All of you circumcised (and lovers of those who are circumcised) people out there, take heart. No longer do you have to cower in fear that you'll fall behind in your Jewish IQ in the months between breaks. Forget Long Island and Boca, the Gershman Y has come to your rescue for the 26th year in a row with its annual Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival. Street is proud to bring you a sneak peak of what's to come in the upcoming season.
A Cantor's Tale
Nov. 20, 7 p.m.
If your idea of cantorial music is a man screeching at you during Yom Kippur, you (like me) need to explore the world beyond rent-a-rabbis. Apparently, Eastern European Jewish cantorial continues to be a viable art form (go figure?), in part due to the work of Cantor Jacob Mendelson. The film takes us from Boro Park, Brooklyn, where Mendelson was born (again, go figure) to Jerusalem, giving us insight into family, community, and tradition along the way. I can hear Tevye singing now.
Close to Home & The Substitute
Dec. 2, 8 p.m.
Dec. 3, 2 p.m.
You know that kid you can't stand? That kid whose very existence renders you almost incomprehensible with hatred? Well, imagine getting stuck doing compulsory military service with that kid. Ouch. That's exactly what happens in Close to Home. Set in Jerusalem, the film chronicles the lives of two girls who find their thoughts consumed by teenage anxieties as political reality is calling for their attention.
This feature will be followed by the 19-minute film The Substitute, the story of a female Israeli soldier who must protect a suicidal substitute who has come to take her place in the military.
Queen of the Mountain & When Silence Sings
Dec. 3rd, 7 p.m.
This double feature includes two documentaries, one hailing from the grand ol' U.S. of A. and the other from Germany. First, we have Queen of the Mountain (and no, that's not a reference to Leo's being king of the world), a combination of archival footage, photographs and letters, all of which work together to reveal the saga that was famed archeologist Theresa Goell's life. A divorced, hearing-impaired, Jewish female working alongside Muslims in Turkey, Goell certainly had the matzo balls stacked against her.
One of the very useful facts I've learned as a liberal arts major at Penn is that silent films were almost never silent. Yeah, I was shocked too. When Silence Sings explores work done by the filmmaker's father to expose audiences to silent films as they actually were presented. with music (in the pre-Babs era).
Hineini: Coming Out In a Jewish High School
Dec. 11th, 7 p.m.
When I think of Hineini (Hebrew for "Here I Am"), I think of the cantor (yeah, I had a traumatic time preparing for my bat mitzvah and evidently the cantor has been omnipresent in my thoughts ever since) standing at the back of the synagogue, walking forwards, moaning for about 15 minutes in what is supposed to be a highly somber prayer. This film has nothing to do with that.
Instead, Hineini offers a narrative of a student trying to bring a gay/straight alliance to her Jewish private high school in Boston. Her struggle as an "out" lesbian and the struggles of others around her are recounted through a series of interviews captured by the camera lens.
