44 May 9 • 2019
jn
T
wo films specific to the times —
one a documentary, the other a
docudrama — are part of this
year’
s Ann Arbor Jewish Film Festival,
which is showcasing nine full-length
films and six short films.
The documentary, 93Queen,
reflects the push for women’
s rights in
Brooklyn’
s Chasidic community with
the creation of the first all-female vol-
unteer ambulance corps in New York
City.
The docudrama, Shoelaces, delves into
the growing awareness of relationships
and opportunities faced by a man with a
special-needs son.
The 18th annual festival, running
May 12-16, this year is presented in con-
nection with the Cinetopia Film Festival,
which runs May 10-19. Cinetopia
features some 60 international films in
venues around the region, introduces
a range of speakers and opens with the
film Before You Know It, described as
having Jewish sensibilities.
The opening film, listing a stellar cast,
including Jewish entertainer Mandy
Patinkin, will be joined by its co-writers,
Hannah Pearl Utt and Jen Tullock, who
appear in the comedy as sisters discov-
ering the mother they thought was dead
is actually alive and starring in a soap
opera.
“Collaborating with Cinetopia is an
exciting opportunity to share Jewish
films with so many more people,
” says
Karen Freedland, director of Jewish cul-
tural arts and education for the Jewish
Community Center of Greater Ann
Arbor and director of its film festival.
Another co-sponsored film is To Dust,
about a cantor struggling to find reli-
gious solace in coping with his wife’
s
death and seeking help from a college
biology professor.
Meryl Goldsmith, who grew up
in Bloomfield Hills and produced
the film Love, Gilda (about the late
Jewish comedian Gilda Radner, also
from Michigan), will be represented
at Cinetopia because of production
responsibilities for a very different
documentary, Well Groomed, capturing
the world of creative dog grooming.
Paula Eiselt directed 93Queen and is
pleased the film has brought larger sup-
port — funding and participation — to
the entry of religious women into emer-
gency medical care, defined as part of
the MeToo movement.
“I strived to make a film true to
the community — a complex film, a
nuanced film that neither demonized
nor sanitized the community where
it takes place,
” explains Eiselt, an
Orthodox woman who learned about
the initiative through accessing a reli-
gion-based website.
What struck Eiselt was the idea that
women had been banned by the existing
ambulance corps and began opposing
that stance in a way not typical for the
culture. The filmmaker met with the
woman at the helm, and that started a
five-year production process.
“Funding is mostly based on private
donations,
” Eiselt says.
Since the film came out, there was
a successful crowdfunding campaign
that raised new funding from outside
the Chasidic community. There also
has been the development of addi-
tional groups doing the same kind of
ambulance work in Long Island and
Manhattan.
“They service anyone who calls —
men or women,
” the filmmaker says.
Eiselt wants to stress, through the
film, that feminism does not mean that
one size fits all.
“This is what feminism and wom-
en’
s empowerment looks like in [this
Chasidic community],
” she says. “It’
s not
what feminism and women’
s empow-
erment looks like in other parts of the
world. There are different needs, and
I see this as a story of women creating
space for themselves and finding space
where there wasn’
t.
“There are women who have been too
embarrassed to call for help and have
died as a result, so this is a great model
of change and progress and how com-
munities change from the bottom up.
”
Shoelaces, a film nominated for eight
Israeli Academy Awards, was directed
by Jacob Goldwasser. The story has to
do with the efforts of a special-needs
son trying to help his father, whose own
special need is a kidney transplant.
“I hope audiences will be able to
look into the eyes of people with spe-
cial needs and see what they do have
[instead of seeing] only what they don’
t
have,
” Goldwasser says. “I hope audienc-
es will learn to like Gadi and even his
ability to fight for what he believes in his
own way.
”
Although the plot is based on a true
event that happened to another family,
Goldwasser entered the project knowing
the characteristics, challenges and emo-
tions because of personal experiences
with his oldest son, who has special
needs.
“My wife and our younger son,
Itamar, who edited the film, were very
supportive and cooperative all along
the long development and making of
Shoelaces,
” he explains.
“It took me 12 years from the time I
heard about the true event until I was
convinced to make the film. I realized
I could transform this tragedy into
an optimistic story that would help
improve the image of people with
special needs in the eyes of a vast
audience.” ■
arts&life
Joint Effort
Ann Arbor Jewish Film Festival, Cinetopia
alliance brings Jewish fi
lms to more people.
Details
For film descriptions and schedules,
visit cinetopiafestival.org and
film.jccannarbor.org. Individual tickets
are $10 and $15.
Other Jewish Film
Festival screenings:
• Budapest Noir is a murder mystery
that takes place as Hungary is about
to align with Hitler.
• The Unorthodox unfolds political
initiatives taken by a member of the
Sephardi community in Jerusalem.
• Why the Jews? recounts
accomplishments by members of the
Jewish faith.
• The Samuel Project connects an
outcast teen with his grandfather.
• The Ancient Law, a silent film,
follows the son of an Orthodox rabbi
who wants to become an actor.
• Remember Baghdad delves into
experiences of the Jews of Iraq.
• The Last Suit presents the journey
of an aged clothier in search of the
man who saved his life.
PHOTO CREDIT JULIETA CERVANTES
TOP: 93Queen is a documentary about an all-
female ambulance corps in Brooklyn’
s Chasidic
community. ABOVE: In the Israeli film Shoelaces,
a son with special needs tries to help his father,
who needs a kidney transplant.
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER