arts & entertainment
JCC's Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival
presents a potpourri of films
for movie lovers.
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
• \
The Sturgeon Queens
Out in the Dark
The Third Half
Lost Town
ol. Yosef (Joe) Alon, an atta-
che at the Israeli Embassy
in Washington, D.C., and
his wife, Devora, spent the evening of
Sunday, June 30, 1973, at a going-away
party for a colleague.
A few minutes before 1 a.m., they
returned to their home. Devora got out of
the car and walked to the house. Seconds
later, someone stepped forward, took out
a foreign-made .38 caliber revolver and
shot Joe Alon five times, killing him.
So begins one of Israel's greatest
unsolved mysteries. The Joe Alon murder
has been the subject of a book, of count-
less hours of research by both his wife
and three daughters, of accusations and
assumptions, of numerous pronounce-
ments from the Israeli government and
the Mossad.
And now, the Joe Alon story is the
focus of the film Who Shot My Father?,
one of 30 movies included in the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit's Lenore Marwil Jewish Film
Festival, to be held April 27-May 7 at the
Berman Center for the Performing Arts.
"This year's festival is going to be
incredible said Festival Chair Eric
Lumberg. "We've got such a diverse col-
lection of movies, great events and top-
notch programming and speakers"
"There are films that make you think,
make you laugh, make you cry and help
you understand yourself and the world,"
added Festival Director Rachel Ruskin.
In addition to Who Shot My Father?,
this year's festival includes many docu-
mentaries. For art lovers, Herb 6 Dorothy
50x50 tells the story of a couple who, on
a very modest income, managed to col-
lect more than 2,000 remarkable works
of art. For those who need a bit of hope,
there's Dancing in Jaffa, focusing on a
teacher in Israel who manages to unite,
through ballroom dancing, two very dif-
ferent groups of children.
The Upside Down Book is the haunt-
ing account of a Jewish family, a German
couple and a 1938 copy of Mein Kampfi
and My Father and the Man in Black is a
story of family, starting with Saul Holiff,
Johnny Cash's longtime manager.
Who Shot My Father?
This year's documentaries also include
something a bit fishy: The Sturgeon
Queens, the tale of a Lower East Side
store in New York City that has sold
enough herring to fill a jet plane.
Love Israel? Learn the secrets behind
the Meir, Rabin and Begin administra-
tions from insider Yehuda Avner in The
Prime Ministers: The Pioneers.
Ready for some excitement? Don't
miss In the Shadow, a dark and exciting
thriller that takes place in 1953 Prague.
Looking for a tender film about love
and loss? The Pin is Canada's first-ever
all-Yiddish film (with actors who, until
they appeared in this movie, spoke not
a single word of Yiddish). It focuses on
Jacob, who guards the bodies of the dead
before burial and discovers that one of
the women he's protecting was his first
sweetheart.
In addition to great movies, the festival
includes the following events: On open-
ing night, Sunday, April 27, clergy from
Temple Israel will speak in conjunction
with the film Aftermath. Earlier that day,
following the screening of The Last White
Knight, the story of a former civil rights
worker who returns to the Deep South,
there will be a discussion with a member
of the ADL.
On April 28, a dinner and discus-
sion will be held in conjunction with
Reporting on the Times: The New York
Times and the Holocaust and The Upside
Down Book. A presentation by Julie
Cohen, the award-winning producer of
The Sturgeon Queens, takes place on May
1; and explorer Chris Nicola, who dis-
covered a cave where Jews hid from the
Nazis for more than 18 months (No Place
on Earth), speaks on May 5.
❑
For more on the films Aftermath,
Blumenthal, No Place on Earth and The
ZigZag Kid, go to pages 42-44. Elizabeth
Applebaum is marketing director at the
Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit.
For a complete schedule of films
at the Berman, and to purchase
tickets, which are $12 each, visit
the Berman box office, call (248)
661-1900 or go to theberman.org .
Film Fest Schedule
T
he 16th Annual Lenore Marwil
Jewish Film Festival will be held
April 27-May 7 at the Berman
Center for the Performing Arts, 6600
W. Maple Road, in West Bloomfield (WB).
Festivals also will be held May 4-8 at
the Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St.,
in Ann Arbor (AA); and May 4-8 (with
April 24 and 27 preview days) at the
Flint Institute of Arts, 1120 E. Kearsley
St., in Flint (FL). More info is available at
www.jccdet.org .
All times indicated in this schedule
are for the Berman Center in West
Bloomfield (for tickets, call 248-661-
1900 or visit theberman.org ), followed
by dates for other locations: tickets for
Ann Arbor, (734) 971-0990; tickets for
Flint, (810) 767-5922.
SUNDAY, APRIL 27
Noon: Dancing in Jaffa
Pierre Dulaine teaches ballroom dance
to a group of children who know one
another only as enemies.
2 p.m.: The Last White Knight
A civil rights volunteer returns to the
Deep South, where he once volunteered,
to see if reconciliation is possible.
Following, ADL Educational Project
Director Harry Weaver will present a
talk.
8 p.m.: Aftermath
Based on true events, this thriller
recounts the story of two Polish
brothers and profound family secrets.
Afterward, clergy from Temple Israel will
speak about the film.
MONDAY, APRIL 28
2 p.m.: Lost Town
A filmmaker goes in search of the story
of his father's village, Trochenbrod (the
only all-Jewish town to exist outside
of Palestine), a community virtually
destroyed by the Nazis. (AA: 5/4 at
1 p.m.; FL: 5/6 at 7 p.m.)
5 p.m.: Reporting on the Times: The
New York Times and the Holocaust with
The Upside Down Book
The short film Reporting focuses on the
Film Fest on page 40
April 17 • 2014
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