You Had to be There
Israeli Comedian Tal Friedman weaves together conversations with Holocaust survivors who talk about the importance of laughter and the use of humor as a coping
Portland Press Herald, Feb. 24, 2024, . Dennis Perkins
The Maine Jewish Film Festival is one of the big events on the Maine movie calendar. MJFF’s 26th festival is taking place this week, from Saturday through March 9 at venues in Portland, Waterville, Lewiston and Brunswick and featuring 15 fascinating and thrillingly different films from around the world.
As ever, the Maine Jewish Film Festival is a treat for film fans of any (or no) religion, with its 2025 theme of “Destinations Unknown,” promising moviegoers the festival’s traditional wide-ranging and entertaining view of the world as seen through the eyes of Jewish creators.
ON A MISSION
First-year MJFF Executive Director David Andrusia cites famous Jewish author Elie Wiesel in saying, “Peace is our gift to each other” in explaining the festival’s ongoing mission. “It’s our hope that by showing positive images not only of Jews but of our brethren throughout the world, we can take one step farther toward peace.”
That’s a tall order for a film festival, but movies have always had the power to move people, and this year’s festival, according to Andrusia, seeks to bring an increasingly fractured world together. “We certainly recognize world events,” says Andrusia, who recently moved to Maine after organizing Washington, D.C.’s March on Washington Film Festival. “But we strive to present positive images of Jewish life here and around the world that show how kinship and allyship not only can but must be our roadmaps in searching for a more peaceful and inclusive world.”
This year’s films approach that mission in excitingly different ways.
Documentaries like Ilana Trachtman’s “Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round” tackle justice and civil rights directly in its portrait of young Howard University students’ sit-in on a Maryland amusement park’s segregated rides. Daniel Robbins’ “Bad Shabbos” employs dark family comedy involving the tense holiday meeting of a Jewish family and the strictly Catholic parents of a recently converted daughter, made even more high-stakes by the discovery of a mysterious dead body.
“Our theme this year is ‘Destinations Unknown,’ and that encompasses real destinations, places where you would not expect to find Jewish culture, and also destinations of the mind,” says Andrusia of this MJFF’s signature blend of tones, styles and subject matter. “We sought out films that would nudge people into new ways of seeing their place in the world, in Jewish life around the globe.”
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
I asked Andrusia to pick out a few favorite films he’s especially excited about this year.
‘Come Closer’ is our opening night film (playing Saturday, March 1 at the Portland Museum of Art). It won the equivalent of the Israeli Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actress, and it turns tragedy into a really searing personal exploration of friendship and love.” The film is the tragic tale of a shocking accident that brings two young women together. “It’s going to attract a younger audience, a new audience,” Andrusia says.
Switching gears completely is “Thelma,” starring then 93-year-old June Squibb (“Nebraska,” “About Schmidt”) in her first starring role as a nursing home resident who takes off on an improbable rampage of revenge (at times on her motorized scooter) against the scammers who stole her money. Featuring the last role of Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree, as the feisty Thelma’s partner in vengeance, the film, according to Andrusia, saw the preview audience not only laughing but cheering. “It’s cathartic in a lot of ways,” Andrusia says, “a lot of fun and very warm and human—people love this film
Israeli Comedian Tal Friedman weaves together conversations with Holocaust survivors who talk about the importance of laughter and the use of humor as a coping
A provocative, haunting and even hilarious mockumentary by Argentine Director Gabriel Matías Lichtmann about Laila Salama, an alleged Jewish spy who began to operate against
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Braided Challah bread represents five waves of settlement of New Mexico’s Jewish community including Conversos escaping the Spanish Inquisition 400 years ago, German Jewish pioneers
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A disaffected young Jewish woman anxiously juggles an accumulation of mishaps and potentially disastrous encounters, each threatening to expose her messy multitude of secrets, all
Via London, Versailles, and Instagram, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles follows celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi on his quest to bring the sumptuous art and
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The story of Julius Rosenwald, the son of an immigrant peddler, who rose to head Sears, and partnered with Booker T. Washington and African American
Simone, the son of a Holocaust survivor, rushes to the site of a hit-and-run accident, but leaves the victim to die when he discovers a
In this provocative look at strange political bedfellows, Emmy award winning Israeli filmmaker Maya Zinshtein (Forever Pure, MJFF 2019) investigates the political alliance between American