EDMONTON JEWISH FILM FEST RETURNS
22nd annual event celebrates a wide range of ideas
A buffet of ideas, mediation and celebration, the 22nd annual Edmonton Jewish Film Festival opens Friday at Landmark City Centre.
Ten films are on deck this year — Fanny’s Journey being the first at 3 p.m. Friday. Susan Schiffman, director of development for the Jewish Federation of Edmonton and coordinator of the fest, calls it “sweet and heartwarming, based on a true story of French Jewish children who escape pretty much on their own from the Nazis. The adults gave them instructions and said, ‘Go!’
“Its really about the courage and vibrancy of children.”
She’s also a big fan of the blackand-white 1945, set right after the Second World War, showing at 7 p.m. Wednesday, which she calls “deep, dark and very well done.”
Opening night, Friday, celebrates Israel’s 70th anniversary with the Israeli film On the Map and an Israel-themed cocktail party beforehand.
Directed by Dani Menkin, Schiffman explains:“It’s a David and Goliath story of the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team — a nothing team that came out of nowhere and won the 1977 European Cham- pionship. They recruited a black American athlete who ended up converting to Judaism. It’s a really good underdog story set during the Cold War.”
A modern Maccabi team basketball will be auctioned off after the film. The entire festival, it should be noted, is a fundraiser for the Partnership 2 Get her—a student exchange program with Israel.
The third-annual $1,000 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film will also be given out opening night. The two previous winners are Edmonton’s Adam Bentley and Gregg Silver, though the prize is open to filmmakers including school groups across the country, so long as the work has a connection to Jewish culture. Silver’s short Souls on One Foot will also show at the opening-night event.
Schiffman also recommends a film playing Sunday, May 13 at 6 p.m.: An Act of Defiance.
“It’s set in the South Africa in the early days of the anti-Apartheid movement, telling the story of the arrest and trial of a group of activists that included Nelson Mandela. All of the white activists who were arrested were Jewish, as were several of the attorneys involved in the case.”
After the film will bea Q and A with members of the South African Jewish community now living in Edmonton.
“They were all there at the time, and they’re going to speak about their memories of the trial and their personal relationship to the events in the film,” Schiffman says.
She also highlights The Testament, a drama about “an Israeli historian who is investigating a Holocaust massacre, and he’s running into denial from the Austrian government. It’s loosely based on a true story.”
After the film, viewers are invited to an informal discussion over at Fionn MacCool’s next door led by Joseph Patrouch, historian and director of the Wirth Institute at the University of Alberta.
A film-by-film breakdown is online at jewishedmonton.org, as is the schedule.
Tickets run $12 a pop, or $100 for a festival pass good for all the films.
“It’s a very important occasion,” the coordinator says. “One important aspect is it allows the Jewish community to share our culture and history and religion with the greater Edmonton community.
“It’s also a way to have a dialogue about all these ideas, Jews and non-Jews. The festival is for everyone.”
Last week I noted the premiere of Le Plaisir’s new video No Ordinary Wave, which you can see on YouTube.
But that video’s director, Parker Thiessen, has been a busy little beaver — because he also directed the just-released video of Eyes of a Killer by Edmonton punk rascals No Problem, a truly creepy and mesmerizing piece of film.
The video, also on YouTube here, was shot at Studio 2 at Global Edmonton where SCTV used to be filmed, and the familiarity of the space further haunts this bizarro candlelit seance.
The band will also have an album release June 29 at 9910, more on that later. Meanwhile, have a look — I just love this.
A couple more concert announcements before you head off to your lovely weekend.
Alley Kat Brewery is presenting Mice District Mondays at the Aviary (9314 111 Ave.) — free shows every Monday in support of the Inner City Recreation and Wellness Program.
This week is the magnetic presence of Juno-nominated multigenre giant Jay Gilday, the tip jar going to the non-profit activity coordinators. The brewery donated the kegs, so pints are just $4, and it’s an all-ages show.
Doors are at 5 p.m Monday, music starts at 8:30 p.m.
Also that night, roots raccoons John Guliak, Jody Shenkarek and Jason Kodie are heading out on a two-week tour to Vancouver Island and back. They’re having a kickoff party 9 p.m. Monday night at the Empress Ale House, 9912 82 Ave., $10 at the door.
All three are great, loosey-goosey storytellers with beautiful songs carried like battle scars — hopefully see you there.