JewliciousReels: Preview of Over 30 Must See Fall Films

NOW IN THEATRES

CLIVE DAVIS: The Soundtrack of Our Lives
Documentary
Director Chris Perkel
Featuring: Clive Davis, Doug Davis
Running Time 2h 3m

A film about the legendary music producer with the Midas touch, having nurtured, mentored, and marketed Aretha Franklin, Puff Daddy, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Barry Manilow, Alicia Keys, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana and so many others. Davis lots both his parents while he was an undergrad in NYC. But he moved on to Harvard law and then Columbia Records. But after seeing Janis Joplin at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival in 1967, he changed his tastes in music.

THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED)
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Written by Noah Baumbach
Comedy, Drama
Feauturing Adam Sandler, Grace Van Patten, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Marvel, Emma Thompson
Running Time 1h 52m

Harold Meyerowitz is a self absorbed absent father and artist who never received the success he desired. His three children visit. Only one is an artist, the only status that counts to dad. Harold feels unappreciated late in his life. Danny is an artist. But Matthew, a successful business manager in Los Angeles does not feel a success since he is not an artist. As one review noted, “None of the Meyerowitzes are fulfilled, and all of them seethe with resentment. Almost everything that comes out of Harold’s mouth is a passive-aggressive accusation pitched with head-spinning atonal refinement, as when, on an unscheduled visit to the home of one of his ex-wives (Candice Bergen, in a droll cameo), he makes a beeline to a bookshelf and says “I think this is my copy of ‘Buddenbrooks.’”

DINA
Documentary, Overcoming Disabilities
Directors: Antonio Santini, Dan Sickles
Features: Dina Buno, Scott Levin
Running Time 1h 43m
Winner at Sundance 2017

Dina Buno and Scott Levin are living in sububrban Philadelphia and planning their wedding. They are vulnerable and mentally or emotionally challenged. Dina is autistic, as is Scott. A story of love and intimacy.

SURVIVING PEACE
Documentary
Directed by Attorney Josef Avesar
Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

The Los Angeles Times called this documentary self serving, tedious and worth less than expected. The film contends that the deeply ingrained culture of distrust between the Israeli Jewis and Palestinians Arabs will make the two-state solution impossible. The director interviews Dr. Yossi Beilin, Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat, and others.

BRAD’S STATUS
Dramatic Comedy
Rated R
Directed by Mike White (cat lover of Chuck & Buck fame).
Featuring Ben Stiller, Jenna Fischer, Austin Abrams, Luke Wilson, Jemaine Clement, Michael Sheen, Shazi Raja, Luisa Lee, Mike White, Xavier Grobet.
Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Brad Sloan (Ben Stiller) is an anxious neurotic father and husband who works in the non profit world and does not feel as if he ever became a success in life, as did his classmates. His wife melanie (Jenna Fischer) stays behind in Sacarmento as Brad takes their son Troy (Austin Abrams), a high school musician, on a tour of Ivy League colleges in Cambridge, Mass. Brad compares his life with those of his thre best college friends: Nick (Mike White) has a mansion sporting a brand new mansion; Billy (Jemaine Clement) retired at 40 and has multiple girlfriends at his place in Hawaii; and Jason (Luke Wilson) has a hedge fund. Will this turn out to be “It’s A Wonderful Life” where Brad doesn’t realize his own worth?

MENASHE
Drama
Directed by Joshua Z. Weinstein
In Yiddish with English subtitles.

Yes, it is still in some theaters… well.. at least one in Manhattan. A Hasidic man living in Brooklyn (Menashe Lustig) fights to retain custody of his son (Ruben Niborski) after his wife’s death. As his community’s tradition requires, his son must live with a mother, so he satys with his aunt. Menashe is in no hurry to remarry. But he must if he hopes to get his son back and save him from a very disagreeable brother-in-law (Yoel Weisshaus).

