Low Moor
Virginia
Jewish Film Week is November 12 - 18, 2023
Arts and Entertainment
November 10, 2023
From: Sidewalk Film Center and CinemaJewish Film Week is November 12 - 18!
Sidewalk's Jewish Film Week is a cinematic exploration of Jewish culture, history, art, and life in Israel. The 2023 JFW will showcase 11 feature films (listed below) across the 7 day event, with most films screening twice.
Ticket packages coming in 4 (for $36) or 8 (for $68) tickets can be purchased and individual tickets are also available.
A Special Thank You to Our Sponsors!
Anonymous Community Sponsor, Birmingham Jewish Federation and Foundation, Sheri and Dr. Jimmy Krell via the Birmingham Jewish Foundation, The Bernice Barstein Fund at the Birmingham Jewish Foundation, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell, & Berkowitz, PC, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, The Joan & Milton Jacobson Cultural Arts Fund of the Grafman Endowment Fund, Bridget Sikora Realtor, Ray & Poynor Properties, Collat Jewish Family Services, Gail and Jeffrey Bayer, Leitman-Perlman Inc, Levite Jewish Community Center, N.E. Miles Jewish Day School, Southern Jewish Life, Temple Beth El, Temple Emanuel-El, and a special thanks to our Jewish Film Week community engagement chairs and board members, Sheri Krell and Jennifer Cordover.
Special Events:
November 12 | 2:00pm
Sidewalk Cinema
Rosenwald screening followed by virtual Q+A with director Aviva Kempner, moderated by Jonathan Horn.
November 13 | 6:30pm
Sidewalk Cinema
Nathan-ism screening followed by a community Q+A with two representatives from Collat Jewish Family Services
November 14 | 5:30pm
Sidewalk Cinema Lobby
FREE Grassroots Wine Tasting
November 15 | 7:00pm
Levite Jewish Community Center
FREE Rosenwald screening at the Levite Jewish Community Center thanks to generous support from a community sponsor
Rosenwald
Dir. Aviva Kempner
Aviva Kempner’s Rosenwald is the incredible story of Julius Rosenwald, who never finished high school, but rose to become the President of Sears. Influenced by the writings of the educator Booker T. Washington, this Jewish philanthropist joined forces with African American communities during the Jim Crow South to build over 5,300 schools during the early part of the 20th century.
Inspired by the Jewish ideals of tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (repairing the world), and a deep concern over racial inequality in America, Julius Rosenwald used his wealth to become one of America’s most effective philanthropists. Because of his modesty, Rosenwald’s philanthropy and social activism are not well known today. He gave away $62 million in his lifetime.
11/12 - 2:00pm
My Father's Secrets
Dir. Véra Belmont
Starring Michèle Bernier, Jacques Gamblin, Arthur Dupont
In the 60s, in Belgium, Michel and his brother Charly lived a happy childhood in their Jewish family. Their father, silent and discreet, did not reveal his past. The two brothers imagine him as a great adventurer, pirate, or treasure hunter....but what is he hiding? My Father's Secrets is an intimate, funny and thought-provoking film that focuses on a family's journey to reconciliation after facing the trauma of the Holocaust. Based on the autobiographical novel by Israeli author Michel Kichka.
11/12 - 4:30pm
11/18 - 2:00pm
June Zero
Dir. Jake Paltrow
Starring Tzahi Grad, Yoav Levi, Tom Hagi
The 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, a major architect of the Holocaust, is revisited in a gripping and surprising new vision from American filmmaker Jake Paltrow. Based on true accounts, June Zero is told from the unique perspectives of three largely unrelated figures: Eichmann’s Jewish Moroccan prison guard; an Israeli police investigator who also happens to be a Holocaust survivor and a precocious and clever 13-year-old Libyan immigrant. Largely shot on 16mm film, Paltrow’s vividly textured work reminds us that the same histories are often experienced differently by people all over the world, but that shared traumas can also create the strongest of bonds and lead to unexpected moments of triumph and greatness as well.
