations.

From special partnerships with The Hub of the Jewish Community Center and the Israeli Consulate to co-presentations with the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, SFJFF is proud to promote great Jewish films with our Bay Area colleagues all year round.

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

SNEAK PEEKS OF HOT NEW FILMS

SFJFF invites supporters and friends to occasional sneak-preview screenings throughout the year. Recent offerings include Barney’s Version, starring Dustin Hoffman and Paul Giamatti. For exclusive invitations to these private screenings, join the Jewish Film Forum (see page 39) and sign up for our monthly e-newsletter at www.sfjff.org.

WATCH SFJFF FILMS ONLINE

Within just two years, more than 800,000 people worldwide have viewed SFJFF’s monthly online shorts program on YouTube and SFJFF.ORG. Our website also offers a wealth of online resources, including a searchable archive of over 1,200 SFJFF titles, teacher curriculum, user reviews and recommendations, free online shorts, and much more. To watch short films curated by SFJFF online, or to explore the archives, visit www.sfjff.org.

MITZVAH AND TEEN PROGRAMS

SFJFF’s year-round programs include the Mitzvah Project, which offers free screenings to senior communities, and the innovative teen filmmaking program The New Jewish Filmmaking Project, produced by Citizen Film (read more about NJFP on page 43).

For the latest on year-round events, Web online resources and more, sign up to receive semi-monthly e-newsletters at www.sfjff.org.

38

SUPPORT SFJFF: JOIN THE JEWISH FILM FORUM TODAY! Joining the Jewish Film Forum can save you money on year-round and Festival screenings while also supporting the mission and programs of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the world’s premier advocate for independent Jewish cinema.

Membership Levels and Benefits $35 BFF@JFF FOR AGES 35 AND UNDER

$2,500 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Are you 35 or under? Our new BFF@JFF provides our Best Friends Forever with subscriptions to electronic and print newsletters and early mailing of the annual Festival catalog, plus discounts and special access to young adult festival events, and more!

All benefits at the Associate level plus:

$50 SUPPORTER (BASIC MEMBERSHIP)

• Exclusive discounts on Festival tickets and passes (some limits may apply)

• DVD of SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project and SFJFF’s Curator’s Choice DVD

• SFJFF Catalog mailed early to your home

• Opportunity for a shared personal film dedication in the Festival catalog

• Advance notice of year-round screenings and early ticket-buying privileges

• Two seats to your dedicated film in all venues

• Three premiere All-Festival Passes which include three admissions to SF Opening Night and Closing Night • Invitations to private VIP Festival Preview, the Filmmaker Dinner, and Shabbat Dinner

• Subscription to SFJFF E-News and newsletter • Discounts at select partner screenings/events

$5,000 DIRECTOR

All benefits at the Associate level plus: $100 ASSOCIATE

All benefits at the Supporter level plus • Acknowledgment in the Festival Catalog • Invitations to donors-only sneak previews • Invitations to post-screening Festival party $250 FRIEND

All benefits at the Associate level plus: • DVD of SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project • Two tickets to SF Closing Night film and festivities • A voucher redeemable for four free Festival admissions

• Four premiere All-Festival Passes which include four admissions to SF Opening Night and Closing Night • Invitations to private VIP Festival Preview, the Filmmaker Dinner, and Shabbat Dinner • DVD of SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project and SFJFF’s Curator’s Choice DVD • Recognition in the Visionary Circle • Opportunity for an exclusive personal film dedication in the Festival catalog • Four seats to your dedicated film in all venues • Opportunity to host private party in SFJFF screening room

$500 PATRON

All benefits at the Associate level plus: • One premiere All-Festival Pass which includes one admission to SF Opening Night and Closing Night • One additional SF Opening Night and Closing Night ticket • DVD of SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project • Invitation to private VIP Festival Preview $1,000 PRODUCER

All benefits at the Associate level plus: • Two premiere All-Festival Passes which include two admissions to SF Opening Night and Closing Night

IT PAYS TO JOIN THE JEWISH FILM FORUM SEE THE SAVINGS ! Regul ar Price Member Price

Festival Screenings

$12

$10

Opening Night Film & Bash

$75

$65

SF Closing Night Celebration & Film

$25

$22

Freedom of Expression Award & Film

$18

$14

All Festival Pass

$225

$195

10-Flix Card

$100

$90

• Invitations to private VIP Festival Preview and the Filmmaker Dinner • DVD of SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project and SFJFF’s Curator’sChoice DVD 39

thank you San Francisco Jewish Film Festival extends a heartfelt thanks to all of our generous donors.

