SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL

SFJFF’s online short for January 2011 "Kosher", follows happy-go-lucky Issac: six years old, mop-topped, as he trots through life from behind his bottle-top spectacles. Ridiculed by other children, Issac's imagination comes to life when a little pig miraculously shows up at his doorstep filling Issac's little world with some much needed hope, and in no time upsetting his Orthodox Jewish family.  Below watch director, Isabelle Stead discuss the inspiration for her film.

1. What inspired this film?
I think a lot of the children and grandchildren of the followers and perpetrators of the Nazi regime are still struggling with the emotional heritage and emotional responsibility. They can’t see why they should feel responsible for something former generations have done. They want to be good, they don’t know why they feel guilty or ashamed. This can be followed by new rejection and enmeshment, sometimes new resentment. Many of my generation and even younger people tend to make up stories about their grandparents in which they appear as people who were against Hitler, who helped Jewish people and other people persecuted by the Nazis.

2. The subject of Nazism is handled with such comic grace in the film, especially the scene in the elevator between the husband and the wife comparing their family histories. How did you find the right tone for the film?
We rehearsed a lot, but I had an idea about the right tone from the beginning. This was also why I wanted to direct the film myself. It is my first work as a director. The decision to become one stems from a big frustration as to the wrong tone of some of the films I wrote the screenplay for.

3. What has the reaction been to your film in Germany and have you noticed a different reaction with Jewish audiences in particular?
Mostly good reactions. Before a screening people may say you mustn’t make a comedy about a serious topic like the Nazis and their crimes. But right after they don’t say that anymore. I haven’t noticed a different reaction with Jewish audiences, besides the fact that a few Jewish festivals have invited the film.
In Germany the film is shown in schools and will be on TV right before Christmas.

4. The grandson in the film is unaware of who Adolf Hitler was. Do you find this to be true of the younger generations in Germany now?
No. This is rather a satirical exaggeration/warning about what happens when history is rejected in family memory and people tell false stories.

5. What was your greatest challenge during the filmmaking process?
It was my first film as a director, so everything was a challenge, but: challenge is just another word for fun!

6. What film/media has inspired you lately?
For this project: Lubitsch, Wilder, Loriot (a German comedian).

7. Tell us about your next project.
In the moment I am writing a feature film, also a comedy, about the relation between gender, body, beauty and fascism.

To watch Petra Luschow's film on our Youtube channel click here.
 

Pauline Horovitz On Film, Her Father, and Roman Polanski

What inspired you to make this film?

Alexis Salatko’s lovely book, Horowitz and my father (I don’t know if it was translated in English). The narrator’s father is obsessed by the pianist Vladimir Horowitz. I had read the book many years ago. A few years later, two events happened (it was in 2007): I got an artistic grant, and Polanski was in the jury; and my father, who had just read Salatko’s book and its preface by Polanski, began to send me all the things he found about Polanski. Polanski became without him knowing an honorary member of the family. Indeed, the film is a portrait of both father and daughter; there isn’t any revelation about Polanski.

What was your greatest challenge during the filmmaking process?

First, being strong enough to ask for my father’s participation in the film, and then, shooting him. I think that filming your own parents is one of the most difficult things – to fix their image and be conscious at the same time that one day they will not be there anymore. Or, to say it second my father’s way: “Even if the film is a failure, it is good you shot all these images because it will make memories for the grandchildren”. I must thank my father who was very generous with me and made a true work of acting. He was very patient, being never reluctant to act the same scene for the 3rd time or even more. Moreover, he improved many scenes in the film, and even invented a few of them, for example the scene with the yellow bathrobe in the kitchen at the end of the film (“I am like Albert Cohen in Belle du Seigneur”). It was a true collaboration between us.

Any thoughts you’d like to share about screening this film in a Jewish context?

My family is very proud, especially those who live in the United States. Hello to all the Chmielewski, Kessler, Horowitz and Sandler!

