San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 2021 FORUM THREAD

[Chris Knipp]

KIDA KHODR RAMADAN, DOĞUBAN KABADAYI IN WET DOG/EIN NASSER HUND

The 2021 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival: Concluding Comment.

NOT GOING QUIETLY concluded my coverage of the July 22-Aug. 1, 2021 San Francisco Jewish Film festival.

I have written about ten films, all I think good selections and worthy of your consideration.

Some are about inspiring or interesting people: the important if already somewhat forgotten or discounted American Jewish writer Saul Bellow in THE ADVENTURES OF SAUL BELLOW... the prominent orchestra leader Marin Alsop (a pioneer for women in the field) in THE CONDUCTOR...well known British documentarian Nick Broomfield and his notable photographer father and a lost period of English life in MY FATHER AND ME... the courageous political activist with ALS Ady Barkan (NOT GOING QUIETLY)... the 20th-century Eastern European folk healer brought to life in a rather strange way in Agnieszka Holland's feature CHARLATAN.

Some of these films bring Israel-Palestine issues into clearer focus: 200 METERS vividly dramatizes one aspect of the suffering caused by the occupation... KINGS OF CAPITOL HILL provides a film history of AIPAC, the increasingly right-leaning Jewish-Israel lobby in Washington... BLUE BOX is a courageous personal x-ray history of the State of Israel.

I was pleased and surprised by WET DOG. The genre isn't new, a Jew posing as not Jewish in a hostile environment; but the story and the actor, Doğuhan Kabadayı, are arresting and fresh. AFRICA will be of interest for those who like to see the line between documentary and fiction blurred. It's also a portrait of village Jewish Israeli life, a stark contrast with the struggling world of Palestinians in Israel in 200 METERS.


These ten selections are all worth watching for - or watching right now in the festival.

(For links to the Filmlleaf Festival Coverage reviews of all these films, go to the preceding post.)