The 31st Edition of the San Francisco Jewish Film
Festival (Castro Theatre 7-21 thru 28/Jewish Community Center of San Francisco
7-30 & 31/Roda Theatre at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre 7-30 thru
8-6/Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto 8-1 thru 8-7 and Rafael Film Center 8-6 thru
8-8) presents new work from master Israeli queer filmmakers Tomer Heymann and Eytan
Fox; a Kirk Douglas Tribute featuring an early Holocaust feature (The
Juggler) and a special Castro (7-24) screening of Spartacus at which
time the actor will accept at SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award in recognition
of his fight against the Hollywood blacklist; a comedy night screening of Jews
in Toons with episodes from TV’s Family Guy, South Park and The Simpsons;
and a seven film spotlight on the fate of Jews in modern Poland.
The Queen Has No Crown: Anyone lucky enough to have
experienced the power of queer Israeli doc maker Tomer Heymann’s deeply felt
body of work, including his ability to turn strangers into family – from It
Kind of Scares Me about his coming out to the orphan scamps he’s mentoring
in a Tel Aviv boys club to Paper Dolls a unusually sensitive examination
of the close if perplexing bonds that develop between Israeli seniors and the
Filipino transsexuals imported to care for them -- will love this impossibly
intimate stew of home movies from Heymann’s real feisty biological clan, which
at one Passover Dinner consists of a divorced mom and dad, five grown sons,
three daughters-in-law and six grand kids.
Tomer favors extreme close-ups,
especially of two of the most important men in life, both named Erez: his moody
twin brother and his rather good natured twenty-three-year-old boyfriend.
At one point Erez, the brother,
becomes exasperated with the non-stop filming, his reproach going beyond his
sibling’s disregard for personal boundaries to the touchy if unspoken issue of
what his gay brother will contribute to the ongoing life of the Heymann clan.
“Tomer, life is not a documentary.
You should leave something behind besides mediocre films.”
Eventually the camera reveals
strains, too, between Tomer and Erez, the boyfriend.
“Will we make love tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Will you give yourself to me?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still believe in our
relationship/”
“Yes, as long as you believe in
it.”
Long before the final reel Erez and
Tomer are history.
Taking his title from an odd
Israeli folk tune taught to the Heymann boys by their pop, Tomer’s prickly home
movie catches rips in the fabric of the family – by film’s end three of the
brothers have decamped for America – that reflect more ominous tears in the
precious tribal bonds of his still young nation.
(Castro 7-27/Roda 7-30/Oshman 8-7)
Mary Lou: What begins as a candy colored sugar rush
with an impossibly precocious ten-year-old boy embracing his beautiful if
emotionally fragile mom’s love for the music of 70’s Israeli pop star Svika Pick
turns dark and moody as that boy becomes a young man desperate to fabricate a
soothing myth to explain mom’s abrupt disappearance to follow her dream.
Following a bizarre high school musical humiliation, Meir (the talented young
hoofer Ido Rosenberg) runs off to Tel Aviv to join a family of drag performers
while experiencing the whiplash and heartache of an assortment of failed stabs
at love. From, Eytan Fox, the acclaimed director of Walk on Water, The
Bubble and Yossi & Jagger, this flashy but solidly grounded
survey of modern Israeli gay life reveals the price a talented young drag star
must pay to turn his mom’s delusions into the basis for a satisfying grownup
queer life. (Castro 7-24)
Life is Long: “Alain has semen in his hair, Alain has
semen in his hair!” Among the least worrisome pratfalls in the frequently
hilarious travails of a Jewish German filmmaker making absurd attempts to be
taken seriously in a modern pop corn movie world is bad dad director Alfi Seliger’s
discovery that his thirteen-year-old son Alain has declared himself to be
bi-sexual and beyond his law. Parenting is not exactly the number one item on Alfi’s
agenda considering his struggles with his body – he suspects he has colon
cancer – his wife – she’s having a poorly concealed affair – his career – his
latest script: a satirical stab involving the infamous Danish cartoons
depicting Islam’s founding father lacks funding. Director Dani Levy (Go For Zucker!)
