SHPP_PRreport_SJFF2015

PR Report
20th20th20th20th SEATTLE JEWISH FILM FESTIVALSEATTLE JEWISH FILM FESTIVALSEATTLE JEWISH FILM FESTIVALSEATTLE JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
March 14-22, 2015
Prepared by Sara Huey Publicity & Promotions, LLC

Prepared by Sara Huey Publicity & Promotions, LLC 2
CONTENTSCONTENTSCONTENTSCONTENTS
1 – Summary
2 – Press Releases
3 – Listings
4 – Radio and Podcast Coverage
5 – Online Coverage
6 – Hard Copies

1 – Summary
Publicity efforts for the 20th annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival were an overwhelming success. Starting
early, we achieved listings in three regional monthly glossy magazines and the quarterly spring arts
guides for both The Stranger and Seattle Weekly, getting our event on the public’s culture radar well in
advance of the Festival. As the month of March neared, we arranged a thorough and enthusiastic
preview with Girlfriend Getaways, in the top 10% of Examiner.com travel blogs.
Working with the Festival theme “Here, There, and Everywhere,” we sparked the imagination of Rudy
Maxa’s World, the #1 syndicated travel radio show in the United States. We raised the Festival’s
nationwide profile with an on-air interview with Festival director Pamela Lavitt, broadcast two weeks
before Opening Night and streaming online in the show’s two-hour rotation for four weeks afterward.
Furthermore, focus on the travel angle yielded a very positive online preview of six films in Seattle Met’s
Culture Fiend column, titled “A Jewish Journey.”
The world premiere of “The Accidental Activist” drew attention from local arts reporters such as Marcie
Sillman at KUOW, Tony Kay at City Arts, and Rachel Belle of KIRO radio. The March 17th event that
included this screening, feature film SOFT VENGEANCE: ALBIE SACHS AND THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA, and
a social justice conversation with the filmmakers, documentary subject Cheryl Stumbo, and moderator
Warren Etheredge was a highly recommended arts event of the week on SLOG, the popular online
outlet of The Stranger.
Director Pamela Lavitt was in high demand and made herself available for interview features with
Seattle Gay News (print and online), Queen Anne News (print and online), and JT News/Jewish Sound
(print and online).
Coverage in The Seattle Times included a full-page preview that led the arts section the Thursday
preceding Opening Night and listings in the film and weekend sections for both weekends of the
Festival. A series of reviews in JT News and their online outlet, The Jewish Sound, covered some of our
strongest selections with brief synopses, attractive accompanying images, and screening details.
Seattle Weekly included a very positive full-page preview of six documentaries. The Stranger ran a
thoughtful review and recommendation of A BORROWED IDENTITY the week before its screening, and
on SLOG highly recommended the March 17th screening of SOFT VENGEANCE among just three
suggested arts events for the week in which it screened.
During the Festival itself, we had the privilege of welcoming a handful of press and industry members to
Opening Night and the VIP Gala, offering that special treatment to help them enjoy the event. Opening
Night went on standby, as did the following morning’s Matzoh Momma brunch and film. Both events
flowed well within the space at AMC Pacific Place, and the mood and energy of opening weekend was
very positive.
Closing weekend also included a number of full and nearly-full houses as filmgoers returned to the
Stroum Jewish Community Center’s newly renovated Cultural Arts venue. Here again, the space was
welcoming and the crowd and guests alike enjoyed the films and festivities.

2 – Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Sara Huey, Festival Publicist
sara.huey@hueypr.com | 206.619.0610
20th Annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival
Set for March 14-22, 2015
Presented by the Stroum Jewish Community Center
SEATTLE – February 3, 2015 – Across nations, languages, religions, and cultures, Jewish film opens a window into
new narratives, perspectives, and ways of living; confirming shared stories, cultural connections, and common
humanity. Over the course of ten days, the 20th annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival employs Jewish world cinema
to bring a fresh and vibrant view of the world to the Northwest’s doorstep through 32 films from 10 countries,
highlighting the richness and diversity we encounter as we move through life on this planet.
Celebrating its 20th year, the 2015 Seattle Jewish Film Festival, a program of the Stroum Jewish Community
Center, showcases films from Here, There, and Everywhere -- this year’s tag line – welcoming films from around the
globe and around the corner, and presenting audiences with unique journeys to destinations both near and far. No
longer a teenager, at 20 years of age, SJFF is all grown up. This year, the Festival displays its maturity as the largest
Jewish event in the Pacific Northwest and one of the largest and most prominent Jewish film festivals in the
country.
Opening Night on March 14th features German-Israeli coproduction HANNA’S JOURNEY, a refreshing look at how a
third generation is coping with the legacy of the German-Israeli historical relationship on the 50th anniversary of
the two countries’ diplomatic relations. Attendees at Opening Night will also enjoy a contemporary exhibit on
“Jewish Life in Germany Today,” initiated and sponsored by the German Embassy in Washington and co-organized
by Stroum JCC and the Consulate General of Germany in San Francisco. On March 22nd, Closing Night will take
place in the SJCC’s Cultural Arts venue, which opened last year following an extensive renovation.

Among SJFF 2015 films are many award winners and nominees – including Golden Globe nominated Israeli drama
GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM by Israeli actor and director Ronit Elkabetz, and Uruguay’s submission for
Best Foreign Language Oscar, MR. KAPLAN. A package of short films highlights GLBTQ issues and includes the
Sundance Film Festival 2014 official selection and Academy Award® shortlisted film SUMMER VACATION as well as
Academy Award® short documentary nominee FACING FEAR.
An abundance of documentaries takes viewers outside their own experience to live with warriors, entertainers,
and artists of the past and present. From producer Nancy Spielberg, ABOVE AND BEYOND offers the tale of
American volunteers to fight in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, forming the basis of the Israeli Air Force. An
iconic star who ruled vaudeville, Broadway, radio, television, and Hollywood throughout the 20th century is the
subject of THE OUTRAGEOUS SOPHIE TUCKER. Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish is lyrically revealed in
WRITE DOWN, I’M AN ARAB, which won the Audience Award at Doc Aviv 2014.
A special event and annual favorite, the Matzoh Momma Brunch and Family Film, includes a timely documentary
on US-Cuban relations through the lens of the two nations’ common sport and favorite pastime – HAVANA
CURVEBALL. The annual Senior Screening, slated for Friday, March 20th, features MARVIN HAMLISCH: WHAT HE
DID FOR LOVE and is priced for low-income seniors age 65+ at $5 per person. Caregivers and family members are
welcome to join in at the same low rate.
A full schedule of screenings and special events is available online at www.seattlejewishfilmfestival.org. Single
tickets are $12 general admission; various discounts available. Special events cost $20. Passes cost $90-$250. All
proceeds support the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. Sponsorship levels and benefits available online or contact the
Festival Director at sjff@sjcc.org or 206.388.0832.
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival is a proud program of the Stroum Jewish Community Center. Venues include AMC
Pacific Place 11, SIFF Cinema Uptown and SJCC-Mercer Island.
Festival screeners, interviews, press kits, and images available by request.
# # #
About Seattle Jewish Film Festival: www.seattlejewishfilmfestival.org
In its 20th year, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival is a ten-day event and year-round international cinematic
exploration and celebration of Jewish and Israeli life, culture, and history. Founded in 1995 by AJC Seattle, SJFF is
now a program of the Stroum Jewish Community Center and a vital part of its Cultural Arts programming. Central
to the J’s community-building mission, SJFF brings people together to inspire learning and new perspectives by
showcasing the virtuosity and diversity of Jewish cinema. Contact Info for Publication: sjff@sjcc.org |
206.388.0832
About Stroum Jewish Community Center: www.sjcc.org The Stroum Jewish Community Center inspires
connections to build community and ensure Jewish continuity. Together we create outstanding programs,
partnerships and spaces that welcome everyone to learn, grow and celebrate Jewish life and culture.
Permalink / Click to read online: http://ymlp.com/zsRXlK

Seattle Audiences Choose Nancy Spielberg’s ABOVE & BEYOND and
WWII Drama RUN BOY RUN
From among 20 Docs and Narrative Features
At Landmark 20th Annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival
March 24, 2015 – SEATTLE – The 20th annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival, running over 9 days in
venues across Seattle and Mercer Island, WA, had record attendance, and audience ballots were tallied
Sunday night to reveal four Audience Choice Award Winners.
RUN BOY RUN from German director Pepe Danquart (TO THE LIMIT, HELL ON WHEELS) was the
undisputed dramatic/narrative favorite. Based on a true story, RUN BOY RUN follows an 8-year-old
child as he flees from the Warsaw ghetto and across the Polish countryside and tries to maintain his
Jewish identity, treating audiences to a rare view of the Holocaust through the eyes of a child.
Among 12 feature documentaries on subjects ranging from entertainers to social justice, the Nancy
Spielberg-produced ABOVE & BEYOND stood out for its portrayal of the origins of the Israeli Air Force
and the North American pilots called to service. Directed by Roberta Grossman (who won previous
festival awards for BLESSED IS THE MATCH and HAVA NAGILA), ABOVE & BEYOND delves into a
momentous subject with reverence and humor. Surviving service members and their relatives hailed this
thoroughly researched, celebratory memorial of a remarkable time documenting the formation of the
State of Israel.
The 2015 Seattle Jewish Film Festival included 12 short films. Audiences overwhelmingly chose Jason
Cohen’s Oscar-nominated “Facing Fear” as the best short documentary film in the Festival, honoring its
fearless examination of forgiveness and reconciliation. This film played as part of an LGBTQ short
series. “The Funeral” – a comedic look at tradition, relationships, rebellion, and family ties – won the
audience ballot for best narrative short film.
“We are privileged each year to present an incredibly diverse lineup of the highest-quality international,
independent, award-winning films,” says SJFF Director Pamela Lavitt. “Our audiences have discerning
taste and their choices of RUN BOY RUN, ABOVE & BEYOND, FACING FEAR, and THE FUNERAL for the
audience choice awards this year demonstrate this.”

