Stay tuned, for our 15th season which opens this fall.  You’ll have a chance to see award winning films from some of the top film festivals making their New Mexico premiere at the Santa Fe JFF!

We are closing our current season with two special events: HOW TO COME ALIVE WITH NORMAN MAILER  and an important Middle East update with Times of Israel Senior Analyst Haviv Rettig Gur: DATELINE MIDDLE EAST: BEHIND THE HEADLINES. The new  60 minute documentary Screams Before Silence will be shown before this important talk with Gur who will be in conversation with the Jewish Community Relations Coalition’s Co-chair, Alonet Zarum Zandan.

For a deeper look at Israel and the Middle East, join us for a film and informative live Zoom conversation with Times of Israel Senior Analyst, Haviv Rettig Gur.

PROGRAM IS AT THE NEW MEXICO HISTORY MUSEUM

Tickets are Complimentary but Required – PHOTO ID REQUIRED AT DOOR

Haviv Rettig Gur has covered Israel’s politics and foreign policy since 2005. Formerly a correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, he has reported from over 20 countries. Haviv Gur can be heard on Don Senor’s Call Me Back and Times of Israel podcasts, in interviews with The Free Press’ Bari Weiss, UC Berkley School of Law’s Prof. Kenneth Bamberger, and on MSNBC .

He will be in conversation with the Jewish Community Relations Coalition of New Mexico’s Co-chair Alonet Zarum Zandan. In this talk, Haviv Gur will provide a current update on the war in the Middle East and perspective on the challenges and pitfalls of achieving peace and security.

His remarks will be preceded by the screening of philanthropist and author Sheryl Sandberg’s documentary Screams before Silence. which features never-before-heard eyewitness accounts from released hostages, survivors, and first responders from the October 7 tragedy.

11:00 AM – Screening of Screams Before Silence

12:00 PM – Haviv Rettig Gur in conversation with Alonet Zarum Zandan

Tickets include both the film and talk. Program is at the New Mexico History Museum

MEET OUR SPEAKERS

Haviv Rettig Gur is The Times of Israel’s senior analyst. Before joining The Times of Israel, he was a reporter for the Jerusalem Post. Haviv has reported from over 20 countries and served as director of communications for the Jewish Agency for Israel, Israel’s largest NGO. He lectures on Israeli politics, the US-Israel relationship, the peace process, modern Jewish history and identity, and Israel-diaspora relations. Haviv lives in the Jerusalem area with his wife and four children.

Alonet (Lonnie) Zarum Zandan is a dedicated and active member of the Jewish global community. Raised in London in a modern orthodox Jewish home, her upbringing was deeply rooted in community and religious values, influenced by her British-born mother and her father, a Yemeni immigrant to Israel. Today, Alonet serves as the founder and co-chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New Mexico, an organization representing 25 Jewish groups across the state. Her tireless dedication and leadership are a testament to her commitment to fostering community relations and supporting Jewish life in New Mexico.

HOW TO COME ALIVE with Norman Mailer explores the rollercoaster life of America’s most controversial and bestselling author of the 20th Century, Norman Mailer. Propelled by his tremendous ego and contrarian spirit, Mailer’s ceaseless visibility in the public eye lasted 6 decades, during which he had 6 tumultuous marriages, 9 beloved children, 11 bestsellers, 3 arrests, and 2 Pulitzer Prizes. Prophet, hedonist, violent criminal, literary outlaw, and social provocateur, Mailer’s ideas about love, anger, fear, and courage cut to the core of human nature, are more relevant than ever today, and point to a prescription for shaking free of society’s expectations, and coming alive as a people.

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IN COMMEMORATION OF
HOLOCAUST AND HEROISM REMEMBRANCE DAY (YOM HASHOAH)
New Screening Added! Sunday, May 5, 3:05 PM in the Studio

Against extraordinary odds, over 25,000 Jewish partisans courageously fought back against the Nazis and their collaborators from deep withing the forests of WW II’s Belarus, Ukraine. The last surviving partisans relive their journey in FOUR WINTERS, sharing their stories of resistance.

They were torn from their families by the ravages of Hitler’s armies, men and women, many barely in their teens, escaped into the forests, banding together in partisan brigades; engaging in treacherous acts of sabotage, blowing up trains, burning electric stations, and attacking armed enemy headquarters.

Director Julia Mintz shines a spotlight on their transformation from young innocents raised in closely knit Jewish communities and families, to becoming fierce partisan soldiers with enduring hope, grit, magnificent courage and deep humanity.

Featuring the photography of Faye Schulman, partisan photographer clad in her signature leopard coat, and through a fusion of inspiring and powerful first-person interviews with stunning archival footage, FOUR WINTERS uncovers secrets held for lifetimes, revealing a heartfelt narrative of heroism, determination and resilience.

You are invited to a special commemoration of Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) Sunday May 5, 5 PM at Temple Beth Shalom. Clergy from Temple Beth Shalom, HaMakom, Congregation Beit Tikva, and the Los Alamos Jewish Center will be leading the commemorative service.

It’s an opportunity for community to come together to remember the past  and reflect on the present as we look to the future.

Preceding the commemoration, the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival is screening the award-winning docuentary Four Winters which tells the remarkable story of Jewish partisans who heroically fought the Nazis in WW II, The screening is at 3 PM at CCA. Tickets are complimentary but required and can be obtained Tickets.

Winner of ten Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, Seven Blessings is a bitter-sweet story set within a boisterous Moroccan Jewish wedding celebration in Israel. It’s a film of quiet fury that looks at the choice of assigning blame and reliving the past or finding forgiveness and living in the present. The film, which screens at CCA at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, April 30, will be followed by an optional Moroccan Mimouna reception at Temple Beth Shalom.

The film’s title comes from the seven blessings recited at the seven days of festivities that follow a traditional Moroccan Jewish wedding. These days, which should be ones of joy, become a time for revealing family secret traditions practiced within older Arab Jewish families when a couple is childless. The story is based on the experiences of the filmmakers’ own extended families and sparked considerable discussion in Israel where over half of the Jewish population is from Arab countries.

A Moroccan Mimouna celebration follows the film at Temple Beth Shalom. Mimouna is traditional festival celebrated by Moroccan Jews the day after Passover ends and marks the return to eating leavened food. Attendees at the optional reception are encouraged to wear Moroccan dress for both the film and reception!

The late Ruth Bader Ginsberg once said: “If I have a sister, her name is Rosie Abella.” Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella. is the story of an exceptional woman who spent her entire life reminding us that we must never forget how the world looks to those who are vulnerable.

Born to Holocaust survivors, Abella studied law. At 29 years old, was appointed a judge, becoming both the youngest and the first pregnant judge in Canadian history. In 2004 she was appointed a Supreme Court Justice becoming the first Jewish woman and the first refugee to sit on the bench — and she’s probably the first Canadian justice that became a human rights phenomenon. Abella was at the forefront of major decisions on employment equity, gay marriage, constitutional law, and many more landmark cases.

Meet a fireball of a person who is curious, accessible and still ambitious at the age of 75 as she begins the next act of her life.

Mention the name Leonard Bernstein and what likely comes to mind is West Side Story, the New York Philharmonic, and the biopic Maestro, but there is more to the life and times of this American great. Leonard Bernstein – The Other Side uncovers some of the lesser-known facets, revealing his many other sides.