Has your father seen the film? If so, what was his reaction and how is he doing?

Yes, he saw it. I sent to him a copy immediately after having finished the editing. He was pleased with it. He was just annoyed by the view of the old oven gloves in the kitchen. But very proud – now when he speaks about the film, he says “his film”. He became one of my main actors, because he also acted in 2 other shorts I made after, and in a feature film I finished recently. So he answers now in congresses, when he is asked about his hobbies, that he is also an actor. He also says that when he will be retired, he will go to Cours Florent (a kind of Actors studio Paris) and have a second career as an actor…

Any chance Roman Polanski has seen this film?

I don’t know. I sent him a DVD, but I made a mistake on the address (subconsciously deliberate mistake perhaps…), so I am not sure he received it. And a little time after, he got all his troubles in Switzerland, I remember, when it happened, by chance I was at my father’s home, my father was in front of television, saying to me “it is incredible, look what happened!), so I suppose he had more urgent things to cope with.

What film/media has inspired you lately?

I did like Jean Painlevé’s old movies about sea urchins and crabs (Les Oursins and Hyas et sténorinques). All Luc Moullet’s work (another French filmmaker). And Beginners by Mike Mills (I was fond of its structure like a collage of archives, memories, past and present; also the shots; it is the kind of movie I would like to do).

Tell us about your next project.

I have just finished a feature documentary film – my first feature documentary film - about the feminine identity after Simone de Beauvoir (“On ne naît pas femme, on le devient” - One is not born a woman, but becomes one?). And I am beginning the editing of a mid-length documentary about Spain, truly, about Spain as a last “western country”, as an anti-Germany or Poland (as my father says in this film: “Our future is in the West, not in the East”). They will be the last films I make with my family (too tiring emotionally). I am writing 2 other projects, one about waste recycling and another about bats; so there is nothing to see with my family –  even if my aunt Sophie is very eco-friendly (she is a pioneer of dry toilets), and my cousin Miguel was bitten by a bat when he was a child…

Finally, what is your favorite Polanski film and why?

The Fearless Vampire Killers I think. The first time I saw it, I was 14 or 15, and I didn’t understand very well why it was supposed to be so funny, I found it very strange and frightening. I saw it again many years later, and I was more aware of its irony – but I stayed very afraid (especially the scene of the ball). Then I saw Rosemary’s baby, it was after having got the artistic grant which I mention in the film, and a friend of mine (“Hello Michael”), quite more cinemagoer than me, advised me to see it (saying to me “Shame on you that you just saw The Fearless Vampire Killers!”). In fact, at the same age of 15 I had read Polanski’s autobiography (that I had found in my father’s Library, which appears in the film), without knowing who he was, and what he told about his films made me afraid to see them (Répulsion, Le Locataire, etc.). I also saw Tess and The Pianist (for wich I have been waiting a very long time  - in fact, I waited to have to do the film with my father, and we have never been able to really speak about The Pianist – a too painful subject).

What do you do when you’re not filmmaking?

Sleeping, reading, swimming (making films turns me into a zombie). All the stuff (papers for administration, etc.) left in stand-by during the filmmaking process. And thinking about the next film I will do.

Lastly, gefilte fish: delicious, or disgusting?

Delicious obviously. Like kneidleh (my favorite dish).

To watch Pauline Horovitz's film on our Youtube channel click here. 
 

What inspired you to make this film?

When I read Anat Gafni's script, I was intrigued by the way the secret was exposed, without once seeing it in action.
I could relate to Michal- who is hiding a secret from the closest person to her- her father- played by my father, and I enjoyed the silent and delicate drama that occurs between the two of them.
It just seemed like a small story that happens in one building among many, between a father and daughter, exposing something we've all experienced in one way or another.

What was your greatest challenge during the filmmaking process?

