For Openers
Cinema Exposes Truth
nne Borin's interest in film has grown internationally,
but she never forgets her Jewish roots in Michigan. In
her fourth year as director of the New York
Exposition of Short Film and Video, she scheduled
two movies from Israel.
Tsipi Trope's Close and Far Away probes choices by Arab-Israeli
brothers-in-law, while Hadar Fridlich's Grief gives insight into
ways to cope with death.
The festival, which ran Dec. 6-9 and repre-
sented cinema creativity in 18 countries, fea-
tured 75 films
animation, fiction, docu-
mentary and experimental. There were 15
U.S. premieres and 41 New York premieres.
"This year, the documentaries were particu-
larly strong, powerful and timely," says Borin,
a former member of Southfield's
Congregation Shaarey Zedek. Her work expe-
riences range from being a news film editor
for "20/20 " on ABC-TV to organizing film
festivals in Russia, the country of her family's
Anne Bonin
heritage.
Borin, who earned her bachelor's degree at
Michigan State University and her master's degree at New York
University, introduced two special programs to the 2001 presen-
tations. "Artists at Work" offered four biographies of filmmakers
and showed comparative approaches in Brooklyn, Brussels, Paris
and Vienna. "New Documentaries From Russia" extended Borin's
commitment to productions in the country she grew to know
through work and give insight into the world of modern-day Red
Square, the culture of the Kremlin and the life of the country's
last czar.
Borin's responsibilities in organizing the festival, in its 35th
year, fill her work time over seven months of the year. She con-
siders citizen diplomacy an important part of her mission in
opening communication through cinema.
Other 2001 features include Mathieu Gerald Hustache's
Cowhide, a French coming-of-age vignette; Rachel Ward's The Big
House, an Australian discovery piece about a prison inmate; and
Howie Woo's Reveries and Rocketships, a Canadian awakening
work delving into an accident.
"In every category this year, films directed us to see anew, to
see from a more authoritative point of view and nor to miss the
truth where it is most apparent," Borin says. 0
—
— Suzanne Chessler, special writer
GRIPLIEWZ BY Mendel
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© 2001
By Goldfein
hick animal flesh can a "kosher vege-
tarian" eat?
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) Afghan Jewish Feud
Makes News
A clriedel* said, "Kid, this is it.
It sounds like an ancient rabbinic parable
traversing generations of oral tradition: The
infighting of the last two remaining Jews of
a village costs them their Torah.
Read on at:
I don't like your insults one bit!
www.detroitjewislulews.cominkws
Yiddish Limericks
I'm shvindeldik,''' true,
But I don't need you
To call me a draykup. — I quit."
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
spinning top used in traditional Chanukah
game
"" dizzy
*"'' (literal) turn-head
(figurative) scatterbrain; maneuverer
"The Jewish people can now show the
world what it means to persevere."
Rabbi
Groner
— Rabbi Irwin Groner, three days after
the Dec. 1-2 terrorist attacks on Israel and
moments before former Israeli Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield
at a Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit fund-raiser.
"And yet the tragedy of the Arab world is that Israel
accords them more political rights and dignities than
most Arab nations give to their own people. Why is
the focus of Arab anger on Israel and not those
regimes?"
Fareed Zakania, in his essay about terrorists,
"Why Do They Hate Us?," in the December issue of
Hadassah Magazine, reprinted from Newsweek.
I NEED To 501E - TIME To
-1()(A)RECAPTURE
1,I6HT THE
SPI RITUA L
CHANUKAH
CENTER
FAITH IN A
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BETTS R
FUTURE
) Warsaw Synagogue
Turns 100
This Chanukah, Warsaw's Jews are celebrat-
ing the 100th
anniversary of the
only synagogue in
Warsaw that sur-
vived the Holocaust
— a synagogue that
today is a symbol of
efforts to revive
Jewish life in the
Helena Datner
Polish city.
www.detroitje wishnews.cominews
-
) What's Eating Harry
Hirsbaum?
Enough already. American Taliban fighter
John Walker Lindh's 15 minutes of fame
are up.
www.detroitjewishnews.com/opinion
) Jewish National Fund
Plants Sculptures
The Jewish National Fund, long known
for planting trees, is now planting sculp-
tures as well.
) Israel Update
For the latest news and analysis out of the
Middle East.
www.detroitjewishnews.cominews
— Joshua Paul Cane, JN Online
Web producer
12/14
2001
11