She continues, “The curiosity, enthusiasm, and engagement of the community in exploring the world
through Jewish and Israeli film has been wonderful. Our 20th annual Festival was an overwhelming
success and we look forward to another two decades wowing Seattle and film lovers everywhere!”
Opening Weekend of the Festival broke all recent SJFF records with over 2,500 patrons in attendance in
two days at screenings and special events, including a number of sold-out shows. Overall, the landmark
20th annual Festival delighted 7,500 audience members (a 25% increase from 2014) from around the
region as they gathered to learn, laugh, travel to faraway lands, and take a Jewish journey through the
magic of film.
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival is a program of the Stroum Jewish Community Center and the
centerpiece event of its year-round Cultural Arts program. Year-round programming includes film and
performance events staged at the SJCC’s Cultural Arts venue, which opened last year following an
extensive renovation. Next up: Israeli Ethiopian jazz, R&B, and funk singer Ester Rada on May 3rd
.
Interviews, press kits, and images available by request to
Sara Huey, Festival Publicist
sara.huey@hueypr.com | 206-619-0610
# # #
About Seattle Jewish Film Festival: www.seattlejewishfilmfestival.org
In its 20th year, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival is a nine-day event and year-round international
cinematic exploration and celebration of Jewish and Israeli life, culture, and history. Founded in 1995 by
AJC Seattle, SJFF is now a program of the Stroum Jewish Community Center and a vital part of its
Cultural Arts programming. Central to the J’s community-building mission, SJFF brings people together
to inspire learning and new perspectives by showcasing the virtuosity and diversity of Jewish cinema.
Contact Info for Publication: sjff@sjcc.org | 206.388.0832
About Stroum Jewish Community Center: www.sjcc.org The Stroum Jewish Community Center inspires
connections to build community and ensure Jewish continuity. Together we create outstanding
programs, partnerships and spaces that welcome everyone to learn, grow and celebrate Jewish life and
culture.
Permalink / Click to read online: http://ymlp.com/znsP57

3 – Listings
The 20th Seattle Jewish Film Festival was included in listings on the following web sites and print
publications (scanned print editions follow in section 6).
Click to view online: http://www.seattlemag.com/events/seattle-jewish-film-festival

Events In & Around the Northwest
January–May 2015
Washington
…
Click to view online: www.aaawashingtonjourney.com/events/index.asp

Film > Feature
Mar 4, 2015 7:00 AM
Spring Film Calendar
The Best of the Season's Films and Events
by Charles Mudede and Krishanu Ray
...
MARCH 14–22
Seattle Jewish Film Festival
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival is an annual, midsize film festival, which is now in its
20th year of operation. This year's program runs for just more than a week and includes
32 films, as well as several galas and events.
SIFF Cinema Uptown, AMC Pacific Place, Stroum Jewish Community Center
Click to read online: http://www.thestranger.com/film/features/2015/03/04/21793314/spring-film-
calendar

Spring Arts: Calendar of Events
By Diana M. Le, Sandra Kurtz, and SW Staff Tue., Feb 10 2015 at 06:17PM
...
• March 14–22 Seattle Jewish Film Festival More than 30 titles are screened, along with related
cultural events. Opening night is Hanna’s Journey, a German-Israeli rom-com about millennials from
those two nations falling in love. Pacific Place and other venues, seattlejewishfilmfestival.org
**(the dot before the date indicates a recommended event**
Click to read online: http://www.seattleweekly.com/arts/956706-129/story.html

Entertainment | Movies
Hitchcock and Jewish film festivals get rolling
Originally published March 12, 2015 at 3:05 pm
Screenings and events during the week of March 13 include the “Big Screen
Hitchcock” mini-festival and the Seattle Jewish Film Festival.
By Doug Knoop
Seattle Times staff
...
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival opens Saturday, March 14, with a showing of
“Hanna’s Journey,” about a romance between a German student and her Israeli
colleague, at Pacific Place. Tickets are $18-$20. For more information, go to
seattletimes.com/movies for a preview or seattlejewishfilmfestival.org for more
information.
Click to read online: http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/hitchcock-and-jewish-film-festivals-
get-rolling/

THE WEEKEND STARTS…NOW
The Top Things to Do This Weekend: March 12–15
Jess Walter writes about parenthood, Pacific Northwest Ballet gets "anarchistic,"
and local pro wrestling star Daniel Bryan returns home.
Published Mar 12, 2015, 12:30Pm
By Seattle Met Staff
…
FILM
Mar 14–22
Seattle Jewish Film Festival
Now in its 20th year, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival offers a glimpse at the spirit and the
struggles of Jewish and Israeli people. This year’s lineup features an exploration of Israeli-
German relations in Hanna’s Journey, the Golden Globe–nominated drama Gett: The Trial of
Viviane Amsalem, and a Matzoh Momma brunch screening of the baseball documentary Havana
Curveball. Various venues, single tickets $12–$20, festival pass $100–$250
Click to read online: http://www.seattlemet.com/arts-and-entertainment/culture-fiend/articles/the-
top-things-to-do-this-weekend-march-12-15-2015

4 – Radio and Podcast Coverage
February 28, 2015 – Hour 2
Posted on Feb 28th, 2015
In the second hour of this week’s broadcast:
• The Seattle Jewish Film Festival celebrates its 20th Anniversary March 14-22, 2015. Its
director of cultural affairs, Pamela Lavitt, talks with Rudy about this year’s travel-related
films.
To listen online, click the link and skip to 4:16: http://rudymaxa.com/2015/02/february-28-2015-hour-2/

CinemaSquabble.com
--
To listen online, click the link and skip to 26:40:
http://www.cinemasquabble.com/?powerpress_pinw=67-podcast

Rachel Belle
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival &
'The Accidental Activist'
BY RACHEL BELLE, Ron and Don Show Reporter | March 13, 2015 @ 7:57 am
Cheryl Stumbo, surrounded by I-594 supporters, the night of the 2014 election. (Photo courtesy of Cheryl Stumbo)
On July 28, 2006 Cheryl Stumbo was sitting at her desk at the Seattle Jewish
Federation, when she heard an angry man in the reception area. Minutes later, Naveed
Haq opened fire in the office, killing one woman and injuring five others.

"He just raised the gun and pointed it right in my face and that was when I dropped to
the floor and was on my stomach," Cheryl said. "That industrial carpet smell? That's the
smell of waiting to die, to me, to this day."
That's an excerpt from a new short documentary, "The Accidental Activist," which will
debut at the Seattle Jewish Film Festival on March 17.
"Well, actually, not quite accidental! That wasn't my choice for the title."
A few years after the shooting, after 20 surgeries and years of PTSD therapy, Cheryl
went back to work, doing marketing and communication for the Jewish Federation and
then another company.
"I was finding that I didn't have that same juice that I had before, around my career. So I
needed to do something I was passionate about."
She watched coverage of more shootings after shootings on the news.
"After my shooting, the ones that you heard about on the news were the Virginia Tech
shooting, awful. The first Fort Hood shooting, the shooting in Tucson when Gabby
Giffords was shot. The Aurora theater shooting in Colorado. Then the Clackamas Mall
shooting down in Oregon and then the Cafe Racer shooting right here in Seattle. Each
one of those, I would see them on the news and I would just be devastated," she said.
"That is when I made that decision. I don't want to see this on the news on a regular
basis anymore, I want to do something about this."
Cheryl said the Sandy Hook school shooting was the last straw.
She started making herself available for media interviews, as a commentator on mass
shootings. Then she became an advocate for the Washington Alliance For Gun
Responsibility.
She now works for Every Town for Gun Safety, an organization started by former New
York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The short film also highlights her role as citizen sponsor of Initiative 594, the bill that
now requires background checks for anyone purchasing a gun in Washington state. It
passed last year.
"I have never given birth, but I have a feeling that what I felt that night was what it must
feel like after you've given birth. It's that total elation and joy combined with total
exhaustion. I had put everything on the table because I didn't want to wake up the next
morning and find out that we had lost and that I hadn't done everything I could. I had put
everything out there and then to find out we won and to go out on that stage and be with
everybody, just cheering. I mean, we were so joyful. It was just a great night."

Cheryl said the background check law will save lives, but it wouldn't have stopped her
shooter from getting a gun.
"Now we're working on other things that would more closely tie to my own shooting, like
Extreme Risk Protection Orders. If a family knows that their family member is having
some severe mental health issues and has access to guns, if we have something like
Extreme Risk Protection Orders in place, they would be able to go and do something
about it," Cheryl said. "That would have happened with my shooter. He had severe
mental health issues, his family knew it, but there was nothing they could do to make
sure that he couldn't get his hands on guns."
Click to listen online: http://mynorthwest.com/874/2728510/The-Seattle-Jewish-Film-Festival--The-
Accidental-Activist

Victim Of Seattle Shooting Speaks Out For Gun
Control
By MARCIE SILLMAN • March 16, 2015
Cheryl Stumbo at TEDx Seattle in 2013.
Flickr Photo/TEDx Seattle (CC-BY-NC-ND)
Marcie Sillman interviews Cheryl Stumbo, the subject of a short documentary film called
"The Accidental Activist" premiering at Seattle's Jewish Film Festival. Stumbo became
an activist for gun control after being wounded in the 2006 shooting at the Jewish
Federation of Greater Seattle.
RELATED PROGRAM: THE RECORD
TAGS: ARTS, FILM, LIFE
Click to listen online: http://kuow.org/post/victim-seattle-shooting-speaks-out-gun-control

5 – Online Coverage
Seattle Jewish Film Festival celebrating its 20th year,
March 14-22, 2015
by Janice Nieder
Girlfriend Getaways Examiner
February 26, 2015
12:52 PM MST
One thing Seattleite’s love is to come in from the rain and snuggle down for a good film
festival, and one of their faves is the 2015 Seattle Jewish Film Festival (March 14-22) a
program of the Stroum Jewish Community Center. Since the SJFF is proudly celebrating
their 20th year, they are pulling out all the stops to bring you the finest contemporary

movies featuring Jewish themes from Here, There, and Everywhere -this year’s tag line-
presenting short-subject, documentary, & feature films from around the world. Plus, there’s
not a bad seat in the house at the newly renovated, Stroum Jewish Community Center's
state-of-the-art, 2,500 square-foot facility featuring telescopic seating for 350, a fully
digitized high-definition cinema projector and Dolby Digital surround sound.
You’ll “Laugh. Cry. Love. Debate. Celebrate: To Life!” while completely immersed in 32 Films
from 10 Countries (including 1 Golden Globe nominee & 3 Oscar contenders) in 10
fascinating days supplemented by guest artists, performers, speakers, parties, family and of
course, lots of exciting special events.
Some potential best of the fests are:
"Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem", an interesting premise about an unhappily married
woman who wants nothing more than to divorce her unwilling husband, only due to a
Jewish catch 22…You’ve got to get a gett (a divorce document from said husband) before
you can get a divorce!
The Academy Award®-nominated documentary short "Facing Fear" a story about a former
neo-Nazi and the gay victim of his hate crime attack who meet by chance 25 years later,
astonishingly at the Museum of Tolerance and somehow become friends.
As an ex- New Yorker and major fan of Marvin Hamlisch, I can’t wait to see the deeply
personal documentary, Marvin Hamlisch: "What He Did For Love" as well as William
Gazecki's heart-felt documentary "The Outrageous Sophie Tucker," a tribute to the "Last
of the Red Hot Mamas".
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival opens with a bang on March 14th featuring the German-
Israeli co-production "HANNA’S JOURNEY," a refreshing look at how a third generation is
coping with the legacy of the German-Israeli historical relationship on the 50th anniversary
of the two countries’ diplomatic relations. Attendees at Opening Night will also enjoy a
contemporary exhibit on “Jewish Life in Germany Today,” initiated and sponsored by the
German Embassy in Washington and co-organized by Stroum JCC and the Consulate
General of Germany in San Francisco. On March 22nd, Closing Night will take place in the
SJCC’s Cultural Arts venue, which opened last year following an extensive renovation.
TICKET INFO:
Single tickets start at $12 ($10* for Students / Seniors 65+) or you can be a totally mensch
and go you can buy The Whole Megillah which entitles pass holder to all film screenings and
ticketed special events in the 2015 Seattle Jewish Film Festival (March 14-22), including
Opening & Closing Night films and Receptions and Matzoh Momma Sunday Brunch & Film, at
the such-a-deal price of only $ 250 (discounted to only $225 for Students / Seniors 65+).
Tickets are selling fast so no dawdling. Visit the Seattle Jewish Film Festival site for more
information and to purchase your tickets.
Click to view online: http://www.examiner.com/article/seattle-jewish-film-festival-celebrating-its-20th-
year-march-14-22-2015

