Westchester Jewish Film Festival 2017

admin Posted OnFebruary 20, 2017

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Westchester Jewish Film Festival 2017: The Westchester Jewish Film Festival at Jacob Burns Film Center kicks off on Thursday, March 16 with Academy Award–nominated director Joseph Cedar’s (Footnote) dramatic comedy Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer. The film features a starring performance by Richard Gere as the schleppy and idiosyncratic Norman Oppenheimer – a wannabe player who lives a lonely life on the margins of NYC power and money.

The Festival continues with 38 films and documentaries including: all eight episodes of False Flag, the latest in Israel’s brilliant streak of political thrillers made for TV; the festival’s centerpiece The Last Laugh, which deftly explores the taboo subject of humor in the Holocaust, and a celebration of film-maker Joan Micklin Silver’s Jewish Trilogy A Fish in the Bathtub, Hester Street and Crossing Delancey. Joan Micklin Silver, theater producers of the stage version of Hester Street and Crossing Delancey stars Amy Irving and Peter Riegart will be on hand for Q&A’s after select screenings.

Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer– Thurs- Sat, 3/16: 7:15pm & Sat, 3/18: 1:15pm. Norman finally scores a true connection when he buys a low-ranking Israeli administrator, Mischa, a $1,000 pair of shoes. Three years later when Mischa is elected Prime Minister, Norman has a direct line to real power for his cockeyed financial schemes. This begins the moderate rise portion of Norman. The tragic fall follows soon thereafter when Norman offers to bring an embassy official into a shady Ivory Coast investment deal as a favor – that sounds a lot like a bribe. Also in the cast, Hank Azaria, Steve Buscemi and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

The Last Laugh – Wed, 3/22: 7pm, Tues, 3/28: 3pm & Fri, 3/31: 2:15pm: In The Last Laugh, Director Ferne Pearlstein (Sumo East and West, Imelda) asks Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, Abraham Foxman and Shalom Auslander if the Holocaust can ever be funny. Their answers to this and other questions are interwoven with classic movie clips, rare archival footage of the cabarets that actually existed in concentration camps, and an intimate portrait of Auschwitz survivor Renee Firestone, inviting the audience to contemplate a possibility that at first seems incomprehensible.

False Flag Program I – Fri, 3/17: 7:30pm & Thurs, 3/30: 7pm.This political thriller made for TV tells the story of five ordinary Israeli citizens who wake up one morning and discover they’ve been implicated in the kidnapping of the Iranian defense minister, who was on a secret visit to Moscow. All five adamantly deny any involvement, but to no end, as the media frenzy turns their lives upside down and they quickly become the subjects of simultaneous curiosity, mockery, and admiration. The eight episodes are shown in three “program” nights. Program II: Sat, 3/18: 4pm & Sat, 4/1: 2:30pm, Program III: Sun, 3/19: 7pm & Sun, 4/2: 12pm.

Joan Micklin Silver Trilogy, A Fish in the Bathtub – Sun, 3/19: 4pm: In this romantic comedy, Anne Meara leaves her husband, the meshuganah garmento after forty years when he refuses to remove his pet carp from the bath tub. With a young Mark Ruffalo. Hester Street, Sun, 3/26: 6:15pm: This depiction of Jewish life at the turn of the century, follows Yankel, a Russian Jewish immigrant who comes to New York to make a better life for his family – and also makes a better life for himself as he quickly assimilates and finds an American girlfriend. There’s some ‘splaining to do when his wife, played by Carol Kane and his son arrive. Carol Kane received an Oscar Nom for Best Actress. Crossing Delancey, Mon, 3/27: 6:30pm. In this modern-day Jewish fairy tale, it turns out that Bubbie knows best when she tries to match Izzy (Amy Irving) with Sam (Peter Riegert) the guy who owns the pickle store. Izzy, who works in a bookstore, fancies the more intellectual Anton. Turns out she’s shopping in the wrong mall with Anton –then Bubbie, the matchmaker, comes up big with the pickle guy.

Harmonia – Sat, 3/18: 7pm: From Israel, Director Ori Sivan retells the biblical story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ismael, and Yitzhak. The movie features a rich musical score as Abraham is the conductor of The Jerusalem Philharmonic, Sarah it’s harpist and Hagar an Arab horn player from East Jerusalem. Sivan’s directing style has been compared to Robert Altman.

Past Life – Fri, 3/17: 5pm & Sat, 3/25: 12pm: In Avi Nesher’s suspense drama, two sisters search for the truth about their father who lived in Poland during WWII. Was he a murderer, as suggested by an old woman in Berlin?

Blush – Sat, 3/18: 9:15pm: Michal Vinik’s feature debut captures the uncomfortable senior year of Tel Aviv 17-year-old Naama (Sivan Noam Shimon). Her sister, the one who tows the line goes AWOL from her military obligations while party-girl Naama’s aimless flirting doesn’t end until she falls for another girl – the bleached-blonde bad girl Dana.

The Tenth Man, Fri, 3/24: 8pm: Acclaimed Argentine director Daniel Burman (Lost Embrace, Family Law) offers a peak into Buenos Aires’ bustling Jewish Quarter in this comedy of errors and missed connections about a son who returns to Buenos Aires to rebuild a relationship with his estranged father.

Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe – Sat, 3/25: 4:30pm: In her directorial debut, Actress Maria Schrader (Aimée and Jaguar, In Darkness) chronicles the life in exile of Stefan Zweig, as he travels from Buenos Aires to New York to Brazil. One of the most-read German-language writers of his time, Schrader follows Zweig as he struggles to find a new home and to understand Hitler’s rise to power.