PRESENTING SPONSORS Opening Night Sponsor

Wells Fargo Freedom of Expression Program Sponsor

The Bonnie and Marty Tenenbaum Foundation Closing Night Sponsor

Lela and Gerry Sarnat

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY SPONSORS

A Wider Bridge American Jewish World Service Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue), a Global Jewish Community Congregation Sha’ar Zahav Consulate General of Israel, Pacific Northwest Region Craig Harrison’s Expressions of Excellence!™ Crane Pest Control George Krevsky Gallery Goethe-Institut The Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation Keshet The LGBT Alliance of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Osterweis Capital Management Schoenberg Family Law Group Schriner Law Firm Sinai Memorial Chapel Chevra Kadisha Zaentz Media Center MEDIA SPONSORS

7x7 Magazine ABC7/KGO-TV East Bay Express JEWCY KALW 91.7 FM KQED Public Broadcasting San Francisco Bay Guardian SF Station Yelp.com IN-KIND SPONSORS

40

12 Tribes Kosher Catering Axis Cafe & Gallery Bistro Liaison Bolani East & West Gourmet Food Brandvia Alliance Inc. Cafe DuNord/ Swedish American Hall Catch Delancey Street Delicate Productions, Inc.

Dolby Eagle Press FedEx Fork & Spoon Catering and Events Hagafen Cellars of Napa Valley Hartmann Studios IZZE Beverage Company Joie de Vivre Kosher Freezer La Bonne Cuisine La Mediterranee Luna Marketing by Storm Melons Catering and Events Meyer Sound Nirvana Peet’s Coffee & Tea Philo Television Poesia Italian Restaurant popchips Runways Limousine Saul’s Restaurant & Deli San Francisco Honda Savoy Events See’s Candies Susan Drell Creative Design Tan Towel In-kind Contributors

Arizmendi Bakery Ben & Jerry’s Haight Ashbury Bi-Rite Market Bistro FIVE Crumb Doll’s Kitchen Donsuemor DVD Copycat Espresso Subito Extreme Pizza Firewood Café Galant Foods/Paramount Piroshki Galaxy Desserts Good & Plenty Catering Grand Bakery Guittard Chocolate Company Have Your Cake House of Bagels, San Francisco Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels Maker’s Mark Kentucky Bourbon Miller’s East Coast West Delicatessen Motagrano, Inc. Semifreddi’s Somersaults Snack Company That Takes the Cake Three-D Spirits /REDRUM Tommy’s Original Margarita Trader Joe’s VÄD Vadka

Gifts of $100 or more received between May 15, 2010, and May 15, 2011, are listed below. For information on how you can support SFJFF, please contact the development department at 415.621.0556, x205 or kerri@sfjff.org

INDIVIDUAL DONORS Visionary Circle: Benefactors

Anonymous All Voices Welcome Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation Gale Mondry and Bruce Cohen The Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund Lela and Gerry Sarnat Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation Bonnie and Marty Tenenbaum Visionary Circle: Directors

Anonymous (2) Deborah Blank Denis Bouvier Michael Ehrenzweig Frederick Hertz Victor and Lorraine Honig Sasha and Irina Kovriga Hannah Kranzberg Steve and Maribelle Leavitt Moses and Susan Libitzky Raymond Lifchez Greta Livingston Vera and Harold Stein

Executive Producers

Carolyn Cavalier Rosenberg and Sanford Rosenberg Susie Coliver and Bob Herman Bill Falik and Diana Cohen Sandy and Linda Gallanter Jane Gottesman and Geoffrey Biddle Carl and Gay Grunfeld Linda Kurtz Fred Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation Orli and Zack Rinat Aaron M. Roland and Annelise Goldberg Roselyne C. Swig Steven and Mary Swig Producers

Anonymous Ronald Abileah and Marlene Winograd Liki and Joe Abrams Sandee Blechman and Steven Goldberg Stephanie Block William B. Dickey Sandra and Conrad Donner Concepcion S. and Irwin Federman Mort and Amy Friedkin Natalie Gubb and David Arpi Beth Harris Hoenninger Valerie Joseph Virginia King Wendy and Howard Kleckner

Adrienne Leder-Schriner and Kyle Schriner David and Julie Levine Alvin and Rosanne Levitt Mark and Adele Lieberman Michele Madansky and Travis Mowbray Reed and Jennifer Maltzman Richard Nagler and Sheila Sosnow Alan Ramo and Leslie Rose Mark Reisman Paul Resnick and Joan Karlin Susan and Alan Rothenberg Scott Rubin Toby and Robert Rubin Alice Russell Shapiro, the Columbia Foundation Harry and Carol Saal Samuel J. Salkin Peter L. Stein Barry and Marjorie Traub Janet Traub Ellen Ullman and Elliot Ross Marilyn and Murry Waldman Carol and Terry Winograd Dan Wohlfeiler Patrons

Anonymous (2) Robert and Judy Aptekar Clara Basile Mark W. Bernstein Michael and Jane Bien Shosh Blachman and Joel Biatch Pamela S. Burdman Larry and Becky Burgheimer Bonnie Burt and Mark Liss Lori Campbell Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Caston Lisa and Matt Chanoff Jennifer and Elay Cohen Sanford and Jean Colen Sandra Coliver Susan David Susan and Lee David Genevieve and Norman Dishotsky Janet Falk Jerry and Myra Feiger Hal Fischer Anne Germanacos Penelope A. Goldsmith Sara Grunstein and Rob Waters Allyson Halpern and Dan Cohen Sue Jean Halvorsen Helen M.Z. Harwood and Alvaro A. Garcia Howard Herman and Claudia Bernard Craig and Deborah Hoffman Stephanie and Rudy Hoffman Esther and Mark Hudes Deborah Kaufman and Alan M. Snitow