TOM OF FINLAND
Biopic, Biography, Drama
Director Dome Karukoski
Writer Aleksi Bardy
Featuring Jakob Oftebro, Pekka Strang, Troy T. Scott, Werner Daehn, Lauri Tilkanen
Running Time 1h 55m
Finnish with English Subtitles, and English

The life of an artist in post-WWII Finland, who was branded as “Tom of Finland” by his Jewish publisher. The life of Touko Laaksonen (1920-1991) (acted by Pekka Strang), the Finnish advertising director who, as “Tom of Finland,” published drawings of hyper-muscular men and became famous for expanding perceptions on the homoerotic portrayal of gay life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyb6ijUdWG4

THY FATHER’S HO– USE
Documentary
Directed by Antonio Tibaldi and Alex Lora

A 2015 film, finally getting a screen in Manhattan in Fall 2017. The elderly Orthodox Jewish twin brothers Abraham and Shraga look on as a team of cleaners arrives to clean up their Brooklyn home over eight days. Abraham and Shraga are Orthodox Jewish aging twins who live a secluded existence in their inherited Brooklyn home. Since the death of their parents, they have stopped throwing away anything, hosting stray cats and accumulating all sorts of stuff. Enraged by the situation, the upstairs tenant threatens to stop paying them rent unless they proceed with a radical cleaning of their apartment. Abraham and Shraga are forced to open their doors to a specialized cleaning company. What ensues seems at first only a traumatic invasion of privacy, with the twins fighting to preserve their memories – but little by little the relationship with the head of the cleaning company begins to deepen. By painfully separating from most of their belongings, Abraham and Shraga might have a chance to recover their lost purity. They are pushed to find new solutions to many unanswered questions: how free are you within the boundaries of your heritage? How do you begin to let go the past go and live your life in the present? How do you confront the loss of your parents and become responsible for yourself?

AIDA’S SECRET
Directed by Alon Schwarz, Shaul Schawrz
Documentary
Featuring: Shep Shell, Izak Sagi, Aida Zasadsinska
95 minutes

In this moving documentary, the discovery of records from WWII sparks a family’s quest for answers as two brothers separated as babies reunite with each other and their elderly mother, who hid more from them than just each other. Izak Szewelwicz was born in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp in 1945 and sent for adoption in Israel. Though Izak was able to form a relationship with his birth mother, his life was turned upside down years later when he located not only his birth certificate, but also another of a brother he never knew existed. Filmmakers Alon and Shaul Schwarz set out to find answers for Izak, uncovering questions of identity, resilience, and the plight of displaced persons as Izak and his brother Shep–both nearly 70 years old–finally meet in Canada before traveling to a nursing home in Quebec to introduce Shep to his elderly mother, Aida, for the first time.

NOW AT FESTIVALS: OTHER ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL – NEW YORK CITY

Over a dozen films (and more shorts) focused on Israel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side including:

In Between
Director: Maysaloun Hamoud
103 minutes

Two Palestinian women share an apartment in the vibrant heart of Tel Aviv. A stylish criminal lawyer with a wicked wit, Laila sheds her professional persona and releases any inhibitions in the city’s underground club scene. Her more subdued lesbian roommate Salma left her conservative Christian home and floats from job-to-job, working primarily as a bartender and DJ. They are joined by Nur, a religious Muslim, who moves into the apartment while studying at the local university. Her fiancé refuses to understand why she prefers to study and work over establishing their home. Together, the roommates search for ways to live in the space in between their desired modern lifestyles and the pressures from their traditional communities.

Holy Air
Director: Shady Srour
81 minutes

In Nazareth, Christian-Arab Adam suffers the failure of yet another entrepreneurial idea. He will soon become a first-time father, and his father has fallen gravely ill. Adam needs to catch a break, and finally one day he happens upon his blockbuster idea. With thousands of tourists coming to the childhood home of Jesus every year, Adam could sell them “Holy Air,” bottled fresh from the top of Mount Precipice. For a single Euro, tourists can buy a bottle filled with the very same air Mary breathed when the angel Gabriel announced she would give birth to the “Son of God.” Adam suddenly becomes so successful that he catches the attention of the local Jewish politicians, the Catholic Church, and the Muslim mafia alike. Will success liberate Adam and allow him to support his family? Or will more money lead to more problems? In American theaters November 17.

The Promised Band
Director: Jen Heck
89 minutes

American reality TV producer Jen Heck brings her friends from a self-described bubble in Tel Aviv, where many are ignorant of the realities of life for Palestinians, to meet Lina, a Palestinian living in Nablus. This action could land them all in a great deal of trouble, as the Palestinian city is off limits to Israeli citizens. When Shlomit and Lina hit it off, they decide to form a band which would allow them to continue to meet and interact. None have much musical ability, but Shlomit recruits a few more friends, and they begin making regular trips to Lina’s home in Nablus. The more time the women spend together, the more they connect with each other and begin to realize they’re not so different.