SJFF Review: Hanna’s Journey
Mar 6, 2015
Dir. Julia von Heinz (2013, Israel/Germany)
Is it possible to set a German-Jewish romantic comedy in the still-long shadow of the
Holocaust?
The answer, obviously, is “it’s complicated.”
When Berliner Hanna schemes her way to Israel
to pad her resume through her estranged
mother’s volunteer organization, she
(predictably) finds herself drawn to Itay, the
adorable coordinator at a home for special-needs
Israelis. Itay and Hanna are simultaneously pulled
toward and repelled by one another, with their
people’s histories the zinging raw nerve between
them.
Between Hannah’s crude and ironic ambivalence toward her country’s past and Itay’s
unseverable ties to his family, their relationship is fraught, and their chemistry is less than
spicy.
If You Go:If You Go:If You Go:If You Go:
“Hanna’s Journey” screens as part of
the Seattle Jewish Film Festival on
Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. at
AMC Pacific Place Theatre, 600 Pine
St., Seattle. Tickets available at
seattlejewishfilmfestival.org.

But the real question is not, “can Hannah and Itay have a normal and healthy love affair?”
Rather, “Hanna’s Journey” — in the limited time and space of a feature film — attempts to
probe the possibility of relationships between the descendants of victims and perpetrators
in a connected world.
In the process, Hanna starts to realize for the first time her own family’s complicity in the
Holocaust, which takes her on the actual “journey” of the title.
According to SJFF director Pamela Lavitt, “Hanna’s Journey” was picked for opening night
in recognition of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel.
“Identity grappling is a big part of the festival this year,” said Lavitt. “What does it mean for
those still struggling in the wake of shared history?”
At once light and heavy, “Hanna’s Journey” represents how the next generation is
artistically reckoning with the Holocaust.
— Emily K. Alhadeff
Click to read online: http://jewishsound.org/sjff-review-hannas-journey/

SJFF Review: Eden Rests
Mar 6, 2015
Dir. Ofer Kapota, Natalie Chen, Hadar Sitvuk (2013, Israel)
Screens with Hanna’s Journey
In 1920s Palestine, back before statehood, when Tel
Aviv was emerging as a real city from its shtetl and
Arab village roots, there was a struggle going on. It
wasn’t between Jews and Arabs, though you could
certainly find those issues emerging. It wasn’t
necessarily between European émigrés and the
natives, though you could see that as well. This was
the natural tension between the old and new —
people getting around by car rather than on
horseback, between letting in foreign influences or
learning the important news from the gossip grapevine. Nowhere could that be more
obvious than at the Eden Cinema, Tel Aviv’s first movie house, which brought that tension
into full relief.
If you suspend your disbelief in the temporal reality — Churchill visited in 1921, Fritz
Lang’s “Metropolis,” the poster of which is pasted in Hebrew over the village’s walls, came
out in 1927 — you’ll be tickled pink by this lovely animated short film. Directors Kapota,
“Eden Rests” screens as part of the
Seattle Jewish Film Festival on
Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m.
at AMC Pacific Place Theatre, 600
Pine St., Seattle. Tickets available
at seattlejewishfilmfestival.org.

Chen and Sitvuk use the Eden as the backdrop to bring all of these tensions — and the
villagers — together in a wordless script that speaks to us in pictures. That the last frame
before the credits roll shows the Eden today — derelict, crumbling — only tells us that
sometimes we need to retain our structures because they hold so much of our history.
— Joel Magalnick
Click to read online: http://jewishsound.org/sjff-review-eden-rests/

SJFF Review: Havana Curveball
Mar 6, 2015
Dir. Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider (U.S./Cuba, 2014)
For Mica Jarmel-Schneider, the plans to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba are
exciting news — albeit a bit too late.
As his Bar Mitzvah approached several years ago,
the athletic San Francisco teenager mulled various
community-service projects before hitting on the
idea of sending baseball gear to the island.
Jarmel-Schneider had learned that bats, balls and
gloves were scarce due to the embargo, and that
even used equipment would be a major-league
upgrade for Cuban kids his age.
His altruistic campaign, and eye-opening odyssey to Cuba, is vividly depicted in “Havana
Curveball,” an inspiring and unsentimental one-hour documentary suitable for all ages.
Recognizing the positive trend of Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrants looking beyond the party
and gifts to causes deserving support, the husband-and-wife team of Marcia Jarmel and Ken
“Havana Curveball” screens as
part of the Seattle Jewish Film
Festival on Sunday, March 15 at
11 a.m. at AMC Pacific Place
Theatre, 600 Pine St., Seattle.
Tickets available at

Schneider originally envisioned a short film that would trigger conversations about social
responsibility during the Bar Mitzvah process.
“We started with this notion that our son’s experience could be a vehicle for all kinds of
kids having this conversation with themselves, their families, and their communities about
what their responsibility was in the world and how they might like to contribute,” Jarmel
says.
The veteran filmmakers figured the short would take three months to produce. But as
Mica’s project grew, so did the film. The complications of shipping anything to Cuba played
a role, as did the family’s history.
Cuba had granted residency to Mica’s grandfather in 1941 when his family was fleeing the
Nazis and couldn’t gain access to the U.S. The humanitarian act resonated with Mica and
informed his project, even though Schneider didn’t stay in Cuba very long before relocating
to America. In fact, Mica’s grandfather declined to travel to Cuba with the lad.
“My dad was deeply grateful that Mica was inspired by his life experience to go and
perform this bit of service in Cuba,” Schneider says, “even though he no longer feels a
connection to the country which saved his life.”
Mica was also influenced by another tenet of the Jewish experience, Schneider relates.
“His rabbi told him the story of tikkun olam, which is about putting a broken piece of the
world back together, and how small or large acts can be part of that.”
— Michael Fox
Click to read online: http://jewishsound.org/sjff-review-havana-curveball/

SJFF Review: Farewell Baghdad
Mar 6, 2015
Dir. Nissim Dayan (Israel, 2014)
Based on the book “The Dove Flyer” by Eli Amir, “Farewell Baghdad” (a.k.a. “The Dove
Flyer”) recounts in dramatic detail the disintegration of Iraq’s Jewish community.
Established during the Babylonian exile in 586
BCE, Iraq’s Jewish community withstood
thousands of years of changing history and served
as the seat of Jewish authority from the fall of
Jerusalem until the 11th century. The community
more or less lived comfortably in Iraq — until
1948. This is where our story begins.
Kabi is a young man when his uncle is arrested for
his involvement with the Zionist underground.
Quickly, Kabi’s beloved homeland turns from his friend to his enemy, and it won’t be long
before he’s a target.
Caught up among his Israel-dreaming father, his nostalgic mother, the anti-Zionist dove-
breeder who employs him and his Zionist activist son, and two beautiful women, Kabi, who
is still treated like a child, comes of age alongside the unraveling of his community.
“Farewell Baghdad” screens as
Festival on Sunday, March 15 at
1:00 p.m. at AMC Pacific Place
Theatre, 600 Pine St., Seattle.

Filmed in the Iraqi Judeo-Arabic dialect, it’s a beautiful film that has been not only well
received in Israel, but has stirred up emotions among nostalgic Iraqi Muslims. Though it
ends on a dark note, “Farewell Baghdad” reminds us that Jews and Arabs were not always
considered such separate entities, and perhaps there’s even hope yet for rebuilding burned
bridges.
— Emily K. Alhadeff
Click to read online: http://jewishsound.org/sjff-review-farewell-baghdad/

Gay Gezunt! An LGBTQ Short Series
Mar 6, 2015
Four films: Facing Fear, Summer Vacation, The Seder, and Zazaland from three countries:
The U.S., Canada and Israel highlight the way gay life has become a part of regular life for so
many Jewish families. Each of these four films
approaches homosexuality in a different way.
Facing Fear (Dir. Jason Cohen and Steven
Okazaki, U.S., 2013) is a documentary that focuses
on the chance meeting between a former neo-Nazi
and a gay man he attacked 25 years earlier — at
the Museum of Tolerance. Summer Vacation (Dir.
Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon, Israel, 2012)
dredges up a long-held family secret during a
family’s beach vacation. The Seder (Dir. Justin
Kelly, Canada, 2012) is a regular fish-out-of-water story of an openly gay man who brings
his boyfriend to his parents’ house for their first Passover seder together. Hijinks and
uncomfortable moments ensue. And finally, Zazaland (Dir. Maayan Cohen, Israel, 2013) is
a comedic sendup of the 2001 Israeli film “A Late Marriage,” only this time it features two
Georgian men hiding their relationship from what will otherwise be an arranged marriage
between one and a young woman waiting with her family in the next room.
—Joel Magalnick
Click to read online: http://jewishsound.org/gay-gezunt-lgbtq-short-series/
“Gay Gezunt! An LGBTQ
Short Series” screens as part of
Sunday, March 15 at 3 p.m. at
AMC Pacific Place Theatre, 600
Pine St., Seattle. Tickets available
at seattlejewishfilmfestival.org.

