42 | APRIL 20 • 2023
ARTS&LIFE
FILM
T
wo entertainers with strong ties to
Michigan will be appearing at this
year’s Lenore Marwil Detroit Jewish
Film Festival, which runs April 27-May 7
at the West Bloomfield Jewish Community
Center (JCC) and has repeat screenings May
8-9 at Emagine Royal Oak.
Mikhl Yashinsky, who grew up in
Michigan, will be showing and singing
Yiddish film songs with a klezmer quartet,
and Seth Kramer, who spends summer
vacations with in-laws living along a
lakeshore in the state, will be discussing the
documentary he edited giving attention to
Israeli baseball and beyond.
Both presenters will be sharing in two
milestones for this year’s events — the 25th
anniversary of the festival and the world-
visible 75th anniversary of the State of
Israel. Getting back to presentations beyond
COVID, there will be no zoomed showings.
In an opening night special presentation,
Yashinsky will work with the group Isle of
Klezbos, a New York band featuring Eve
Sicular, bandleader and drummer; Shoko
Nagai on piano and accordion; Reut Regev
on trombone; and Alex Parke on clarinet.
“Eve’s unearthed a lot of remarkable
numbers from Yiddish films,
” said
Yashinsky, 33, now a writer, translator and
performing freelancer in New York who
recalls appearing in productions at the
JCC while a student at the Frankel Jewish
Academy.
He was in a staging of Fiddler on the Roof
while attending Frankel and accepted a later
professional role in the Yiddish version of
the play outstate.
“Eve has taken the songs from their
context and made them into stand-alone
pieces of music to be played and performed
on a stage,
” he continued. “Our presentation
is called ‘Hidden Musical Gems from
Yiddish Soundtracks.
’
Lenore Marwil Detroit Jewish Film Festival offers
a variety of subjects for movie lovers.
Yiddish Film Songs,
Israeli Baseball
and More
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Seth
Kramer
Isle of
Klesbos
Israel Swings for Gold