The Field
Director: Mordechai Vardi
72 minutes
Documentary

Gush Etzion Junction, a commercial intersection frequented by both Palestinians and Israeli settlers, lies midway between Jerusalem and Hebron and is the entrance to one of the largest settlement blocks in the West Bank. In 2014, Ali Abu Awwad built a shack on a plot of land owned by his family near the junction to create a Palestinian Center for Nonviolence. He invited some settlers to visit, sit, and talk. They would discuss both the serious and mundane elements of their lives and begin a process of transformation that could lead to mutual recognition and understanding that they must coexist as neighbors with dignity and justice for all. Awwad had been a fighter and militant activist, enraged by his brother’s death at the hands of an Israeli soldier and having served time in an Israeli prison. But now, partnering with the settlers, he and his family created “Roots,” a grassroots effort to advance responsibility and reconciliation through peaceful conversation, activities, and cooperation in addressing the fears and needs of both communities. Director Vardi, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and resident of Gush Etzion, provides a glimpse of the dialogue between Palestinians and Israeli settlers, and follows the group throughout a wave of violence in 2015 that challenges all of their hopes for reconciliation

NOW AT FESTIVALS: NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
based on a novel by Andre Aciman
Drama
Runtime: 2 hr 12 min
Featuring Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet , Michael Stuhlbarg)

Set in Italy, Summer 1983. A sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman. It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian boy, spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favors him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio’s sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart. The film will have a theatrical release in November 2017

HALL OF MIRRORS
Directed by Ena Talakic, Ines Talakic
Documentary
1 Hr 27 minutes

The great nonpartisan investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein, still going strong at 81, takes us through his most notable articles and books, including close looks at the findings of the Warren Commission, the structure of the diamond industry, the strange career of Armand Hammer, and the inner workings of big-time journalism itself.

SPEAK UP
Directed by Stéphane de Freitas
Documentary
France
1 Hr 39 minutes

Each year at the University of Saint-Denis in the suburbs of Paris, the Eloquentia competition determines the best orator in the class. Speak Up follows the students, who come from a variety of family backgrounds and academic disciplines, as they prepare.

Claude Lanzmann’s Four Sisters:
The Hippocratic Oath
Baluty
The Merry Flea
Noah’s Ark

Claude Lanzmann, director of the monumental Shoah, presents four new films based on interviews conducted with Holocaust survivors in the seventies, built around four women from four different areas of Eastern Europe with four different destinies.

NOW AT FESTIVALS: SAN DIEGO FILM FESTIVAL

MARSHALL
The early life of Thurgood Marshall
Directed by Reginald Hudlin
Open Road Films

Long before he sat on the United States Supreme Court or claimed victory in Brown v. Board of Education, Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) was a young rabble-rousing attorney for the NAACP. The new motion picture, MARSHALL, is the true story of his greatest challenge in those early days – a fight he fought alongside attorney Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a young Jewish lawyer with no experience in criminal law: the case of black chauffeur Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), accused by his white employer, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson), of sexual assault and attempted murder.

THE TRANSFER
Dir: Michael Grudsky
Short drama
Country: Israel
23 minutes
Featuring Ido BARTAL, Imri BITON, Adeeb SAFADI, Yair MOSSEL, Tom HAGI

Erez, an Israeli commissioned officer, and two other soldiers have been ordered to transfer an Arab prisoner to Megiddo prison. Along the way, a conflict arises that makes them all question their prejudices.

NOW AT FESTIVALS: HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

116 CAMERAS
Short documentary
Directed by Davina Pardo
16 min

With the assistance of innovative technology, Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss (Ann Frank’s stepsister) ensures she will be able to tell her story forever.

COMMODITY CITY
Directed by Jessica Kingdon
Short documentary
10 min

A meditative observation of the Yiwu Markets in China, the largest wholesale consumer market in the world.