It was a challenge to work with an actress- Efrat Gosh a well known singer songwriter, a popular celebrity in Israel. Many times we had to remind ourselves that she needs to overcome her look to transform into a new character. In stressful times- a whole different personality came out which was fun to watch.  I think that the fact that I had to direct my father frightened me a bit, sometimes confused as to who was telling him that he doesn't see his daughter"- me his daughter or the director which was always followed by a weird moment.  Also seeing how he got along with the crew was always interesting and nice to see.We were many people in one very small apartment, in a race against time and space. The adrenalin was rushing, and each day we were shocked that we managed to film as much as we did.

Any thoughts you’d like to share about screening this film in a Jewish context?

I think that this story might show that Israel is not all about army, religion, politics and violence. We also deal with everyday issues, personal small issues that everyone, everywhere of the world deals with. It makes this film unique coming out of Israel, dealing with the local, the personal and not what's going on in the news.

What film/media has inspired you lately?

I recently saw the film Dogtooth, it was at Cannes "Un ceratain regard" program. it is so simple and tells such a bizarre story of characters being torn apart, presented in an interesting way that leaves you in awe.

What do you do when you’re not filmmaking?

I work as an Art Director for films mostly. I am also working on a script for a feature length film.

Lastly, gefilte fish: delicious, or disgusting?

If you don’t think about it being a fish- then- delicious.
 

SFJFF’s online short for September 2011, follows young Leo, who on his 10th birthday receives socks from one grandmother and underwear from the other, but from his grandfather he gets an old Super-8 camera. With the camera, Leo finds out that Monica Lewinsky is Jewish, Bill Clinton is the president of America and the numbers tattooed on his grandparents’ arms are responsible for his chubbiness.  Click here to watch Grandmothers on SFJFF’s YouTube Channel (through 9/30/11).  For more insight into the film’s inspiration, read SFJFF’s Q&A with director and screenwriter Michael Wahrmann.  

What inspired you to make this film?

The film is based on the childhood of the director, who lived in Israel and visited his grandparents every year in Uruguay. Michael’s mother who usually likes the work of her son didn’t like the portrait done by him. “My mother was not like that” she criticized.

What was your greatest challenge during the filmmaking process?

There were a few challenges, technical and conceptual ones.  The most difficulty I had in the conceptual base, is to make the film as true as possible because it’s a film that makes as if it was amateur shot by a 10 year old which means we need really credible acting and a credible photographer. As we shot in Super 8mm there’s no external device connected to the camera as in other types of shooting, so as a director I couldn’t see what my DP was exactly filming. We had many exercises to get in perfect tune.

Any thoughts you’d like to share about screening this film in a Jewish context?

The film was not written as a comedy despite the subtle humor. However, at all the shows in Brazil the audience laughed a lot. Same reaction occurred in most places around the world where the film was shown.

At the Berlinale 2010, the film was shown as a film for children aged 10 to 14 years old, it was wired and no other children's film festival selected it for its program.  At the St. Petersburg Film Festival and in the São Paulo Short Film Festival, the film was considered an experimental short film. In the Chicago International Film Festival it won a Golden Plaque for Best Narrative Feature Film, in Cariri, a small town in the country side of the North East of Brasil the film won the audience award. 

In Jewish film festivals where I was present the audience didn’t laugh so much and in general a tense atmosphere was established all throughout the screening.

What film/media has inspired you lately?

David Perlov’s “Diary," he’s a Brazilian filmmaker who worked and lived in Israel. His diaries are considered to be the beginning of modern Israeli cinema. He maybe the most important filmmaker in the history of Israeli cinema.

What do you do when you’re not filmmaking?

I watch the Simpsons.

Lastly, gefilte fish: delicious, or disgusting?

Depends if they are Vilna’s gefilte style or Lodz style.