In this two-part program, the documentary Leonard Bernstein and the Israel Philharmonic narrated by actor Hershey Felder, recounts Bernstein’s career trajectory and his lifelong relationship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO). After the film, Ivy Weingram, curator of Leonard Bernstein – The Power of Music exhibit, joins us via Zoom to examine Bernstein’s early years, the influence of Judaism on his music, his social and political activism, and other parts of his life.

Judaism was one of the influences in his work. Born into an Orthodox Jewish family to parents who immigrated from Ukraine, the liturgical melodies of his childhood resonated deeply within him. His Jewish roots are reflected in many of his works, ranging from his Symphony No. 1 (Jeremiah) to West Side Story.

They also help explain his relationship with the IPO. That connection began in 1947 in pre-State Palestine where Bernstein first conducted what was then known as the Palestine Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Other than the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein “arguably devoted more of his time (to the IPO) than any other (orchestra).”

In addition to conducting some of the world’s greatest orchestras, Bernstein wrote music for ballet and Broadway and brought classical music to children with televised Young People’s concerts . He embraced jazz, blues, popular music, and Jewish music. Bernstein was also active in social and political causes, drawing the attention of J.Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy.

Leonard Bernstein – The Other Side brings many of the other parts of Bernstein’s life to light. Throughout, his Jewish heritage, commitment to Israel and its national orchestra, and his refusal to conceal his religion were instrumental in defining the man and his music.

MEET IVY WEINGRAMIvy Weingram is an independent curator based in Philadelphia, PA. She founded IMW Independent Museum Works in the summer of 2019. In the years since, she has worked with a diverse client base that includes museums, higher education institutions, a documentary film producer, and a pharmaceutical company.

For over 10 years Weingram served in the curatorial department of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia (NMAJH), most recently as Curator. Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music is one of the many exhibits that she has curated.

 

 

Beginning in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab/Muslim lands came to Israel along with Holocaust survivors and other refugees, resulting in a doubling of Israel’s population during its first four years. But how could such a young country absorb this enormous influx?

MA’ABAROT is the story of the controversial “transit” camps where many of these early refugees and immigrants, particularly those from Arab lands, were taken. This award-winning documentary unravels the many stories of the camp residents, discovering surprising new details, exposing prejudices, and revealing rifts among Israelis that exist until today. It is the first documentary to tell this little-known story.

MEET SPECIAL GUEST DR. RON DUNCAN HART

Ron Duncan Hart, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist from Indiana University, an author and filmmaker. He did postdoctoral work on Jewish history at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University of Oxford. He is Director of the Institute for Tolerance Studies, and former President of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.

His research includes the American South, South America, Spain, and North Africa with a focus on religion and race between Jews, Christians, and Muslims   He is an award-winning author, His most recent book, Jews and the Arab World: Intertwined Legacies was a Best Book Award Winner.

MEET AMIT SADAN, Ph.D.

Amit Sadan is a postdoctoral fellow in the International Studies Institute at the University of New Mexico. His fields of expertise are the modern and early modern Middle East, environmental history, and Israel Studies. As part of the Israel Institute’s postdoctoral teaching fellowship program, Amit teaches at UNM a variety of courses about Israeli society and culture, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and others.

International Studies Institute at UNM

What happens when faith, religion and sexuality collide in an ultra-Orthodox community? BARREN, a film nominated for Best Israeli Film at the Jerusalem Film Festival, tackles that question. Director/screenwriter Mordechai Vardi, who is a rabbi, Tel Aviv University film school graduate, and former head of the screenwriting department at one of Israel’s most prestigious film schools, provides a multi-layered perspective.

Praised by critics for its acting and photography, Barren is a unique look inside this insular community. Infertility is a taboo subject in many societies, but it is especially distressing among the ultra-Orthodox with its encouragement of large families and wariness of medical intervention. The biblical meaning of “barren” is “to uproot”, the opposite of “to plant” and conveys the idea of “emptiness”.

The story revolves around a young couple, Feigi and Naftali, who live with Naftali’s parents. They have been married for five years and are unable to conceive. Putting his faith solely in prayer, Naftali flies to Uman in the Ukraine to pray for a child at the grave of Lubavitcher rabbi Nachman at Rosh Hashanah. At the same time, Naftali’s father invites an itinerant rabbi to his home for dinner. He claims to be a healer and tells Feigi that he can perform a ritual to make her fertile. He says that the ritual must occur before Rosh Hashanah. That night he goes into Feigi’s bedroom and convinces her to let him have sex with her.

The consequences of the encounter are at the heart of the film which is based on actual cases. The husband’s reaction, Feigi’s inner struggle, and a ruling by a rabbinical panel sharpen the issues that women in the ultra-Orthodox community face in dealing with infertility and faith.  But it’s also a story of faith within contemporary society and the challenges in balancing the two.

Sh’ma tells the moving story of Dr. Veronka John-Steiner, a Santa Fe High alum and beloved professor at the University of New Mexico. Recounting Veronka’s experience before, during and after the Shoah, it seamlessly weaves together the emotive languages of dance, music, and film. The story follows our heroine from her school days to the ghetto, deportation to Bergen-Belsen, and finally to immigration to the U.S.

Originally a choreodrama performed in the former Yugoslavia and New York, the international resurgence of fascism and anti-Semitism spurred the creation of Sh’ma as a film. “Sh’ma” means “listen” in Hebrew. It is a fitting title for a film whose story is a cautionary tale, but one that ultimately celebrates resilience, connection, and hope.

With a cast of extraordinary dancers, including Dance Theater of Harlem and Texas Ballet Theatre professionals, and a haunting original score, the film is part of the Sh’ma Project. This three-part arts and education initiative uses the power of the arts to engage and build understanding about the Holocaust and Human Rights.

Dr. Suki John, Veronka’s daughter, will join us in-person for a post-film discussion.

Our signature event, Flix & ChopStix, is back this year!  It’s movies and Chinese food on Christmas Day, and this year we have two of Gene Wilder’s best films: The Producers and Young Frankenstein. Come to the movies and then stay for a Chinese dinner catered by LuLu’s. The films are at CCA and the dinner is just around the corner at Temple Beth Shalom.

See both films as a double feature or just see one. The dinner is optional.

“ENCORE” SCREENING!

REMEMBERING GENE WILDER is a heartfelt tribute to the beloved star of such movie classics as “The Producers”, “Blazing Saddles”, and “Young Frankenstein”. His remarkable life is told through never-before-seen home movies and photographs, as well as the intimate insights of friends and colleagues including Mel Brooks, Alan Alda, Carol Kane, and Gene’s wife, Karen Wilder,

Born Jerome Silberman, his roots in comedy began as a child when his mother suffered a heart attack. Her doctor told him never to argue with his mother and, instead, try to make her laugh. And that he did as well as audiences throughout his prolific career.

But he also experienced tragedy with the pre-mature death of his wife, comedian Gilda Radner, and suffered the ravages of Alzheimer’s in his later years. Remembering Gene Wilder will make you laugh and make you cry, but most of all, make your remember his wonderful films and comedic genius.

NOTE THE CHANGE IN DATE TO NOV. 19.