SJFF Review: Theodor Bikel: In the Shoes
of Sholom Aleichem
Mar 6, 2015
Dir. John Lollos (U.S., 2014)
Based on Theodor Bikel’s acclaimed stage play
“Sholom Aleichem: Laughter through Tears” and
narrated by the Emmy-winning Alan Alda, director
John Lollos’ double-portrait musical documentary
attempts to preserve Yiddish culture through song
and dance, blending the stories of two revered
Jewish icons: Sholom Aleichem and Bikel himself,
perhaps the greatest living performer and
interpreter of Aleichem’s work. Bikel, 90, serves as
both the focus of the film and guide to the legend of
Aleichem, the charismatic storyteller and chronicler
of 19th-century Jewish life perhaps best known for his “Tevye the Dairyman” stories that
served as the basis for the musical hit “Fiddler on the Roof.”
An Austrian native whose family escaped Nazi occupation, Bikel switches from first to third
person with both humor and pathos to underscore the importance of Aleichem’s work as a
“Theodor Bikel: In the Shoes of
Sholom Aleichem” screens as part
of the Seattle Jewish Film Festival
on Monday, March 16 at 6:30 p.m.
at SIFF Cinema Uptown Theatre,
511 Queen Anne Ave., Seattle.

pioneer of modern Jewish literature, as well as Aleichem’s influence on his own storied
career. “Theodor Bikel” is both a poignant and thoroughly amusing portrayal of two
extraordinary talents.
— Boris Kurbanov
Click to read online: http://jewishsound.org/sjff-review-theodor-bikel-shoes-sholom-aleichem/

SJFF Review: Hannah Cohen’s Holy
Communion
Mar 6, 2015
Dir. Lana Citron (U.K., 2012)
“Hannah Cohen’s Holy Communion” is a sweet,
playful telling of a young girl who craves acceptance
and adventure. When Hannah’s friend heads off in a
fancy white dress to participate in holy communion,
giddily explained to Hannah as “the best day ever,”
Hannah embarks on a mission to join in on the
Catholic rite of passage. In order to succeed, Hannah
must sneak away from her home, far from the
watchful eyes of her mother and neighbors. Writer
Lana Citron is excellent at establishing Hannah’s
intentions as truthfully pure.
By seeking communion, Hannah does not mean to intentionally betray her Jewish identity,
but, rather, she wants simply to experience a sense of belonging. Hannah longs to be part of
a community — one that involves getting to wear pretty dresses and spending time with
her best friend.
“Hannah Cohen’s Holy
Communion” screens as part of
Monday, March 16 at 8:45 p.m. at
SIFF Cinema Uptown Theatre, 511
Queen Anne Ave., Seattle. Tickets
available at

Director Marcus Shimmy captures Hannah’s world as dreamlike and poetic, a world that
directly reflects Hannah’s personality and wonder. “Hannah Cohen’s Holy Communion” is a
lovely and spirited family-friendly film with beautiful imagery. The story shows that a
child’s participation in the excitement of other peoples’ lives can sometimes allow for a
discovery of true identity and self.
— Erin Pike
Click to view online: http://jewishsound.org/sjff-review-hannah-cohens-holy-communion/

SJFF Review: Quality Balls
Mar 6, 2015
Dir. Barry Avrich (U.S., 2013)
David Steinberg’s the funniest guy you hardly know.
Many comedians today see Steinberg as the man
who gave them their craft. Departing from the
Borscht Belt humor of their fathers, even
powerhouses such as Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David
look at Steinberg as the guy who gave them
permission to use their stories to make people
laugh. Whether you’re talking love, politics, or
simple observations, Steinberg turned the notion of
the one-liner and laugh-a-minute comedy on its
head. Funny, then, that it all began with sermons
based on the Torah.
Smothers Brothers fans back in the late ’60s and early ’70s were probably surprised when
their variety show suddenly disappeared from the air. You can blame that on Steinberg,
who would perform interpretations of the Torah (or Old Testament to those Christian
audiences on TV) that were markedly different from what they heard on Sunday mornings.
Such was the wave of comedy that later begat Saturday Night Live and SCTV, among other
programs.
“Quality Balls” screens as part of
Monday, March 16 at 8:45 p.m. at
SIFF Cinema Uptown Theatre, 511
Queen Anne Ave., Seattle. Tickets
available at

Barry Avrich’s “Quality Balls” — take the title as you see fit — brings in many of those
comedy greats: Seinfeld, David, Johnny Carson, and Robert Klein, among others, to tell the
story of this child of European immigrants who eventually landed in Manitoba. And Avrich
of course includes footage of Steinberg himself throughout the years. In some of these bits
you’ll laugh so hard you’ll start crying. What we ultimately get is the story of a consummate
professional, a performer from birth whose only desire is to make people laugh. What’s
missing, unfortunately, is the story of the man. We don’t even learn, for example, that he’s
married until the last minutes of the documentary. But maybe some parts of life aren’t a
laughing matter.
—Joel Magalnick
Click to read online: http://jewishsound.org/sjff-review-quality-balls/

SJFF Review: Accidental Activist
Mar 6, 2015
Dir. Cameron Levin (U.S., 2014)
Often times a tragedy can bring out the best in
people. Such is the case with Cheryl Stumbo, one of
the survivors of the shooting at the Jewish
Federation of Greater Seattle in 2006. Stumbo, who
then worked as the Federation’s marketing director,
endured multiple surgeries and setbacks in the
years following the shooting, but in time realized
that her injuries could have an impact.
This 12-minute film by Cameron Levin, also a
Federation employee at the time (and later at
JTNews), follows Stumbo as she leads the Initiative 594 campaign, which not only gave
Stumbo purpose but our state a new law that restricts how guns can be bought and sold.
Many of you will see familiar faces — including Mayor Ed Murray, who marched with
Stumbo down Madison St. to turn in his ballot voting in favor of the initiative — as well as
feel that moment of victory, when a woman whose life was changed for the worse on one
horrific summer afternoon, achieves vindication.
“Accidental Activist” screens as
Festival on Tuesday, March 17 at
8:10 p.m. at SIFF Cinema Uptown
Theatre, 511 Queen Anne Ave.,
Seattle. Tickets available at

“Accidental Activist” is a gift to a friend, but also a way for the world to see how those who
experienced this trauma emotionally still grapple with that day nearly a decade later.
And the story, of course, still goes on.
— Joel Magalnick
Click to read online: http://jewishsound.org/sjff-review-accidental-activist/

posted Friday, March 6, 2015 - Volume 43 Issue 10
Laugh. Cry. Love. Gather. Debate. Celebrate. To Life!
Seattle Jewish Film Festival preview - an interview with Pamela Lavitt
Laugh. Cry. Love. Gather. Debate. Celebrate. To Life! Seattle Jewish Film
Festival preview - an interview with Pamela Lavitt
by Sara Michelle Fetters - SGN A&E Writer
SEATTLE JEWISH
FILM FESTIVAL
March 14-22
Beginning Saturday night with the local premier of the German-Israeli production Hanna's Journey, the
Seattle Jewish Film Festival (SJFF) enters its 20th year promising its biggest, most ambitious slate yet.
Running nine days, showcasing features, documentaries and shorts showcasing Jewish world cinema in
all its multifarious minutia, the festival will attempt to explore notions of identity and of self like it never has
before.
I had the pleasure of taking up a few moments of longtime festival director Pamela Lavitt's time to talk
about this year's festival. Here are some highlights from that conversation:
Sara Michelle Fetters: Twenty years. That's quite an anniversary. Outside of SIFF, of course, this makes
the Jewish Film Festival the longest running independent festival of its type here in Seattle. Why is that?
How did it happen?
Pamela Lavitt: Thank you. This festival is proud to be a fifth-century old and to have premiered over five
Academy Award-winners and over ten Oscar and Golden Globe nominees in its history, including this
year. Like many international independent niche film festivals, SJFF is powered by passionate volunteers,
lay leaders, community partner organizations and loyal donors. They support the festival and donate time,
resources and energy [to] make it happen year after year. In all, we rely on over 200 volunteers and over
200 donor/sponsors to ensure the Festival's health, continuity and relevance in our region.
Sara Michelle Fetters: Why do film festivals like this one matter? What makes the Jewish Film Festival
such an important cultural part of the city's fabric?
Pamela Lavitt: Laugh. Cry. Love. Gather. Debate. Celebrate. To Life! [That's] our tagline, because our

films celebrate Jewish life for everyone. SJFF is part of the city's fabric and cultural mosaic because it
invites everyone to view the world through a vibrant lens - and we show amazing films in our film-
obsessed town! Niche festivals matter because film is an open-door, relatable medium for understanding
our shared humanity and [SJFF illustrates] specific stories, histories and complexities and diversity of
Jewish and Israeli life. In rainy Seattle, we love our indoor pick-me-ups: coffee, cinema and culture. We
have successfully run this festival for 20 years because we all love the vibrant connections that
independent cinema offers and how it makes us feel 'together' in one room, sharing an emotional journey
and giving us something to talk about. It creates a cultural gathering space where we can find old friends
and build new connections.
Sara Michelle Fetters: Talk to me about your opening night film, Hannah's Journey. What made it stand
out?
Pamela Lavitt: We've seen many films about second and third generations grappling with the memory of
the Holocaust, oftentimes dour and troubled. But there have been few love stories about the children and
grandchildren of Germans who lived during WWII, Israelis who fled and inheritors of the German past
exploring this emotional journey. This is not a film about the Nazi era, not about secrets or conflict; it is a
love story and reflects the journey and fumbled reconciliations of present-day younger generations and
families moving back to Germany and Europe.
It is important that Jewish film festivals have some levity, love and lyricism, and strong opening night
selections often set the tone rather than hit people in the gut right away. Importantly, we also chose the
film to celebrate the 50th anniversary of German-Israeli diplomatic relations, with dual sponsorship from
both consulates and a German Embassy exhibit on 'Jewish Life in Germany Today' during the film festival
which can be seen both in the lobby at AMC Pacific Place and at the Stroum Jewish Community Center.
Sara Michelle Fetters: This year's official mantra is 'Here, There, and Everywhere.' What does that
statement mean to you? How do you think it defines this year's festival?
Pamela Lavitt: SJFF brings people together to inspire learning and new perspectives by showcasing the
virtuosity and diversity of Jewish cinema. This year's statement highlights how in the 20-year history of
SJFF we have grown up alongside a Jewish/Israeli filmmaking industry. Not only are we more
sophisticated, but we have more cross-over appeal. This year's festival features films from 10 countries,
from South Africa to Uruguay, many receiving prestigious nominations and global recognition by the film
industry and at festivals worldwide.
Sara Michelle Fetters: What will LGBT viewers find in this year's festival? What will they be interested
in? How do the themes represented in the films themselves relate back to them, whether the motion
pictures prove to be about LGBT issues or not?
Pamela Lavitt: Jewish/Israeli LGBT filmmaking is always a highlight of SJFF. Not only was the festival
founded by AJC [the American Jewish Committee], the first human rights organization in the U.S.,
founded in 1906, fighting for tolerance and against bigotry - which makes showing LGBT films right up our
alley - but frankly, they run away with all the audience choice awards. We also have great partners like
Congregation Tikveh Chadashah, the GSBA and Three Dollar Bill Cinema. Just as Jewish filmmaking has
hit its stride for wider audiences, so has LGBT Jewish filmmaking. Since the festival's inception, films like
Chicks in White Satin, Yossi and Jaguar, Mom I Killed Your Daughter, Paper Dolls and anything Eytan
Fox (The Bubble, Florentine) have spoken to our Jewish Gay audiences and their friends, culminating two
years ago with the Israeli film Melting Away.
In Israel, there has been a real efflorescence of LGBT filmmaking that highlights the pluralism and
democracy of this small, troubled nation. This year, we wanted to deliver a diverse palate of Oscar
hopefuls that happen to be short films, among them two from Israel. Aside from this shorts package, we
have a remarkable theme that runs through much of our programming for 2015, a theme of living on the
edge of identity. The opening night film, a love story, includes an aspect of self-discovery as the
characters travel, meet and remember their shared history and decide how that history will define them.