About the Director: 

Director Michael Wahrmann, was born in 1979 in Montevideo, Uruguay. At the age of six, he immigrated to Israel. During his adolescence, he participated in left wing movements, organizing demonstrations and seminars for peace and the end of the conflict in the Middle East. At 18, he was drafted and was a sailor for three years. In 2000, he started experimenting with photography and literature. In 2001, he participated of the photo exhibit “Testing 123″ in the Hottentot Gallery. The same year, he won a “mention with honors” in the short story competition “La Palabra Limpia” in Uruguay. In 2002, he joined the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, where he discovered a passion for video and film. The first year, he won the “Award for excellence” in his studies. In 2004, he moved to Sao Paulo and received a scholarship to study film at the FAAP University. He graduated in 2007.

Last Sunday afternoon those in attendance at the SFJFF’s 50th Anniversary screening of Spartacus at the Castro Theatre were treated to a memorable appearance by Hollywood legend and all-around class act, Kirk Douglas, as he accepted the Festival’s Freedom of Expression Award.  The 94 year-old arrived at noon on Sunday by private jet, and as Executive Director Peter Stein pointed out, was “spry” as ever. By 1PM, Douglas was climbing onto the stage in sneakers, with a magnetic smile and plenty of energy for the assembled audience of more than 1,000.  Douglas accepted the award -- which recognized not only his body of work but specifically his actions in breaking the Hollywood Blacklist 50 years ago by giving full credit to blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo -- with a short speech in which he said that “freedom of expression [is] the most important aspect of our democracy.”

Though his speech is impaired from a stroke suffered 15 years ago, Kirk Douglas is still extremely articulate, witty and well-versed in winning over a crowd; “Once a heart-throb, always a heart-throb” was HuffPo blogger Jennifer Raiser's summation of the event.  After his speech, Douglas sat down for a candid and topical on-stage interview with SFJFF Executive Director Peter L. Stein in which he suggested that at times there was "too much religion," citing a  meeting of Orthodox Rabbis with Irani president Ahmadinejad. Douglas left the theater before the 3-hour screening of Spartacus, telling the audience that he would stay, but he had “already seen the picture.” He blew a kiss to the Castro Theatre crowd, took the time to shake the hands of adoring audience-members, and was gone.

Footage of Douglas’ appearance can be seen on SFJFF YouTube channel.  If, like us, you can’t get enough of the dashing 94 year-old, check out our short film homage to the man in The Big Story.

-Jane Francis

What inspired you to make this film?

Sophocles once said, 'nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse,' and this couldn't be more true of technology. My team and I were hard at work on our feature documentary film, Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology which we are excited is also playing at the SF Jewish Film Festival. We were writing, texting, tweeting, emailing, talking, deciding, cutting, and pasting, when we heard that an organization we are involved with called Reboot was doing a National Day of Unplugging. They asked us to try to unplug for a day. Immediately it was clear: “We must partake!”

I was really feeling like I needed to take one day of the week off from technology. Recently addicted to Twitter, I became the kind of person I hated—the one pulling out her iPhone while actually talking to someone, sneaking email fixes in bathroom stalls. It was getting ugly. Clearly, I needed a technology Shabbat. My whole family did.

My husband Ken Goldberg (and co-writer of several films) and I decided to rework one of our favorite poems by Ginsberg—we have a Howl book cover framed and signed in our kitchen. And so Yelp came to be. We had a blast writing it.  Then I gathered my team, my wonderful co-editor Dalan McNabola, and I created the short film from images we had culled for our feature doc and original animations by the visual magician Stefan Nadelman. And then Peter Coyote lent us his amazing voice and the film came to life.

What was your greatest challenge during the filmmaking process?

My biggest challenge during the filmmaking process was not checking my email or texting in the editing room.


Any thoughts you’d like to share about screening this film in a Jewish context?

My husband and children do technology shabbats each week for shabbat and it has changed our lives. As we light the shabbos candles,  cell phones turn off and so do computers. It is a very profound 24 hours where we are in the present in such a beautiful way with each other. I highly recommend it. 

What film/media has inspired you lately?

Two recent art shows have inspired me.

