Since the first Jewish Film Festival was held in San Francisco in 1980, the phenomena has spread across the country. Now about 150 such festivals are held across the United States each year – including the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival in January and the Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival in February. With 23- and 18-year histories, respectively, the two festivals are among the longer-running Jewish film festivals in the country.
According to Isaac Zablocki, director of Israel Film Center (Manhattan), “I have in the Jewish Film Presenters Network (created to link film festival programmers, directors and film presenters) more than 250 presenters – mostly American. I would say in reality there are 150 (Jewish film festivals) ranging from small synagogue programs to full-blown festivals. Twenty three (years) is definitely one of the older ones.”
The TIJFF began in 1991 with three films on the University of Arizona campus and has since grown into a 24-film, nine-day event held at four venues in and around Tucson. For filmmakers, the festivals provide an opportunity to build enthusiasm for a film and to gauge audience reaction. Director Brad Bernstein will appear at the Tucson festival’s Grand Opening, where his film “Far Out Isn’t Far Enough” is being shown. Since his parents have lived in Sedona for the last 12 years, he says he considers Arizona his second home. While he is looking forward to the film festival in Tucson – “I love the vibe and the people there” – he says he appreciates film festivals generally.
“The festival circuit allows a film to build an audience and, if you don’t already have a distributor signed on, to create a buzz for distribution,” says Bernstein. “But what I liked about the circuit was that it gave us a chance to interact with audiences on a very intimate level. In other words, we really got a chance to hear what the average person resonated with within the film – or didn’t. But generally speaking, even big Hollywood films like ‘Argo’ play at a festival before they go theatrical, and it’s the same concept: to build a buzz.”
For audiences, Jewish film festivals offer entertainment, education and new horizons.
“The festival is a tremendous vehicle for the promotion and preservation of Jewish culture and a great way to increase understanding both among and between Jews and nonJews. Our theater is a place for everyone and anyone to learn something new,” says Lynn Davis, director of arts and culture at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, under whose auspices the TIJFF is held. “For the audience, it is a diverse representation of Jewish life throughout the world. You get a glimpse of people and lifestyles you wouldn’t see otherwise.”
The Tucson festival’s mission statement reads: “The Tucson International Jewish Film Festival, through the magic and power of cinema, promotes the preservation of Jewish culture and encourages cultural diversity.” Peck says she is very excited about the films selected for this year’s Tucson festival. She wants to be sure the community knows about films starring Sir Patrick Stewart (“Hunting Elephants”), Isabella Rossellini (“The Dandelions”) and Alan Cumming (“Any Day Now”).
Peck has helped screen films for the festivals every year beginning in 2008 (for the 2009 festival) and says the committee never has a theme in mind when they begin looking at films, but that a theme often emerges “organically.” “Last year we had a lot of musicals,” she says, noting a series of films featured Jews and music, both religious and secular, composing and performing. “This year an underlying theme that emerged is social justice – including racial equality, LGBT rights, free speech and freedom from oppression. Any number of the films talk about that universal theme, which could be extrapolated as Jewish.”
Davis adds that for the past four years, TIJFF was the only Jewish Film Festival in the country with a stand-alone series of LGBT films. But this year, those films have become part of the main festival. “This year we decided the LGBT films are of wider interest, so we rolled them into our larger schedule. “We are always hoping to raise awareness and encourage conversation,” adds Davis. “A portion of the proceeds from our closing night film, “Brave Miss World,” will go to benefit LEAH (Let’s End Abusive Households), a program of Jewish Child & Family Services here in Tucson.”
Tucson has expanded the number of locations where it presents films. Since only about 10% of the attendees are members of the JCC, Davis says organizers decided to screen films in multiple locations. Tucson has also expanded in another dimension – time. Recognizing the cycle for films has become more condensed from release to DVD, Davis says the festival organizers decided that in order to be
“more responsive and make films available to our audience,” films needed to be shown outside the confines of the festival dates. This year the TIJFF will present about one film a month during the year. The first two “out of festival” events will be A Sweetheart of an Evening on Feb. 13 and a film presented by the Holocaust Education & Commemoration Project on March 30. The romantic comedy “The Day I Saw your Heart” will be shown in the JCC Ballroom at 7 pm, Feb. 13. At 3 pm, March 30, the JCC Ballroom will feature “The Flat.” In this award-winning documentary, director Arnon Goldfinger sifts through the possessions, letters and photos of his recently deceased grandmother in her Tel Aviv flat. He finds the troubling story of three generations of Germans – both Jewish and non-Jewish – while trying to piece together the puzzle of their lives in the aftermath of World War II.
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Unlike the Tucson film fest, the Phoenix festival is an independent entity run by an all-volunteer board. Currently the longest-running film festival in the Valley, the GPJFF celebrates its Chai (Hebrew for 18 and life) year by screening 12 films at three Valley locations from Feb. 9-23. The Phoenix Jewish Film Festival began 18 years ago after Phyllis and Sheldon Pierson attended a Jewish film festival while on a visit to Los Angeles. At the time Phoenix had no film festivals, though Tucson had started its Jewish film festival five years earlier. Wanting to bring a festival to Phoenix, the Piersons contacted Janis Plotkin, who programmed and produced the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival from 1982-2002. She gave them a list of Jewish film distributors.
“We spent the summer writing to all of them and finally had a few (responses),” says Phyllis. They requested VCR tapes and began screening possible films. They spoke to their rabbi, William Berk of Temple Chai (where he is now rabbi emeritus), and he agreed to have Temple Chai underwrite the first year of the festival, but suggested they seek participation from other groups. Beth El also signed on as a sponsor. Sheldon says he had retired from advertising and PR work, so he knew how to get the word out to the media. “And I’m a people person, so I did a lot of talking,” says Phyllis.
The first year’s showing of three films (in a theater that is now the Museum of Modern Art) earned money, so rather than being underwriters, the two synagogues split the profits. The festival was off to a great start. The Piersons still help screen films for the festival.,About nine years after the Phoenix festival began, Gloria and Sid Israel founded the East Valley Jewish Film Festival. Five years ago the two merged, a West Valley site was added and the festival became the Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival.
“Film is a great way to communicate,” says GPJFF Executive Director Bob Segelbaum. “We try to get the best films that are available … they must have a Jewish theme somewhere in the film.” This year’s festival features “engaging new films that range from defiance and struggle to fun and adventure to laughter and love, with something for everyone and stories to be remembered forever.” To build on the communication value of the films themselves, Segelbaum says the festival tries to have moderators to lead discussions after most of the films. However, he notes, “Some films lend themselves more to discussion. If you have a feel-good comedy, we don’t feel the need to have a speaker afterward. If it’s a Holocaust film, we definitely try to have a speaker.”
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Both festivals reach a wide audience. Some 2,600 to 3,000 people annually attend the festival in Tucson, and the Phoenix festival draws about 4,500 to 5,000 people each year. In each city the festival committees start screening films for the next year almost as soon as the current year’s festival ends. “We start in February for next January,” says TIJFF Chair Patty Peck. Every Tuesday from February to August the committee screens one to three films. “We show 22 to 23 films out of the 60 to 80 films we screen.”
In Phoenix, three screening committees view films from March to September. The six films with the most votes in September are shown at all three festival locations in the Valley – east, west and central – with another six films shown only in Scottsdale.
The screening committees have woven together a feast of programming in each community. In January and February, Arizonans will have the opportunity to piece together their own cinematic journeys – through lives past and present, and stories both lighthearted and profound.