Nominated for six Israeli Academy Awards and winner of Best Screenplay at the Jerusalem Film Fest, MORE THAN I DESERVE is finely-crafted coming of age drama. The story revolves around a mother (Tamara) and son (Pinchus) who are new immigrants from Ukraine. Pinchas spends most of his time alone, while Tamara works hard to put food on the table.

When Pinchas learns that his classmates ­­­are preparing for their Bar Mitzvah, he asks his neighbor, Shimon, for help.  Shimon, who still lives with his parents, is a religious bachelor, waiting to meet the right girl. The two form a strong bond, and Shimon treats Pinchas as he would be his own son.

Despite her initial disapproval of his religious influence, Tamara gradually falls in love with Shimon. Pinchas learns to accept his mother’s need for love and blends into the familial atmosphere.

Things get complicated when Shimon’s Rabbi pressures him to marry a woman from their community. Pinchas refuses to accept Shimon’s departure, blames his mother and seeks revenge.

Golda’s War Diaries is presented by the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival in association with Temple Beth Shalom’s Israel Committee.

Streaming Now! In September 2023, the official protocols of Prime Minister Golda Meir’s office covering the Yom Kippur War were made public. Released by Israel’s National Archive to mark the 50th anniversary of the war, they contradict many of the myths of Golda’s shortcomings and provide a clearer picture of her contributions. Golda’s War Diaries, which is based on these archives, tells the story of those fateful days in the Prime Minister’s own words and those who were with her. It is a unique glimpse of the real story.

Following the film, David Shulman, Chair of Temple Beth Shalom’s Israel Committee, will be in conversation with Prof. Meron Medzini. Prof. Medzini was Golda Meir’s spokesperson at the time of the Yom Kippur War and also served as spokesperson for Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Yitzhak Rabin. HIs book, Golda – A Political Biography. won the Israel Prime Minister’s Prize.

The conversation is pre-recorded due to the time difference with Israel.

Meet Prof. Meron Medzini, Hebrew University Jerusalem

Professor (Emeritus) Meron Medzini was born in Jerusalem in 1932. After high school, he served as an infantry officer in the Israeli army and then traveled to the United States to obtain university degrees., including a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Asian Studies. Between 1962 and 1978, he served as director of the Israel Government Press Office and in that capacity was spokesperson for Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, and Yitzhak Rabin.

Prof. Medzini has pursued an academic career and is the author of nine books. His Golda – A Political Biography (De Gruyter Verlag, Berlin, 2016) won the Israel Prime Minister’s Prize.  In 2016, the Japanese Government awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun for promoting Israel-Japan Cultural relations.  More recently he served as a consultant to the film Golda which starred Helen Mirren.

Meet David Shulman

David Shulman is a retired Wall Street research executive (Salomon Brothers, Lehman Brothers) and a semi-retired academic in economics and finance. He served on the Board of Trustees of the Summit Jewish Community and is currently on the Board of Temple Beth Shalom where he chairs the Israel Committee. He organized a series of Santa Fe-wide events to celebrate Israel at 75.

Golda’s War Diaries is presented by the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival in association with Temple Beth Shalom’s Israel Committee.

In September 2023, the official protocols of Prime Minister Golda Meir’s office covering the Yom Kippur War were made public. Released by Israel’s National Archive to mark the 50th anniversary of the war, they contradict many of the myths of Golda’s shortcomings and provide a clearer picture of her contributions. Golda’s War Diaries, which is based on these archives, tells the story of those fateful days in the Prime Minister’s own words and those who were with her. It is a unique glimpse of the real story.

Following the film, David Shulman, Chair of Temple Beth Shalom’s Israel Committee, will be in conversation with Prof. Meron Medzini. Prof. Medzini was Golda Meir’s spokesperson at the time of the Yom Kippur War and also served as spokesperson for Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Yitzhak Rabin. HIs book, Golda – A Political Biography. won the Israel Prime Minister’s Prize.

The conversation is pre-recorded due to the time difference with Israel.

Meet Prof. Meron Medzini, Hebrew University Jerusalem

Professor (Emeritus) Meron Medzini was born in Jerusalem in 1932. After high school, he served as an infantry officer in the Israeli army and then traveled to the United States to obtain university degrees., including a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Asian Studies. Between 1962 and 1978, he served as director of the Israel Government Press Office and in that capacity was spokesperson for Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, and Yitzhak Rabin.

Prof. Medzini has pursued an academic career and is the author of nine books. His Golda – A Political Biography (De Gruyter Verlag, Berlin, 2016) won the Israel Prime Minister’s Prize.  In 2016, the Japanese Government awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun for promoting Israel-Japan Cultural relations.  More recently he served as a consultant to the film Golda which starred Helen Mirren.

Meet David Shulman

David Shulman is a retired Wall Street research executive (Salomon Brothers, Lehman Brothers) and a semi-retired academic in economics and finance. He served on the Board of Trustees of the Summit Jewish Community and is currently on the Board of Temple Beth Shalom where he chairs the Israel Committee. He organized a series of Santa Fe-wide events to celebrate Israel at 75.

In 1970, Bella Abzug entered Congress ready for a fight. With her trademark hat and Bronx swagger, the first elected Feminist upended the Washington patriarchy, battling for women’s equality, civil rights, and LGBTQ protections

But, the most recognizable woman in politics also became the target of a Washington establishment resistant to change. With her eyes set on breaking the boys’ club of The US Senate or becoming New York’s first female mayor, Bella battled mounting forces from both the right and the left, and the powers of the Nixon Administration, the CIA, FBI, even The New York Times.

Using never-before-seen home movies, audio diaries, and a vast trove of newly-discovered news footage, Bella! delves into a colorful and gritty era where one woman sacrificed her own political ambitions for future generations of female leadership.

Join us after the film for a New York “deli” reception after the film. We’re having a sampling of New York deli specialities to celebrate Bella, one of the best known New Yorkers. Reception is at Temple Beth Shalom.

Making its international debut at Berlinale and its U.S. premiere at Telluride, 1341 Frames of Love and War is a look at Israel through the lens of one of the country’s most celebrated war photographers, Magnum photographer Micha Bar-Am.

1341 Frames is a unique cinematic, visual, and sensory experience that is a story of Israel and the photographer who documented the country’s war-torn history. It explores how to imbue still photography with movement on the one hand, while freezing cinematic movement to distill meaning and emotion on the other. It is a complex love letter to the power, beauty and horror of photographic imagery, and the personal cost of a life devoted to recording a conflict told through an extraordinary archive of iconic photographs.

1341 Frames of Love and War can also be seen “in-theater” at CCA. See Home Page.

1341 FRAMES of LOVE and WAR has been made possible by the generous support of Season Underwriters Patricia & David Shulman, Film Underwriters Leslie Nathanson & Hervey Juris, and Film Sponsors Janet Sanders & Stuart Cohen

Making its international debut at Berlinale and its U.S. premiere at Telluride, 1341 Frames of Love and War is a look at Israel through the lens of one of the country’s most celebrated war photographers, Magnum photographer Micha Bar-Am.

1341 Frames is a unique cinematic, visual, and sensory experience that is a story of Israel and the photographer who documented the country’s war-torn history. It explores how to imbue still photography with movement on the one hand, while freezing cinematic movement to distill meaning and emotion on the other. It is a complex love letter to the power, beauty and horror of photographic imagery, and the personal cost of a life devoted to recording a conflict told through an extraordinary archive of iconic photographs.

