Films and Art...For a Jewish July
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| Castro Theatre, San Francisco |
With the new Contemporary Jewish Museum open and showing three vibrant exhibits, and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) gearing up for its annual blitz of fabulous films, July is the month to explore Jewish culture.
The Jewish Film Festival has been called the “other” Jewish holiday – and for good reason. Each July, in four venues around the Bay Area, people gather for an annual ritual – to celebrate Jewish films. In its 28th year, the SFJFF is the original (and the largest) festival showcasing films about Jewish subject matter anywhere. Festival producers search the world for outstanding, unusual, and sometimes controversial, movies that inform, entertain and inspire.
The Festival will take place from July 24, when it kicks off at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, to August 11 at its final stop in San Rafael at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center. In between it will visit the Roda Theatre at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley and the CineArts @ Palo Alto Square in Palo Alto. A comprehensive listing of films and dates is available at www.sfjff.org.
The SFJFF includes a wide range of material on a variety of subjects, from full-length features and shorts, both humorous and serious, through documentaries. Each year, there is a focus on a specific area, and this year, in honor of Israel’s 60th anniversary, the festival will shine a spotlight on Israel’s multi-cultural diversity. In addition, this year’s festival will include a special program on Italian Jewish Cinema.
Besides movies, the SFJFF includes filmmakers and other special guests at certain screenings, panel discussions, and several opportunities for partying, including the ubiquitous opening and closing festivities.
The mission of the festival is threefold: to promote awareness and appreciation of the diversity of the Jewish people; to provide a dynamic and inclusive forum for exploration of and dialogue about the Jewish experience; and to encourage independent filmmakers working with Jewish themes. Besides the annual festival, SFJFF sponsors films throughout the year.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum, which opened to wide acclaim in June, houses Jewish-themed exhibitions in a building designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. Melding a modern blue steel cube into the façade of the historic power station in downtown San Francisco, the building itself is worth visiting. Inside, its three inaugural exhibits provide interpretations of Jewish life by visual and sound artists.
“In the Beginning: Artists Respond to Genesis” includes seven new commissions plus a number of historically important works that explore the changing understanding of the story of creation as depicted in Genesis, Chapter 1. “From The New Yorker to Shrek: The Art of William Steig” features a wide selection of original drawings from The New Yorker and Steig’s children’s books, as well as personal and family representations by the award-winning cartoonist. “John Zorn Presents the Aleph-Bet Sound Project,” the third exhibition, is comprised of original sound pieces by leading musicians and composers based on letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The CJM will offer a variety of educational opportunities, free exhibit and architectural tours, and “drop-in art-making,” for the whole family. Get the details at www.thecjm.org.
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