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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