Owen Levin and Hagar Scher Susan Levine Susan and Jay Mall Nadine May Miriam Mondry Laura Murra Dr. Raquel H. Newman Sara Newman Irene Nishimura Doug Okun and Eric Ethington Alec Pauluck Rabbi Stephen Pearce/ Congregation Emanu-El Rachel Pfeffer Diane and Andrew Philips Robert Reffkin Gerald Rosenstein Eleanor Rush Peter Samis and Mary Ratcliff Michelle Joy Schwartz Sari Staver Joelle Steefel Ruthellen Toole Laura Tow The Sarah Wall Memorial Fund Lonnie Weiss Robert Weston Barbara and Howard Wollner Friends

Anonymous Ralph and Eileen Battat David and Rachel Biale Nancy Blachman and David desJardins Margaret Blatman Sara Bolder Robert Book Marvin and Carole Breen Lee Bycel Emily Campbell Irene P. Cohn Glenn Davis and James Takagi Dana Doron Helena R. Foster Eleanor and Albert Fraenkel Ewa and Moshe Gavrielov Susan Goldstein and Andy Kivel Ralph and Marsha Guggenheim Danna Gutman Rebecca Bruck Harris Nancy Igdaloff Spencer Jarrett Alan Kates Judi Kramer and Kim Belfor Joshua Langenthal and Diane Halberg David Malman Barbara Meislin Gary and Cathy Meyer Susan Moldaw James Newman and Jane Ivory Alan Burckin, MD and Carol Olmert Margot Parker and Joel Spolin Michael Peltz Emily Rosenberg Janet Schneider and Andrew Kahn Scott Seaman Naomi Seidman and John Schott

Judy and Lee Shulman Lisa Spiegel Reesa Tansey and Gary Greenfield Mark Warnick William Weintraub Ruth White and Robert White Connie Wolf Avner Yonai Associates

Anonymous (3) Betty and Jacques Adler Marcia and Matthew Allen Ann Gabor Arancio and Remo Arancio Kathryn Arnold Irina and Boris Auerbuch Charna Ball Deborah Banks and Randy Porter Dan Barki in honor of the family of Gerda Mathan Rosyland and Robert Bauer Sheila and Murray Baumgarten Susan and Michael Belling Ariella Ben-David and Alan Morgenstern Natalie Berg Barbara Berk Leyna Bernstein Sandra Blair Sharon and Theodore Block Denah S. Bookstein Dr. Susan E. Boxer David and Eva Bradford Janet Braff Simon Brafman Elizabeth and James Branson Robin Brasso Suzanne and David Broad Martin and Geraldine Brownstein Jerome and Gloria Burke Rita Cahn Jo Canterbury Dr. Richard L. Caplin M.D. David and Ora Chaiken Stewart Chapman Sol and Kate Coffino Helen Cohen and Mark Lipman Paul J. Cohen Richard and Sandra Cohen Max and Bonnie Cooperstein Andrea Cutright Stuart Dick and Joseph Sieger Joanne Donsky and Stuart Oremland Suzy Drell Eleanor Drey Trish Elliott Shaari Ergas David Fankushen Netta Fedor Anita A. Feinstein Saul Fenster Charles Fisher Jerry and Sally Flanzer Sandra and Michael Flaster Michael Freeman Susan Freundlich and Elizabeth Seja-Min

Thomas and Sandra Friedland Abe Froman Velia and Philip Frost Jack Gardner and Candy Rupp Marjorie Gelb and Mark Aaronson Marlene and Steve Gerbsman Arthur Gilbert Rick and Susanna Goldsmith Randy Goldstein Larry Gordon Lawrence Gordon Theodore J. Gradman and Hilary Perr Elizabeth Greene Sheldon and Judy Greene Bonnie and Sy Grossman Adam Gutride and Delilah Raybee Sandy Handsher Sheryl Hausman and Jack Maslow Barry Herstein Dr. Joseph H. Herzberg Francie Hornstein Roberta Huberman and Stuart Schwartz Lois and Jerome Jacobs Adrienne Jonas Rose Malinowski Juan Alice and Morrie Kahn Laurie Kahn Sandra Kahn Susan Karp Seth and Sharon Kaufman Tobye and Ronald Kaye Toni King Felix Kramer and Rochelle Lefkowitz Terry Kraus Jackie Krentzman Avner Lapovsky Jill T. L’Esperance Evelyn Levin Beryl and Leonard Levine Michael Levine Corinne Levy Carrie and Ronald Ludwig Barry Lynch and Dennis Blanchard Ruth Maguire Richard McDougall and Tracy Christie Dr. and Mrs. Isadore Mendel Marshall Meyer Leslie Miessner L. Lloyd Morgan Arthur Morris Patricia and David Munro Lance and Dalia Nagel Lenore Naxon and Bill Black Patricia Needle Jennifer Olson Shana Penn Jodi Perelman and Brad Shapiro Ruth Phillips Noushin Pirnazar Janis Plotkin Lucille and Deborah Poskanzer Charlotte Prozan Amy Rassen Susan Roane Rich Robinson

