Jewish Film Series

JOIN US for Columbia Jewish Congregation’s (CJC) Fifteenth Season of Movies!

TICKET SALES WILL BEGIN AND DOORS WILL OPEN AT 7:30

Four evenings of thought-provoking, varied, entertaining films, including refreshments & optional discussion group.

Showings: Saturdays, 8:00 PM, Rm. 200, The Meeting House in Oakland Mills, Columbia, MD
$24 for 4-film series, $20 for 3-film series, $14 for 2-film series, $8.00 for single ticket
(Choice of films is yours and you need not choose in advance.)

(If any movie is cancelled because of snow, that movie will be shown at the end of the season – May or early June. Date will be announced later if it is needed.)

Provided as a Service to All in the Community

FYI: Each of the films being presented has been shown, or will be shown, at multiple Jewish film festivals around the country.
Note: All films are subject to change based upon availability.

January 20, 2007 Ushpizin (The Visitors) – 2004 – Israel – Yiddish & Hebrew w. English subtitles – 90 min. Winner of the 2004 Israeli “Oscars,” this entertaining, warm, clearheaded and well constructed film is equal parts Isaac Bashevis Singer, It’s A Wonderful Life, and Roseanne. During Sukkot, it is a custom that visitors who may need shelter and food are welcomed into a home. Here, everything goes wrong for an Israeli Orthodox Jewish couple when they take in two shady strangers. But because they are undergoing a financial crisis, and since they believe the guests were sent to them by God as a test of faith, the couple accept them into their house. This is the first film made by members of the Israeli ultra-Orthodox community and as such allows us a glimpse of Orthodox Jewish life. Especially interesting is how the wife develops into a woman of substance in her own right.

February 17, 2007 The Dybbuk – 1937 (Restoration version: 2004) – Poland – Yiddish w. English subtitles – 125 min. This beautifully restored film takes place in several small, remote eastern European shtetlach toward the end of the 19th century and contains various supernatural and folkloric elements that could be described as Hasidic grotesque or Hasidic gothic. It is considered to be a document of Yiddish theater and a watershed in Yiddish film. (Chicago Reader) Years after their parents had made a pledge that they marry, a young couple meets and fall in love. The father of the young man had long before perished, and the young woman’s father, forgetting his vow, keeps the two apart. This is their story of unfulfilled love, of broken promises and of the supernatural, as the Dybbuk, the persona of the youth, enters his beloved’s body and possesses her. (Rottentomatoes.com)

March 17, 2007 Watermarks – 2004 – Israel – English, Hebrew, and German w. English subtitles – 80 min. Winner of the Audience Awards for best documentary at: the Palm Springs International Film Festival (FF), Boston Jewish FF, Washington, D.C. Jewish FF, San Diego Jewish FF and the official 2005 New York Jewish FF Selection, this is the story of the champion women swimmers of the Jewish Hakoah (Hebrew for “strength”) in Vienna. Founded in 1909 because of Aryan rules forbidding Austrian sports clubs from accepting Jewish athletes, the women’s swim team became the “jewel in its crown.” In 1938 the Nazis shut down the club, and the swimmers all escaped before the Holocaust. Sixty-five years later, the director meets the team members in their homes around the world, learns about their lives, and arranges that they have a reunion and one more swim in their old swimming pool in Vienna. Many of our patrons suggested we show this film.

April 21, 2007 Only Human – 2004 – Spain/Argentina/Portugal/U.K. – Spanish w. English subtitles – 93 min. A favorite in numerous Jewish Film festivals, this breezy, black-comedy take on Meet the Parents/Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, is about Leni, member of a hyperactive, lovable but dysfunctional Jewish family, and her fiancé, whom everyone assumes is Jewish, but is actually Palestinian. A series of hilarious misunderstandings, zany characters (Leni’s newly Orthodox brother, a belly-dancing sister, a blind and rifle-toting Zionist grandfather) and a rapid-fire script combine to create a sharp, funny and heartwarming film, in which we learn about the abilities of human nature and love to test ethnic boundaries.
 

Have any questions? Call (410) 381-4809, S. Bloch.

Preferred Closing Signup Date: December 10, 2006