ITZHAK
Directed by Alison Chernick
Documentary
82 min

Alison Chernick’s documentary ITZHAK examines the life and music of Itzhak Perlman, widely considered one of the world’s greatest living violinists. The documentary will be broadcast in 2018 on PBS’ American Masters. The doc briefly relates the story of the violinist’s early years, including his being afflicted with polio and making a breakthrough appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show when he was just 13 years old. In one scene, Perlman shares take-out Chinese with Evgeny Kissin and Mischa Maiskey. In another scene, Perlman drinks wine with Alan Alda, who tells Perlman that he also suffered from polio as a child. In another scene, Perlamn goes through a detailed search at the airport. The Variety reviews said, “…It’s fun to see Perlman explain to his dinner guests that moo shu chicken involves pancakes, but it would have been far more satisfying to learn in greater depth about his early years spent in Israel, his difficulties dealing with his illness, his relationships with fellow musicians, etc. At one point, he tells someone that the piece for which he receives the most requests is the theme from Schindler’s List. That neither the film’s director Steven Spielberg nor its composer John Williams is on hand to deliver observations about Perlman’s contribution seems a shame.” Also at NYC DOC in November 2017

SPRING CHICKEN
Directed by: Tamir Elterman
Short Documentary
10 min

Anny Junek, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor, loves dressing up for the Jewish holiday of Purim. In fact, she’s the three-time champion of her Israeli retirement home’s annual costume contest (as a bride, a Smurf, a doctor, and a handyman). She basks in the element of surprise and never reveals her costume before the contest. After losing her parents in Auschwitz and surviving Bergen-Belsen, Anny moved from Austria to Mexico where she raised her family. Now a great-grandmother in Israel, Anny and her family have hatched a plan for a fourth win.

MR & MRS ADELMAN “MONSIEUR & MADAME ADELMAN”
Directed by Nicolas Bedos
Drama
120 min

Kicking off in 1971, Mr. & Mrs. Adelman tells the story of budding author Victor (Bedos), who, when he’s not whining to his psychiatrist (Denis Podalydes) about his penis size (as all great writers are known to do), is trying very hard to be the next Albert Camus. He seems to be going nowhere fast before he crosses paths with Sarah (Tillier), a brilliant Ph.D. student who falls head-over-heels for him and, after a complicated courtship, finally seals the deal. While their relationship starts off as an awkwardly carnal affair, it soon becomes clear that their true calling revolves around Victor’s writing, which Sarah assists in more ways than one — especially after she allows him to use her Jewish last name to sign his first novel, about a family of Holocaust survivors. Quickly deemed the French Philip Roth and handed the prestigious Prix Goncourt, Victor becomes a literary superstar, while Sarah lingers sadly in the shadows. They go through the usual marital episodes of cruelty, infidelity and reconciliation, as Bedos and Tillier are aged with what looks like an entire Sephora store’s worth of makeup.

MUHI—GENERALLY TEMPORARY
Directed by Rina Castelnuovo, Tamir Elterman
Documentary
87 min

Jerusalem-based journalists Rina Castelnuovo and Tamir Elterman present MUHI—GENERALLY TEMPORARY, an enchanting portrait of a sweet boy from Gaza who finds himself trapped between two conflicting nations. After an immune disorder threatens to take his life as an infant, Muhi is rushed to an Israeli hospital for emergency surgery and into the care of those considered to be his people’s enemy. Unable to leave due to the severity of his condition, the endlessly cheery Muhi and his doting grandfather remain in bureaucratic limbo for seven years—their moving story illustrating the far-reaching impact these paradoxical circumstances hold over the individuals caught in the crosshairs.

ONE OF US
Documentary
Directed By Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
Produced By Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady

In a borough defined by rapidly shifting identities and vastly increased visibility, Brooklyn’s Hasidic community exists as an anomaly—one virtually cut off from the change surrounding it and defined largely by the secrecy of what exists within it. Over the course of three years, Oscar-nominated® directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady embed themselves with three former members who have removed themselves from the community, exploring the circumstances that led to their departure and capturing their new lives outside—despite persistent threats from the world they left behind. One subject attempts to leave with seven children to escape an abusive husband. New York State courts – catering to brooklyn Hasidic voters – will probably side against the mother and for the alleged abuser. Another subject leaves his wife and children to pursue an acting and Uber-driver career in Los Angeles. Another subject, having ben sexually abused by a teacher, attempts to leave physicially or through substance abuse. As in 2006’s JESUS CAMP, Ewing and Grady explore the boundaries of a community defined by religious connection. Unfortunately, the subjects are human and not saints, but such is real life. Also at NYC DOC in November 2017 and on NetFlix.

