FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2010
Media contacts:
Lesa Griffith Sabrina Velazquez
532-8712 532-8727
Email:lgriffith@honoluluacademy.org Email:svelazquez@honoluluacademy.org
AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER OPENS
8TH ANNUAL JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL MARCH 6
Jewish and Japanese cultures meet in two films in the exciting lineup of works from Israel, the U.S. and Canada.
WHAT: The Eighth Annual Temple Emanu-El Kirk Cashmere Jewish Film Festival
WHEN: March 6-18
WHERE: Doris Duke Theatre
INFO: 532-8700,www.honoluluacademy.org (publishable)
ADMISSION: $8 general; $7 for seniors, students, and military; $5 Academy members.
HONOLULU, HAWAII—Filmmaker Lynn Roth will be at opening night of the 8th Annual Temple Emanu-El Kirk Cashmere Jewish Film Festival to introduce her film The Little Traitor, starring Alfred Molina. The film won the 2008 Audience Award for best feature film at the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival. Roth will also lead a discussion following the film.
Presented by Temple Emanu-El and the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the festival is the largest since its 2002 debut, with six feature films and one short film—all of them Hawaii premieres. The lineup includes two works with a Japanese connection—Inside Hana’s Suitcase, which follows a Tokyo teacher and her class as they unravel a Holocaust victim’s life from the few clues left in her suitcase, and A Matter of Size, about Israeli sumo wrestlers. The festival gets an injection of humor from Catholic-turned-Jewish comedian Yisrael Campbell’s Circumcise Me and the romantic comedy Beau Jest.
“The festival features a wide variety of films coming from different angles—and different countries,” says Film Curator Gina Caruso. “One highlight is The Lemon Tree, which addresses a really important conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is courage on the part of Temple Emanu-El to include it in the festival with Rabbi Peter Schaktman leading a discussion after the film.” There will be pre-film receptions on March 6, in honor of Lynn Roth (with pupus from Da Spot and beer and wine for purchase) and 13 (with food from Da Spot for purchase).
Temple Emanu-El created the Jewish Film Festival in honor of the late civil rights attorney Kirk Cashmere, who was also interested in sharing Jewish culture with the people of Hawaii. In 2010, Temple Emanu-El, Hawaii's oldest Jewish synagogue, celebrates its “50 Years on the Pali” anniversary.
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE + DETAILS
THE LITTLE TRAITOR
Director: Lynn Roth
Israel/USA, 2007, 88 mins., 35 mm
English/Hebrew with subtitles
March 6 at 7:30 p.m.; March 9 at 1, 4 and 7:30 p.m.
Opening reception: Saturday, March 6. The Pavilion Café will serve wine and beer for purchase 6-7:30 p.m.
Opening night special guest: Lynn Roth, the screenwriter, director, and producer of The Little Traitor, will present her film and lead a post-screening discussion. Her visit is supported by Hadassah.
Based on the Amos Oz novel Panther in the Basement, The Little Traitor takes place in 1947, a few months before Israel becomes a state. Proffy Liebowitz, a militant yet sensitive 11-year-old, plots with two friends ways to terrorize and blow up the British. One night, Proffy is out after curfew when he is seized by a Sgt. Dunlop (Alfred Molina). A friendship blooms and Proffy confronts his previous assumptions and newly learned lessons. The Little Traitor won the 2008 Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.
See trailer.
INSIDE HANA’S SUITCASE
Director: Larry Weinstein
Canada/Czech Republic, Japan, 2009, 88 mins.
English, Czech, Japanese with English subtitles
March 7 at 1 p.m.; March 10 at 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
Documentary and narrative techniques mix to tell the true story of Holocaust victim Hana Brady. The film retraces a series of coincidences that lead Tokyo school teacher Fumiko Ishioka to a suitcase that belonged to the Czech Jewish girl. Ishioka, who is also the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Center, receives the suitcase with only two pieces of information on Hana: her date of birth and the fact that she was an orphan at the time of her wartime capture. Through dogged research Ishioka and her students piece together a portrait of Hana while learning important life lessons.
See trailer.
A MATTER OF SIZE
Directors: Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor
Israel, 2009, 90 mins.
Hebrew and Japanese with English Subtitles
March 7 at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; March 11 at 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
Herzl is an overweight, underemployed chef living with his mother in the Israeli city of Ramia. While working as a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant, he notices his coworkers watching sumo wrestling on TV—and has a revelation. To Herzl, sumo is an escape from the diets espoused by his weight-loss group. With three hefty pals, Herzl pursues the sport that prizes his size. Winner of the Israeli Film Academy’s 2009 awards for best actress, best supporting actress, and best costume design; audience award for best feature film at the 2009 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic and Audience Award at the Karlovy Vary international Film Festival.
See trailer.
THE LEMON TREE
Director: Erin Riklis
Israel, Germany, France, 2008, 106 mins.
Language: Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
March 13 at 7:30 p.m.; March 16 at 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
Special guest: Rabbi Peter Schaktman of Temple Emanu-El will present the film and lead a discussion following the film.
Dinner and a movie: Saturday, March 13, 6-7:30 p.m. Da Spot will serve food for purchase, and Pavilion Café will serve wine and beer for purchase.
Salma Zidane is a Palestinian widow who has been living quietly on her land for decades. Until the new Israeli Defense Minister settles on the green line border between Israel and the West Bank—opposite Salma’s lemon grove, her livelihood. When the Israeli security forces declare that Salma’s trees pose a safety threat to the Minister and must be uprooted, Salma goes all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court. Her legal and personal journey lead her into the complex, dark, sometimes funny chaos of the ongoing struggle in the Middle East. Winner of 2008 Israeli Film Academy Best Actress award; 2008 Berlin International Film Festival Audience Award. A New York Times Critics’ Pick.
See the trailer.
BEAU JEST
Director: James Sherman
USA, 2008, 98 mins., DVD
English
March 14 at 1 p.m., 7:30 p.m.; March 17 at 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
Director James Sherman adapted his own long-running play to create this breezy comedy. To please her matchmaking parents, Chicago school teacher Sarah Goldman invents a Jewish boyfriend. When her parents insist on meeting the man, Sarah hires Bob, an actor, to play her “beau.” The comic masquerade works flawlessly at first, but becomes harder to maintain over time, irrevocably changing everyone’s lives.
See the trailer.
CIRCUMCISE ME: THE COMEDY OF YISREAL CAMPBELL
Directors: David Blumenfeld and Matthew Kalman
USA/Israel, 2008, 48 mins, DVD
Language: English.
March 14 at 4 p.m.; March 18 at 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
“Is it hot in here, or am I the only one dressed for Poland in the 17th century?” Born Chris Campbell, the son of an ex-nun and a Catholic school teacher, Yisrael Campbell converted to Judaism not once but three times—Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. Circumcise Me is a hilarious documentary—crosscutting home movies, snapshots, scenes from Campbell’s stand-up act—that chronicles his moving quest for spiritual enlightenment.
See the trailer.
To be shown with:
LEAVING THE FOLD
Director: Eric R. Scott
Canada 2008, 52 mins., DVD
In English
From the Hasidic enclaves of Montreal, Brooklyn and Jerusalem come stories tinged with pain and unexpected humor, as this documentary tells the stories of five young people who no longer wish to be part of the ultra orthodox community. They emerge from a society that made decisions for them into a baffling secular world that offers endless choices. And they learn the answers don’t always come easily.
See the trailer.
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