1341 Frames of Love and War will also be available via streaming. See Home Page.

1341 FRAMES of LOVE and WAR has been made possible by the generous support of Season Underwriters Patricia & David Shulman, Film Underwriters Leslie Nathanson & Hervey Juris, and Film Sponsors Janet Sanders & Stuart Cohen

The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes unearths secret recordings of Adolf Eichmann recorded in Buenos Aires in 1957 by Dutch journalist and former SS-Officer Willem Sassen. A few weeks before the opening of the Eichmann trial in 1961, transcripts of these recorded conversations were mysteriously handed over to prosecutor Gideon Hausner. But could Hausner use them as evidence? Did the Israeli government want the contents revealed in their entirety? Where were the actual tapes and how would our understanding of Eichmann changed had they been heard at the trial? .For the first time, we will confront Eichmann with himself in full color, revealing his inner thoughts and the hidden factors and motives that succeeded in hiding these recordings.

The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes unearths secret recordings of Adolf Eichmann recorded in Buenos Aires in 1957 by Dutch journalist and former SS-Officer Willem Sassen. A few weeks before the opening of the Eichmann trial in 1961, transcripts of these recorded conversations were mysteriously handed over to prosecutor Gideon Hausner. But could Hausner use them as evidence? Did the Israeli government want the contents revealed in their entirety? Where were the actual tapes and how would our understanding of Eichmann changed had they been heard at the trial? .For the first time, we will confront Eichmann with himself in full color, revealing his inner thoughts and the hidden factors and motives that succeeded in hiding these recordings.

Based on the best-selling novel by one of Israel’s most critically acclaimed authors, Amos Oz, JUDAS explores the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot in a multi-layered story that touches on the roots of anti-Semitism, the origins of the Jewish-Arab conflict, and the complex reality in Israel. It raises the question of when is a traitor a visionary.

Dan Wolman , director, is a veteran Israeli filmmaker whose films have been presented at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and many other film festivals, winning awards and prizes. Wolman received a “Life time achievement award” at the Jerusalem International film festival and “The Silver Hugo” award at the Chicago International Film Festival for “Unique vision and innovative work”.

JUDAS premiered at the Haifa International Film Festival. Prof. Ranen Omer-Sherman joins us after the film for a pre-recorded talk about Amos Oz, the novel, and the film.

MEET RANEN OMER-SHERMAN

Ranen Omer-Sherman is the  JHFE Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Louisville. In addition to dozens of journal articles and reviews, he is the author or editor of six books including the soon to be released Amos Oz: The Legacy of a Writer in Israel and Beyond. 

Professor Omer-Sherman made aliyah to Israel when he was 17, lived on a kibbutz and served in the IDF as a paratrooper. He brings both an American and Israeli perspective to this multi-layered film adaptation of Oz’s novel.

JUDAS has been made possible by Season Underwriters Linda Schoen Giddings and Daryl Giddings, Film Underwriters Audrey Goldings and Barry Schrager, and Film Sponsors Gloria Abella Ballen and Ron Duncan Hart.

Based on the best-selling novel by one of Israel’s most critically acclaimed authors, Amos Oz, JUDAS explores the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot in a multi-layered story that touches on the roots of anti-Semitism, the origins of the Jewish-Arab conflict, and the complex reality in Israel. It raises the question of when is a traitor a visionary.

Dan Wolman , director, is a veteran Israeli filmmaker whose films have been presented at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and many other film festivals, winning awards and prizes. Wolman received a “Life time achievement award” at the Jerusalem International film festival and “The Silver Hugo” award at the Chicago International Film Festival for “Unique vision and innovative work”.

JUDAS premiered at the Haifa International Film Festival. Prof. Ranen Omer-Sherman joins us after the film for a pre-recorded talk about Amos Oz, the novel, and the film.

MEET RANEN OMER-SHERMAN

Ranen Omer-Sherman is the  JHFE Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Louisville. In addition to dozens of journal articles and reviews, he is the author or editor of six books including the soon to be released Amos Oz: The Legacy of a Writer in Israel and Beyond. 

Professor Omer-Sherman made aliyah to Israel when he was 17, lived on a kibbutz and served in the IDF as a paratrooper. He brings both an American and Israeli perspective to this multi-layered film adaptation of Oz’s novel.

JUDAS has been made possible by Season Underwriters Linda Schoen Giddings and Daryl Giddings, Film Underwriters Audrey Goldings and Barry Schrager, and Film Sponsors Gloria Abella Ballen and Ron Duncan Hart.

An offbeat, comedic journey that delights and surprises, KARAOKE follows Tova and Meir, a standard aging couple with 46 years of marriage and two grown daughters. They live a comfortable life, with Meir currently on sabbatical from his academic professorship, and Tova running a boutique shop. Their lives get a jolt of excitement from their neighbor from above, Itzik, who invites them to his penthouse for karaoke nights. Tova and Meir fall hard for Itzik’s energetic lifestyle. They enter into a competition amongst their other neighbors and soon themselves, trying to win Itzik’s attention.

An offbeat, comedic journey that delights and surprises, KARAOKE follows Tova and Meir, a standard aging couple with 46 years of marriage and two grown daughters. They live a comfortable life, with Meir currently on sabbatical from his academic professorship, and Tova running a boutique shop. Their lives get a jolt of excitement from their neighbor from above, Itzik, who invites them to his penthouse for karaoke nights. Tova and Meir fall hard for Itzik’s energetic lifestyle. They enter into a competition amongst their other neighbors and soon themselves, trying to win Itzik’s attention.

They met in secret to negotiate the unthinkable – compensation for the survivors of the largest mass genocide in history. Survivors were in urgent need of help, but how could reparations be determined for the unprecedented destruction and suffering of a people?

RECKONINGS explores this untold true story set in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roberta Grossman, RECKONINGS recounts the tense negotiations between Jewish and German leaders. Under the constant threat of violence, they forged ahead, knowing it would never be enough but hoping it could at least be an acknowledgement and a step towards healing.

We will be joined after the film via Zoom by Karen Heilig who has participated in the Claims Conference negotiations.

MEET KAREN HEILIG

Karen Heilig serves as the Claims Conference Assistant Executive Vice President and General Counsel.  Since 1999 she has participated in negotiations between the Claims Conference and the German government, the Austrian government and negotiations on unpaid Holocaust era insurance policies. She broke ground as the first female representative for the Claims Conference in negotiations. Ms. Heilig is also co-producer of RECKONINGS.

They met in secret to negotiate the unthinkable – compensation for the survivors of the largest mass genocide in history. Survivors were in urgent need of help, but how could reparations be determined for the unprecedented destruction and suffering of a people?

RECKONINGS explores this untold true story set in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roberta Grossman, RECKONINGS recounts the tense negotiations between Jewish and German leaders. Under the constant threat of violence, they forged ahead, knowing it would never be enough but hoping it could at least be an acknowledgement and a step towards healing.

We will be joined after the film via Zoom by Karen Heilig who has participated in the Claims Conference negotiations.

MEET KAREN HEILIG

Karen Heilig serves as the Claims Conference Assistant Executive Vice President and General Counsel.  Since 1999 she has participated in negotiations between the Claims Conference and the German government, the Austrian government and negotiations on unpaid Holocaust era insurance policies. She broke ground as the first female representative for the Claims Conference in negotiations. Ms. Heilig is also co-producer of RECKONINGS.