creates a woody Allen worthy alter ego whose misadventures constitute a lovely
homage to Allen’s own self-parodying masterpiece Star Dust Memories. This
is that German comedy whose punch lines translate brilliantly. (Castro
7-25/Oshman 8-4/Roda 8-6 & Rafael 8-7)
Skate of Mind: Trust the Jewish to find a little gem
of a skateboarding movie that not only captures the vibes of an Israeli/Arab
kid who must daily defy gravity, the laws of physics and the integrity of his
body to learn new board tricks but also a film that breaks new ground in exploring
inter-faith relationships in a land where an Arab boy dating a Jewish girl can
practically be considered an act of war. Doc maker Karin Kainer does full
justice to his charismatic twenty-year-old hero Mohammed Kahil who is
simultaneously trying to woo his fashion design aspiring Jewish girlfriend Alina
while trying to maintain some kind of ties with his recently imprisoned pop.
This film rocks visually and musically with a pulsating rock soundtrack from Israel’s
Rami Fortis. (JCCSF 7-31/Roda 8-4)
Standing Silent: In a doc you won’t soon forget a
tall Baltimore newspaper man, Phil Jacobs, finds the scoop of a lifetime in a
sex scandal that will rock his cloistered Orthodox Jewish world in a once
sleepy Baltimore neighborhood. Jacobs – writing for The Baltimore Jewish Times
– has dug up evidence that several respectable religiously affiliated men are
involved in long running sexual improprieties: cases where they have forced
themselves on minors of both genders. In the hands of doc maker Scott Rosenfelt,
the still skinny in his late middle age Jacobs becomes the conscience for a
community of 100,000 souls, while at the same time experiencing a harrowing
flashback to an abusive moment from his teen years. In a story that will
resonate in the wake of the recent terrible headlines from Borough Park,
Brooklyn, we watch Jacobs making phone calls that will nail the story and send
a prominent man to face serious charges, all the while snow falls gently
outside his office window. A Sundance funded look into a truly cold little
universe where no bad deed goes unreported. (JCCSF
7-31/Roda 8-1/Rafael 8-8)
Polish Bar: Picking up on the theme of when scandal
rocks a once sheltered world Ben Berkowitz gets terrific performances from
Vincent Piazza and veteran Judd Hirsch in showing us the underside of a Chicago
Orthodox Community where an ambitious young DJ, Reuben (Piazza) betrays his
uncle’s trust while trying to carve out a career for himself in the world of
Hip Hop, drug dealing and pole dancers. This hip slice of life compares
favorably with the Jesse Eisenberg vehicle Holy Rollers.
(Castro 7-23/Roda 7-30/Oshman 8-2 & Rafael 8-6)
The Matchmaker: Avi Nesher captures a sublime moment
in time (1968 Haifa) when a beautiful teen gets perplexing life lessons from a
wise if tragically conflicted mentor. This is a superb coming of age tale that
blends a caper mystery with dwarfs and a bittersweet story with origins in the
Holocaust. (JCCSF 7-30/Oshman 8-1/Roda 8-6
& Rafael 8-8)
Bobby Fischer Against the World: Who knew chess could
be so dangerous for a growing boy? Liz Garbus’ exhaustive, groundbreaking doc,
the world of high stakes professional chess becomes as shady and hazardous as
the world of professional boxing. Rounding up the surviving witnesses to the
great Bobby Fischer/Boris Spassky chess match, Garbus demonstrates how Fischer
went from being a prodigy golden boy to a reviled bitter old man. (Castro
7-23/Roda 8-1/Oshman 8-2 & Rafael 8-6)
Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death: Raymond Ley’s
experimental docudrama proves that Adolph Eichmann was a bigger bastard than we
had previously imagined. The run up to Eichmann’s kidnapping and Israeli trial
is spiced up with the tale of a covert romance between his son and a Jewish
girl and a revolting series of tape conversations with a right wing Dutch
journalist. (Castro 7-25/Roda 8-1 & Oshman 8-7)