54 April 18 • 2019
jn
RON STANG CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Films in Windsor
Jewish Film Festival across the
border offers winners.
T
he 17th annual Ruth and
Bernard Friedman Windsor
Jewish Film Festival features
10 films over four days from April
29-May 2, including the acclaimed
new documentary Who Will Write
Our History.
The film is about a group of writers
who kept a secret trove of documents
chronicling their conditions in the
Warsaw Ghetto. It will be screened
opening night.
The festival, Windsor’
s oldest movie
fest, typically features films that cele-
brate or depict Jewish culture, includ-
ing those about the Holocaust.
This year’
s lineup includes the
comedy Humor Me starring Elliot
Gould; the documentary Back to
Berlin, about a group of Israeli motor-
cyclists who travel to Berlin for the
Maccabi Games, retracing the ride of
their forefathers before World War II;
93 Queen about a group of Chasidic
women in Brooklyn who create the
first all-female ambulance corps; and
the Israeli film Shoelaces, a funny but
poignant story of the relationship
between a father and his autistic son.
The festival has long had a ded-
icated group of programmers who
choose from dozens of films for the
event held at the Devonshire Mall’
s
Cineplex Odeon.
“We have a committee that typically
looks at 60 to 90 films a year to pick
the 10 for our festival,” said Jay Katz,
Windsor Jewish Community Centre
executive director. “With 10, we’
re
pretty much getting award winners.
“They try to make sure there’
s
some light-hearted ones because in
the genre of Jewish-themed films
there’
s a lot about the Holocaust,” he
said, adding it’
s important to include
the message of the Holocaust because
of its centrality to Jewish history.
The festival was originally connect-
ed with the Lenore Marwil Detroit
Jewish Film Festival, but they parted
ways many years ago because of a
different film distribution system in
Canada.
The festival was started by Ruth
and Bernard Friedman, philanthro-
pists who were known for organizing
a popular community picnic.
“But tastes change and communi-
ties change, and they realized 17 years
ago that it would evolve to having the
film festival because the whole com-
munity would and does come togeth-
er for this,” Katz said.
The festival has almost two dozen
sponsors and, with ticket sales, it
turns a profit, which goes to support
Jewish community programs.
New this year is an educational
component for high school students.
Drawing on funding from the
Windsor-based Morris and Beverly
Baker Foundation, the festival opened
its film vault of more than 100 titles
from almost two decades and school
boards picked films to use to teach
students about the Holocaust.
One is Defiant Requiem about
the Czech concentration camp
Theresienstadt and a young compos-
er’
s efforts to build morale through
the performance of Verdi’
s Requiem.
Another is Sarah’
s Key, the story of
a 10-year-old girl during the round-
up of Jews in Paris in 1942. A third
is Le Voyage de Fanny about the
daring escape of schoolchildren to
Switzerland. ■
For a film schedule, go to bit.ly/2UBwB4A.
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