FILMMAKERS FOR THE PROSECUTION retraces the hunt for film evidence that could convict the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trial. The searchers were two sons of Hollywood – brothers Budd (What Makes Sammy Run) and Stuart Schulberg – serving under the command of OSS film chief John Ford.

The Nuremberg Trials were the first time a cinema screen appeared in a courtroom, and the footage the Schulbergs compiled – mostly shot by the Nazis themselves – became part of the official record. These images shape our understanding of the Holocaust to this day.

Seventy-five years after the trial, the French journalist and filmmaker Jean-Christophe Klotz returns to the German salt mine where films lay burning, uncovers never-before-seen footage and interviews key figures to unravel why the resulting film about the trial – Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today by Stuart Schulberg – was intentionally buried by the U.S. Department of War.

Klotz’s riveting film fills in the gaps of how these groundbreaking materials were sourced, and poses still-pertinent questions about documentarians’ obligations to posterity. It is a story of the power of cinema in the pursuit of justice but also raises questions of the power of media in the world today.

Harvard University’s Professor Eric Rentschler will join us for a Zoom discussion about propaganda in German cinema during the Nazi era.

MEET ERIC RENTSCHLER, Ph.D.

Eric Rentschler, professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, is a faculty member of Harvard University’s Film and Visual Studies Program and the convener of the monthly Film and Visual Studies Colloquium. He has served as director of the annual Berlin Film Program offered by the Harvard Summer School (in cooperation with the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin). He is also  co-director of the German Film Institute held most recently at the University of Michigan.

Professor Rentschler is the author of many books including German Film and Literature (Methuen, 1986), West German Filmmakers on Film (Holmes & Meier, 1988), The Ministry of Illusion (Harvard UP, 1996), ), and The Use and Abuse of Cinema: German Legacies from the Weimar Era to the Present (Columbia UP, 2015).  He is also the recipient of the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize for Senior Faculty at Harvard (2001) and the Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship (2003).

FILMMAKERS FOR THE PROSECUTION retraces the hunt for film evidence that could convict the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trial. The searchers were two sons of Hollywood – brothers Budd (What Makes Sammy Run) and Stuart Schulberg – serving under the command of OSS film chief John Ford.

The Nuremberg Trials were the first time a cinema screen appeared in a courtroom, and the footage the Schulbergs compiled – mostly shot by the Nazis themselves – became part of the official record. These images shape our understanding of the Holocaust to this day.

Seventy-five years after the trial, the French journalist and filmmaker Jean-Christophe Klotz returns to the German salt mine where films lay burning, uncovers never-before-seen footage and interviews key figures to unravel why the resulting film about the trial – Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today by Stuart Schulberg – was intentionally buried by the U.S. Department of War.

Klotz’s riveting film fills in the gaps of how these groundbreaking materials were sourced, and poses still-pertinent questions about documentarians’ obligations to posterity. It is a story of the power of cinema in the pursuit of justice but also raises questions of the power of media in the world today.

Harvard University’s Professor Eric Rentschler will join us for a Zoom discussion about propaganda in German cinema during the Nazi era.

MEET ERIC RENTSCHLER

Eric Rentschler, professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, is a faculty member of Harvard University’s Film and Visual Studies Program and the convener of the monthly Film and Visual Studies Colloquium. He has served as director of the annual Berlin Film Program offered by the Harvard Summer School (in cooperation with the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin). He is also  co-director of the German Film Institute held most recently at the University of Michigan.

Professor Rentschler is the author of many books including German Film and Literature (Methuen, 1986), West German Filmmakers on Film (Holmes & Meier, 1988), The Ministry of Illusion (Harvard UP, 1996), ), and The Use and Abuse of Cinema: German Legacies from the Weimar Era to the Present (Columbia UP, 2015).  He is also the recipient of the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize for Senior Faculty at Harvard (2001) and the Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship (2003).

Winner of 7 Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, LET IT BE MORNING is an up close look at the inner tensions and outer challenges of Israel’s Arab community. Told through the eyes of Sami who is brought back to a small Arab village where his brother lives, viewers see a microcosm of Sami’s world and the dry comedy that unfolds.

Directed by Eran Kolarin (The Band’s Visit) and based on a book by Sayed Kashua who wrote the hit Israeli TV series Arab Labor, LET IT BE MORNING is a non-political portrayal of Israeli-Palestinian tensions at a very human level.

Winner of 7 Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, LET IT BE MORNING is an up close look at the inner tensions and outer challenges of Israel’s Arab community. Told through the eyes of Sami who is brought back to a small Arab village where his brother lives, viewers see a microcosm of Sami’s world and the dry comedy that unfolds.

Directed by Eran Kolarin (The Band’s Visit) and based on a book by Sayed Kashua who wrote the hit Israeli TV series Arab Labor, LET IT BE MORNING is a non-political portrayal of Israeli-Palestinian tensions at a very human level.

Join us after the screening for an optional Israeli Mezze Plate Reception at the Santa Fe Woman’s Club (1616 Old Pecos Trail). See old friends and make new ones!

Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg saved as many as 100,000 Jewish lives during the Holocaust.  Raoul Wallenberg: A Hero for Our Time honors his memory and examines his legacy  on this, the 110th anniversary of his birth.

Who was Raoul Wallenberg, and what can we learn from his heroic efforts to save Jews in the winter of 1944-45 in Budapest? Why did he disappear in January 1945, and what was his subsequent fate? What lessons can we learn for today’s world from Wallenberg’s legacy?

Esther Kovari, whose mother was saved by Wallenberg, will introduce the program, beginning with the screening of the first half of the German documentary The Case of Raoul Wallenberg – Saviour and Victim. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with law professor and diplomat David Scheffer, historian and Wallenberg expert Susanne Berger, and Stephen Kovary who will relate his personal experience during WW II in Budapest. There will be an opportunity to ask questions of the panelists.

In addition to the “live” presentation at CCA, ticket holders will be able to stream the complete film at home or purchase a ticket to steam the “film only” on September 11 and 12.

About the Film

The Case of Raoul Wallenberg – Saviour and Victim sheds light on the circumstances of Wallenberg’s disappearance in Budapest following its liberation in 1945 by the Red Army, his detention in the former Soviet Union, and his probable execution there in 1947. Drawing on the testimony of many well-placed witnesses, researchers and previously unpublished archival material, KGB and prison files, the film paints a disturbing picture of the machinations and cold war maneuvering that led to Wallenberg’s arrest, imprisonment and abandonment by the Allies. As Stalin’s personal hostage and trump card in his negotiations with the West, Wallenberg became one of the incipient Cold War’s first victims.

The U.S. and the Holocaust is a new three-part, six-hour series that tells the story of how the American people grappled with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century, and how this struggle tested the ideals of our democracy. Directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and Lynn Novick, the series examines the periods leading up to and during the Holocaust with fresh eyes and dispels competing myths that Americans either were ignorant of the unspeakable persecution that Jews faced in Europe, or that they looked on with callous indifference.

It also takes a candid look at the roles that eugenics and racism, as well as xenophobia and antisemitism, played during this crisis and throughout American history. In the process, it grapples with questions that remain essential to our society today: Is America, truly, as it claims to be, a land of immigrants? Why did we fail to rescue a people at the time of their greatest need? How do the continued struggles over how we define our past shape our future as a country?

