arts & entertainment
Cinetopia!
Screening 30 movies both new and classic —
over four days, a new film festival debuts in Ann Arbor.
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
L
Ann Arbor
isa Rudin approaches the Cinetopia
International Film Festival as film-
maker, fan and friend and plans to
be in Ann Arbor May 31-June 3, when 30
movies, classic and new, will be screened
and related programs will be offered.
Rudin is sure to check audience reaction
to Missed Connections, the film she pro-
duced, and watch To Kill a Mockingbird,
one of her favorites, as she sets up her
schedule. She also will contact moviemak-
ers she met in Cleveland as they showed
/Am Not a Hipster, about a young singer-
songwriter facing tragedy.
"These festivals are wonderful because
they get people out to see films they love
and introduce them to new films," says
Rudin, 29, who gave some fresh thoughts
to her Jewish heritage while assisting
Bill Maher as he worked on his film
Religulous.
Movies and programs will be divided
among the Michigan Theater, the, State
Theater, Angell Hall and the Ann Arbor
Library.
Special programs include an explora-
tion of 60 years of 3-D films and 3-D film
technology, a celebration of the work of
University of Michigan screenwriting grad
David Newman (Bonnie & Clyde, What's
Up, Doc? and Superman) and a recollec-
tion of the silent film comedy of Harold
Lloyd.
The recent success Hugo will be shown
in 3-D.
Cinetopia, in its inaugural year, kicks
off four days of events with a party that
features an image gallery of the films hap-
pening throughout the weekend and inter-
active touchscreens to see selected trailers
and find out more information about the
festival.
Among the new films is Hello I Must Be
Going, about a young woman, named Amy
Minsky, moving back with her parents and
connecting romantically with a teenager
she meets at a party. Favorite classic
feature films include Casablanca
and The Sting.
U-M grad David Newman wrote the screenplay
The films scheduled for Cinetopia for 1972's What's Up, Doc?, starring Barbra
include documentaries as well
Streisand.
as features produced around the
world. Harold Lloyd's granddaugh-
Sacha Baron Cohen films Bruno and The
ter, Suzanne, curator of the Harold Lloyd
Dictator.
Trust, will be a presenter.
"Missed Connections reminded us why
Rudin explains that most people
we got into the film business:' Rudin says.
involved with Missed Connections were
"Our earlier festival experiences have
friends and donated their pay back to the
found enthusiastic audiences:'
project, which explores, in comedic terms,
the experiences of a guy trying to get over
a traumatic breakup with his girlfriend.
The Cinetopia International Film
He tricks women on the Internet, ulti-
Festival runs May 31-June 3 in Ann
mately meeting a woman who may be as
Arbor. Films will be screened at the
devious as he is.
Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty;
Rudin brings a diverse background to
State Theater, 233 S. State; Angell
this film. She began working in news and
Hall, 435 S. State; and the Ann
political media before joining the staff
Arbor Library, 343 S Fifth Ave. $12-
of Bill. Maher's Real Time on HBO. While
$15 for individual tickets; $96-$120
working on Religulous, she met direc-
for group vouchers; $60-$75 for
tor Larry Charles and joined his team
opening party. www.michtheater.org/
for HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and the
cinetopia.
❑
Jews
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
Film Notes
The first two Men in Black movies
(1997, 2002) were huge box-office
hits. So, of course, they've made
another — this time in 3-D. Men in
Black 3, which opens Friday, May 25,
again stars Will Smith as Agent J,
who learns that the life of Agent K
(Tommy Lee Jones) and the future
of Planet Earth are at risk. J must
time-travel to 1969 to stop an alien
criminal named Boris and change the
course of history. He teams up with
the young version of Agent K (Josh
Brolin) to stop Boris within 24 hours
— or be trapped in the past forever.
Barry Sonnenfeld, 59, who directed
the first two Men movies, helms
this one, too. He began as a top cin-
ematographer and then was tapped
in 1991 to direct the first of two
Addams Family movies. They were
hits, as was his next film, Get Shorty
(1995). Steven
Spielberg then asked
Sonnenfeld to direct
the first Men movie
(Spielberg has pro-
duced all three).
Etan Cohen, 38, who
was born in Israel
Cohen
and grew up mostly
106
May 24 • 2012
in the States, co-wrote this one. A
graduate of the prestigious Modern
Orthodox Maimonides School outside
Boston and of Harvard College, he
wrote for TV comedies until his script
for Tropic Thunder, a 2008 film farce
co-starring and co-written by Ben
Stiller, 46, made him an in-demand
film writer.
Also opening Friday, May 25, is
Bernie, a comedic film directed by
Richard Linklater
in which assistant
funeral director
Bernie Tiede (Jack
Black, 42) befriends
Marjorie Nugent
(Shirley MacLaine),
an affluent Texas
Black
widow as well known
for her sour attitude
as for her fortune. He handles her
affairs, but when it's discovered she's
been dead for some time, Bernie is
charged with her murder.
As reported by JTA, Polish director
Roman Polanski's next film, titled D,
will be a political thriller based on the
Dreyfus Affair. Alfred Dreyfus was a
French Jewish army officer who was
falsely convicted of treason in 1894.
In the ensuing 12-year battle to clear
his name, anti-Semitism played a
major factor.
TV NOTES
The HBO original movie Hemingway
& Gellhorn premieres at 9 p.m.
Monday, May 28. The biographical
drama recounts the passionate love
affair (1936-39) and tumultuous mar-
riage (1940-45) of literary master
Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen)
and trailblazing war correspondent
Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman) as
it follows the adventurous writers
through the Spanish Civil War (1936-
39) and beyond.
Gellhorn (1908-98) had three
Jewish grandparents and was raised
secular in St. Louis.
She was among the
first journalists to
reach the liberated
Dachau concentra-
tion camp at the
end of World War II,
and the experience
Gellhorn
changed her. She
embraced her Jewish
background and became a passionate
and life-long supporter of Israel.
A supporting (real-life) character
in the film is photographer Robert
Capa (1913-54), a Hungarian Jew,
who took iconic photos of the Spanish
Civil War and, later, the Israeli War
of Independence. Peter Coyote, 70,
plays Max Perkins, Hemingway's liter-
ary editor. The film is directed Phillip
Kaufman, 75.
The NBC celebrity roots show
Who Do You Think You Are? recently
featured actress Rashida Jones
(Community), 36. The episode can
be viewed online until September;
and the website version (just google
the show title) includes a couple of
deleted scenes, family photos and a
written recap.
Jones is the daughter of Jewish
actress Peggy Lipton, 65, best known
for the '60s TV series Mod Squad,
and her ex-husband, famous African-
American composer/producer Quincy
Jones. Rashida was
raised Jewish and
firmly identifies as
Jewish in a religious
sense.
She already knew a
lot about her father's
ancestry so she
Jones
opted to explore her
maternal grandmoth-
er's life and ancestry.
Her grandmother was born into the
small, but vibrant, Irish Jewish com-
munity, and Jones traveled first to
Dublin. She learned that her Irish
Jewish ancestors originally were from
Latvia so she traveled there to learn
more. The whole episode was fasci-
nating, but the ending, which I won't LT
reveal, was extraordinarily moving.