The 17th Annual East Bay International Jewish Film Festival begins its nine-day run beginning Saturday, March 10 and concluding on Sunday, March 18. The Festival will screen 44 films in total, with many of them focusing on famous composers, musicians, conductors, and an American record company, Castle Records, which showcased the talents of legendary R&B singers Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters.
Opening the Festival on March 10 at the CineArts in Pleasant Hill is the moving French-Russian drama and Golden Globe nominee Le Concert about an ousted Bolshoi Orchestra conductor who dreams of performing one last concert in Paris. “If you like Tchaikovsky and want a film that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit, then this is a film for you,” says Ilana Revelli, co-chair of the Festival.
Sunday, March 11’s line-up includes a film that not only celebrates a particular music genre, 70’s pop rock, but is also a musical itself. In Mary Lou, award-winning Israeli director Eytan Fox has created a feature film that showcases the songs of singer and composer Svika Pick. “This wonderful film takes you on a journey with its protagonist, a young man who searches for the mother who abandoned him as a child,” Festival co-chair Kim Weinstein notes. “To familiarize our audience with Pick’s music, we’re preceding the screening with a mini-concert by The Vibers, a local band.”
The Wednesday, March 14th film Mahler on the Couch is an edgy drama about the famous conductor and composer Gustav Mahler, who turns to Sigmund Freud after the former’s wife has an affair with another artist. The film examines the cultural life of Austria in the late 19th century and the bonds that develop between a patient and his psychoanalyst.
Showing on March 17th at the Orinda Theatre with Restoration, an award-winning film about a restorer of antiques who himself is restored by a stranger, is the Bay Area premiere of the German drama Wunderkinde. It follows the lives of three teen musicians during World War II. “Although we did not purposefully seek out films with a musical bent,” says Revelli, “we were immediately moved by their ability to illustrate how music can bring people together as well as inspire them.”
In contrast, Wagner and Me reveals a different side of the power of music. This British documentary by actor Stephen Fry explores how he, as a Jew and grandchild of Holocaust survivors, struggles with his love of Wagner’s music even though the composer was an infamous anti-Semite. The documentary asks the question: Can you separate the artist from his art?
In addition to music-focused films, the Festival features non-music driven films, including many East Bay premieres and award-winning films. At the March 11 screening of Gei Oni, veteran Israeli director Daniel Wolman will be in attendance to discuss his film’s recent winning the Best Film prize in China’s this past October. A last minute addition to the Festival is Le Chat du Rabbin (The Rabbi’s Cat), an animated film for adults and older teens that is set in Algeria in the 1920s. Based on a French new wave comic strip, this witty and highly original movie features a talking cat who wants a Bar Mitzvah, his rabbi, a wise Arab sheik and an eccentric Russian millionaire — all of whom journey to the heart of Africa.
The East Bay International Jewish Film Festival is presented by the Jewish Federation of the East Bay and is co-sponsored by Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Diablo Magazine, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and City National Bank. Films will be screened at the CineArts in Pleasant Hill, the Orinda Theatre and the Vine Cinema in Livermore. For tickets and a brochure, call the box office at 510.318.6456 or visit the website at www.eastbayjewishfilm.org.
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