The Alexander McQueen show at the Met in NYC, "Savage Beauty". Very powerful. I love fashion and I love art so this show hit my sweet spot. http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/ & my husband Ken Goldberg & Gil Gershoni's show at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, "Are we there yet?"  I love questions and I love my husband so this show is right up my alley.

What do you do when you’re not filmmaking?

When I'm not filmmaking I spend a lot of time with Ken and our children, our families and friends.  I also garden, write in my journal...all things close to the ground.

Lastly, gefilte fish: delicious, or disgusting?

With hot enough horse radish, I love it. Why do they call it horse radish?

About Tiffany Shlain

Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, artist,  founder of The Webby Awards, co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. Tiffany’s work with film, technology and activism has received 44 awards and her last four films have premiered at Sundance. Her films include “Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness,” about reproductive rights in America and “The Tribe,” an exploration of American Jewish identity through the history of the Barbie doll, “Yelp: With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg’s Howl,” about our addiction to technology and the importance of “unplugging”, and her new award-winning feature documentary, “Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology.” A celebrated thinker and speaker, she just gave a keynote at Cannes MIPdoc in France, has advised Secretary of State Clinton, is on the advisory board of M.I.T.’s Geospatial Lab and presented the 2010 campus-wide Commencement Address at UCBerkeley.

Join us this Monday night for a screening of the classic Woody Allen film, ANNIE HALL. Come enjoy a night of quirks and comedy Manhattan-style on Monday, June 27 at 6:30PM. We’ll be munching on Kosher hot dogs, drinking He’Brew beer … and maybe even sipping on a Manhattan or two, surrounded by Hotel Rex’s elegantly vibrant atmosphere-- inspired by San Francisco’s literary and art salons of the 1920s and 1930s.

Hotel Rex is located at 562 Sutter Street in downtown San Francisco. Hotel Rex and Joie de Vivre Hotels are sponsors of the 31^st San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival running July 21 – August 8, is proud to screen more than 50 vibrant and compelling cinematic works this summer in theaters throughout the Bay Area. 

 -Valentina Kartsub

It's summer in San Francisco, and while you may never be able to leave your house in the June-August months without packing a jacket 'just in case,' there is one summer staple that you can always count on:

Outdoor movie nights.

Every summer, thousands of SF cinemaphiles head to the city's best parks -- wine and picnic gear in tow-- to enjoy a special selection of classic movies on a big screen. On Saturday, July 16, we're teaming up with our fantastic friends at Film Night in the Park to present a screening of the rom-com favorite, When Harry Met Sally. The event will take place in downtown San Francisco's Union Square at dusk (between 8-8:45PM).

Remember to pack a jacket.

RSVP on Facebook.

Every month, SFJFF presents a new film online, free for Jewish film enthusiasts to enjoy. This month, we present The Tailor, a funny and charming tale of similarities amid diversity which takes place on the streets of Brooklyn. Director Gordon Grinberg kibitzed with us recently about the inspiration for his film. Read on:

What inspired you to make this film?
I wanted to promote world peace by highlighting cross-cultural similarities, and have a big laugh at the same time. 

What was your greatest challenge during the filmmaking process?
Letting go and stop editing.

Any thoughts you’d like to share about screening this film in a Jewish context?
I like to think this film has universal appeal, but it does have a certain kind of Jewish sensibility.

What film/media has inspired you lately?
Podcasts.

What do you do when you’re not filmmaking?
Thinking about filmmaking.

Lastly, gefilte fish: delicious, or disgusting?
Depends on gelatinous factor and horseradish quality.

Gordon Grinberg (director, editor) has worked as an editor on a dozen feature films, including Joel Schumacherʼs Twelve, the indie dark comedy ExTerminators, and the romantic horror film Zombie Honeymoon, which screened at Slamdance, and won a Fangoria Chainsaw Award. Gordon has also served as an assistant editor on films such as Al Pacinoʼs Chinese Coffee and Martin Scorseseʼs Gangs of New York.

The Tailor marks his debut as a director. Please visit his website at www.GordonGrinberg.com