ARTS&LIFE
FILM FESTIVAL
F
ilm fans who have missed the ambi-
ence of watching big-screen cinema
while joined by other viewers can
look forward to opportunities for that
experience at the Jewish Community
Center (JCC) in West Bloomfield.
The Lenore Marwil Detroit Jewish Film
Festival, running April 24-May 4, invites
movie enthusiasts into the Berman Center
for the Performing Arts with an offering
of nearly 30 films — dramas, comedies,
documentaries — and seven filmmaker
presentations.
Home viewers can enjoy their own JCC
film opportunities as part of the festi-
val — only after the theater showings are
completed. Ten films will be available vir-
tually May 5-8 also with the enhancement
of pointed discussion.
“We are so thrilled to be back in person
presenting films from the United States as
well as other countries that include Israel,
France, Spain and the Netherlands,” said
Stephen Kantrowitz, the new senior direc-
tor of Cultural Arts at the JCC.
“Our Film Festival Committee, chaired
by Eric Lumberg, has maintained the
highest of standards in making this year’s
selections and has set off the first day
with three screenings that involve special
programming.”
The film Fiddler’s Journey to the Big
Screen, at 1 p.m., will have the mood set
by a live fiddler entertaining in the lobby
before and after the screening. A Tree of
Life, at 4 p.m., will be accompanied by
an on-screen presentation moderated
by Rabbi Joseph Krakoff and featuring
director Trish Adlesic and author Mark
Oppenheimer, who wrote the book
(Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue
Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood),
on which the film is based.
Image of Victory, at 7 p.m., which is
about an attack at a 1948 kibbutz, will
feature a pre-recorded interview with
director Avi Nesher being questioned by
Detroit Shaliach Yiftah Leket.
The festival centerpiece is set for 7
p.m. Sunday, May 1, with the presen-
Want to Go to
the Movies?
APRIL 21 • 2022 | 53
The Lenore Marwil Detroit Jewish Film
Festival is back in person.
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Still shot from
the film Fiddler’s
Journey to the
Big Screen
continued on page 56