Coming Attract'
LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer
A
$250,000 donation will
give Detroit a second shot
at holding an annual
Jewish Film Festival. If it
gets off the ground as planned this
May or June, even as a modest two-
or three-flick event, it would
join 50 other such festivals
around the world.
Milton Marwil, former
owner of Marwil Bookstore
Inc. on the campus of Wayne
State University, started the
endowment for the Lenore
Marwil Jewish Film Festival in
honor of his late wife. She had
spent more than 10 years
working at the Kahn Jewish
Community Center, most notably
building up the senior adult bridge
program up from two tables to 18
when she left.
"Films are something we know my
wife was interested in," Milton Marwil
said. He felt that her name should be
attached to something he knew she
would like and would "bring enjoy-
ment to other people."
In 1997, the Michigan Israel
Marwil said
he approached
the JCC with
the film festival
idea and found
himself knocking
on an open door.
The JCC leader-
ship had been
$250, 000 endowment will let
JCC start a Jewish Film
Festival this spring.
Lonny Goldsmith can be reached at
(248) 354-6060 ext 263, or by e-mail
at: lgoldsmith@thejewishnews.corn.
Chamber of Commerce ran an Israeli
Film Festival. It didn't get a return
engagement, although Michael
Traison, then-president of the cham-
ber, said the 10-film event drew more
than 1,000 people to the Maple Art
Theatre in Bloomfield Township.
looking to add
just that to its
repertoire, seeing
it as a springtime
complement to
the fall Jewish
Book Fair.
Lenore Marwil
Sizing Up The Festivals
LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer
A
quarter of a million dollars
isn't chump change but,
warns Shlomo
Schwartzberg, programming
director of Toronto's highly regarded
Jewish Film Festival, it can get used
up mighty fast.
"It's a lot of work,"
said Schwartzberg, who
works six months full-
time to organize the
Toronto event. He
spends more than
$250,000 annually to
put on the festival, he
said, noting the budget
includes salaries as well as
exhibition rights to films.
"We try to show a variety of Jewish
life films: documentaries, shorts, fea-
tures, Israeli, Yiddish," he said, adding
that the films tend to lean towards the
older generation. "Israeli films tend to
be more popular in Toronto and
Montreal because they are generally
more conservative. If we don't show an
Israeli feature, we get flack for it."
Last year, the French-film Soleil
starring Sophia Loren made the
rounds on the festival circuit, as did
the Oscar-winning The Long Way
Home and Mendel, a coming-of-age
story of a young boy whose family
resettles in Norway in
the 1950s. One of last
year's more anticipated
screenings, according
to festival observers,
was The Truce starring
John Turturro as the
author Primo Levi.
Margo Weitzer of
the Detroit JCC said
she hopes the festival will encourage
involvement in other community activ-
ities, but Schwartzberg isn't as san-
guine. He said surveys in Toronto
showed that the film festival is the only
Jewish thing many attendees go to.
Other cities
offer elaborate
and successful
film programs.
1/22
1999
8 Detroit Jewish News
The modest-sized
Jewish community of
Hartford, Conn., is
now in its third festi-
val year, even though
it is just two hours'
drive away from New
York and Boston
with solidly estab-
lished festivals.
According to Lisa
Kassow, adult edu-
cation director for
the Greater
Hartford JCC, the
festival had eight
films in its first year
and 13 last year,
when it spent
$18,000.
"Like any pro-
gram that you start
from scratch, it's like
reinventing the
wheel," she said.
"We had to learn
In Our own Bands: The hidden story
of the Jewish brigade in WWII
The Truce
Out For Love... Be Back Shortly
Evgueni Khaidek Photographer
Under Stalin
The Jew in The Lotus
The Long Way Bowe
CISCO
‘
mmzmamamtaxtillociiiiiislitiihitiookiiititat***Nolawaseasommatftwast
Best Mant
Isvventy Tears Later Farewell
nollywoodisma Jews, Movies,
and the American Dream
Mother Stayed There
Men
s'''