World Jewish News

16th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival.

The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center will present the 16th annual New York Jewish Film Festival from January 10 through 25, 2007. One of the longest running collaborations of two arts institutions in New York City, the festival will take place at The Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, 165 West 65th Street, with two screenings at The Jewish Museum, Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street.
Featuring two world, nine United States, and nine New York premieres, the festival will present 31 productions illuminating the rich diversity of the international Jewish experience from Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Dramas, documentaries, shorts and comedies including films concerned with art, women, families and alternative families are among the diverse array of festival offerings. A number of the filmmakers will be in New York during the festival to discuss their films.
Director Alejandro Springall's My Mexican Shivah will receive its United States premiere. In this charming comedy, family and friends in Mexico City mourn the passing of a much beloved patriarch. Mourners include a Catholic ex-lover, an Orthodox ex-convict grandson and a troupe of mariachi musicians, while two Yiddish-speaking spirits observe events and account for the dead man's soul. Based on a story by Ilan Stavans, this film is co-produced by John Sayles and Maggie Renzi with a score by the Klezmatics.
Four documentaries and one feature focus on contemporary life in Israel. Renowned director Amos Gitai's News from Home/News from House, receiving its New York premiere, concerns a West Jerusalem house and its Israeli and Palestinian inhabitants, which Gitai previously visited in his 1998 film, A House in Jerusalem. Observing the changes in the building's residents and neighborhood, Gitai reveals a complex labyrinth of destinies. Director's Yoav Shamir's 5 Days chronicles the evacuation of 8,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. With exclusive access to settlers and soldiers, Shamir and his seven film crews simultaneously document key players at this tumultuous moment.
The 16th annual New York Jewish Film Festival has been organized by a committee consisting of Rachel Chanoff, independent curator; Andrew Ingall, assistant curator, The Jewish Museum; Richard Peña, program director, Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Aviva Weintraub, associate curator and director of the New York Jewish Film Festival, The Jewish Museum.
The 16th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival is made possible by a lead grant from The Martin and Doris Payson Charitable Foundation. Additional funding is provided by The Liman Foundation, The Jack and Pearl Resnick Foundation, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, Mimi and Barry Alperin, The Israel Office of Cultural Affairs in the USA, the Consulate General of Sweden, the French Embassy, and other donors.

Источник: www.huliq.com