SPIELBERG
Directed by Susan Lacy
Documentary
147 min

Emerging out of the New Hollywood era to become the biggest name in blockbuster film for the last four decades, Steven Spielberg has been defined by both the countless classics he directed and the constant risks that kept his streak alive throughout his career as a filmmaker, producer, and studio executive. With interviews from Spielberg’s consistent collaborators (Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, John Williams), contemporaries (George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola), and friends and family, Susan Lacy’s wide-spanning portrait of the director provides an unprecedented look at the most influential figure in modern filmmaking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSdSYmXCPXU

NOW AT FESTIVALS: MARGARET MEADE FILM FESTIVAL

Babylon Dreamers (Hacholmimn Mibabylon)
Directed by Roman Shumunov
Documentary
87 minutes

Headspins, windmills, and b-boying: a group of immigrants from the former Soviet Union form a breakdancing troupe in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Israel. They dream of competing in the International Breakdancing Competition in Germany, but the road is paved with hardship and crisis. Lacking an instructor, they learn moves from videotapes and move one step closer to their goal. Co-presented by Dance Films Association and Other Israel Film Festival, with support provided the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York

“I made this film because I couldn’t stand the fact that sometimes people stay transparent in the society. In our world, thousands of young people, all from marginalized areas surrounded by poverty and helplessness, are fighting to survive—not just in the obvious physical way, but mostly it is a moral and mental fight. I hope to raise awareness for the situation and circumstances faced by those young people in order that their story won’t stay as invisible to the world as they are. This movie is my message to man.” — Roman Shumunov | Director, Babylon Dreamers

A Queer Country
Directed by Lisa Morgenthau
Documentary
73 minutes

Tel Aviv is home to a vibrant LGBT community, celebrated in the world’s largest Pride parade every June. But this outward expression of progressivism is at odds with the nation’s legal and social structures, which adhere strictly to the ideals of Orthodox Judaism. Is Israel’s public celebration of LGBT rights “pinkwashing,” as some critics argue, a cynical ploy to establish liberal credibility? A Queer Country reveals the contradictions and complexities of Israel’s thriving queer scene. Co-presented by NewFest and Other Israel Film Festival

NOW AT FESTIVALS: DOC NYC DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

32 PILLS: MY SISTER’S SUICIDE
Directed by Hope Litoff
Produced by Beth Levison

Years after the suicide of her sister Ruth, a talented but troubled artist, director Hope Litoff tries to make sense of her loss. Renting a studio, Hope begins a meticulous forensic investigation of the belongings Ruth left behind, filling the space with her artwork, diaries, datebooks and a pharmacy’s worth of prescription-drug bottles. Confronting her grief yields no simple answers and instead threatens to lead Hope on a precarious collision course with her own inner demons.

THE B-SIDE: ELSA DORFMAN’S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
Director: Errol Morris
Producer: Steven Hathaway
Documentary
76 minutes

Elsa Dorfman is a master practitioner of a rare photographic format, the large-size Polaroid 20? x 24? camera. For three decades in her studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she took thousands of portraits, including those of accomplished friends like poet Allen Ginsberg and singer Jonathan Richman. Now in her late 70s, she opens her archives and her memories for this documentary by her longtime friend Errol Morris (The Fog of War, Tabloid), who is also receiving DOC NYC’s Visionaries Lifetime Achievement Award.

ELISH’S NOTEBOOKS
Director: Golan Rise
Producer: Haggai Arad, Elad Peleg
74 minutes

After the death of their emotionally distant mother, Elisheva Rise, her seven children discover a secret cache of journals that she kept for over half a century. Unusually, these were written not in her own voice, but from the perspectives of each of her children, beginning with their birth. Now, filmed by Elish’s grandson Golan, his father, aunt and uncles each read through “their” journal, emotionally confronting their past and their complex feelings for their lost parent.

THE JUDGE
Director: Erika Cohn
Producer: Erika Cohn
82 minutes

In the West Bank, Kholoud Al-Faqih is the first woman judge appointed to any of the Middle East’s Shari’a courts. In this courtroom drama, we witness how she applies the law, sometimes with a different emphasis than her male colleagues. We also see the resistance she faces, along with her male counterpart, a progressive Sheik. Al Faqih is a charming figure who marshals her savvy and determination to navigate a world full of obstacles.

