Through A Jewish Lens
Screening Schedule --The Jewish Community Center's Second Annual Lenore Marwil
Jewish Film Festival takes place April 30-May 7 at the United Artists Theaters in Commerce Township.
-
SUNDAY, APRIL 30
1 p.m.: Shtick, Shmaltz and Shtereotypes. Guest
commentator/program creator Murray Glass will
speak on Jews in film.
8 p.m.: The festival's main attraction, The Assistant,
4 a new film of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Bernard
1 Malamud novel. Producer Daniel Petrie will speak.
4 MONDAY, MAY 1
5 p.m.: L.A. Mohel. Mohel/Cantor Samuel
Greenbaum will speak. A screening of The Line
King, a film about the life of legendary cartoonist
Al Hirschfeld, follows.
8 p.m.: The Poet and the Con examines the life
of a Jewish gangster. Director/producer/writer
Eric Trules will speak.
TUESDAY, MAY 2
5 p.m.: Yidl in the Middle reflects on the filmmak-
er's life growing up in Des Moines, Iowa. A panel of
Michigan Jews will reflect on the film and their own
experiences. Following, a screening of Round Eyes in
the Middle Kingdom explores Jewish life in China.
8 p.m.: A special Yom HaShoah presentation, After
the Truth is a new German film that recalls the
Holocaust from Dr. Josef Mengele's point of view.
Screenwriters Christopher and Kathleen Riley will
4 discuss the film.
I
I
I
SUNDAY, MAY 7
1 p.m.: Special family presentation for children age 1
4-13 and their parents features Natie the Pirate, In
the Month of Kislev, The Hanukkah Soldier, A World
to Come, Promises, Silence and Where the Wild
Things Are. Special guest storyteller Corinne
Stavish will narrate the program.
3 p.m.: Special family presentation for children age
4-13 and their parents (second showing).
5 p.m.: With a Family
Like Mine ... is a modern
Jewish comedy that looks
at family. Producer/writer
Todd Logan will intro-
duce the film and host a
discussion with director
David Seman after the
screening.
8 p.m.: Women, the festi-
val finale in honor of
Jewish Heritage Week,
examines turn-of-the-cen-
tury Sephardim in
1
"Shtick, Shmaltz and Shtereotypes":
Palestine. Afterward, a
A century of Jews in films.
panel featuring Rabbi
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3
5 p.m.: In Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour, the
Barbie doll's influence on American culture is
explored. Then, Dealers Among Dealers follows and
looks at Jews in the diamond business. Director
Gaylen Ross will lead a discussion following the film.
8 p.m.: Chronicle of Love explores domestic violence
in Israel. A panel from Jewish Family Service's
Shalom Bayit domestic violence project will conduct
a discussion.
THURSDAY, MAY 4:
5 p.m.: Generation Exodus
explores contemporary
Jewish identity. Following,
is the film Treyf, an autobi-
ographical documentary
that bridges filmmakers
Alisa Lebow's and Cynthia
Madansky's Jewish identity
with their lives as lesbians
and women. Madansky
will lead a pre-film discus-
sion at 4 p.m.
8 p.m.: Angst looks at humor
Leonardo Bitran,
and the Holocaust, followed
which
explores
family
ties.
Professor
Ruth
Behar
and
members
of the
by Nobody's Business,
Sephardic Jewish community will discuss the film.
There will be no screenings on May 5 and 6
,
'Dealers
Among
Dealers'
11"
4/21
2000
88
In the diamond business, $8 million
can change hands in a matter of sec-
onds -- without the buyer even see-
ing the merchandise.
It all happens in the space of a
phone call in Dealers Among Dealers,
a documentary by New York film-
maker Gaylen Ross. Over several
years, Ross followed the mostly
Jewish dealers, cutters and assorted
hangers-on who populate the dia-
mond trade On the east side of
Manhattan.
"Buy me even if you can't afford
me," challenges one dealer from
under his imposing bushy brows.
Another glides through the streets
in a chauffeur-driven limousine. A
few years later, he's the one grubbing
for tips behind the steering wheel.
But he can't stay away, and, by the
end of the film, he's dealing again.
The film is a lively look at a cul-
ture that has been shrouded in mys-
tery. Long thought to be a province
only of the fervently Orthodox, the
diamond business today includes
everyone from the secular to the
Chasidic. And, as Jewish sons of dia-
mond brokers seek more sober, less
stressful pursuits, the business is
gradually seeing East Indians, South
American, Iranian and Asian dealers
as well.
In offices or out on the street,
deals' are finalized with a handshake
and a "mazer Merchants sift hand-
fuls of diamonds into an old-fash-
ioned scale, as if they were measuring
out a couple pounds of lentils. And
meanwhile, back in the workrooms,
Chasidic stonecutters sing Yiddish
melodies as they work, in a scene
WWWW,
NNW,
\NS,
beyond Walt
Disney's wildest
dreams.
In a rare
moment of intro-
spection, one mer-
chant ponders
whether diamonds
themselves have
any intrinsic value
outside of their
beauty.
"What's a stone
— a piece of car-
bon," he says. "It's
a matter of supply "Dealers Among
and demand."
Dealers":
In the case of
Demystifting the
diamonds, though, diamond business.
these stones seem
to have the capaci-
ty to bewitch everyone who works
with them.
— Diana Lieberman
StaifWriter
,,,,,,,,, WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
Dealers Among Dealers will be
shown Wednesday, May 3, pre-
ceded by Barbie Nation: An
Unauthorized Tour. The screen-
ings begin at 5 p.m. Dealers
director Gaylen Ross will lead
a discussion about the dia-
mond business.