MEET DANIEL GREENE

Following the preview screening, we will be joined by Dr. Daniel Greene who curated Americans and the Holocaust, an exhibition that opened at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC., joins us after the preview to shed additional insight into the role of the U.S. in the years leading up to and during the Holocaust.

The full series initial broadcast on KNME is scheduled for 7 PM MT September 18-20, 2022.  (6 hours)

Did you ever wonder why Topol was chosen to play the part of Tevye (and not Zero Mostel) in the movie version of Fiddler? Or who really played the Fiddler’s violin? Do you know where Fiddler was shot and about the synagogue that was built for the movie?

If you’d like to know the answers or are just in the mood for an entertaining movie, join us in partnership with Jean Cocteau Cinema for a SNEEK PEAK of FIDDLER’S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN 7 PM, Wednesday, May 18.

FIDDLER’S JOURNEY  captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison’s quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim puts us in the director’s chair and in Jewison’s heart and mind, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol (Tevye), composer John Williams, and many more

The film explores how the experience of making “Fiddler” deepens Jewison as an artist and revives his soul while recalling the movie that Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) called “the most powerful movie musical ever made.”

SPECIAL GUEST INTERVIEW follows the screening.

Award-winning author and film critic Professor Alisa Solomon of Columbia University’s School of Journalism joins us in a Zoom interview for a fascinating look at the making of the original production of Fiddler on Broadway. Prof. Solomon is the author of the critically acclaimed Wonder of Wonders – A Cultural History of Fiddler.

Set against the backdrop of Israel’s War of Independence, IMAGE OF VICTORY is based on the true story of the Battle of Nitzanim and the initial loss to the Egyptians as seen from both sides. Directed by one of Israel’s most important and influential filmmakers, Avi Nesher, it was nominated for 15 Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

IMAGE OF VICTORY is also available for streaming from 11 AM on Sunday, May 1 to 10 PM, Saturday, May 7.

For the story behind the making of the film, click here: Image of Victory – The Story Behind the Film

Set against the backdrop of Israel’s War of Independence, IMAGE OF VICTORY is based on the true story of the Battle of Nitzanim and the initial loss to the Egyptians as seen from both sides. Directed by one of Israel’s most important and influential filmmakers, Avi Nesher, it was nominated for 15 Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

Film is also be shown “in theater”  at CCA at 11 AM on May 1. Proof of vaccination and wearing of masks required, limited seating.

For the story behind the making of the film, click here: Image of Victory – The Story Behind the Film

Moyshe Beregovsky crisscrossed Ukraine with a phonograph in hand during the most dramatic years of Soviet history to record and study the traditional music of Ukrainian Jewry. The wax cylinders, which were thought to be lost, captured a Yiddish musical culture that was destroyed in the Holocaust.

SONG SEARCHER is not only Beregovsky’s remarkable story but a window on 20th century Ukrainian Jewish history, all told against the backdrop of a Yiddish musical treasure rediscovered.

Moyshe Beregovsky crisscrossed Ukraine with a phonograph in hand during the most dramatic years of Soviet history to record and study the traditional music of Ukrainian Jewry. The wax cylinders, which were thought to be lost, captured a Yiddish musical culture that was destroyed in the Holocaust.

SONG SEARCHER is not only Beregovsky’s remarkable story but a window on 20th century Ukrainian Jewish history, all told against the backdrop of a Yiddish musical treasure rediscovered.

ALSO “IN-THEATER” AT CCA on Sunday, Feb. 27 at 3 PM

STREAMING NOW

In Ethiopia they were called “Falashas”, a derogatory term meaning outsiders/exiles. In the United States they were referred to as “Black Jews”. In Israel, they are simply Ethiopian Jews. They call themselves “Beta Israel” (House of Israel). Decedents of an ancient Jewish tribe, for over 2500 years they managed to uphold the laws of Judaism, all the while believing they were the last Jews on earth.

The ties between Beta Israel and their fellow Jews were renewed only at the turn of the 20th century, thanks to the determination of a few individuals, and the exodus of Ethiopian Jews began. YERUSALEM is the story of this exodus and the heroic actions by individuals and communities; of daring covert operations by the Mossad and IDF’s elite combat units; of a worldwide effort which called on Jewish communities everywhere to help save this Jewish tribe from extinction.

It was only towards the end of the 20th century after a long and tumultuous journey that the community of Beta Israel finally arrived in Israel, the land of the Jews. The loving embrace that was extended to the newcomers quickly faded and the new immigrants were now facing difficulties from religious factions and Israeli society. The validity of their religious practices was scrutinized and questioned. Like many other immigrants from different countries during different eras, the Ethiopian Jews were asked to give up their “unique” traditions in order to blend in and be fully accepted.

The struggle to adapt to a modern Israel is still very much an ongoing process.

For more information about the Ethiopian Jewish community, go to:  http://www.santafejff.org/ethiopian-jewry-resources/

YERUSALEM has been generously sponsored by Audrey Goldings and Barry Schrager

Also available for Streaming from Feb. 27 – Mar. 5

In Ethiopia they were called “Falashas”, a derogatory term meaning outsiders/exiles. In the United States they were referred to as “Black Jews”. In Israel, they are simply Ethiopian Jews. They call themselves “Beta Israel” (House of Israel). Decedents of an ancient Jewish tribe, for over 2500 years they managed to uphold the laws of Judaism, all the while believing they were the last Jews on earth.

The ties between Beta Israel and their fellow Jews were renewed only at the turn of the 20th century, thanks to the determination of a few individuals, and the exodus of Ethiopian Jews began. YERUSALEM is the story of this exodus and the heroic actions by individuals and communities; of daring covert operations by the Mossad and IDF’s elite combat units; of a worldwide effort which called on Jewish communities everywhere to help save this Jewish tribe from extinction.

It was only towards the end of the 20th century after a long and tumultuous journey that the community of Beta Israel finally arrived in Israel, the land of the Jews. The loving embrace that was extended to the newcomers quickly faded and the new immigrants were now facing difficulties from religious factions and Israeli society. The validity of their religious practices was scrutinized and questioned. Like many other immigrants from different countries during different eras, the Ethiopian Jews were asked to give up their “unique” traditions in order to blend in and be fully accepted.

The struggle to adapt to a modern Israel is still very much an ongoing process.

YERUSALEM has been generously sponsored by Audrey Goldings and Barry Schrager

ALSO “IN-THEATER” AT CCA on Sunday, Jan. 30 at 3 PM

Imprisoned by the Soviets, orphaned by the Holocaust, elected Prime Minister, crowned peacemaker by the Nobel Prize Committee, haunted by the Lebanon War. Menachem Begin was a pillar of the State of Israel and a tireless fighter for the Jewish people. He was, at the same time, a controversial leader. His life is a nuanced and complicated canvas that tells the story of key events in the history of modern Israel and its relationship to its Middle East neighbors. With evocative imagery, rarely seen archival materials, and revealing interviews with those who knew him, Upheaval portrays the life and essence of this brilliant, tough, complex, loving, and proud man who never compromised when the survival of Israel and the Jewish people were at stake.