Write Down, I'm an Arab presents an intimate portrait of Mahmoud Darwish, whose renown as the
Palestinian national poet was a title he took on with some reluctance and much solemn consideration.
Little White Lie turns the camera on the filmmaker, inviting audiences to join director Lacey Schwartz as
she explores her true parentage and its consequences for how she perceives herself and is perceived by
society. In the beautiful drama A Borrowed Identity, AKA Dancing Arabs an Arab teen at a Jewish
boarding school struggles to find his place amid a complicated political climate in 1980s Israel.
Sara Michelle Fetters: The Jewish Film Festival is a product of the Stroum Jewish Community Center
(SJCC). How does the festival fit within the Center's mission?
Pamela Lavitt: The Stroum Jewish Community Center inspires connections to build community and
ensure Jewish continuity. Together we create outstanding programs, partnerships and spaces that
welcome everyone to learn, grow and celebrate Jewish life and culture. SJFF is a vital part of SJCC'S
year-round Cultural Arts programming. We now screen films year-round at the Jewish Cultural Center
(JCC) on Mercer Island and present film, music programs and live performances. Central to [this]
community-building mission, SJFF brings people together to inspire learning and new perspectives by
showcasing the virtuosity and diversity of Jewish cinema.
Sara Michelle Fetters: What else does the Center have planned going forward? Anything exciting?
Pamela Lavitt: This is a huge question, because I am now, not only the director of the festival (and have
been since 2005), but also the director of cultural arts at the JCC's new 358-seat cultural arts venue,
bringing film and performing artists year-round. This past weekend, Les Yeux Noir, a gypsy klezmer band
from France, performed to a sold-out audience. In May we host Israeli Ethiopian jazz/funk/R&B artist
Ester Rada and in June a comedy show, 'Funny, You Don't Look Jewish,' with a
Black/Indian/Chinese/Italian Jew delivering the yucks. There has also been some discussion co-
producing a show here with GSBA in the future.
Sara Michelle Fetters: What are some additional highlights of this year's festival that you're personally
most excited for audiences to get a look at?
Pamela Lavitt: Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem is a must-see for the raw and restrained performance
of Ronit Elkabetz, who also co-wrote and produced the film about the grueling issue of religious women
trying to seek divorces in Israel from rabbinic courts who have judicial decision making power. Her
standout performance was acknowledged with a Golden Globe nomination.
Also, Above and Beyond, produced by Nancy Spielberg, and Little White Lie, a first-person documentary
about Black-Jewish identity and unspoken family secrets. I truly believe The Outrageous Sophie Tucker is
not to be missed; a biopic with incredible footage and archival images culled from [Tucker's] personal
scrapbooks. She is the last of the red-hot-mammas for sure, and a vaudevillian worthy of that title and the
moniker 'the most popular entertainer in America' other than Al Jolson [from] that era. Finally, we deliver
film events at niche festivals, so bring the whole family to the Matzoh Momma Brunch and Film, Havana
Curveball, and then we close the festival with the Uruguayan comedy Mr. Kaplan. Many of our films -
stories big and small - may never see a theatrical or television run so catch them while you can!
Sara Michelle Fetters: When the festival comes to an end, what do you hope audiences are talking
about?
Pamela Lavitt: That we delivered the chest-grasping, shot-in-the-arm, identity- and diversity-confirming
connections to Jewish and Israeli life and to each other that no one else can. That they enjoyed their
experiences, our venues and the best films we could possibly curate. And that they say, 'Next Year at
SJFF!' Amen.
The 20th annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival run from March 14 to March 22. Venues include Pacific
Place 11, SIFF Cinema Uptown and the Seattle Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island. A full
schedule of screenings and special events is available online at www.seattlejewishfilmfestival.org. Single

tickets are $12 general admission. Special events cost $20. Passes are $90-$250. All proceeds support
the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. Sponsorship levels and benefits available online or contact the Festival
Director at sjff@sjcc.org or 206.388.0832.
Click to read online: http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews43_10/page46.cfm

March 7, 2015
20th Annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival
Features Gay Films
“Summer Vacation” is one of 4 LGBTQ short films screening as part of the “Gay Gezunt! LGBTQ Short Film Series” with: FACING FEAR,
THE SEDER, and ZAZALAND
EVERYTHING is having 20th anniversaries lately….Three Dollar Bill Cinema and
Gay City and….the Seattle Jewish Film Festival which kicks off next weekend,
March 14 and goes through March 22nd at venues including the AMC Pacific
Place 11, SIFF Cinema Uptown and SJCC-Mercer Island.
MORE info!
Across nations, languages, religions, and cultures, Jewish film opens a window into new
narratives, perspectives, and ways of living; confirming shared stories, cultural
connections, and common humanity. Over the course of ten days, the 20th annual
Seattle Jewish Film Festival employs Jewish world cinema to bring a fresh and
vibrant view of the world to the Northwest’s doorstep through 32 films from 10
countries, highlighting the richness and diversity we encounter as we move through life
on this planet.

Celebrating its 20th year, the 2015 Seattle Jewish Film Festival, a program of the
Stroum Jewish Community Center, showcases films from Here, There, and Everywhere
— this year’s tag line – welcoming films from around the globe and around the corner,
and presenting audiences with unique journeys to destinations both near and far. No
longer a teenager, at 20 years of age, SJFF is all grown up. This year, the Festival
displays its maturity as the largest Jewish event in the Pacific Northwest and one of the
largest and most prominent Jewish film festivals in the country.
Opening Night on March 14th features German-Israeli coproduction HANNA’S
JOURNEY, a refreshing look at how a third generation is coping with the legacy of the
German-Israeli historical relationship on the 50th anniversary of the two countries’
diplomatic relations. Attendees at Opening Night will also enjoy a contemporary exhibit
on “Jewish Life in Germany Today,” initiated and sponsored by the German Embassy in
Washington and co-organized by Stroum JCC and the Consulate General of Germany in
San Francisco. On March 22nd, Closing Night will take place in the SJCC’s Cultural
Arts venue, which opened last year following an extensive renovation.
Every year, the festival tries to screen LGBTQ with Jewish themes, characters and artists
involved. This year, they’ve curated a package of terrific short films under the umbrella title
“Gay Gezunt! LGBTQ Short Film Series” which screens on Sunday, March 15, 2015 at 3pm
at AMC Pacific Place. The four films are:
Facing Fear- In this Academy Award-nominated short documentary, a former neo-Nazi
and the gay victim of his hate-crime attack meet by chance 25 years later at the Museum
of Tolerance.
Summer Vacation (Hofesh Gadol) – Yuval’s idyllic family vacation is interrupted by the
appearance of a man from his past, leading to a series of revelations and an unexpected
love triangle.
Zazaland – On the evening of his arranged engagement to a Georgian woman, Gur, a
closeted gay man, must decide whether to keep his true identity a secret for his family’s
sake or reveal the truth.
The Seder – When openly gay Leo decides to bring his boyfriend to his family’s
Passover Seder, the boundaries of love and understanding get a little strained.
There’s a ton of other great films to check out as well, including documentaries on some terrific
entertainers like Sophie Tucker, David Brenner and Marvin Hamlisch. Check out the entire
line-up at their website.
Click to read online: http://seattlegayscene.com/2015/03/20th-annual-seattle-jewish-film-festival-
features-gay-films/

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
Cheap Week Seattle: March 9–15
Hip-hop collective Doomtree takes Neumos, Seattle Jewish Film Festival returns for
year 20, and the female spirit of Bell Jar: the best ways to spend your week without
spending much.
Published Mar 9, 2015, 12:00pm
By Atoosa Moinzadeh
...
Mar 14–Mar 22
Jewish Film Festival
Now in its 20th year, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival offers a glimpse at the spirit and
the struggles of Jewish and Israeli people. This year’s lineup features an exploration
of Israeli-German relations in Hanna’s Journey, the Golden Globe–nominated drama
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, and a Matzoh Momma brunch screening of the
baseball documentary Havana Curveball. Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, $12
Click to read online: http://www.seattlemet.com/arts-and-entertainment/culture-fiend/articles/cheap-
week-seattle-march-9-15-2015

Seattle Jewish Film Festival turns 20
By Valeria Koulikova
Tuesday, March 10, 2015 11:18 AM
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival (SJFF) is celebrating 20
years of being one of the biggest and most anticipated annual
Jewish events in the Pacific Northwest. Over the years, SJFF
has not only become the platform to showcase Jewish cinema
from all over the world but has also become a valuable part of
the Seattle community.
From the well-known Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF)
to local coffee shops here on Queen Anne and to finally
opening its own Dolby Digital 350-seat theater on Mercer
Island last year, SJFF has spread its roots all across the
Greater Seattle area.
“We built community and collaborations, and we have so many
partners,” said SJFF director Pamela Lavitt. “We have the
SIFF, the treasure to this community; Glazer’s Camera was
one of the first sponsors back in 1995; and the Hotel Max. I could go on about all these amazing
partnerships that have created huge numbers of relationship between both Jewish and non-Jewish
businesses.”
A ‘complex, mixed’ heritage
Originally founded by the American Jewish Community of
Seattle (AJC) in 1995, SJFF’s mission was to teach tolerance
and educate the community about Jewish ethnicity, as well as
fight anti-Semitism. Since then, the Stroum Jewish Community
Center (SJCC) took the festival under its wing. Now, it aims to
get more people to connect to the Jewish journey and to help
people understand the complexity and diversity of the Jewish
identity.
While SJFF has evolved internally and locally, so has the
Jewish and Israeli cinema that the festival brings to its fans,
who come from all over the Pacific Northwest year after year.
What started out as an imitation cinema, deriving its material
from the greats such as Quentin Tarantino, the Israeli market
has recently begun to experiment with new genres like noir and
horror. Comedy has also become a big part of Jewish cinema
all around the world.
A scene from “Run Boy Run,” which plays at
SIFF Uptown on Wednesday, March 18. Photo
courtesy of A Bittersuess Pictures
A scene from Uruguay's "Mr. Kaplan" closes
the Seattle Jewish Film Festival on March 22.
Photo courtesy of A Menemsha Films