11/12 - 7:00pm
11/17 - 7:00pm
Lost Transport
Dir. Saskia Diesing
Starring Hanna van Vliet, Anna Bachmann, Eugenie Anselin
In the spring of 1945, a train deporting hundreds of Jewish prisoners gets stranded near a small German village occupied by the Red Army. Condemned to each other and in a context of deep mistrust, desperation and revenge, an unexpected friendship emerges between Russian sniper Vera, village girl Winnie and Jewish-Dutch woman Simone.
11/13 - 3:00pm
11/16 - 1:30pm
Nathan-ism
Dir. Elan Golod
At the end of World War II, Nathan Hilu, an 18-year-old Jewish US Army private from New York, was assigned to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials. For one year, Hilu kept suicide watch over Hermann Göring and Albert Speer and learned first-hand about the men and their crimes. Speer himself instructed Hilu to "…keep your eyes open and write what you see here..." With brutish lines and annotated pastel sketches, Hilu obsessively documented those memories for the next 70 years. Now in his 90s, Hilu still compulsively animates the very same stories. Filmmaker Elan Golod proposes a documentary portrait of the aging artist but what begins as a peek at a unique witness to history grows into an absorbing study of the function of art as archive and invention. Daring to question an artist’s stories, "Nathan-ism" is a fascinating look at one man’s need to share truths with a world that doesn’t always want to listen.
11/13 - 6:30pm
The Levys of Monticello
Dir. Steven Pressman
When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind a mountain of personal debt, which forced his heirs to sell his beloved Monticello home and all of its possessions. The Levys of Monticello is a documentary film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, which owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants. The remarkable story of the Levy family also intersects with the rise of antisemitism that runs throughout the course of American history.
11/14 - 3:00pm
11/18 - 6:30pm
The Klezmer Project
Dir. Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann
Starring Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann, Perla Sneh
A frustrated Jewish wedding cameraman falls in love with a klezmer clarinettist. To spend time with her, he fabricates a documentary project that takes him on a journey in search of the lost klezmer melodies safeguarded by the Romani of Eastern Europe.
11/14 - 6:30pm
11/15 - 4:00pm
35 Downhill
Dir. Yona Rozenkier
Starring Yoel Rozenkier, Shmuel Vilozni, Aviva Nagosa
Ben, his wife and their six-year old son, pay a short visit to Ben's parents in his native kibbutz in northern Israel. Ben has come to ask his father Albert, with whom he has a difficult relationship, for a simple signature in order to recover a family flat in Warsaw that was looted during the Second World War. Albert has other plans... On a whim, he bet a bottle of whisky that he could cross the country from north to south by tractor in less than a week. At a maximum speed of thirty-five kilometers per hour, father and son will finally get to know and love each other.
11/15 - 7:00pm
Rosenwald at the Levite Jewish Community Center (FREE!)
Dir. Aviva Kempner
*NOTE, THIS SCREENING IS IN THE SENIOR LOUNGE AT THE LEVITE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER.
This is a FREE screening thanks to generous support from a community sponsor*
11/15 - 7:00pm
Rabbi on the Block
Dir. Brad Rothschild
Tamar Manasseh, the charismatic rabbi and community activist from the south side of Chicago, wants African Americans and Jews to become closer allies. With one foot firmly in each of these two communities, Black Jews like Tamar are the natural bridge to help overcome decades of fear, misunderstanding, and lack of communication. Rabbi on the Block is a feature-length documentary film that will show how Manasseh brings together Jews of all colors and is building bridges that will serve as the foundation for a revitalized alliance of African Americans and Jews while creating a new style of activist Judaism that takes the religion out of the synagogue and into the streets.
11/16 - 4:15pm
11/17 - 4:30pm
A Serious Man
Also a part of Sidewalk Film 101
Dir. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed
Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.
11/16 - 7:00pm
11/19 - 2:00pm
My Neighbor Adolf
Dir. Leon Prudovsky
Starring David Hayman, Udo Kier, Olivia Silhavy
South America, 1960. A lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor convinces himself that his new neighbor is none other than Adolf Hitler. Not being taken seriously, he starts an independent investigation to prove his claim, but when the evidence still appears to be inconclusive, Polsky is forced to engage in a relationship with the enemy in order to obtain irrefutable proof.
11/17 - 2:00pm
11/18 - 4:30pm
Click Here for more information.