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    San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2013



    The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. http://www.sfjff.org/

    This year for the first time thanks to screener access via Larsen Associates of San Francisco I will be reviewing or previewing films from this big Bay Area festival, with presentations spread over four venues and in its 33rd year. Below are titles I hope to cover. Some are short films.

    Link index of Filmleaf reviews of the 2013 SFJFF:

    After Tiller (Lana Wilson, Martha Shane) 2013
    Afternoon Delight (Jill Soloway 2013)
    Aliyah (Elie Wajeman)
    All In (Daniel Burman) 2012
    Americn Commune (Nadine Mundo, Rena Mundo Croshere 2012)
    Amy Winehouse: The Day She Came to Dingle (Maurice Linnane 2012)
    Art of Spiegelman (Clara Kuperberg, Joëlle Oosterlinck 2010)
    The Attack (Ziad Doueiri 2012)--SFJFF Centerpiece Film
    Before the Revolution (Dan Shadur 2013)
    Behind Me Olive Trees (Pascale Abou Jamra 2012)
    Dancing in Jaffa (Hilla Medalia 2013)
    Every Tuesday: A Portrait of The New Yorker cartoonists
    First Cousin Once Removed (Alan Berliner, NYFF 2012)
    Gideon’s Army (Dawn Porter 2013)
    In the Shadow (David Ondrícek 2012)
    Jerry and Me (Mehrnaz Saeedvafa 2012)
    Joe Papp in Five Acts (Karen Thorsen, Tracie Holder 2012)
    Kenny Hotz's Triumph of the Will (Kenny Hotz. Sebastian Cluer 2011)
    The Lab (Yotam Feldman 2013)
    The Last Sentence (Jan Troell 2012)
    My Father and the Man in Black (Jonathan Holiff 2013)
    Red Flag: Spotlight on Alex Karpovsky (Alex Karpovsky 2012)
    That Woman (Ed Dick 2012)
    Trials of Muhammad Ali (Bill Siegel 2013)


    (I had already previously reviewed Aliyah and First Cousin Once Removed in other contexts.)

    Alan Berliner will be given the Freedom of Expression Award at the fest.

    SFJFF 2013 General Forums thread.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-02-2015 at 07:35 PM.

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    Behind Me Olive Trees (Pascale Abou Jamra 2012)



    Behind Me Olive Trees (Pascale Abou Jamra 2012)

    We might not know that on the 25th of May 2000 when the Israeli army withdrew from South Lebanon, the South Lebanese Army, known as th "Lahd Army," which had cooperated with them, was forced to evacuate to Israel. Some fled the country. Others surrendered to the Lebanese government. The rest remain in Israel. This 20-minute film is about someone involved in these events as a child, 20-year-old Mariam (played by Lebanese writer-director Abou Jamra) who returns to her native south Lebanon (where the film was shot) and deals with a confused identity, having lived half her life in Israel, and difficult life, being rejected by the locals. Voiceover narration fills in the details, and the images are beautiful and authentic. Mariam's father had been a member of the Lahd Army. He ran away, and her mother died, after her brother, now ten, was born, so she lived on her own with her brother. Behind Me Olvie Trees (خلفي شجر الزيتون) was simply a masters degree graduation film in film studies at the Lebanese University of Fine-Arts (ALBA), Beirut, but it has perfect pitch -- it's simple, plangent, and heart-rending -- and has gotten Pascale Abou Jamra international recognition -- Cannes. The film is listed (as Derričre moi les oliviers) on Allociné, though details are missing.

    Length: 20 mins.


    PASCALE ABOU JAMRA (INTERVIEW, "MONTE CARLO DOUALIYA")
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-02-2015 at 07:44 PM.

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    Red Flag (Alex Karpovsky 2012)



    Red Flag (Alex Karpovsky 2012)

    The idea of going on a trip with someone who's far from being the first person invited reminds one of Michael Winterbottom's Steve Coogan vehicle The Trip, a really funny movie -- which this isn't. According to Steve Seitz in the New York Times when the two showed at Lincoln Center early this year, Red Flag, a low-keyed, depressed autobiographical film by and about the actor Alex Karpovsky, "may be baggy and solipsistic" but "goes down more easily" than Rubberneck, a more fictionalized effort that was paired with it at the Elinor Bunin Theater. Karpovsky would be nowhere, Seitz says, without Lena Durham, who cast him as the barman in her big hit HBO show "Girls." Here, he gets kicked out by his girlfriend and has to go alone on a film tour in the south for something about woodpeckers (an actual film of his) being saved from extinction. Red Flag may be an actual cri de coeur from Karpovsky, who's seen as mildly suicidal here, but it's hard to see any new age mumblecore Woody Allen in Red Flag as some suggest. This is miles and miles from Woody Allen, and not even good mumblecore. As Seitz wrote, Karpovsky needs to stick with Lena Durham and only she can really save him, for the moment, from extinction. But he was in Andrew Bujalski's Beeswax and Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture has a part in the Coen brother's new film, which did very well at Cannes, Inside Llewyn Davis. Maybe his "acclaimed" debut film, The Hole Story, maybe even Woodpecker, are really better than Red Flag,, even if Rubberneck isn't. Maybe if he's not Woody Allen, which he certainly isn't, he's a downbeat Jewish Steve Coogan (if there could be such a thing). Actually he's neither, but I am glad to be aware of him, just in case. Online critic Jordan Hoffman wrote a realistic rundown on this and two other Karpovsky short features. I suppose Hoffman is right in saying that Karpovsky's features feel like "glorified shorts." Hence it does fit with the SFJFF shorts.