A niche market that has mostly been associated with the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
the Jewish cinema has grown to produce films that offer a much deeper understanding of the intricate
issue of Jewish identity that goes far beyond the walls of Israel. And some of these films now proudly hold
the title of Academy Award and Golden Globe nominees.
“Most people here don’t think of Jews as being complex or mixed,” Lavitt said. “Most people don’t know
that Jewish people come from Iraq or that you can be both black and Jewish at the same time.”
This 20th birthday carries an even greater significance for the Seattle area as the newly released study
conducted by the Brandeis University revealed a 70-percent increase in the Jewish population since
2001. JSFF offers its community and those interested in learning more about it a 10-day immersion into
the Jewish culture and its identity.
Festival highlights
This year’s theme is “Here, There and Everywhere,” celebrating international and local Jewish cinema
that has come across the festival’s doorstep over all these years. This year, the festival will feature 32
films from 10 countries around the globe.
SJFF opens on Saturday, March 14, at the AMC Pacific Place 11 in Downtown Seattle with “Hanna’s
Journey.” The story’s about a romance that sparks between a German student in Israel and her
charismatic Israeli colleague, which touches upon today’s generation’s struggle of dealing with the
memory of the Holocaust and how these young people learn to communicate in the wake of history. The
film was chosen to honor the celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relationship between Germany and
Israel.
The opening night will also feature a special exhibit, “Jewish Life in Germany,” which tells stories of
Jewish people who live in Germany today.
The night will commence with a dessert party hosted by Tom Douglas.
On Monday, March 16, the festival is returning to Queen Anne’s own SIFF Uptown (511 Queen Ave. N.).
A French-German “Run Boy Run” screening on Wednesday, March 18, is a must-see of the festival. It is a
Holocaust story that’s told through the eyes of an 8-year-old who struggles to keep true to his Jewish
identity while trying to survive and avoid being caught by the Nazis.
“Little White Lie,” showing on March 19, is a documentary about Lacey Schwartz, whose parents divorce
and she begins to dig deep into her family secret that forces her to redefine her identity. Queen Anne
resident Erik Dugger, the editor of the documentary, will be in attendance for a post-film Q&A.
The festival will conclude at SJCC on Mercer Island. On March 21, don’t miss the Golden Globe nominee
“GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem.” The film is about an Israeli woman who tries to file for divorce
from her cruel and unloving husband but is, instead, put on trial by Israel’s religiously based marriage
laws.
The closing night on March 22 features Uruguay’s “Mr. Kaplan,” a witty comedy about Mr. Kaplan’s
investigation of a local bar owner whom he suspects of being a Nazi. Together with his friend, a good-
hearted former policeman, they embark on a journey for justice.
‘Mission accomplished’
Don’t be quick to disregard the festival if you are not Jewish. The SJFF is the third-largest and second-
longest independent film festival in Seattle, with 200 volunteers and community members working on it
annually.
“We do it for [the] passion in bringing our community together, not money,” Lavitt said. “The mission has
truly been accomplished. We have volunteers and community members that make this happen. Jewish

films will continue to flow, and Jewish film festivals are a great place to see them. You don’t have to be
Jewish to like our great films.”
For ticket information and the full schedule, visit www.seattlejewishfilmfestival.org.
To comment on this story, write to QAMagNews@nwlink.com.
Click to read online: http://queenannenews.com/Content/News/Breaking-News/Article/Seattle-Jewish-
Film-Festival-turns-20/26/539/37242

A Documentary Sampler From the Seattle Jewish Film Festival
Accessible approaches to an ancient, amorphous whole.
By Brian Miller Tue., Mar 10 2015 at 06:09PM
Judaism, like any major religion, has too much history to digest readily. For that reason, while the
Seattle Jewish Film Festival includes far more than its documentaries, they provide bite-sized
morsels—or approaches, really—to an ancient, amorphous whole. First, however, let’s stipulate that
the 20th SJFF includes social and musical events, fun profiles of composer Marvin Hamlisch and
comic performers David Steinberg and Sophie Tucker, plus acclaimed new dramas that open and
close the fest (Hanna’s Journey and Mr. Kaplan, respectively). But among 30-plus films screening over
10 days, here’s an historical, nonfiction selection.
Because I love all World War II movies, Above and
Beyond provides a fascinating postscript to one
conflict while also launching a new national chapter.
There was no Israeli Air Force when—before Israeli
statehood was declared in ’48—the Brits pulled out
of Palestine and five Arab countries stood poised to
invade. What I didn’t know about post-WWII history
is that U.S. pilots of the Jewish faith—and others—
would later resume their military careers in surplus
old aircraft purchased despite an American arms
embargo. As octogenarian L.A. native Lou Lenart
recalls with due irony, he and his fellow flyers ended
up in German-designed fighters, wearing secondhand Luftwaffe uniforms, battling the Egyptians’
superior British-made planes. The odds were completely against them. On the ground, before and
after the first Arab-Israeli war, there was enough black-market intrigue to warrant a feature film: fake
airlines, illegal arms shipments, and bored, horny pilots boozing and carousing from New York’s
Copacabana nightclub to Panama to Rome before they even reached combat. An affecting and
unexpected cameo comes from Pee-Wee Herman (aka Paul Reubens), whose Hollywood stunt-pilot
father was shot down in combat. Dangling in his parachute, speaking not a word of Hebrew, that
pilot saved his skin from Israeli groundfire in an incident that almost plays like a comedy routine
when read by Reubens from his father’s diary. Nancy Spielberg—yes, sister of Steven—is the film’s
producer. (1 p.m. Sun., March 22.)
Steven Spielberg’s own family is famously diverse and inclusive, though more intentionally so than
that of the middle-class Schwartz clan in liberal Woodstock, New York. There, the only child in a
Jewish household, Lacey Schwartz eventually grew curious during the ’90s as to why—apart from
her father’s supposedly dark Sicilian lineage—her skin tone didn’t match her parents’. As we see
Fighter pilot Dani Shapira in Above and Beyond.
Playmount Productions

Little White Lie, director Schwartz has surely
experienced some of the same mixed-race confusion of
her fellow Harvard Law grad Barack Obama. What
makes her film so confounding is that she didn’t guess
her secret parentage until college. Her filmmaking
voyage of self-discovery—after “a lifetime of lies”—
recalls the locally made A Lot Like You, seen at SIFF
’11, by Eliachi Kimaro. Here Schwartz tenderly reaches
toward a family reconciliation that may never come.
(6:30 p.m. Thurs., March 19.)
On a national scale, reconciliation also seems
impossible in the evenhanded Holy Land, filmed by
Peter Cohn in the occupied West Bank during 2011–12.
At the film’s start, there’s the fresh optimistic glow of
the Arab Spring, as Palestinian villagers seek redress in
Israeli courts against the illegal land-grabs of Israeli
settlers. In Wisemanesque fashion, Cohn allows both
sides to speak for themselves: the Arabs grouse about water and electricity shortages; the settlers
exude a kind of Aquarian zealotry. Meanwhile a dogged Peace Now activist tries to usher both
parties into judicial process; and we see how the inevitable stones-versus-tear gas protests can have
fatal consequences. Then the positions harden into a frozen conflict that seems destined to outlast
the Cold War. A smiling, hippie-dippy L.A. settler casually dismisses “some Arab mob” in racist
shorthand; and a cheerful, tech-savvy young Palestinian blogger finally joins the enraged Islamist
protesters at a cousin’s funeral. You’re left with the grim sense that integrating North and South
Korea will be child’s play compared to this. (8:20 p.m. Sun., March 15.)
A more personal but frustratingly elusive view of Israel’s violent birth comes from Write Down,
I’m an Arab, a rather too laudatory profile of the Palestinian revolutionary poet Mahmoud Darwish
(1941–2008). Displaced as a child by the 1948 nakba, Darwish was later a PLO member and ’70s
confidante of Yasser Arafat. He spent half his life in exile, the darling of European leftists, traveling
among various cities and gathering an international string of lovers. Two women, an Israeli Jew and
a Syrian Christian, talk intimately about their old paramour, but we get little sense of the man
beyond newsreels and dull, heroic poetry gone hopelessly out of fashion. Fond of booze, women,
and cigarettes, Darwish and his secular company have been totally eclipsed by Hamas and ISIS. An
ex-wife lovingly calls him “my tragic poet,” like some dated figure from the 19th-century Romantics.
It’s hard to see what future significance he’ll have in the funda-fied Middle East. (4 p.m. Thurs.,
March 19.)
Down in South Africa, however, we can surely still draw inspiration from the example of Albie
Sachs, a white Jewish member of the ANC who barely survived a government assassination attempt
in 1988. Soft Vengeance relates how this stoic, loyal colleague of Nelson Mandela endured
imprisonment, exile, and the loss of an arm and eye with remarkably little bitterness. Among his
admirers here are retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nadine Gordimer, and the Notorious R.B.G.
herself—Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg! (A documentary about her is surely forthcoming.) Appointed
by Mandela to South Africa’s highest court, the now-retired jurist Sachs recovered from divorce,
wrote his memoirs (the basis for this movie), and married again. The final beach scenes with his
Schwartz at her bat mitzvah in Little White Lie.
littlewhiteliethefilm.com

second wife and young son show that, even after apartheid, a fresh start is still possible. Alfre
Woodard narrates. (8:10 p.m. Tues., March 17; director Abby Ginzberg will attend.)
bmiller@seattleweekly.com
SEATTLE JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL Runs Sat., March 14–Sun., March 22 at Pacific Place,
SIFF Cinema Uptown, and Stroum Jewish Community Center (Mercer Island). $5–$18. Tickets &
info: 324-9996, seattlejewishfilmfestival.org.
Click to read online: http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/957223-129/a-documentary-sampler-from-
the-seattle

FILM >FEATURE
Featured in this Year’s Seattle Jewish Film
Festival Is A Borrowed Identity, a Film About
the Complex Identity of an Arab Israeli
by Kathy Fennessy
MAR 11, 2015
ccording to a statistic that opens Eran Riklis’s coming-of-age film, which plays as
part of this year’s Seattle Jewish Film Festival, “20 percent of Israel’s citizens are
Arab.” Drawing from Sayed Kashua’s semiautobiographical novel Dancing Arabs,
Riklis (The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree) focuses on Eyad, a sensitive young man navigating his
identity as an ethnic minority in the 1980s and 1990s.
Everyone in Tira considers Eyad a genius, but his future is unclear. When his father, Salah
(Ali Suliman), isn’t picking fruit, he's fighting for Palestinian liberation. Eyad tells people he’s
a terrorist, but Salah describes himself as a warrior.
A

