You Don't
Have To Be Filmish
F
North American
Premieres
World Premiere
Nightfather
(7'ralievader)
The Return of
Sarah's Daughters
Netherlands, 1995
USA, 1997
Director Marcia Jarmel's secular
upbringing compelled her to
It's worth a trip to Toronto for
the second-largest Jewish film
festival in North America.
LYNNE KONSTANTIN STAFF WRITER
Sara — The Diary of
the Free World
Romania, 1995
Award-winning film of a
young projectionist
screening newsreel
footage, prompting
tragic memories of a
lost love.
Canadian
Premieres
Detroit's own Harvey Ovshin-
sky's documentary of Michigan
artist and sculptor Arthur
Schneider, who is diagnosed with
cancer. Harvey Ovshinsky will
attend.
Screenings
The Passenger —
Welcome to Germany
Germany, 1987
Starring Tony Curtis. An Amer-
ican Jewish director returns to
Germany to shoot a film about
the making of an anti-Semitic
film by the Nazis.
Jerusalem:
An Occupation
Set in Stone?
USA I Palestinian, 1995
Explores Israeli-Palestinian bor-
der issues. Director Marty
Rosenbluth will attend.
Sabbath in Amsterdam
Netherlands, 1932
This 12-minute rarely seen film
— director unknown — weaves
a fascinating impression of pre-
World War II Jewish life.
COURTESY OF MONGREL MEDI A
search for her Jewish roots. The
film also documents the search-
es of two other Jewish women:
one Chasidic, the other a lesbian
whose lifestyle poses difficulty in
the Orthodox community to
which she is drawn. Marcia
Jarmel will attend.
or a mere five hours
by land — 45 min-
utes by air — metro
Detroiters, deprived
of a Jewish film festi-
val of their own, can
attend a world-class festival not
too far from home, the second
largest one in North America, in
fact.
The Toronto Jewish Film Fes-
tival is celebrating its fifth an-
niversary this year, and,
through the magic of film,
the festival will visit
Jews from 13 countries
through feature-length
and short films — an-
imated, documentary
and fiction — with
one common theme:
Each film expresses
an aspect of the di-
versity of the Jewish
experience.
Shlomo Schwartz-
berg, the festival's
director of program-
ming, calls this year
in Jewish film "an em-
barrassment of riches
that had made it truly
difficult for us to include
every worthwhile movie
we saw." In the end, he and
Helen Zukerman, producer
and co-founder of the festival,
decided upon a total of 29 films to
be screened, including one world
premiere and two North Ameri-
can premieres.
And remember to linger before
and after each screening: Almost
every film features a swarm of di-
rectors, actors and screenwriters
showing up to discuss their work.
The festival's motto? "You don't
have to be filmish."
The following are highlights of
the 29 films to be screened May
1-8.
Mr. Mani
Israel, 1996
A five-part mini-
series based on A.B.
Yehoshua's novel. Di-
rector Ram Loevy will
attend.
Zahor
(Remember)
France, 1996
Sara Morgenstern was born on Feb. 7,
1925. She was deported on Sept. 21,
1942, on convoy No. 35. She is among
the Holocaust victims shown in the
North American premiere of France's
Zahor (Remember).
A disturbed Holocaust survivor's
traumatic effect on his wife and
young children is remembered
years later when news of his
death reaches his adult daughter.
Gene Siskel said, "You won't eas-
ily forget Zahor." In an award-
winning film essay on the
victims and survivors of the
Holocaust, the filmmaker sim-
ply shows pre-war photos of fam-
ilies and children at rest and
play, with brief narration.
Exodus 1947
USA, 1996
The true story of the Exodus, the
ship carrying Holocaust sur-
vivors that tried to get through
the British blockade of Palestine.
Exodus chief mate Bernie Marks
will attend.
Off the Wall:
A Creative Journey
USA, 1996
The Epstein brothers were the klezmorim in Brooklyn in their day. A Tickle in the
Heart recounts the resurgence of their career.