San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2022 FORUM THREAD

[Chris Knipp]

THE RESTLESS HUNGARIAN (Tom Weidlinger 2021)

The filmmaker explores the life and achievement of his father Paul Weidinger (1914-1999), an important structural engineer for major architects who escaped from Europe in 1939 and concealed for the rest of his life that he was a Jew. The life and the film trajectory don't satisfy the way Nathanial Kahn's great My Architect does, but Tom is an accomplished documentarian and provides a vivid picture of the many phases of his father's varied life.

SFJFF SHOWTIMES:
Schedule
Friday July 29, 2022
3:05 p.m.
Albany Twin

[Chris Knipp]

A REEL WORLD: SHALAL (Karnit Mandel)

Tomorrow:

Friday, July 29 · 1pm
Albany Twin
Albany, CA
While digging in an Israeli archive, a film researcher stumbles across never-before-seen footage from a long-lost Palestinian Liberation Organization archive seized by Israel in the 1982 Lebanon war

.

[Chris Knipp]

TAKE THE 'A' TRAIN (Yair Asher, Itamar Lapid 2021)

The Israeli feature film follows Yeshi, a 30-something jazz pianist with classical chops on a return visit to Tel Aviv from Paris. It's a somewhat random portrait of a directionless generation of young Israelis.

SFJFF SHOWTIMES
Schedule
Friday July 29, 2022
8:45 p.m.
Albany Twin, Albany CA

[Chris Knipp]

SIMCHAS AND SORROWS (Genevieve Adams 2022)

Seeking a rom com effect, with a New York and Brooklyn setting, Adams wrote, directed, and stars in this semi-autobiographical film while pregnant (as her character's written to be) about an atheist raised Catholic who consents to attend Judaism class with her Jewish fiancée to please his conservative family. Moments focused exclusively on Adams and Thomas McDonell, who plays the fiancée, work quite well; many others are less successful. I missed the light touch of HBO's "High Maintenance," which might have made something juicy out of this theme.

Already shown last Friday afternoon at the Castro Theater in San Francisco.

[Chris Knipp]

REPAIRING THE WORLD: STORIES FROM THE TREE OF LIFE (Patrice O'Neill 2022)

Begins with the worst anti-Semitic massacre in US history, 11 killed at the Tree of Life Synogogue in Pittsburgh. Patrice O'Neill and her cameraperson spent three years chronicling in detail the warm and ongoing community response which cut across sectarian and racial and ethnic lines. The film is conventional in style, but the information it contains is special. Frequently moviing.

Last theatrical event of the festival. It continues till Aug. 7 online.

SFJFF SHOWTIMES:
Schedule
Sunday July 31, 2022
2:00 p.m.
Albany Twin

[Chris Knipp]

MORE THAN I DESERVE (Pini Tavger 2021)

An outsider in Israel, a poor immigrant from Ukraine with a single non-religious mom, tries to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah and it gets complicated. This excellent feature debut won best screenplay at Jerusalem. Tavger honed his skills on a series of short films.

SFJFF SHOWTIMES:
Saturday July 30, 2022
8:45 p.m.
Albany Twin
Monday August 1, 2022
12:01 a.m.
JFI Digital Screening Room

[Chris Knipp]

Films watched and links to reviews
10 Questions for Henry Ford (Andy Kirschner 2021) - no review
And I Was There (Eran Paz 2020)
Crossing,The/La traverséé (Florence Miailhe 2021)
Faithful, The: The King, The Pope, The Princess (Annie Berman 2021)
Grossman (Adi Arbel 2021)
Karaoke (Moshe Rosenthal 2022) Opening Night Film
More Than I Deserve (Pini Tavger 2021)
On This Happy Note (Tamar Tal-Anati 2022) - no review
Perfect Strangers זרים מושלמים (Lior Ashkenazi 2021) - no review
Reel War, A: Shalal (Karnit Mandel 2021)
Remember This (Derek Goldman, Jeff Hutchens 2022)
Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life (Patrice O’Neill 2022)
Restless Hungarian, The (Tom Weidlinger 2022)
Simchas and Sorrows (Genevieve Adams 2022)
Speer Goes to Hollywood (Vanessa Lapa 2020)
Summer Nights (Ohad Milstein 2021)
Take the A Train (Yair Asher, Itamar Lapid 2021)
We Burn Like This (Alana Waksman 2021)