When Eyad (Tawfeek Barhom in an effectively low-key performance) moves to Jerusalem
for boarding school, he’s fulfilling a dream Salah couldn’t due to his political activities, but
he’s more of a minority than ever: struggling to speak Hebrew (he pronounces Deep Purple
"Deeb Burble"), studying the Bible, eating Western foods.
As part of a volunteer program, he also provides companionship to Yonatan (Lebanon's
Michael Moshonov), a punk kid with muscular dystrophy, whose sarcasm contrasts with
Eyad’s polite reserve. Yonatan and his mother, Edna (Yaël Abecassis), become a second
family.
By the 1990s, Eyad has a girlfriend (Danielle Kitzis), but he has to keep the relationship
secret as his ethnicity continues to attract unwanted attention. Riklis follows him from
school and beyond, during which time he finds his voice and makes decisions that perplex
his parents—just like any free-thinking young man anywhere.
On the surface, A Borrowed Identity isn’t a political film, but Riklis’s decision not to take sides
is, in and of itself, a political move. His choice not to judge Salah, for instance, doesn’t
excuse or endorse terrorism. He’s simply more interested in his role as a father, but Salah
also represents the past, and this guardedly optimistic film pins its hopes for the future on
nonviolent assimilationists like Eyad.
Click to read online: http://www.thestranger.com/film/features/2015/03/11/21864961/featured-in-
this-years-seattle-jewish-film-festival-is-a-borrowed-identity-a-film-about-the-complex-identity-of-an-
arab-israeli

20th annual Jewish Film Festival to begin
this weekend
By REPORTER STAFF, Mercer Island Reporter Staff
Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 9:00 AM
Across nations, languages, religions and cultures,
Jewish film opens a window into new narratives,
perspectives and ways of living; confirming shared
stories, cultural connections, and common
humanity.
The 20th annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival, a
program of Mercer Island's Stroum Jewish
Community Center (SJCC), showcases films from
“Here, There, and Everywhere” — this year’s
theme — welcoming films from around the globe
and around the corner, and presenting audiences
with unique journeys to destinations both near and
far.
The festival is the largest Jewish event in the
Pacific Northwest and one of the largest and most
prominent Jewish film festivals in the country.
Opening Night on March 14 features the German-
Israeli coproduction “Hanna’s Journey,” a refreshing
look at how a third generation is coping with the
legacy of the German-Israeli historical relationship
on the 50th anniversary of the two countries’
diplomatic relations.
Attendees at Opening Night will also enjoy a contemporary exhibit on “Jewish Life in Germany
Today,” initiated and sponsored by the German Embassy in Washington and coordinated by the
SJCC and the Consulate General of Germany in San Francisco. Closing Night, March 22, will
take place in the SJCC’s Cultural Arts venue, which opened last year following an extensive
renovation.
A special event and annual favorite, the Matzoh Momma Brunch and Family Film, includes a
timely documentary on U.S.-Cuban relations through the lens of the two nations’ common sport
and favorite pastime,“Havana Curveball.”
2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the Seattle Jewish
Film Festival. Several international films are featured
this year. The festival is one of the largest of its kind in
the country. The week-long event opens March 14.
— image credit: Contributed Image

The annual Senior Screening, slated for Friday, March 20, features “Marvin Hamlisch: What He
Did For Love,” and is priced for low-income seniors age 65+ at $5 per person. Caregivers and
family members are welcome to join in at the same low rate.
A full schedule of screenings and special events is available online at
www.seattlejewishfilmfestival.org. Single tickets are $12 general admission; various discounts
available. Special events cost $20. Passes cost between $90 and $250. All proceeds support
the Seattle Jewish Film Festival.
Sponsorship levels and benefits are available online or by contacting the Festival Director at
sjff@sjcc.org or 206-388-0832.
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival is a program of the Stroum Jewish Community Center.
Venues include AMC Pacific Place 11, SIFF Cinema Uptown and SJCC on Mercer Island.
Click to read online: http://www.mi-reporter.com/community/295784261.html#

SEATTLE JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
Twenty years in film, coming to a theater
near you
Mar 12, 2015
As the Seattle Jewish Film Festival gets underway, here are more small reviews to get you to the
latter part of the week. You can find more of our reviews online at jewishsound.org, and you’ll find
ticketing information for all of the films at www.seattlejewishfilmfestival.org.
These are the venues:
SIFF Uptown Theatre, 511 Queen Anne Ave., Seattle
AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine St., Seattle
Stroum Jewish Community Center, 3801 E Mercer Way, Mercer Island
One correction: The screenings of “Quality Balls” and “Hannah Cohen’s Holy Communion” on
Mon., March 16 begin at 8:45 p.m., not earlier, as noted in reviews run in the previous issue. Please
make a note as you plan your festival screenings.
“Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love”
Dir. Dori Berinstein (U.S., UK, 2013)
Friday, March 20, 1:30 p.m. at the SJCC Mercer Island
The story of the late Marvin Hamlisch, a child piano prodigy-turned-Pulitzer Prize-winning
composer and conductor, is recalled by Tony-winning director Dori Berinstein in this adoring
tribute. Hamlisch was the son of Viennese Jews who fled Austria for Manhattan before World War
II and died in 2012 at 68. Hamlisch, whose work scored three Oscars, four Emmys, and four
Grammys, is seen in film clips from various points in his career depicting how music’s “triple-
threat” approached and honed his craft. Berinstein weaves a slew of interviews with so many of
Hamlisch’s collaborators, a list that includes Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, Carly Simon, Steven
Soderbergh, Woody Allen, and other Broadway greats. Each reminiscences with personal stories and
anecdotes. The film concludes with a collage of people singing snippets of his songs, serving as a
reminder of the number of people Hamlisch and his work inspired.
— Boris Kurbanov

Bulletproof Stockings
Dir. Sarah Berkovich (U.S., 2014)
Sat., March 21, 6:20 p.m. at the Stroum JCC, Mercer Island
Screens with “David Broza: East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem
Imagine the front rows at a Kathleen Hanna
concert, except with all-Jewish women instead.
This is what can be seen at concerts by the
Hasidic alt-rock band Bulletproof Stockings,
composed of musicians Perl Wolf and Dalia
Shusterman. This short documentary by Sarah
Berkovich provides an interesting, though
incomplete glimpse into the lives of the band
members and their music.
Since there are no men present at Bulletproof
Stocking concerts, the performances conjure an
energetic, slightly rebellious spirit similar to a feminist punk-rock band, but with an added dash of
Chabad. Drummer Dalia Shusterman’s story is particularly engaging here — a musician who toured
with her secular band, then completely changed her life’s path after realizing she could no longer
stand the stereotypical party lifestyle.
The film also reveals the inspirational power of choosing an audience, and explores the additional
artistic and creative benefits of being a woman who writes and performs for women only.
Filmmaker Berkovich has chosen a promising subject in these artists, and with the film clocking in at
less than 10 minutes, there is clearly enough material in the story of Bulletproof Stockings for this
documentary to be developed further and with greater comprehension.
— Erin Pike
“David Broza: East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem”
Dirs: Henrique Cymerman and Erez Miller (Israel, 2014)
Saturday, March 21, 6:20 p.m. at the SJCC Mercer Island
At a time when Israelis and Palestinians are more divided than ever, “East Jerusalem/West
Jerusalem,” a fusion of Israeli, Palestinian and American musicians, serves as proof that music can

unite a people in conflict. Singer/songwriter
David Broza, known for using music to bring
together Israelis and Palestinians, has worked for
nearly four decades as a peace activist. In the
1980s, Broza wrote “Yihye Tov” (Things Will
Get Better), the hit song that became the
anthem of the peace process following Israel’s
historic negotiations with Egypt. For this bridge-
building (and crowdfunded) harmony project,
co-directors Henrique Cymerman and Erez
Miller recruited music heavyweights that include
Grammy winner Steve Earle (who produced the
studio sessions) and Wyclef Jean, who co-wrote the title track. Cymerman and Miller cover the
making of Broza’s album and eight-day musical journey in Jerusalem with Palestinian and Israeli
artists, who work, sing, play and revel in Middle Eastern fare. Together they blend moving music
and discuss hope in a time and a place where hope and optimism are sorely lacking.
— Boris Kurbanov
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Ansalem
Dir. Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz (U.S.,UK,Israel, 2014)
Sat., March 21, 8:30 p.m. at the Stroum JCC Mercer Island
(Jewniverse via JTA) — In Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz’s film “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Ansalem,”
the heroine of the title finds herself imprisoned in a system that makes no sense: Her marriage and
the legal system meant to help her get out of it.
In Israel, marriages are still governed by religious
courts, whether or not the couple is Orthodox.
For a couple to divorce, a man must agree to the
separation and serve his wife a get. If he refuses,
the wife becomes an agunah, a chained woman
— wanting out of her marriage but bound to her
husband. The film follows Viviane (played by
writer/director Ronit Elkabetz) as her husband
refuses her a get, and their case languishes five
years in rabbinic courts.
We see Viviane often not on her own terms, as a woman fighting an antiquated system, but through
the gaze of the many men who observe her in the courtroom: In their eyes she is sexualized,
irrational and negligent, but rarely human. If the film sometimes suffers from an imitative fallacy —
dragging to make us feel how the trial drags for Viviane — it succeeds in painting the torturous
portrait of a woman’s will to be free.
— Leah Falk

Jewniverse is a daily email list and blog featuring extraordinary, inspirational, forgotten and just-plain-strange
dispatches from Jewish culture, tradition and history. Sign up at www.TheJewniverse.com.
Above and Beyond: The Birth of the Israeli Air Force
Dir: Roberta Grossman (U.S., 2014)
Sunday, March 22, 1 p.m. at the SJCC Mercer Island
The story is like something out of a Hollywood script: In 1948, after Israel realized it was
surrounded by hostile Arab nations ready to attack, the strategy was to assemble — and quickly —
an air force that could contend with its neighbors, specifically Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi
Arabia and Iraq. For the government, which had few battle-tested troops and minimal funds to
acquire arms, taking on these nations militarily and winning seemed a tall order. That is, until a
volunteer group of veteran World War II pilots stepped in, ready to help Israel in its hour of need.
These heroes, called Mahalniks, not only became the nucleus of Israel’s nascent air force, but helped
turn the momentum of the war and helped Israel maintain its independence.
Director Roberta Grossman tracked down and
interviewed the surviving pilots, now in their 80s
and 90s, to tell their daring story of smuggling war
planes, eluding the FBI, setting up phony offices,
and even hiding weapons in unlikely places, all in
the name of protecting a nation’s existence.
Grossman blends interviews with the pilots,
scholars and Israeli officials to present the little-
known yet powerful tale that led former Israeli
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to describe the
Mahalniks’ mission as “the Diaspora’s most
important contribution to the survival of Israel.”
— Boris Kurbanov
Click to view online: http://jewishsound.org/twenty-years-in-film-coming-to-a-theater-near-you/

