TORONTO—The 17th annual Toronto Jewish Festival, one of the largest celebrations of Jewish films and filmmakers in the world, launched this weekend featuring an impressive list of over 90 films spanning six continents.
Reflecting aspects of Jewish identity and diversity “with themes that resonate universally,” the film festival tackles social, cultural, and political issues specific to Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, while also dealing with the topics of love, war, aging, and family.
The films, which span almost eight decades from the 1930s to 2008, include documentaries, feature movies, and shorts.
A feature of the festival is the “Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance: Songwriters of the Musicals” sidebar series. Along with featuring musicals from the 30s and 50s (such as the Marx Brothers’ satire Duck Soup and the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie Swing Time), the series also showcases several prominent songwriters of Jewish origin. These include Richard Rodgers (Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds, 2001), Frank Loesser (Heart & Soul: The Life and Music of Frank Loesser, 2006) and Lerner & Loewe (Lerner & Loewe: Broadway’s Last Romantics, 1988).
While presenting several films with a lighter touch, the festival also examines more serious subjects such as the Holocaust. Among these is the world premiere of the Canadian film I Will Not Die (2008), which follows the creation of violinist Ruth Fazal’s piece “Oratorio Terezin,” inspired by the experiences of children in Czechoslovakia’s Terezin camp.
The Soviet persecutions are also remembered in A Gift to Stalin (2008), a feature film that tells the story of a Jewish boy saved from Stalin’s ethnic deportations to find himself in a community in Kazakhstan. In its Canadian premiere, the film is the result of collaboration between Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland and Israel.
The festival also does not shy away from exploring more charged contemporary issues of Israeli-Palestinian relationships, which include several documentaries and features on the socio-political and personal dramas unfolding during the decades-long conflict.
Some of these are Jerusalem Day (2007), a documentary on the 1967 reunification of Israel; Sharon (2007), which offers a closer look at the Israeli Prime Minister; the soldier drama My First War (2008); and the documentary Galil: A School with No Walls (2006), which focuses on the challenges faced by two teachers in a classrooms with Arab and Jewish students.
A highlight of the Toronto Jewish Festival, however is its spotlight on little known Jewish communities around the world, including Ethiopian Jews in Israel (Zrubavel, 2008), and settlers of the Peruvian forests (The Fire Within: Jews of the Amazonian Rainforests, 2008).
The Jewish community in France is particularly well represented with documentaries and feature movies, such as the comedy Hello Goodbye (2008) starring French stars Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant as a Parisian Jewish couple wanting to rediscover their Israeli roots, as well as the dramas Father’s Footsteps (2007) and Villa Jasmin (2008).
A highlight however is the two part documentary Being Jewish in France, chronicling the history of French communities in France, garnered by some as the “definitive film on Jews in France.”
The Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from April 18-26 at select Toronto theatres. For more information on theatres and a detailed film schedule, visit www.tjff.com
Reflecting aspects of Jewish identity and diversity “with themes that resonate universally,” the film festival tackles social, cultural, and political issues specific to Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, while also dealing with the topics of love, war, aging, and family.
The films, which span almost eight decades from the 1930s to 2008, include documentaries, feature movies, and shorts.
A feature of the festival is the “Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance: Songwriters of the Musicals” sidebar series. Along with featuring musicals from the 30s and 50s (such as the Marx Brothers’ satire Duck Soup and the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie Swing Time), the series also showcases several prominent songwriters of Jewish origin. These include Richard Rodgers (Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds, 2001), Frank Loesser (Heart & Soul: The Life and Music of Frank Loesser, 2006) and Lerner & Loewe (Lerner & Loewe: Broadway’s Last Romantics, 1988).
While presenting several films with a lighter touch, the festival also examines more serious subjects such as the Holocaust. Among these is the world premiere of the Canadian film I Will Not Die (2008), which follows the creation of violinist Ruth Fazal’s piece “Oratorio Terezin,” inspired by the experiences of children in Czechoslovakia’s Terezin camp.
The Soviet persecutions are also remembered in A Gift to Stalin (2008), a feature film that tells the story of a Jewish boy saved from Stalin’s ethnic deportations to find himself in a community in Kazakhstan. In its Canadian premiere, the film is the result of collaboration between Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland and Israel.
The festival also does not shy away from exploring more charged contemporary issues of Israeli-Palestinian relationships, which include several documentaries and features on the socio-political and personal dramas unfolding during the decades-long conflict.
Some of these are Jerusalem Day (2007), a documentary on the 1967 reunification of Israel; Sharon (2007), which offers a closer look at the Israeli Prime Minister; the soldier drama My First War (2008); and the documentary Galil: A School with No Walls (2006), which focuses on the challenges faced by two teachers in a classrooms with Arab and Jewish students.
A highlight of the Toronto Jewish Festival, however is its spotlight on little known Jewish communities around the world, including Ethiopian Jews in Israel (Zrubavel, 2008), and settlers of the Peruvian forests (The Fire Within: Jews of the Amazonian Rainforests, 2008).
The Jewish community in France is particularly well represented with documentaries and feature movies, such as the comedy Hello Goodbye (2008) starring French stars Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant as a Parisian Jewish couple wanting to rediscover their Israeli roots, as well as the dramas Father’s Footsteps (2007) and Villa Jasmin (2008).
A highlight however is the two part documentary Being Jewish in France, chronicling the history of French communities in France, garnered by some as the “definitive film on Jews in France.”
The Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from April 18-26 at select Toronto theatres. For more information on theatres and a detailed film schedule, visit www.tjff.com