Avi Rose and Ron Stroehlic Maureen and Paul Roskoph Martha V. Rubinson Robert Rubinstein Ethel Ruymaker Sylvia Sabel and Joel Rubinstein Lola and David Safer David S. Salem Tom and Jill Sampson Marc Sapir Irving Saraf and Allie Light Dorothy Saxe Karen Schiller Ramon and Judith Sender Cindy Shamban Paul and Joan Sher Heather and Norman Silverman Victor Silverman Bob Skinkle and Felix Vega Marc Snyder Carol Solomon Sharman and Gary Spector-Angel Gary F. Stein Bert Steinberg Cathy Steirn and Chris Kinavey Elizabeth Stone Sanford and Selma Tandowsky Martin H. Tannenbaum Marilyn Taubman Blue Walcer and Lynn Fonfa Kevin Waldman Irene L. Wapnir Marilyn and Raymond Weisberg Harriet Weiss David Weissman Bill and Ilana Westerman Lewis and Susan Wexler Diane Wolf and Frank Hirtz Scott and Kelley Wolf Stephanie and Rick Woodworth Marilyn and Irving Yalom Andrew and Noel Young Jerald and Sharon Young Jon Zimman Jane Zones and Stacey Zones FOUNDATION AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation Blank Family Foundation David R. Stern Fund of the Common Counsel Foundation Gaia Fund George Wasserman Family Foundation Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund Grossberg Abrams Foundation Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund National Endowment for the Arts Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund Tides Foundation Walter and Elise Haas Fund William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

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415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

AcKNOWLeDGMENTS 2o11

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Allied Integrated Marketing: Cat Ong American Jewish World Service: Matthew Balaban Michael Amerikaner Armstrong & Armstrong: Todd Armstrong Art with Impact: Cary McQueen Morrow, Jennifer Tipton Moshe Arzt Austrian Film Commission: Anne Laurent Axis Café & Gallery: Karina Paz Cantor Roslyn Barak Dick Bartel Jocelyn Berger Berkeley Repertory Theatre: Susie Medak, Amanda Williams O’Steen Susan Berrin Berlin International Film Festival: Wieland Speck Berlin Jewish Film Festival: Nicola Galliner Rachel Biale Bistro Liaison: Todd Kneiss Mary Bitterman Bleiberg Entertainment: Nick Donnermeyer Boston Jewish Film Festival: Sara Rubin Heather Bradley Matt Brooks California Film Institute: Zoë Elton, Mark Fishkin, Richard Peterson, Janis Plotkin, Dan Zastrow Castro Theatre: The Nasser Family, Bill Longen, Mark Gantor, Gary Oliver, Brian Collette, Richard Blacklock Catch: Sanjay Gujral Center for Asian American Media: Stephen Gong, Kar Yin Tham Ada Chester Cinephil: Philippa Kowarsky, Ori Bader, Assaf Mor Citizen Film: Sam Ball, Sophie Constantinou, Kate Stilley Steiner, Emma Bailey Susie Coliver Consulate General of Germany: Peter Rothen, Michael Ahrens Comedy Central: James Kailor Common Counsel Fund: Larisa Casillas Consulate General of Israel: Akiva Tor, Gideon Lustig, Neta Shacham Contemporary Jewish Museum: Connie Wolf, Dan Schifrin, James Leventhal, Stacey Silver, Daryl Carr Aaron Davidman Morgan Davis Ninfa Dawson Stephen Dobbs Be’chol Lashon: Erik Ludwig, Esther Fishman Dolby Labs: Ioan Allen, Tom Bruchs, Laura Duran, Julie Morgan

Dragoman Films: Ravit Turjeman Jeannette Etheredge Alfonso Felder and the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation Films Transit International, Inc.: Diana Holtzberg Debbie Findling Nancy Fishman Fox Television: Neil Rothman Foundation for Jewish Culture: Elise Bernhardt, Andrew Ingall Frameline: K.C. Price, Jennifer Morris, Desiree Buford Brian Freeman Alison Geballe Global Film Institute: Santhosh Daniel Elizabeth Greene Go2 Films: Hedva Goldschmidt, Rena Sherbill Goethe-Institut: Sabine Erlenwein Sasha Goldberg Haifa Film Festival: Pnina Blayer Allyson Halpern Tim Hanlon HBO: Maryann Feierstein Robert Herman Frederick Hertz & Randolph Langenbach Heymann Brothers Films: Barak Heymann, Tomer Heymann, Michael Kaufman Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation: Donny Inbar Israel Film Fund: Katriel Schory IsraeliFilms: Dov Gil-Har ITVS: Claire Aguilar, Cynthia Kane JCC Manhattan: Isaac Zablocki, Ilya Tovbis, Carole Zabar Jerusalem Cinematheque: Lia van Leer, Gilli Mendel, Avinoam Harpak Jewish Community Center of San Francisco: Barry Finestone, Lenore Naxon, Brett Metzger, Dan Wolf, Brian Garrick, Carole Zawatsky, Nathaniel Bergson-Michelson Jewish Community Center of the East Bay: Sally Flinchbaugh, Samantha Young Jewish Community Endowment Fund: Mark Reisbaum Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco: Jennifer Gorovitz, Julie Golde, David Katznelson Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay: Lisa Tabak Jewish Community Relations Council: Rabbi Doug Kahn, Abby Michelson Porth Jim Joseph Foundation: Chip Edelsberg, Adene Sacks, Josh Miller JMT Films: Jean-Michel Treves Beth Kanter Dave Kanter Deborah Kaufman & Alan Snitow Sasha Kovriga