ALSO AVAILABLE VIA STREAMING from Jan. 30 to Feb. 5

Imprisoned by the Soviets, orphaned by the Holocaust, elected Prime Minister, crowned peacemaker by the Nobel Prize Committee, haunted by the Lebanon War. Menachem Begin was a pillar of the State of Israel and a tireless fighter for the Jewish people. He was, at the same time, a controversial leader. His life is a nuanced and complicated canvas that tells the story of key events in the history of modern Israel and its relationship to its Middle East neighbors. With evocative imagery, rarely seen archival materials, and revealing interviews with those who knew him, Upheaval portrays the life and essence of this brilliant, tough, complex, loving, and proud man who never compromised when the survival of Israel and the Jewish people were at stake.

STREAMING NOW UNTIL DEC. 6

Light up this year’s Hanukkah with the Santa Fe JFF’s Hanukkah Film Festival. The Festival, which is all virtual, is showcasing four films over eight nights for one price!

See the Israeli Academy Award winning film, HERE WE ARE for a tender tale of a father and his autistic son. For a glimpse of the Jewish community in Mexico and a Jane Austen-like story, watch LEONA,  a film that was nominated for seven Mexican Academy Awards. The little known community of Jews of Majorca is the subject of XUETA ISLAND  and it is being shown with UNRAVELING, an investigation of whether Pancho Villa killed the filmmaker’s Grandfather!

STREAMING NOW UNTIL NOV. 27

He was called the Michael Jordan of bridge, considered to be the world’s greatest player, and accused of cheating in a scandal that rocked the bridge world to its core.  DIRTY TRICKS is the detective-like story of Lotan Fisher, the self-confident Israeli who seemed invincible until his nemesis, Norway’s Boye Brogeland, brought him down. But was Fisher cheating?

Lotan Fisher was a precocious child with a mind-boggling ability to remember numbers. His passion for bridge started when he walked into a bridge club at age 11 and was immediately identified as a possible champion. Fisher’s quick rise through the ranks, while rubbing shoulders with some of the richest men in the world, reflected not only his skill but a passion that was all consuming.

Then Brogeland, who had lost to Fisher in the quarter finals of a bridge championship, began to question some of Fisher’s moves. They were unconventional, too unconventional, were Fisher and his partner secretly signaling one another? Many thought the pair were doing just that. DIRTY TRICKS is the story of what happened in a fast-paced narrative that leaves it to you to decide.

Director Daniel Sivan is an award-winning Israeli director /producer. His works include the hit Netflix documentary series ‘The Devil Next Door’ (2019); the Emmy nominated ‘The Oslo Diaries’ (2018) which premiered at Sundance; and ‘Censored Voices’ (with co-director Mor Loushy, 2015) which won the Israeli Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Available in New Mexico only.

ON SALE NOV. 3

He was called the Michael Jordan of bridge, considered to be the world’s greatest player, and accused of cheating in a scandal that rocked the bridge world to its core.  DIRTY TRICKS is the detective-like story of Lotan Fisher, the self-confident Israeli who seemed invincible until his nemesis, Norway’s Boye Brogeland, brought him down. But was Fisher cheating?

Lotan Fisher was a precocious child with a mind-boggling ability to remember numbers. His passion for bridge started when he walked into a bridge club at age 11 and was immediately identified as a possible champion. Fisher’s quick rise through the ranks, while rubbing shoulders with some of the richest men in the world, reflected not only his skill but a passion that was all consuming.

Then Brogeland, who had lost to Fisher in the quarter finals of a bridge championship, began to question some of Fisher’s moves. They were unconventional, too unconventional, were Fisher and his partner secretly signaling one another? Many thought the pair were doing just that. DIRTY TRICKS is the story of what happened in a fast-paced narrative that leaves it to you to decide.

Director Daniel Sivan is an award-winning Israeli director /producer. His works include the hit Netflix documentary series ‘The Devil Next Door’ (2019); the Emmy nominated ‘The Oslo Diaries’ (2018) which premiered at Sundance; and ‘Censored Voices’ (with co-director Mor Loushy, 2015) which won the Israeli Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

STREAMING NOW THROUGH OCT. 30.

Come to the New Mexico premiere and “virtual screening” of Bernadette Wegenstein’s THE CONDUCTOR. The doc takes the audience into the heart of classical music and into the soul of one of its top artists: the internationally renowned conductor Marin Alsop.  Film will be available online until 10 PM October 30.

A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Alsop smashed the glass ceiling when she became the first woman to serve as music director of a major orchestra. Set against a breathtaking soundtrack of her performances, this inspiring tale of perseverance against prejudice and institutional obstacles follows Alsop through a series of first that has paved the way for a diversified future within the world of classical music and lends a backstage pass to the artistry and energy that rewards her audiences and inspires her students today.

Join us at CCA for a continental brunch and the New Mexico premiere of Director Bernadette Wegenstein’s THE CONDUCTOR. The doc takes the audience into the heart of classical music and into the soul of one of its top artists: the internationally renowned conductor Marin Alsop. A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Alsop smashed the glass ceiling when she became the first woman to serve as music director of a major orchestra. Set against a breathtaking soundtrack of her performances, this inspiring tale of perseverance against prejudice and institutional obstacles follows Alsop through a series of first that has paved the way for a diversified future within the world of classical music and lends a backstage pass to the artistry and energy that rewards her audiences and inspires her students today.

Seating is limited for this “in-theater” screening. Attendees must provide proof of vaccination or a negative PCR or acceptable rapid test and wear a mask when inside the theater. For more information about required Covid-19 protocols, click here.

Come to the New Mexico premiere and “virtual screening” with brunch of Bernadette Wegenstein’s THE CONDUCTOR. The doc takes the audience into the heart of classical music and into the soul of one of its top artists: the internationally renowned conductor Marin Alsop.  Film will be available online for five days beginning Oct. 24.

A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Alsop smashed the glass ceiling when she became the first woman to serve as music director of a major orchestra. Set against a breathtaking soundtrack of her performances, this inspiring tale of perseverance against prejudice and institutional obstacles follows Alsop through a series of first that has paved the way for a diversified future within the world of classical music and lends a backstage pass to the artistry and energy that rewards her audiences and inspires her students today.

Join us at CCA for the New Mexico premiere of Director Bernadette Wegenstein’s THE CONDUCTOR. The doc takes the audience into the heart of classical music and into the soul of one of its top artists: the internationally renowned conductor Marin Alsop. A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Alsop smashed the glass ceiling when she became the first woman to serve as music director of a major orchestra. Set against a breathtaking soundtrack of her performances, this inspiring tale of perseverance against prejudice and institutional obstacles follows Alsop through a series of first that has paved the way for a diversified future within the world of classical music and lends a backstage pass to the artistry and energy that rewards her audiences and inspires her students today.

Seating is limited for this “in-theater” screening. Attendees must provide proof of vaccination or a negative PCR or acceptable rapid test and wear a mask when inside the theater. For more information about required Covid-19 protocols, click here.

Register Now
April 7 marks Holocaust Memorial Day and a special commemoration presented by Jewish Federation New Mexico and the New Mexico Holocaust Museum. Join the New Mexico community in this important observance. Leading up to the commemorative program, the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival will be screening the the powerful documentary, NUMBERED. Tickets are free but required and are available here.

Streaming Now
What is the legacy of a number indelibly tattooed on the arm of an Auschwitz survivor? How does this ever-present reminder affect memory of the past and the shape of one’s future? These are two of the questions explored in NUMBERED, an award-winning documentary which will be streamed April 1-7 in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The film is also part of Jewish Federation New Mexico’s State-wide commemoration on April 7.

