PHILADELPHIA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 36 YEARS NOVEMBER 5-19

Tinsel & Tine Community Partner of #PJFF36

By Editor, Le Anne Lindsay

The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival taking place across 10 venues in Center City, Old City, University City, and various suburbs, is proud to present its robust lineup of 33 films from 12 countries – 16 feature documentaries, nine narrative features, and eight shorts – all selected after an exhaustive year-long search by a talented Screening Committee.

The festival kicks off with an Israeli narrative and Ophir Award-nominated (film honors from the Israeli Academy of Film) Philadelphia Premiere, ONE WEEK AND A DAY, at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (Sat., Nov. 5, 7:30 PM). Director Asaph Polonsky is a highly acclaimed young talent and this dark comedy features grieving parents Eyal and Vicky sitting shiva for their 25 year-old son.

“These films may delight, horrify, enrich, frustrate, sadden, edify, intrigue, calm or excite you… but whatever they do, they are certain to fulfill our mission of celebrating Jewish identity, culture, history and community through the medium of film,” says Phyllis Fischer, the PJFF chair. “We are so happy to be able to share them with you this fall!”

Here’s some highlights to check out during the 15 Days of #PJFF36

FOOD AND FILM – CAFÉ NAGLER (#cinemasneaknsnack 🙂
Date: Sunday, November 13
Time: 11:00 am
Location: The Gershman Y
PJFF will serve a light Berlin-inspired Continental breakfast during the Philadelphia Premiere of Cafe Nagler.

Mor Kaplansky’s love letter to a 1920s Berlin café where the likes of Albert Einstein, Franz Kafka, and Bertolt Brecht met for afternoon tea and intelligent conversation. Or did they? In the Israeli director’s tribute to her documentarian grandmother, she cautiously tests the veracity of a nearly century-old family legend. Learning that the real Café Nagler doesn’t quite match up to her grandmother’s glamorous recollections.

Director: Mor Kaplansky
Genre: Documentary
Country: Israel
Year: 2015
Running Time: 55 min
Language: Hebrew and German w/ English subtitles

JERRY LEWIS: THE MAN BEHIND THE CLOWN
Date: Wednesday, November 9

Time: Noon

Location: National Museum of American Jewish History

Since the early days of television, Jerry Lewis has had audiences laughing at his visual gags, pantomime sketches, and signature slapstick humor. Yet Lewis was far more than a jokester. A groundbreaking filmmaker whose insatiable curiosity led him to write, produce, stage, and direct many of the films he would also appear in resulted in such adored classics as The Bellboy, The Ladies Man, The Errand Boy, and The Nutty Professor.

Lewis’s filmmaking career prevented him from being pigeonholed as a comic performer and launched his reputation as a driving force in Hollywood. Pushing boundaries with his technical innovations, unique voice, and keen visual eye, he soon garnered praise overseas, particularly in France among the cultural sophisticates.

Director: Gregory Monro
Genre: Documentary Feature
Country: France and USA
Year: 2016
Running Time: 61 min

Tinsel & Tine will be giving out screening passes to Subcribers for the film
THE FREEDOM TO MARRY
Philadelphia Premiere
Date: Monday, November 14
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: International House

For Evan Wolfson, it has always been about standing on the right side of history. Having begun advocating for LGBT rights at Harvard Law School, where he wrote his thesis on the subject of marriage equality, Wolfson has devoted his entire career to serving the LGBT community and its collective aspiration to legally wed. In 2003, he created the Freedom to Marry Foundation, where he and his team of activist pioneers have spent over a decade fighting to eradicate the traditional model for marital union state by state.

In this profoundly moving film, Director Eddie Rosenstein traces the history of the marriage equality movement to the peak moment when Mary Bonauto, an American lawyer and civil rights advocate, stood before the Supreme Court and fought on behalf of every person’s right to love whom he or she chooses. Charged with emotion, these first-hand accounts of Bonauto and Wolfson learning of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage in June of 2015.

Director: Eddie Rosenstein
Genre: Documentary Feature
Country: USA
Year: 2016
Running Time: 86 min

MOOS
Philadelphia Premiere
Date: Thursday, November 17
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Ritz East

If Barbra Streisand and Lena Dunham had a love child, she’d be it.

Trapped between wanting to care for her grieving father and having a life of her own, Moos desperately wants to become a theater star. But instead of rehearsing curtain calls, Moos spends her days singing into her steam iron while helping out with the family textile business. That is, until Sam, her childhood best friend, returns home from serving in the Israeli army.

With Sam in need of a place to work, Moos finally has the chance to break free from familial demands and to apply to university, where she plans to study musical theater and advance her singing career. The trouble is, without prior professional training, Moos is far from making the cut. With her best-laid plans at a standstill, two illicit love affairs on the horizon, and escalating tension at home, Moos’ life has never been this complicated or this exciting. For Fans Of: Family dramas, GIRLS, indie filmmaking, rom-coms.

Director: Job Gosschalk
Genre: Narrative Feature
Country: Netherlands
Year: 2016
Running Time: 91 min
Language: Dutch w/ English subtitles
Guest Speaker: Jip Smit, Actor of film

Post Update 11/17/16:

#PJFF36 MOOS part of PHILADELPHIA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL @phillyjff @PJFF Guest Speaker Lead Actress Jip Smit with @dianeroka Engaging Comedy/Drama about staying the course of your dreams in the face of failure. #FilmFestival #communityPartner #ThingstodoinPhilly #PhillyCalendar #PhillyEvents #movieblog #PhillyBlogger #movieinfluencer #JewishCulture #filminPhilly #amsterdamfilm

A photo posted by LeAnne Lindsay (@tinsel_tine) on Nov 17, 2016 at 6:46pm PST