Krakow Film Foundation: Katarzyna Wilk Hannah Kranzberg Landmark Theatres: Steve Indig, Chris Hatfield Adrienne Leder-Schriner Pam Rorke Levy LGBT Alliance: Lisa Finkelstein Music Box Films: Ed Earentz, Susanne Fedak John Ley Thomas Logoreci Tom Luddy Deanna MacLellan Michele Madansky & Travis Mowbray Menemsha Entertainment: Neil Friedman, Heidi Bogin Oshin Gary Meyer Greg Minshall Robert Mitas Gale Mondry Moxie Firecracker Films: Liz Garbus, Matthew Justus NAMAC: Jack Walsh National Center for Jewish Film: Sharon P. Rivo, Lisa Rivo Mateo Natividad NBC Universal: Paul Ginsburg New Israel Fund: Jason Bernstein New Israeli Foundation for Cinema & TV New York Jewish Film Festival: Aviva Weintraub, Richard Peña Marcia Newberger Sara Newman Bill Nichols Ninth Street Independent Film Center: Skye Christensen, Adam Ashworth, Brian Schulz, Josh Gibbs Nirvana Restaurant: Ron Chu Norma Productions: Assaf Amir Oshman Family JCC: Alan Sataloff, Sally Oken, Boris Vladimirsky Pacific Film Archive: Susan Oxtoby Frances Phillips Philo TV: Lenny Lieberman, Evan Stewart, Rose Duignan Julie Pippert Pixar Animation Studios: M.T. Silvia Janis Plotkin Laura Poitras Cheryl Polk Poesia Italian Restaurant: Francesco d’Ippolito Stephanie Rapp Reel Café Bakery: Sharon Dinkin Mike Reiss Righteous Persons Foundation: Rachel Levin, Tal Gozani Ella Rosenblatt Jessica Rosner Ruth Diskin Films: Ruth Diskin, Tal Shanny, Hila Gersenfeld Sam Spiegel Film & Television School: Renen Schorr, Noa Ron

San Francisco Film Society: Graham Leggat, Rod Armstrong, Hilary Hart, Jen Cox San Francisco Honda: John Boas San Francisco Public Library: Joan Jasper, Everett Erlandson Lela Sarnat Hagar Scher Kary Schulman Harvey Schwartz Ellie Shapiro Kim Simon Chris Smith Sony Pictures Entertainment: Tom Prassis, Christopher Lane Stanford Humanities Center: Marie-Pierre Ulloa Stanford University, Jewish Studies Center: Vered Shemtov Donna Steger Gail Stern David Stoten Sundance Film Festival: John Cooper, Shari Frilot, Caroline Libresco, David Courier Sinai Memorial Chapel Chevra Kadisha: Sam SalkinMartin Tannenbaum Tel Aviv University Film Department: Noa Chen, Rachel Wallach Karen Topakian Transfax: Karine Benzur, Marek Rozenbaum Tribeca Film Festival: David Kwok UK Jewish Film Festival: Judy Ironside United Channels Movies: Lauren Acton United King Films: David Silber, Limor Edery Mark Valentine Marc Vogl Washington Jewish Film Festival: Susan H. Barocas Tim Watts Weinstein Company: Heather Secrist, Jennifer Stott Cara White Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan Dan Wohlfeiler Leo Wong Rebecca Gholdston Wright Chi-hui Yang Year of Civil Discourse Initiative: Randi Fields, Rachel Eryn Kalish Yerba Buena Center for the Arts: Ken Foster, Joel Shepard Steven Zipperstein

How can we ever thank you Peter??

You’ve graced us with your many skills You’ve shared the breadth of your interests and the depth of your kindness You’ve made us all laugh from the stage of the Castro, and venues around the Bay You’ve asked insightful questions drawing on the eclecticism of your scholarship You’ve attracted the greatest artists and intellects of our age to our programs and screenings You’ve opened our hearts and minds to the richness of Jewish film and culture You’ve connected us to the broader world of media arts and its makers and purveyors You’ve upheld the independent direction our foremothers set for the Festival many years ago You’ve navigated challenging situations and never compromised your integrity or ours You’ve led us well

May only goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life!

The Board of Directors of the San Francisco Jewish Film Fesitval sings your praises in gratitude

SFJFF’s New Jewish Filmmaking Project, Produced by Citizen Film The New Jewish Filmmaking Project, produced by Citizen Film, is a year-round program of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Since 2002, dozens of young storytellers have worked with Citizen Film’s documentary team to create intensely personal short films and interactive new media exploring Jewish identity from their own point of view.