    Length: 85 mins.

    SFJFF show times:

    July 27, 7:15, Castro Theatre, San Francisco
    August 11, 8:45, Grand Lake Theatre, Oakland
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-02-2015 at 07:45 PM.

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    That Woman (Ed Dick 2012)



    That Woman (Ed Dick 2012)

    This is an odd one, with an arresting beginning, and a neat, finely structured trajectory. Witty, English, set in Northwest London, Jewish. "When I lost my girlfriend, I sat shiva for a week. Not for her, you understand. Kate wasn't even Jewish, let alone dead. I sat shiva for our relationship. I wanted to give it a proper sendoff. . ." This is a droll beginning, and it's well presented. This begins with a frontal look at Danny's anguished face. The family humor Danny and sit with him. "If it'll help him get over it quicker, where's the harm?" The payoff, that to get the bereaved Danny out to playing the field again his mum sets him up in a blind date with Monica Lowinsky, that woman, may seem more than a bit too high concept. Then he runs into Kate again. He's not really in a dating mood these days, he says; he's not sure the time is quite right. Maybe it's not right for Monica either. Very well written (by Amy Rosnthal), acted (by the whole cast, especially Ben Caplan as Danny) and edited (by Justin Krish). But one is more impressed than moved.

    Well shot too though. The cinematographer, Sam Care, is a BFI "Brits to Watch" selection and has won awards. He has shot a great many shorts, and also some features. Sam Care's feature, In Our Name, directed by Brian Walsh, is critically acclaimed. You may watch some of his music videos here and watch the intro to That Woman here.

    Length: 13 mins.

    Reviewed as part of the 2013 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-02-2015 at 07:47 PM.

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    Two documentaries: Gideon's Army, The Trials of Muhammad Ali



    Gideon's Army (Dawn Porter 2012)


    BRANDY ALEXANDER ON THE JOB

    Soldiers for justice in the American South

    The Gideon in the title of this Sundance award winning documentary refers to a landmark US Supreme Court decision, defendant Clarence Earl Gideon, who was arrested in 1961 for stealing soda and a few dollars from a pool hall in Panama City, Fla. His case was appealed to the Supreme court, which led to guaranteeing all defendants in criminal trials legal counsel whether or not they can afford it. The "army" are the roughly 15,000 US public defenders who now handle most of the 12 million criminal cases a year.The film focuses on three pubic defenders in the American South, Travis Williams and Brandy Alexander in Georgia and June Hardwick in Mississippi, as they struggle with lack of adequate funds and exhausting work loads defending a hundred clients at a time. Many of those clients are improperly charged and are pressured to enter a plea due to a lack of funds in the public defender's office to carry out a full exculpatory investigation. The minimum sentence for armed robbery is ten years, with a possibility of life. Even a charge and imprisonment can ruin a life. In one case a woman who's a certified mechanic has her possessions stripped while she is held before trial. Alexander did gain release for her, but she could not return to work. These three dedicated young lawyers love their work, but they barely have enough to live on; are paying off big student loans; have little time for recreation or for dating or family life. The film shows that June Hardwick leaves strict public defender work to earn enough to support her young son. This film can be hard to watch when it comes to seeing the obstacles and the outcomes the defendants are looking at, which make Les Miserables look quite up to date, and digging into the oppression of race and class these individual cases reveal, but it also inspires with the idealism of its three public defender subjects. The scenes are intense, the dialogue is to the point, and a final trial sequence is exciting. The filmmaking is simple, direct, and no-nonsense, the message powerful. No voiceover narration and none needed.

    This debut by Dawn Porter us sure to be one of the most significant American documentaries of the year.

    Gideon's Army, 95 mins., debuted at Sundance Jan. 2013, also shown at Ashland, Montclair, Nantucket; was shown in the San Francisco International Film Festival in April and then again will be screened as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, where it will be be screened at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland Sat., Aug. 10, 2013 at 3:55 pm. It opened theatrically in NYC June 28, 2013 at Quad Cinema. It is rated a 95 on Metacritic on the basis of four reviews and it obviously impresses. HBO release July 1, 2013.

