E

■

■

Ethiopian Art
At Temple Fair . . . . . . 70

`Proof' Staged
At Fisher Theatre . . . . 78

Spin Doctors
Reunite In A2

80

Cinematic

L

r

JCC

festival takes

K.5:MM::::::i:4"1.1& •

viewers

around

the world

with films

focusing on

A Conversation

t e Jewish

experience.

SUZANNE CHESSLER

Special to the Jewish News

redit the Diaspora for the cinematic diversi-
ty being featured April 28-May 8 during
the fourth annual Jewish Community
Center Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival.
One of the Hollywood Ten, the centerpiece movie
starring Jeff Goldblum, serves as a prime example,
with an American subject — blacklisted writers —
tackled by filmmakers from Britain and Spain.
Other countries represented in the collection
include Israel, Sweden, Russia, Canada, Czech
Republic, France and Belgium.
The festival also brings diversity with a range of
speakers prepared to discuss the films and the issues
raised in them. .
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), for example,
will address homosexuality as described in the movie
about him, Let's Get Frank, which will have a pre-
view showing in Michigan. Another guest, Australian
filmmaker Monique Schwarz, will reveal the emo-
tions of making Mamadrama, which chronicles the
ways Jewish mothers have been depicted on screen.
A bit more diversity comes with the places where films
will be shown this year. In addition to the United Artists
Commerce 14, the festival reaches the Birmingham 8
and the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor.
"The Diaspora works in our favor because the dis-
persion of Jews and Jewish filmmakers brings a rich-
ness of creativity to the films that we show," says
David Magidson, festival director working with co-
chairs Susan Marwil of Bloomfield Hilli and Martin
Hollander of West Bloomfield Township.
"While we can recognize a Jewish presence in each
of the movies, the culture that is represented in each
one also leaves an imprint and the impression that
another sensibility is at work."
Magidson, a professor of theater at Wayne State
University, points out the range of cinema by calling
attention to two films. In Search of Peace Part I:
1948 1967, made by the Simon Wiesenthal Center
and narrated by actor Michael Douglas, documents
the founding and defending of Israel. In another vein,

-

One Day In 'e tern

CINEMATIC DIVERSITY on page 72

4/19
2002

65