As the NJFP approaches its 10th anniversary, we’re inviting teens to learn from previous generations of Jewish social-documentarians and participate in new forms of expression at the intersection of documentary storytelling, social media and social action. Visit www.njfp.org for news on upcoming programming and to view the latest multimedia stories from NJFP participants.

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415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

JOIE DE VIVRE WELCOMES YOU TO

SAN FRANCISCO

BORN AND RAISED IN SAN FRANCISCO, JOIE DE VIVRE CAN hELp YOU ExpERIENCE OUR CITY LIkE A LOCAL. STAY AT ANY OF OUR 15 BOUTIqUE hOTELS AND WE’LL hELp YOU TO FEEL RIghT AT hOME. BOOk ONLINE AT JDVhOTELS.COM TO RECEIVE OUR BEST AVAILABLE RATE, gUARANTEED.

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75%

your contributions

25% ticket sales

YOUR SUPPORT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Only 25% of SFJFF costs are covered by Festival ticket sales. Your membership in the Jewish Film Forum ensures that high-quality filmed stories reflecting the diversity and vitality of Jewish life will continue to be produced, screened and enjoyed for generations to come.

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At AXIS CAFE, we invite you to experience a new kind of café, one that invites you to connect with others in a relaxed atmosphere.

You’ll enjoy great coffee, delectable food, and our spacious living room environment for a business meeting or just a quick bite with a friend. Located at the base of Potrero Hill, the best weather in the city is yours on our spacious outdoor patio or if it’s chilly, cozy up by one of our fireplaces with a cup of the best coffee in San Francisco. We look forward to serving you soon.

1201 8th Street, San Francisco 415-437-2947 www.axis-cafe.com

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TICKET INFOrMATION TICKET PRICING

GENERAL TICKET INFO

REGUL AR PROGR AMS

Jewish Film Forum (JFF) Members General Public Seniors (65 and older) / Students w/ ID

HOW CAN I BUY TICKETS?

$10.00 $12.00 $10.50

(Mon–Thu, up to and including 4 pm) $9.00 $11.00 $10.50

SPECIAL PROGRAMS SF Opening Night Film at Castro and Bash at Swedish American Hall

JFF Members General Public

$65.00 $75.00

SF Opening Night Film Only

JFF Members General Public

$25.00 $30.00 $22.00 $25.00

Berkeley Opening Night & After-Film Part y

JFF Members General Public

$22.00 $25.00

415.621.0523 www.sfjff.org

Freedom of Expression Award & Film

JFF Members General Public Seniors (65 and older) / Students w/ ID

$14.00 $18.00 $16.00

Due to high call volume, not every call can be answered immediately. Please leave the Box Office a message and they will return your call.

TICKET DELIVERY

Tickets can be mailed or picked up at Will Call. There is a $2 charge for mailing services. There is no charge for Will Call. Orders received less than three weeks prior to the screening will held at Will Call—valid ID required. Unfortunately, this year we are unable to support print-at-home tickets.

Pre-sales for JFF Members start on June 21, 2011 Become a member of the Jewish Film Forum (JFF) with a contribution of $50 or more and receive special discounts and invitations to year-round events, and have a voice in shaping the future of independent film. To join, go to jewishfilmforum. sfjff.org. If you are a JFF Member, please have your name and membership code available when ordering. Limit two (2) discount tickets per screening.

OPENING NIGHT SCREENING/PARTY

THE FINE PRINT

Opening Night 2011 will be held on Thursday, July 21, 2011. Festivities start with the Opening Night Screening, followed directly afterward by the Opening Night Party.

Box Office will be open at the Castro Theatre for ticket pick-up. Please allow extra time for Will Call on Opening Night.

WE ARE UNABLE TO REFUND, EXCHANGE OR SUBSTITUTE TICKETS, INCLUDING TICKETS REDEEMED FROM 10-FLIX VOUCHERS.

SPECIAL TICKET PACKAGES ALL FESTIVAL PASS

JFF Members General Public

$195.00 $225.00

One pass is good for all shows at all theatres—including special programs and parties. Early-entrance line reserved for pass holders. MUST ARRIVE and be in line 20 minutes prior to show time. Pass does not guarantee seating if late arrival. Please note: Opening Night is a ticketed event, pass holders will receive hard tickets and must bring those tickets for admittance—the pass alone is not sufficient.

REEL PASS

$40.00

The Reel Pass is a reel deal if you’re 25 or younger! One pass is good for all shows at all theatres—including Opening and Closing Night films and special programs.

Early-entrance line reserved for pass holders. Proof of age required. See “the fine print” for restrictions.

DISCOUNT 10-FLIX VOUCHERS

JFF Members (limit 2 per member) General Public

$90.00 $100.00

10-Flix Voucher code is good for 10 tickets for regular-priced programs of your choice (not good for Special Programs). Share with family and friends, fully transferable. Great for gifts! Please note: 10-Flix Vouchers cannot guarantee tickets to sold-out shows, so redeem early to ensure ticket availability.

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For questions and/or information please e-mail boxoffice@sfjff.org, or call 415.621.0523 (Monday–Friday, 10 am–5 pm)

Members First!