    The Trials of Muhammad Ali (Bill Siegel 2013)



    Muhammad Ali's moral commitments

    Another good and powerful documentary film. This one focused on the defining moment for Muhammad Ali when on June 20, 1967 he was convicted of evading the United States draft by refusing to take part in the Vietnam Conflict. 46 years later, the political and cultural impact of that landmark court case comes to life in Bill Siegel’s The Trials of Muhammad Ali. Dave Zirin, the politically aware sports editor of The Nation, has called this "the best Muhammad Ali doc I've ever seen." That may be an exaggeration; there are some good ones, and this is not the finest celebration of the spirit and personality of the man. But The Trials of Muhammad Ali is film that focuses effectively on Ali's career in terms of his religious and political development, which led to his act of moral independence in refusing to serve in the white man's war against people of color in Vietnam, and before that, the way his taking the name Muhammad Ali instead of Cassius Clay he became an international figure. William C. Rhoden recently wrote an article in the New York Times about this moment in Ali's life as "a reminder that courage, honor and integrity are timeless." There are many Muhammad Ali docs, but this is still one worth seeing, and then some. It goes into considerable detail about Ali's fight to develop political awareness and to assume his new name and to be respected; the various opposing forces in the Nation of Islam and Sixties Black radicalism he had to contend with; the legal battle up to the Supreme Court over his conscientious objector status: these are all aspects of the life Siegel explores in more detail as essential to the complexity and status of Ali. Interesting to see a number of interviews with people not so much heard from before, including a Nation of Islam recruiter in Florida where Ali was training; the Rev. Louis Farrakhan; and Ali's second wife Khalilah Comancho Ali, formerly known as Belinda Boyd. To hear Khalilah Ali tell it, she was a major early influence on Ali's taking firm stands as a Muslim, and stood by him during his most difficult time of rejection and financial loss after his draft refusal. Produced by Kartemquin Films, this debuted at Tribeca in April, later was at AFI and Seattle as well as the SFJFF. Cinetic Media is to be the distributor. Viewed in a rough cut.

    Length: 93 mins.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-06-2016 at 09:02 AM.

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    Kenny Holtz: Kenny's Triumph of the Will: Children of Abraham (2011)



    Kenny Holtz: Kenny's Triumph of the Will: Children of Abraham (2011)

    This self-narrated "documentary," is Episode 3 - Children of Abraham" from the eponymous 2011 Canadian TV series, is like the films of Mads Brügger (of Red Chapel and The Ambassador), but more jokey and less risky, but still remarkable if it's true. The filmmaker, Kenny Hotz, sets himself a task which requires assuming an identity, or here, simply a stance, and convincing a bunch of people of something that might get him into trouble. He tells people he is sick of Jews and Muslims being hostile to each other, and he wants to be the first Jew to provide Muslims with a mosque. In the course of time covered in the film, he does that. But as with Mads Brügger only more so, the question arises: is this real? Hotz finds a property in Chinatown, actually a former Chinese funeral parlor (the city is not identified, but the film is Canadian, and it's probably Toronto) that has a nice layout for a mosque. He finds an imam, he raises funds from Jewish sources, or tries to (he is often turned down), he approaches some Muslim sources, like the Afghan consul, and he goes ahead and turns the space into a mosque. It all seems pretty iffy, but at least he has an artist friend do a really nice sign for the front and calls it "Peace Mosque." Then Muslim worshipers are found, and with Kenny initially on hand, a prayer service and sermon are conducted. But are these real worshipers? Who knows. Some of the humor, as when Kenny talks about not having space for the usual shawarma stands in the mosque, is in dubious taste. More than that, it risks offending muslims. Maybe if Kenny succeeds, he offends everybody. This seems a dubious venture. But the mosque looks convincing. I guess it really happened, and the question is, what happens to the mosque now? Kenny doesn't want it. And when you think about it, this was a very bold and ambitious project that challenged conventional social and cultural assumptions a lot. Like most comics, Kenny Holtz seems a bit crazy and only a slightly crazy person could do a thing like this. In an interview for the online publication Vice, Kenny says (his math a bit off: it's more like 69 years ago): "Would anyone really consider it? I paint a place, hang a sign, and people come to pray in it. Everyone else keeps killing each other. Fifty years ago if you told some Jew in Auschwitz, "Hey, 50 years from now you're going to be in Israel and your number one trading partners are going to be the Germans," the guy would shit himself. Anything can happen, anything can change."

    Length: 22 mins.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-02-2015 at 07:55 PM.

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