This just in-the final numbers are in and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is now the second-largest Jewish film festival in the country (behind only San Francisco) and the largest film festival in Atlanta. This year 15,000 moviegoers attended the screenings. Pretty damn amazing. Here’s some more of the great films we got to see.
Director: Dror Shaul
The title to this film actually translates to Crazy Mud, which I think is actually the far more fitting title. This increasingly intense, compelling, beautifully filmed, well acted drama tells the story of Dvir, a 12-year-old boy, and his quiet, thoughtful, tender but unfortunately mentally ill mother Miri. His father is dead. His brother soon goes off to the army, leaving him alone to deal with his mother. The story takes place on an isolated kibbutz in 1970’s southern Israel. However, early on a shockingly salacious scene occurs not to set the tone for the movie, but to let viewers know this is no documentary or educational film about the ideal of communal living, this is a true independent film about raw human emotions, failings, flaws, hopes, and connections. Life on the kibbutz is shown not objectively but through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy whose mother has been essentially ostracized and abandoned by a community falling far short of its supposed principles of unity, mutual aid, and justice. The point of view of the film is enhanced by the fact that it is at least partially autobiographical in background or at least perspective as the director himself grew up in a kibbutz in the 1970s and is clearly presenting a point of view that challenges the ideal of kibbutz life, at least through the eyes of one of its children. The film is considered controversial, particularly in Israel, because of its portrayal of a dysfunctional kibbutz, though it is no more or less guilty than most societies in its ability or willingness to deal with the mentally ill.
Is the kibbutz here depicted as a depersonalization of the human spirit where they don’t see individuals and their true needs and flaws? With this fact highlighted by the fact that the only person who sees the truth of all the characters is a 12-year-old boy? Perhaps. In the end the issues of what kind of statement this is about life on a kibbutz are less important than the heart of the film which is about the relationship between Dvir and a loving but unstable mother, along with the connections with, discoveries of, and revelations about others Dvir makes along his way. It is a story of function amidst dysfunction, a coming-of-age adolescent search for self-identity, and a tale of first love. It is dark and intense at times with a thoroughly heart-wrenching climax but with a director that knows how to show hope through beautifully done cinematography. The only tiny but annoying thing would be the multiple typos and mistakes in the subtitles.
As with many films at the festival, the viewing was enhanced even further by the Q&A, this time with Matthew Bernstein, Chair, Film Studies, Emory University, where the audience was able to discuss in depth the imagery and symbolism used to depict the overall message of the film and to confer on just exactly what that message is. Go for yourself and see because this movie will pull you into the hearts of the characters. Bottom line, it is just damn well done.
Jerusalem is Proud to Present
Director: Nitzan Gilady
This eye-opening exposé documents the dramatic and intense political and religious opposition that flared up throughout the city of Jerusalem when plans were made to hold unprecedented 2006 World Pride celebrations, including a pride march, in the holy city. This controversial exposé captures the startlingly intense resistance faced by those organizing the march much of which came from the most religiously orthodox factions of the community. Even before the march, things in the holy city were not exactly safe for the gay community. In the most ironic twist, the intense discrimination against gays from the orthodox sectors of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities there had done what little else has managed to yet and united members of all three sects. Palestinians and Jews sneaking to the same clubs fearing for their safety, brought together over all their history of religious and cultural differences by the discrimination faced from their own people. After the march plans got underway, death threats poured into Open House, Jerusalem’s gay and lesbian community center, and were posted on walls in the more orthodox sections of the city. Orthodox religious leaders at meetings over whether or not to permit the march yelled against the “homosexualization of the Middle East” and shouted to those behind the march that “you will not desecrate this city,” because, after all, every foot of ground in Jerusalem is holy land and they did not want something they saw as promoting sin to set one foot on it. One of the most striking scenes shows men in the customary hairstyle and dress of Hassidic Jews, the image of peaceful, religiously devoted men, physically attacking a car carrying one of the leaders of the movement, literally surrounding it and banging on it until the car with the camera man hiding in the back sped away, driver and passenger terrified. After many postponements, a compromise was eventually reached, but based on the anger and rhetoric and distance between both sides, it is clearly just the beginning.