SF Closing Night Celebration & Film

JFF Members General Public

www.sfjff.org, 24/7 415.621.0523 Monday–Friday, 10 am–5 pm

Box Office opens for JFF Members on June 21, 2011 Box Office opens to the general public June 24, 2011 No ticket required for free screenings

MATINEES

JFF Members General Public Seniors (65 and older) / Students w/ ID

Online Phone:

All programs are subject to change. Sometimes for reasons beyond our control, screenings must be changed, substituted, rescheduled or canceled. If a screening is canceled, simply return your ticket to the box office within 48 hours of screening date to exchange for a different screening or for a refund. All processing fees are non-refundable. SFJFF is not responsible for lost, stolen, forgotten or damaged tickets, or tickets misdirected by the post office. If you experience delivery problems at your address, please choose Will Call. There are no refunds for tickets that are not picked up. If ordering in advance tickets will automatically be placed at Will Call for ID verification. All programs are general seating.

ALL TICKETS AND PASSES ARE SUBJECT TO A PROCESSING FEE. FOR TICKETS THE PROCESSING FEE IS $1.50/TICKET. FOR PASSES, THE FEE IS $6/PASS, AND $6/ 10-FLIX PACK. THERE IS AN ADDITIONAL $6 PER ORDER CHARGE FOR TELEPHONE ORDERS. PLEASE ARRIVE AND BE IN LINE 20 MINUTES PRIOR TO SHOWTIME. TICKET OR PASS DOES NOT GUARANTEE SEATING.

SECURITY POLICY – PLEASE READ Bags not permitted in theatres. Please arrive early for screenings to provide ample time for security checks. All purses and bags are subject to inspection prior to admittance to theatres. Large bags, briefcases, backpacks, shopping bags, etc., will not be permitted in theatres. PLEASE DO NOT BRING SUCH ITEMS WITH YOU.

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 107 San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 145 Ninth Street, Suite 200 San Francisco, CA 94103

mission statement The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival promotes awareness, appreciation and pride in the diversity of the Jewish people. Festival programs are meant to create community and strengthen consciousness of Jewish identity, history and culture; provide a dynamic and inclusive forum for exploration of and dialogue about the Jewish experience; and encourage independent filmmakers working with Jewish themes.

(More on SFJFF, its values and programs at www.sfjff.org)

Little Rose

6

The Roundup

77 Steps

100 Voices: A Journey Home

12

I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors 17

Mabul (The Flood)

4

Sarah’s Key

All Done and Dusted

17

In Another Lifetime

Mary Lou

21

Between Two Worlds

13

In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee 18 Jewish Cemetery

The Matchmaker

22

Blood Relation Bobby Fischer Against the World

5

13 14

Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death and Technology

14

Crime After Crime

15

Don’t Tell Santa You’re Jewish!

23

Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death 15

The Hangman

17

17

Incessant Visions—Letters from an Architect

18

Intimate Grammar

19

Inventory

24

Jews in Shorts: Focus on Documentaries

19

22

The Names of Love

23

Next Year in Bombay

23

Otto Frank, Father of Anne

24

The Passion According to the Polish 30 Community of Pruchnik

7

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness

27

Skate of Mind

28

Spartacus

8

Standing Silent

28

Starring David

23

Strangers No More

29

Tevye

29

The Passion of the Jew

10

Torn

30

Phnom Penh Lullaby

24

Transparent Black

29

20

Polish Bar

25

A Trip to Jaffa

28

20

Precious Life

25

Wajeh

12

Kun 65

19

The Queen Has No Crown

26

When You Wish Upon a Weinstein

10

Life is Too Long

21

Rabies

26

10

Red Shirley

19

An Encounter with Simone Weil

16

Jews in Toons: An Uproarious Evening with Krusty, Kyle and Other Favorites 10

Five Weddings and a Felony

16

Joanna

Flawed

16

The Girl From a Reading Primer

19

Grandmothers

22

Grandpa Looked Like William Powell 21

My Life with Carlos

27

The Juggler

Like Father Like Clown

JULY 21-AUGUSt 8, 201 1 SFJFF.ORG/415.621.0523

berKeLEY JULY 2 1-31 JULY 30-AUGUSt 6 SAN FRANCISCO

PaLo ALTO saN RAFael AUGUSt 1-7 AUGUSt 6-8

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dana Doron PRESIDENT

Frederick Hertz VICE PRESIDENT

Gale Mondry SECRETARY

Sandee Blechman treasurer

Amanda Berger Susie Coliver Spencer Jarrett Ari Y. Kelman Sasha Kovriga George Krevsky Adrienne Leder Michele Madansky Douglas Okun Rachel Pfeffer Scott Rubin Janet Schneider Naomi Seidman Dan Wohlfeiler

STAFF Peter L. Stein Executive Director

Owen Levin Administrative Director

Jay Rosenblatt

Welcome—and welcome back!—as we begin our fourth decade presenting the best in world Jewish cinema.