KING COHEN
Director: Steve Mitchell
Producer: Matt Verboys, Dan McKeon, Steve Mitchell, Cliff Stephenson
109 minutes

Known as ‘the John Cassavetes of exploitation,’ filmmaker Larry Cohen is responsible for such 1970s cult hits as It’s Alive, Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem. Steve Mitchell’s rollicking tribute revisits the heyday of guerrilla filmmaking, when Cohen would shoot car chases, shootouts and fight scenes without a permit on busy Manhattan streets, with the public none the wiser. Featuring interviews with admirers, including Martin Scorsese, J.J. Abrams, John Landis and Joe Dante, King Cohen celebrates a true maverick of American filmmaking.

PLAYING GOD
Director: Karin Jurschick
Producer: Producer, Birgit Schulz, Co-Producer, Annemiek van der Hell
German documentary
90 minutes

To reckon with the aftermath of 9/11, the US Congress set up a special fund to compensate victims of national disasters, and called upon Ken Feinberg to dispassionately assess claims. Decades before, the compensation specialist had determined damages for Agent Orange-exposed Vietnam vets. Later, he oversaw compensation for the victims of Deepwater Horizon, Sandy Hook, the Boston Marathon bombing and the 2008 bank crisis. In this candid, complex portrait, director Karin Jurschick reveals the man who puts a dollar value on human lives.

THE SPIRAL
Director: Laura Fairrie
Producer: John Battsek, Charles S. Cohen, Daniel Battsek
Official Site: http://www.cohenmedia.net/
On Twitter: cohenmediagroup
79 minutes

Anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and physical and verbal assaults against Jews are on the rise throughout Europe, particularly in France. In response to rising tensions and fears, many in the Jewish community decide to leave. Others, like lawyer Julien, remain behind to fight back against those who would fan the flames of hate, like popular comedian Dieudonne?, known for his signature inverted Nazi salute. Director Laura Fairrie presents an urgent, alarming look at the impact of this free reign of hatred on the lives of ordinary people.

STANDING UP
Director: Jonathan Miller
Producer: Jonathan Miller, Colin Bernatzky, Katharine Accardo
Official Site: http://www.standingupmovie.com
On Twitter: StandingUpDoc
74 minutes

So an Egyptian lawyer, a couch-surfing custodian and an Orthodox Jew walk into a comedy club… and end up in a documentary. Standing Up follows these three unlikely aspiring stand-up comics, willing to risk everything in pursuit of their dreams of making it in comedy. Director Jonathan Miller tells their story with warmth and humor, taking us into the heart of New York City’s downtown open-mic scene, where would-be comics put it all on the line for laughs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk3zD46VrQ0

NOW AT FESTIVALS: NEW FEST NYC FILM FESTIVAL

MONTANA
US Premiere
Dir: Limor Shmila,
Featyuring Noa Biron, Netta Shpigelman, Avi Malka
Drama
74 mins
Hebrew and French with English subtitles

Noa Biron tears into the role of Efi, a bold Israeli lesbian who returns to the hometown of her youth where she is faced with a moral choice–to confront the dark family secrets that continue to haunt the present, or to keep quiet, preserve the status quo, and pursue an unexpected romance.

TEL AVIV NIGHTS
Dir: Samuel Douek
3 minute short

How do you find connection in a city divided? The answer, in part, lies in Tel Aviv’s hidden late-night queer scene, where matters of Arabs, Israelis, war and fear are put aside — at least for a few hours.

A WOMB OF THEIR OWN
Directed by Cyn Lubow
Documentary
86 mins
Featuring Rae Goodman-Lucker, A.K. Summers, Darcy Allder, Lorenzo Ramirez, Morgan Weinert, Cyn Lubow

Considered the exclusive domain of the female experience, pregnancy is generally viewed as the pinnacle of womanhood. But what happens when the act of being pregnant falls outside of the feminine and into a womb of its own? Exploring the experience of pregnancy among a group of diverse masculine-of-center-identified people, this documentary questions what it means to be pregnant and give birth as a masculine person, broadening our understanding of gender, sexuality, and parenthood. Features Rae Goodman-Lucker who used to teach at the Jewish Community high school.