Entertainment | Movies
Seattle Jewish Film Festival to feature films on
Marvin Hamlisch, David Steinberg, kids in Cuba
Originally published March 12, 2015 at 6:15 am | Updated March 12, 2015 at 8:44 am
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival celebrates its 20th year with some 32 films
from 10 countries. It runs March 14-22, 2015, at several venues.
By John Hartl
Special to The Seattle Times
A teen no longer, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival celebrates its 20th year this month at several
locations.
From March 14-22, some 32 films from 10 countries will be screened. Subjects range from the
Zionist movement in 1950s Baghdad to the Holocaust to a spy comedy.
Documentaries include biopics about Marvin Hamlisch, David Broza, David Steinberg, Theodore
Bikel and Sophie Tucker, whose considerable talent for showbiz self-promotion and reinvention is
the true subject of “The Outrageous Sophie Tucker” (3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 22, Stroum
Jewish Community Center, 3801 E. Mercer Way, Mercer Island).
Also among the special events is Nancy Spielberg’s “Above and Beyond,” a fascinating, well-
researched documentary about Israel’s 1948 David-and-Goliath battle with better-equipped Arabs.
Produced by Steven Spielberg’s sister, it includes other Spielbergs in the closing credits (1 p.m.
Sunday, March 22, SJCC).
A Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, is the subject of “Write Down, I’m an Arab” (4 p.m.
Thursday, March 19, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle). The screening will
be followed by a discussion. The documentary “Holy Land” includes the voices of Jews and
Palestinians on today’s West Bank (8:20 p.m. Sunday, March 22, Pacific Place, 600 Pine St., Seattle).

“A Borrowed Identity” deals with the dilemma of being an Arab teenager in 1980s Israel. It’s
based on “Dancing Arabs,” an evocative 2002 novel by Sayed Kashua that became a best-seller (5
p.m. Sunday, March 15, Pacific Place).
“Run Boy Run,” the true story of an 8-year-old boy who escapes the Nazis, partly by denying his
Jewish identity, may seem like a faint echo of the less sentimental “Europa Europa,” but it has some
impressively suspenseful moments (6:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 18, Uptown).
Opening night (7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14, Pacific Place) includes a romantic drama, “Hanna’s
Journey,” about a German student and an Israeli woman. The evening begins with a 6:30 p.m.
happy hour and ends with a dessert reception.
The festival’s annual Matzoh Momma brunch will include a screening of “Havana Curveball,”
which won a documentary award at last month’s Seattle Children’s Film Festival. The charming tale
of a baseball fan who tries to connect with Cuban sports fans, it’s well worth the repeat screening
(9:30 a.m. Sunday, March 15, Pacific Place).
“Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa” has been collecting festival prizes for
its portrait of anti-apartheid forces (8:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, Uptown).
The closing-night program (5:40 p.m. Sunday, March 22, SJCC)begins with a short, “The Funeral,”
and continues with the feature-length Uruguayan comedy “Mr. Kaplan,” about a World War II
veteran who suspects a neighbor of being a Nazi. It was Uruguay’s entry in this year’s Oscar
competition for best foreign film.
Also in that category is Israel’s “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem.” A Golden Globe nominee
for best foreign film, it’s the story of a would-be divorcee who runs into trouble with Israel’s
marriage laws (8:30 p.m. Saturday, March 21, SJCC).
Among the many shorts in the festival are “Facing Fear,” about a neo-Nazi and his gay victim, and
“Zazaland,” about a Georgian family’s gay son (both playing on the same program at 3 p.m.
Sunday, March 15, Pacific Place).
Seattle Jewish Film Festival 2015
March 14-22, various locations; tickets range from $5 for senior matinees to $250 for a full series
pass (206-388-0833 or seattlejewishfilmfestival.org).
Click to read online: http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/the-2015-seattle-jewish-film-festival-
turns-20/

A JEWISH JOURNEY
6 Movies to See at the Seattle Jewish Film Festival
The Jewish Film Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary with a terrific lineup.
Published Mar 12, 2015, 11:30am
By Bernard Ellouk
Run Boy Run highlights the Seattle Jewish Film Festival lineup.
This year, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary. As the second oldest and
largest film festival in Seattle (trailing only SIFF on both accounts), SJFF has been host to dozens of
award-winning films, including several Oscar winners and nominees. Over the years it has provided a
platform for Jewish identity, which SJFF director Pamela Lavitt says is “about a journey, and the festival
serves as an entry point.” A fitting point given this year’s theme—Here, There and Everywhere—which
attempts to capture the diaspora of Jewish people in strange places, while also trying to present a deeper
understanding of the State of Israel. While the festival is billed as a one centered around Jewish Identity,
its films transcend the cultural wrapping. With 32 films from 10 countries, it has no shortage of diversity.
Here are six recommendations from this year’s impressive SJFF offerings.
Run Boy Run
SIFF Cinema Uptown
Wed, Mar 18 at 6:15

Academy Award-winner Pepe Danquart directs a harrowing film based on the real life story of Yoram
Fridman, who escaped the Warsaw Ghetto when he was 8 years old. Disguising his Jewish identity by
taking the name Jurek Srulik, Fridman must survive in the woods and avoid SS capture. Venturing out as
a Polish Christian; Srulik is taken in numerous times by generous locals who risk their lives to protect
him. The film’s visual composition is nothing short of incredible, capturing the magnificence and solitude
of the Polish landscape. But even more strikingly, the camera preserves a proximity and vertical
relationship with Fridman, maintaining for the audience his feelings of inferiority. Danquart is a master at
expanding on that tension; keeping it alive in subtle, but distressing manner, where the viewer feels that at
any moment Fridman might be found out. It breaks your heart and builds it up again.
Havana Curveball
AMC Pacific Place 11
Sun, Mar 15 at 11am
“It’s about doing the right thing in a complicated adult world.” That’s how director Marcia Jarmel
encapsulates Havana Curveball, a documentary she shot with her husband, Ken Schneider. When their
son Mica decides to begin sending baseball equipment to Cuba, a cinematic chronicle of his endeavors
soon adds layers about an isolated country with a strange relationship to a superpower. This coming-of-
age documentary combines baseball, a story of growth, and social justice education. As Mica begins to
see the barriers to doing good, he never falters. His journey takes him and his parents all the way to Cuba,
where the cost of the embargo becomes apparent. He realizes that while doing something good is not
always easy or simple, it is always worthwhile.
Holy Land
Sun, Mar 15 at 8:20
Objective empathy. If there’s a film that can reconcile those two seemingly contradictive terms, it’s Holy
Land. Veteran New York documentarian Peter Cohen captures the lives and perspectives of six
individuals on the two sides of the West Bank crisis. In the first ten minutes Cohen takes us through his
cast of characters as idyllic fields quickly become battlegrounds. Cohen is able to capture the tension of
the West Bank, a place where the violence is a looming consequence of daily life. His subjects show a
wide berth of opinions that add incredible depth and complexity to an already profound issue. To his
credit, Cohen never settles on a position, but is constantly shifting his focus in order to empathize with the
diverse sentiments of those most affected by Israeli’s settlement policy. It’s a film he says is meant “for
the hopeless,” those who seem to think no peace can ever come to an area plagued by historical
disagreement. Holy Land is a challenge, but it’s one worth taking.
Above and Beyond
Stroum Jewish Community Center, Mercer Island
Sun, Mar 22 at 1
Directed by Roberta Grossman and produced by Nancy Spielberg, Above and Beyond tells the story of the
unknown World War II pilots that left their countries and families to form Israeli’s first Air Force to
defend against the impending Arab invasion. Risking their lives and citizenships, pilots, and sympathizers
shuttled planes and equipment across the globe in a grand scheme to bypass a U.S. arms embargo on
Israel. Once organized, the poorly equipped Air Force managed to push back the five Arab armies. Using
testimonials from the pilots themselves coupled seamlessly with archival footage, the Above and Beyond
provides a thrilling snapshot of an unheralded story from a heavily surveyed period of history.

Mr. Kaplan
Stroum Jewish Community Center
Sun, Mar 22 at 5:40
A colorful and heartwarming film, Mr. Kaplan finds a 76-year-old man taking on the role of amateur
detective when he begins to suspect that a German café owner is a former Nazi hiding out in Uruguay.
Jacob Kaplan (Hector Noguera),with help from his sidekick Wilson Contreras (Nestor Guzzini), bases his
would-be investigation on a series of irrelevant and circumstantial bits of evidence (kids call the suspect a
Nazi because of his strict demeanor and penchant for serving frozen fish). A late-life crisis if there ever
was one, Kaplan struggles with feelings of inferiority when he realizes he hasn’t achieved as much as
Winston Churchill or Goethe. The film’s humor transcends its Spanish language boundaries thanks to
fantastic acting from both Noguera and Guzzini.
Gay Gezunt! LGBTQ Short Film Series
Sun, Mar 15 at 3
Facing Fear
A 2013 Academy Award nominee for the Best Documentary Short Subject category, Facing Fear is a
brilliant portrayal of the complexities of forgiveness. At the age of 13, Matthew Boger was thrown out by
his mother for being gay and forced to subsist on the boulevards of Hollywood, where he is nearly beaten
to death by a group of skinheads. A quarter century later, Matthew works at a center for communicating
forgiveness, where he finds himself on the phone with a reformed skinhead. The two come to realize
their shared connection to that night. Nearly three decades from the day Matthew reunites with Tim Zaal,
one of the attackers that nearly killed him. The film explores their reconciliation and Tim’s transformation
from skinhead to an advocate for forgiveness.
Committing to a short film is a commitment to precision. In this case, Director Jason Cohen leaves
nothing on the table. It’s direct, uncompromising, and perfectly encapsulating. That’s not to say it’s a
comfortable film. Cohen characterized it as more about “the process” than forgiveness, where you’ll have
to reconcile with the “humanity of both victim and the perpetrator.” He does just that. Whether or not you
want to forgive Tim, you’ll be forced to confront his repentance.
Other films to consider: A Borrowed Identity, Almost Friends, Write Down I’m an Arab, Little White
Lie, Zazaland, and Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem.
Seattle Jewish Film Festival 2015
Mar 14–22, Various venues, single tickets $12–$20, festival pass $100–$250
Click to view online: http://www.seattlemet.com/arts-and-entertainment/culture-fiend/articles/six-
movies-to-see-at-the-seattle-jewish-film-festival-march-2015

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