Director: David Volach
Winner of the top prize for Best Narrative Feature at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, this film has at its heart the interrelationships among the small family of ultra-orthodox Rabbi Eidleman, his wife (played by Sharon Hacohen Bar who was there for the Q&A), and their only son and child Menachem. It is framed as a variation of the biblical story of Abraham and Issac. At the beginning we see through young Menachem’s eyes as he tries to understand the world around him, only to have his curious questions given summary and at times close-minded answers by his father through his seemingly overly-narrow interpretation of the Torah. After watching a beautiful German Shepherd (same as my dog) and his devotion to his dying owner whining pitifully as he has to be pulled away so they could take the person away in an ambulance, Menachem asks if animals have souls and thus can go to heaven. Without a second thought, his father’s answer, no. In another scene, Menachem has a photo of African tribesman drumming. He asks if they are idol worshippers. His father says, yes. But how are they worshipping? I don’t know, but they are. He then orders him to tear it up. These are just some of the instances where the father shapes the boy’s world, his word- law. At first you might think this story is about the boy, but it is not. In the end it is about the father, and all he will eventually lose by circumscribing his entire life by his strict religious views. How much will he sacrifice for his beliefs? How much will he force his family to sacrifice? The delicate balance achieved between reverential and scathing when dealing with the subject matter, can undoubtedly be attributed to Volack drawing on his own upbringing as one of 19 children raised in an ultra-Orthodox family. It was slow, a little long, and a little less accessible than some films to a mainstream audience. But the haunting and terrible pain the family endures after they make the ultimate sacrifice by so strictly following the tenets of their religion is palpable. Further, the rending battle during a time of tragedy between wanting to lean on your beliefs for comfort and questioning and raging against those very beliefs that seem to now have so abandoned you is accessible to anyone who has ever been through anything horrible and endured.
Director: Doug Pray
This film is a must see, not just for this film festival but for any film festival or theatre it is in. If it is near you, go, see it, now. Without a doubt, my favorite film of the entire festival, this film is the ultimate crossover, the family in question may be Jewish, but this is a film that every single person can get something out of and probably walk away with some favorite new quotes, mottos, and ideas for their lives.
This wild documentary recounts the life of 87-year-old surfing legend Dr. Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, a Stanford educated doctor who found the days when he was a successful physician the most depressing of his life, and thus chucked it all to surf, travel the country in a van with the love of his life and their eventual horde of 9 children, see the world before most eventually settled on the west coast or in Hawaii, catch the waves, and leave all that modern society says is important behind. Doc still exercises and surfs every day, takes absolutely no medicine, and is still passionately, romantically in love with his wife. Doc, his wife, and two of his sons were there for the Q&A, greeting us with a “Shalom. Aloha.” This is a man you have to meet, and if you can’t in person at least do it on film.
This is a man who espouses the idea of Health as more than an absence of illness but as an overall superior state of being, of living, and of state of mind. This is a man who was at his happiest when he could stand on the beach and point to his last dime. This is a man who believes that if “you take more than you need, you are taking from someone else” and who purposely traveled to some of the poorest areas in the country who had absolutely no doctors in sight, to treat the sick and in need for free because he believed it was “wrong to profit from the sickness of others.” (I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard a doctor say that.) This is a man who during a trip overseas single-handedly brought surfing to Israel. This is also the same man who said that when he met a girl “who taught me how to eat p*ssy, it changed my life” and that “f*cking to me is the word of God.” This guy, he’s a character.
Doc’s unique approach to working, surfing, health, marriage, sex, and child rearing is a true treat to watch as you see him breaking just about every conventional moré of America, 1950s to the present day, and rebelling against the idea that the American dream is to “give the least that you can to gain as much as you can.” Though not successful monetarily, many would say the life he has led full of experience and family and giving to others and joyfully doing what he loved most every day, make him one of the most successful people around. The wife is a character too, as she made sure when telling her adolescent sons about girls, “Always be grateful if someone will fuck you, respect the person who gives you this gift.” Honestly, the world would be a better place if more mothers would pass that one on.
The film is excitingly directed with videos and photographs, interviews, and some of the most incredible surfing footing you’d want to see. Of course, in a documentary no life is perfect. The downside of Doc’s maverick beliefs were that since he saw no need in academic, non-experiential education, his children received no formal schooling, thus giving them less choices when it came time to make their own decisions in life. However, though not all the children were thrilled in retrospect with how they were raised, you couldn’t help but notice how strong-willed, successful, and productive they had all become. Some decided to go back to the burbs life to raise their own kids, some will follow Doc’s path, others plan to give their kids both education and life experience to let them choose. And maybe that’s the greatest thing this documentary does for each and every person who watches it- it reminds us that, contrary to popular, mainstream, consumerist America belief, we don’t have to all follow one path… we too can choose.
