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Jewish Fest Excells in Tough Times by Sky Tallone
While protests elsewhere have shut down Jewish film festivals, San Franciso's proceeded with stellar results. photo: S. Tallone
SAN FRANCISCO'S JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
(SFJFF), the very first and still the largest Jewish film festival in the world, returned for its 34th year with another round of fantastic films from around the world—heavy emphasis on documentaries.
Indeed, the festival opened on July 24th at the Castro with "The Green Prince", an incredibly well-done documentary that played more like a thriller, especially since it tied so directly into current events.
Not only is it about Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a founder of Hamas, the party currently running the Gaza Strip and fighting a war with Israel, but it starts with his realization that his father's organization is killing innocent people. Despite his respect for his father, Yousef becomes a spy for the Israelis, arguably their most valuable ever.
While the Tricycle Theatre in London just cancelled their Jewish film festival, after hosting it for eight years, due to their "sensitivity of the ongoing Israeli-Palestine conflict," (The Guardian, 8/6/14), the SFJFF proceeded with its often stellar effort to uncover cutting-edge material that might help illuminate these complex issues.
To wit, ‘The Green Prince’. It follows Yousef's conflicted relationships with both his father and Hamas AND the Israelis and his handler, Gonen Ben Yitzhak. Given the absence of reenactments or narration and the use of real footage and dramatically shot interviews, which don’t include interviewers and play like monologues, it totally transcends the documentary format.
Premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, "The Green Prince" is directed and written by Nadav Schirman, who has done a number of striking docs, including "The Champagne Spy" (2007) about another Mossad agent who has to swear his 12 year-old son to absolute secrecy. Check it out, regardless of whether you’re into documentaries or not.
'The Green Prince''s poster, showing its star, the son of a Hamas-leader who renounces violence. photo: N. Schirman
Another thing we don’t often see at bigger festivals are television or web series episodes, but ‘The Little Horribles", a comedic web series starring and written by Amy York Rubin is well worth the effort.
Although Rubin has written shorts for the comedians Sarah Silverman and Amy Schumer, don’t be scared away if you aren’t fans of their shows. "The Little Horribles" takes a more believable, subtle approach with its characters than most of the stuff you’ve seen from Silverman or Schumer.
Though you might see a recognizable actor or two in each episode of about seven minutes, the series has incredibly low production values which makes it EVEN MORE impressive. Indeed, it is doing rather well in reviews and on YouTube solely on its writing and performances.
Despite the brevity of each episode, Rubin and cast do an excellent job of developing their characters and establishing relationships and conflicts which are carried seamlessly throughout the entire series.
It has a very real, arguably crude, style of comedy, often revolving around insecurities, food addiction, sex or masturbation. All the season one episodes are on YouTube, go here to see their first episode.
"Shtisel," another series, which follows several members of the Shtisel family in Israel, was technically a drama but had a nice hint of comedy.
The main character, Akiva, is the sensitive quiet type, struggling with the recent death of this mother. He lives with his father Shulem, and ends up taking a substitute teaching job at the yeshiva where his father is a rabbi. Unfortunately, he can’t get the children to behave, and is having trouble managing his own frustrations.
The festival show-stopper was 'Run Boy Run', a Holocaust period-piece that both flaunted and transcended the genre's expectations. photo: Pepe Danquart
His father, the rabbi, despite still hurting from the loss of his wife, starts a friendship with a woman teacher while also pressuring his son to marry a nice young Jewish girl. To his dismay, Akiva seems more interested in the widowed mother of one of his students.
Akiva’s sister, for her part, already has five children and is having husband trouble. He is leaving for six months to work in a slaughterhouse, a strong symbol for an Israeli film, and she wonders if he’s coming back.
Each episode runs about a half hour and is shot incredibly well with high production values and beautiful locations in Israel. The very relatable characters are portrayed through excellent acting and honest dialogue.
The show gives us access to a culture which is hard for many to understand. As we watch these characters struggle with the same conflicts and insecurities we all know, we do get it, however, a point lost by the Tricycle Theatre and its "Zionist Boycott".
By the way, downtown Berkeley has come a long way in the last few years. If you haven’t checked out the California Theatre lately, it’s a great one in a neighborhood with an unusually high concentration of theaters. A few festival films worth mentioning played there, one of the four venues where SFJFF took place this year.
“Super Women” is a documentary transpiring entirely in an Israeli grocery store and following the cashiers, mostly Russia-immigrant women who are struggling to survive in Israel.
Excellent cinematography, especially for this type of documentary—every shot is perfectly composed—but the most interesting element is the “interview” style. Rather than an interviewer or filmmaker asking the cashiers questions, we learn about their lives by observing casual conversations between friends in the break room or outside the store.
Although the film did feel a bit longer than it needed to be, with some unnecessary filler—or artsy close-ups of shopping carts and birds, depending on your opinion—overall: very nicely done.
A major favorite for this year was ‘Run Boy Run’, which had audiences raving, “best film in the festival,” and other accolades as they left the theater.
The festival front door often features many conversations with some secular Jews calling the famous San Francisco festival their high holidays. photo: S. Tallone
A period piece directed by Pepe Danquart (Oscar-winner Best Short/Live Action 'Schwarzfahrer', 1993) and based on the bestselling novel by Israeli author Uri Orlev, it follows the story of a young Jewish boy on the run after escaping a ghetto during World War II.
One thing that sets it apart from other Holocaust dramas is that we see very little of the Nazis or the ghettos as he travels through forests and snow and works on various farms to get by.
The boy is played by Andrzej Tkacz, who gives an unbelievable performance though this was his very first film. He carries the dramaturge and, despite the immense challenge of the role, he pulls it off beautifully.
Every moment from him was honest, and even the most trying scenes are delivered seamlessly. The audience teared up en masse at least three or four times, although "Run Boy Run" wasn’t without its positive triumphs and outright comedic moments.
This is not a slow period piece either. As the name suggests, "Run Boy Run" is fast-paced and intense, with lots of running of course but also plenty of surprises. We may have all seen a thousand Holocaust films but this one truly does stand on its own and is far more entertaining than most.
In short, the SFJFF lived up to its reputation of stellar quality and variety, proving to all who wish to observe how increased film, narrative and other media exploration of the tricky subjects surrounding the Jewish experience—rather then reducing it or bowing to boycotts—is the better option.
Sky Tallone is a writer, director, filmmaker and blogger, and can be reached .