uloid Celebration Humorous, serious and always thou&-provoking, this year's Jewish Film Festival appeals to a range . of interests. SUZANNE CHESSLER Special to the Jewish News 111 amily secrets, kosher ranching, access to prayer and a carnivo- rous cake give a sense of the range of subjects — light to heavy — covered in this year's Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival. Feature, documentary and animated productions have been scheduled for the third annual series of screenings to be held April 29-May 6 at the United Artists*Theatres in Commerce Township under the spon- sorship of the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit in cooperation with the Detroit Jewish News. Besides showing 29 films touching on many aspects of Jewish life, the festival will feature 20 producers, directors and other speakers talking about their work and the content of films. "A film festival such as this is a way to use technology to reunite the Jewish community," says David Mag,idson, festival director and theater professor at Wayne State University "I think there's really something for everybody." Magidson, working with producer and festival chair Mindy Soble Kaufman, has led the review of more than 100 films in the selection pool. They looked for production quality, forms that reflect content, subject mat- ter connected to Judaism and issues relevant to current Jewish thinking. Sources included distributors, other festival coordinators, magazine articles, Web information and a network of people who regularly show- case Jewish films. "I think the power of films is very interesting, and this year we have more really good movies that can address many personal interests," Magidson says. The festival director is especially impressed with Dangerous Acts, star- ring Gila Almagor, a tour de force he considers the best Israeli film he has seen; Simon Magus, an otherworldly movie at its first festival; and documentary filmmaker Ilona Ziok's Kurt Gerron's Karussell, the story of the German-Jewish actor who played the original Mack the Knife, and went on to make a propaganda film (The Fiihrer Gives a City to the Jews, also to be shown) in a failed attempt to save his life. "New this year is a Young Filmmakers Forum, which features a release by people beginning their filmmaking careers," Magidson says. "After the film is shown, the audience is invited to discuss it with the people who put it together." Joey Craine and Steve Jasgur, two filmmakers from Michigan, created The Three Wolfi and share the forum spotlight. Two other filmmakers with Michigan roots also will present their cinema — animator Ted Petok with The Mad Baker and documentarian Chuck Davis with Kosher Valley. Committee chairpersons include Susan Marwil and Betty Pernick, vol- unteers; Gail M. Reichstein, sponsor reception; Martin W Hollander, tickets; Susan Moiseev, hospitality; and Miriam Imerman, development. We hope you enjoy this preview of the films making the cut. The Third Annual Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival runs April 29- May 6 at the United Artists Theatres in Commerce Township. Screenings begin at 12:30, 3, 5 and 8 p.m. Sundays; 5 and 8 p.m. Monday and Wednesday; 2, 5 and 8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 9:45 p.m. Saturday. $79 for Series /$69 Series for Seniors/$7 Individual Tickets/$6 Individual Seniors. Sponsor opportunities are still available. An event to honor sponsors will be held April 26. For brochure or to become a film festival sponsor, call David Magidson at (248) 661-7649. For tickets, call the box office at (248) 788-2900. "Meschugge (The Giraffe)':• The main attraction at this year's festival has a plot that revolves around stolen identities, forbidden love and the weight of the past on present-clay relations between Germans and Jews. `MESCHUGGE (THE GIRAFFE)' Dani Levy, director/writer/star of Meschugge (The Giraffe), labels himself "autodidactical." That refers to his self-teaching in film production, a career he started some 20 years ago. In his latest full-length feature, the main attraction of this year's festival, romance between a Jewish man from New York and a Jewish woman from Germany is complicated by a tragic connection between their families. Crimes and their resolution uncover the past. "This movie deals with some very delicate topics," says Levy, 43, who was born and raised in Switzerland and moved to Germany to pursue an acting career. "Although it has a complicated story and complex subject, I think the movie is very enter- taining and very suspenseful." Levy's entry into filmmaking came with a love story that took five years to make because of the dif- ficulties of getting financing, but after Same to You was completed and successful, he was encouraged to take on other projects. He next made a comedy about three single men and moved on to a film about a Polish girl looking for adventure in New York. "The movie that I shot in '93 is called Without Me," Levy explains about his other film with a Jewish theme. "It's a very dark but still funny, semi-autobio- graphical movie about me as a Jew living in Berlin in a time of racism and rising anti-Semitism in the early '90s. I shot a radical movie for that topic." Levy, who is married and has an infant daughter, has several projects in planning stages, one about divorce and another about Jews in Berlin. "I don't consider myself German at all, but I feel familiar here and at home," he says. "I have my fami- ly, friends and standing here. I have my production company here. Everybody knows me. When I want to do a movie, I can do it." "Meschugge (The Giraffe)" screens 8 p. m. Sunday, April 29, preceded by festival opening remarks by Elliot Wilhem, director of the DIA's Detroit Film Theatre.