Befitting our diverse audience, our Festival is a unique mix of innovation and tradition. With 58 films from 16 countries, in 110 screenings across 5 venues, you will discover artistry and ideas both surprising and familiar. Among the traditions: a return to Thursday Opening Night at the Castro—featuring the beautiful Israeli drama Mabul (The Flood)—with our big Bash following the film; and a musical Closing Night (100 Voices) including a spectacular pre-screening cantorial performance. Among the innovations: a move to the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto; a late-night horror film (Rabies); and an exclusive Berkeley Opening Night film, the French drama Sarah’s Key starring Kristin Scott Thomas.

New this year too: Comedy Night! Laugh it up on Monday, July 25, as we present Jews in Toons, highlighting Jewish episodes from The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy, with special guest Mike Reiss, writer and producer of The Simpsons (and creator of this year’s SFJFF trailers, featuring the irreverent cartoon character Queer Duck).

Every so often the stars align and you get what you wish for. This was certainly the case with this year’s Freedom of Expression honoree, Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas. We are privileged to have him accept the award and introduce the 50th Anniversary screening of the epic Spartacus, with which Douglas helped break the Hollywood blacklist. Our tribute continues with a little-seen 1953 gem, The Juggler, in which Douglas plays a Holocaust survivor in 1949 Israel.

Special thematic programs include films and shorts from or about Poland and a strong lineup of personal documentaries (see page 11). And don’t miss our local spotlight: Tiffany Shlain’s straight-from-Sundance Connected, and SFJFF founder Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow’s provocative personal essay Between Two Worlds, presented with a panel discussion on July 28.

With thanks to all the filmmakers, members, sponsors and to you: Enjoy!

Program Director

Joshua Moore Associate Programmer

Shira Zucker Manager, Marketing /PR

Kerri Gawryn Development & Sponsorship Associate

Josh Thelin Development & Membership Assistant

Doug Blakely Administrative Coordinator

John Valte Bookkeeping Assistant Catalog design and content © 2011 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.

All rights reserved .

Dana Doron

Jay Rosenblatt

Peter L. Stein

president, board of directors

Program director

Executive director

P.S. from PLS I have stood on sturdy shoulders running this organization for the past eight years: talented staff, visionary filmmakers, committed supporters, passionate audience members—an extraordinary community whom I have felt honored to serve. As I step down this fall to resume the roles I played when I first discovered SFJFF—as a filmmaker and fan—I appreciate ever more the unique space for art and engagement that this festival creates every year. Keep the conversation going, the expectations high and the houselights low. The story is just beginning. —Peter

production staff Executive Director Peter L. Stein

Hospitality Coordinator Monisha Gandhi

Sponsor Reel David White

Administrative Director Owen Levin

Digital Archive/Production Coordinator Max Foreman

Hospitality/Window Boxes Kerri Gawryn

Program Director Jay Rosenblatt

Interns Natalia Guecheva Matthew Kaplan Valentina Kartsub Ericka Miele Arina Tilipalova

Hospitality Assistants John Bouvier Brian Freeman David Gutierez

Associate Programmer Joshua Moore Manager, Marketing/PR Shira Zucker

House Manager, SF & Berkeley Brad Robinson

Director of Development, SFJFF31 Allyson Halpern

Volunteer Coordinators Michael LoPresti Josh Thelin

Development & Sponsorship Associate Kerri Gawryn

Volunteer Coordinator, Marin Alysanne Taylor

Development & Membership Assistant Josh Thelin

Web Design/Development 415 Productions, San Francisco Doug Domonkos Chris Purvis Ben Rigby

Administrative Coordinator Doug Blakely Bookkeeping Assistant John Valte Community Outreach Coordinator Myra Feiger Marketing Consultant Marketing by Storm Cara Storm Publications & Website Kuros Ghaffari Publicity Coordinator Jeff Ross Festival Publicists Larsen Associates Karen Larsen Leo Wong Ani Klose

House Manager, Palo Alto Gino Caputi

Events Coordinator Suzy Drell 2011 SFJFF TRAILER

Created and Written by Mike Reiss

Starring Jim J. Bullock

Animation Xeth Feinberg

Produced by Tal Vigderson

Voiceover Directed by Tal Vigderson

Audio Production Rick Dickerson Gigi Meroni

Technical Director Hal Rowland Box Office Manager Mitchell Vaughn Box Office Services Box Cubed Copy Editor Robert Avila Print Traffic Coordinator Alex Cantin Printer Eagle Press

Pre-Screeners 2011 Jennie Adler Margot Breier Bonnie Burt Bill Chayes Myra Feiger Ed Feldman Max Goldberg Keren Hantman Deborah Hoffmann Marcia Jarmel Nancy Kates Vivian Kleiman Jan Krawitz Valerie Lapin-Ganley David Liu Judy Montell Kenn Rabin Shevi Rosenfeld Emmy Scharlatt Ken Schneider Harvey Schwartz Jennifer Schwartz Veronica Selver Susan Stern Mark Valentine Lauren Vanett Diane Wolf Creative Direction and Design Public, Inc. / Mende Design Todd Foreman Lindsay Wheeler Jeremy Mende Additional Graphic Design Debbie Berne David White Program Catalog Editors Joshua Moore Jay Rosenblatt Peter L. Stein

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