FILM FESTIVAL
Recognizing Jewish influences on America’s popular culture
By Jan Sandberg
- SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
Updated: 05/03/08 6:41 AM
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- 'The Land of Milk and Honey' opens the Buffalo International Jewish Film Festival on May 8.
Jewish contributions to American culture have taken a variety of forms — some well-known, some more obscure — since the establishment of the first Jewish community in this country 350 years ago.
Just about everyone eats bagels, for example. However, a very small number indeed — even if one includes Jewish-Americans — know that a Jewish kid from Queens, Ossie Schectman, scored the NBA’s first basket.
The stories behind both cultural contributions are told in two of the 15 films — eight feature films, four documentaries and three shorts — being shown at the 23rd annual Buffalo International Jewish Film Festival, a project of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo.
The festival opens at 7 p. m. Thursday with a special celebration of Israel’s 60th birthday. The event takes place in the Benderson Family Building of the JCC at 2640 North Forest Road, Getzville, and will include a wine sampling and sale presented by Marjim Manor and the Premier Group; live klezmer music by local duo West of Odessa; “automatic” Jewish music from rare player-piano rolls with local actor/pianist Bob Berkman; Mediterranean foods; a raffle; and a showing of “The Land of Milk and Honey,” a documentary by two Latino Jewish Californians that traces the roots and international impact of a famous Israeli folk song.
The festival continues at that location May 15 and moves to the Dipson Amherst Theatre from May 17 to 22. On May 17, there will be a special dinner at the Cafe in the Square before the showing of “When My Parents Went on Vacation.” This award-winning Brazilian film set in 1970 tells the story of a young boy who finds solace in his obsession with the upcoming World Cup of soccer after he is sent to live with his grandfather when his parents, members of a left-wing militia, have to go into hiding.
“California Shmeer,” a short documentary on how the Jewish bagel with “shmeer” (spread) became an American staple, precedes “Where Neon Goes to Die,” the story of the once-thriving Jewish community of Miami Beach, whose “Miami Vice-ification” caused mass evictions of its elderly and working-class residents.
The story of Ossie Schectman, the first NBA scorer, is part of the little-known history of Jewish-immigrant assimilation through basketball, which is told in the feature-length film, “The First Basket.” The film precedes “The Nose,” a humorous short about mother/ daughter tensions over the necessity of a nose job, and will be introduced by Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame inductee Don Gilbert before its screenings.
Among the features being show is “Beaufort,” Israel’s nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2008 Academy Awards. Directed by an Israeli Defense Force veteran who was stationed in Lebanon, the film chronicles the intense final days of an Israeli army unit’s withdrawal from that country and examines the moral dilemmas and futility of war.
Tickets for the opening night celebration and for the May 17 dinner-and-a-movie night, as well as a variety of passes, may be purchased at the Jewish Community Center in Getzville and at 787 Delaware Ave. Individual film tickets for regular screenings cost $7 and must be purchased at the theater door.
Preview
Buffalo International Jewish Film Festival
Opens at 7 p. m. Thursday and continues on May 15 at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo at 2640 North Forest Road, Getzville, and from May 17 to 22 in the Dipson Amherst Theatre. For more information, go to www.bijff.com or call 688-4114, Ext. 337.