Director: Anna Justice
The day I went to see Max Minsky and Me did not start off well. This was my first trip to the festival’s second main filming location. As mentioned before, the festival occurred at two main locations (three total) in order to make it more convenient to more people as Atlanta is a sprawling city with amazingly little in the way of public transportation. Traffic is notoriously terrible, and thus avoiding driving on the interstates more than necessary is imperative to one’s sanity. The city is thus divided between the ITP and the OTP, inside and outside the perimeter of 285, a highway that circles the city like a moat. If you are ITP being asked to go anywhere OTP is like being asked to drive cross-country in July in a ‘76 VW bug without air conditioning, you just don’t want to do it. But, for film, I ventured to the OTP. And, of course, summarily got lost. (By the way Google maps, if you really want to compete with Mapquest you might want to learn the rather crucial difference between the words “right” and “left.”) And, unfortunately, because of the lack of desire to be on the road there is the tendency of Atlantans to know the location of their house, their job, their grocery store, the five other places they hang out, and that’s it. Because of this no one even knew of the existence of a huge theatre that was a mere few hundred yards away. I almost gave up and went home.
I finally arrived a few minutes late, thus missing the very beginning of the film. As you can imagine I wasn’t in the best of moods when I finally stumbled through the darkness to find a seat. I settled into my seat, grumpy, cold, and annoyed. Within a few minutes Max Minsky and Me put a smile on my face, laughter on my lips, and made me glad I stayed.
Author Holly-Jane Rahlens based the screenplay for this story on her novel, Prince William, Maximillian Minsky and Me. This fun, sweet, coming-of-age film is in the tradition of Bend It Like Beckham, only somewhat younger and more innocent. It all happens at that confusing and unforgettable time in our lives when school, fitting in, the opposite sex, the changes happening to ourselves and our bodies, and testing and redefining boundaries with our families at home were everything to us, and all of it was brand new, and none of it made sense. Nelly Sue Edlemeister is a somewhat geeky, short, awkward 13-year old living in Berlin with her American Jewish mother and German Christian father, whose marriage is currently unraveling. Nelly dreams less of the Bat Mitzvah her mother is pushing her to practice for and more of becoming an astronomer and the girlfriend of fellow astronomy fan and teen idol Edouard, Prince of Luxembourg. If Nelly can secure a place on her school basketball team she will get a chance to meet Edouard at a basketball championship. She comes up with an ingenious plan that involves going to the school basketball ace Max Minsky for help. She pretends to tutor him but in reality gives him the money his mother gives her to teach her basketball, then does his homework for him instead. Max is by no means stupid, but is not exactly known for his stick-to-it-tiveness. In the process Nelly blows off her Bat Mitzvah training for basketball practice getting expelled from her Hebrew classes and finally being forced to explain to her mother that she doesn’t really share the beliefs of the religion and would rather focus on basketball.
The outcome of events is completely unsurprising but still thoroughly enjoyable as we watch Nelly shock the teen clique bullies at school by becoming a basketball ace, as we see her realize that being Jewish is as much about family and community as religion as her parents’ marriage crumbles, and of course as she gets that maybe too much stargazing isn’t good for you if it causes you to see only a distant prince when there’s a perfectly good Max right in front of you. This is one of those movies that is so engaging that the audience literally laughs and cheers along with each of the main character’s small victories. It was just a nice, funny, fun, family-friendly film that makes you feel good. And who can’t use those sometimes?
http://www.maxminskyundich.de/
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In the end, I would like to thank the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival for giving me the opportunity to see films, many truly excellent, that I might not have otherwise seen on an Atlanta theatre screen, to learn things I may never have otherwise known, and to be a part of an experience that I hope continues its outreach to bring the festival and its films to the attention of the entire wide, diverse, and unique universe that is Atlanta. Oh, and for giving me an excuse to go out and play in the snow!
Shalom. Salaam. Aloha. Peace.
- L. C. Cruell
L. C. Cruell
Award-Winning Screenwriter,
Published Author, Freelance Writer/Editor,
Attorney, and Founder RedStateResistance.Com.
JD, Harvard Law School, emphasis on Entertainment Law.
BA, Duke University, Majors: History; Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Minor: Film and Video Theory and Practice.