DREAM BOAT
Dir: Tristan Ferland Milewski,
Germany
92 mins

Decked from port to starboard, this cruise sets sail every year with leagues of gay men hungry to find their own slice of paradise on the open seas. Far from their families and political restrictions, we follow five men from five countries, including Palestine, Austria, India, France and Poland, on a quest for connection. International waters provide the perfect platform to explore the ecstasy, agony, hopes, and dreams that bridge this community behind the bacchanalia. Revealed are the intersections between the diverse identities aboard, a brotherhood across borders.

IF I MET A MAGICIAN
Director: Shaked Goren
Israel
20 minutes
Hebrew with English subtitles

Omri gets a glimpse of his ideal world on Memorial Day.

NOW AT FESTIVALS: PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL

BYE BYE GERMANY
Directed by Sam Garbarski
In German w/ English ST
Featuring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Antje Traue, Mark Ivanir, Hans Löw
102 min

Holocaust survivor David Bermann and his motley group of friends will do anything to make enough money to leave Germany for America. But to do so, Bermann must also confront his darkly comic past. Set in Germany in the tumultuous years following WWII, Sam Garbarski’s BYE BYE GERMANY addresses the country’s past with a bold mixture of dismay and humor, asking the question: What if your ability to tell a joke were your only means of survival? After being accused of having collaborated with the Nazis during the war, quick-witted Bermann (Moritz Bleibtreu) is forced to revisit his time spent as a prisoner at Auschwitz. At the camp, Bermann was recruited to play the clown at Nazi-filled parties, and eventually to tutor Hitler himself in the art of comic timing. Through flashbacks, Bermann relives this painful decision to cooperate. In the present day, he recruits a gang of fellow survivors to sell high quality linens door-to-door. The band of peddlers use extreme theatrics to convince the hesitant consumers to offer up their money, targeting lonely housewives and grieving parents, all the while concealing their own traumatic pasts and Jewish identities. Equal parts disturbing and hilarious, BYE BYE GERMANY explores the harsh nature of living with a devastating past, and the sometimes-absurd measures we take to survive.

AT BOSTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL and CINEMA VILLAGE NY

DESTINATION UNKNOWN
Gigatel Production,
Seventh Art Releasing – 81 min
DIRECTOR: Claire Ferguson
Featuring: Ed Mosberg, Helen Sternlicht, Mietek Pemper, Victor Lewis, Frank Blaichman, Stanley Glogover

They endured the death camps. They hid in remote farms. They fought as partisans in Polish forests, but when the war ended, the struggles of the Holocaust survivors were only just beginning. DESTINATION UNKNOWN paints a uniquely intimate portrait of survival, revealing pain that has never faded but hasn’t crushed the human spirit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7GWcN2tHSQ

116 Cameras
Sowing at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)Sun, Nov 19 2:30 PM
Director(s): Davina Pardo
Running Time: 16 minutes
Type of Film: ocumentary
https://www.116cameras.com/

Eva Schloss, a Holocaust survivor, takes part in a new project: preserving survivors’ stories as interactive holograms.

1945
Director(s): Ferenc Török
Country: Hungary
Language: Hungarian with English ST
Running Time: 91 minutes
Distributed by MenemshaFilms
Twitter: @MenemshaFilms

1945. Two Orthodox Jewish strangers are spotted at the train station of a small Hungarian village that is in the middle of preparing for a wedding and quickly becomes abuzz — who are these men? Have they come to reclaim stolen Jewish property? Shot in breathtaking black and white, 1945 revisits a time of uncertainty and chaos, as Hungary rebuilds itself postwar and must define its relationship with Europe’s surviving Jews. Official Selection, Berlin International Film Festival, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scBAVpRnJWQ

BYE BYE GERMANY

Bye Bye Germany
Director(s): Sam Garbarski
Country: Germany Luxembourg Belgium
Language: German
Running Time: 101 minutes
Facebook: eswareinmalindeutschland

Frankfurt, 1946. Jews remaining in Displaced Persons camps must make new rules to survive. So, David Bermann (Moritz Bleibtreu, Run Lola Run) recruits some friends to sell linens to Germans at highly inflated prices. But while his friends are earning the money for their tickets to America, David is meeting with an American investigator who is determined to discover the secret he is hiding.