Auschwitz and its sub-camps were the only German concentration camps in World War II to tattoo its prisoners. Numbers were assigned to 400,000 inmates with tattooing beginning in 1941. It was part of a process to dehumanize Jews and other groups, branding them like cattle. Auschwitz was liberated in 1945, and few survivors are alive today. NUMBERED is a rare opportunity to hear their stories in their own words and voices.

Among the testimonies are those of a survivor who uses his number as a basis for computer security codes, another who views it as a proud badge of courage and survival, and a daughter who chooses to have her father’s number tattooed on her body to keep his memory alive. These testimonies, filmed against stark black backgrounds, recall the darkness of the past and the resilience of the human spirit.

NUMBERED is a co-presentation with Federation and in association with the Center for Contemporary Arts.

This event has been generously supported by Film Underwriters
Leslie Nathanson & Hervey Juris and Noreen and David Perlmutter.

<strong><center>Register Now</strong></center>

Jewelry is a highly esteemed craft in Islamic societies, attracting attention to its beauty, elaborate designs, and intricate artistry. The function of jewelry, however, often goes beyond aesthetic adornment or even a status and wealth symbol. Jewelry often served amuletic purposes, believed to protect their wearers.

Presented by the Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series, Professor Shalom Sabar will examine examples of precious Jewish amulets, created among the communities of Iran, Kurdistan, Iraq, and North Africa. Through the processes, the basic visual and textual components of amulets and how central motifs such as the fish and the hamsa were totally “Judaized” in the process will be addressed and considered.

ABOUT SHALOM SABAR
Professor Shalom Sabar lectures widely across Europe and the United States on Jewish and folk material culture, objects associated with the cycles of life and of the year, and ritual and custom in the Jewish communities in Europe and in Islamic lands. He is interested in the culture of Italian Jews and the Sephardic diaspora in Europe, the cultural and artistic interrelationships between the Jewish communities and their Christian and Muslim neighbors, and the image of the Jew and Hebrew writing in art.

Professor Sabar has published over 200 books and articles. He is an avid collector of Jewish art objects and Israeli ephemera and presents lectures and guides tours to Jewish sites in Europe, North Africa, India, and Central Asia.

This program was generously underwritten by Doris Francis-Erhard

ON SALE NOWThey came to Israel alone, six women from Arab countries and one from Poland, leaving behind comfortable lives for a barren desert “development” town that none expected would be their new home. The women from Arab countries not only endured economic hardship but discrimination as well. Their language, traditions, and often their skin color were different from their Ashkenazi brethren. They stood apart and, as such, were treated as second class citizens. Yet by dint of character, these women succeeded in creating productive lives and blurring the gap that separated them. DIMONA TWIST is their remarkable story.

STREAMING EXTENDED!The award-winning Ma’abarot is the first documentary to tell the story of the controversial Israeli transit camps and the experience of the Jews from Arab countries. These camps housed hundreds of thousands of new immigrants from different parts of the world, transitioning them into becoming part of the Israeli cultural tapestry and yet creating nearly unsurmountable challenges for the newly formed state. Ma’abarot unravels the many stories of the camp residents, discovering new details, that shatter common stereotypes in the current Israeli discourse.

VIRTUAL SCREENING NOW UNTIL 4 PM FRI. JAN. 22
It was a different time. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing, and the common cause of racial equality bonded Blacks and Jews. The documentary Shared Legacies takes us back to when Black-Jewish co-operation was a given, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel walked arm in arm.

Archival footage and recent interviews remind us of two communities, each of whom encountered prejudice, violence, and segregation, that came together with the founding of the NAACP in 1909 and blossomed in the 1960s due in large measure to the relationship between Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel. With narration and interviews with Holocaust survivors, the late Congressman John Lewis, Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr., Rabbi Peter S. Berg, Julian Bond, and members of the King and Heschel families, among others, it is a story of two people whose support of the other made each stronger.

The screening is a backdrop to “Standing Together Against Racism: Building on Our Common Heritage” which is a conversation with Dr. Bernice A. King (daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) and Dr. Susannah Heschel (daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel), moderated by African American Rabbi Capers Funnye Jr. The conversationt will be streamed nationally at 4 PM MST on Sunday, January 24.

Co-presented by Jewish Federation NM

COMING SOON
J. Robert Oppenheimer may always be linked to the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb, but after World War II, this brilliant scientist fell from the innermost circles of American science, and at the height of the Red Scare, the veil of suspicion fell over him. Accused of being a Soviet spy, racked by his own inner guilt over a weapon that changed history, Oppenheimer faced a trial that changed his life. (PBS)

Suggested donation: $15, Tickets required.

co-presented by NMJHS

A Presentation of
the Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series and
the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival.

The documentary Holy Silence tells the dramatic story of the Vatican’s actions – and inactions – during World War II and the years leading up to it. Featuring Oscar-nominated actor David Strathaim as the voice of President Franklin Roosevelt, the film reveals the different attitudes of Pope Pius XI and Pius XII toward the Jews. Among the stories the film uncovers is that of the American Jesuit priest John LaFarge who, at Pope Pius XI’s request, drafted an encyclical denouncing racism and anti-Semitism. When the Pope died, so did the possibility that the encyclical would be published, raising the question of whether the Holocaust would have taken a different turn had Pius XI lived a few years longer.

Special Screening
in memory of Carol Toobin
Who would have imagined that a documentary about “corporate musicals” could be so utterly charming and delightful? Steve Young, a former comedy writer for the “Late Night with David Letterman” takes us on an unusual journey of discovery of the “other” Broadway that was a home to the famous and not so famous future stars.

With songs like “My Bathroom” from American-Standard’s The Bathrooms are Coming, “I’ve Got a Wide Range of Features” from GE’s It’s a Great New Line, and music from Detroit Diesel’s 1966 show Diesel Dazzle, Bathtubs Over Broadway is a must see!

Premiering at the Tribecca Film Festival, Bathtubs went on to win over a dozen audience audience and other awards. Whether it’s familiar names like Sheldon Harnick and Kander & Ebb or those less familiar, we think you’ll be charmed.

Tickets are complimentary. Click the “More Info” icon above to send an e-mail request for tickets.

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IN MEMORY OF CAROL TOOBIN (1947 – 2020)
Carol Toobin was a dear friend and integral part of the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival. As Hospitality Chair, she created a welcoming environment and food events that often included her spectacular rugelach. As member of our Screening Committee, she brought a diverse and valued perspective.

Each year Carol and I would attend a major film festival, scouting out films to bring to the Santa Fe JFF. Bathtubs Over Broadway, a paean to the “other Broadway”, was her favorite film at last year’s Palm Springs International Film Festival.

We are pleased to screen this award-winning documentary in celebration of Carol’s life and in her memory. While her life has passed, her legacy with its acts of kindness and generosity remain as does the memory of a most lovely lady who was beautiful both inside and out. And for a special treat, we are sharing the recipe for Carol’s rugelach, the highlight of our many coffee and pastries events. She wanted to share it, and we are doing so here.
Carol’s Rugelach

ON SALE NOW!
Aviva Kempner’s Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg looks at the life and career of Gertrude Berg, the creator, writer and star of The Goldbergs, a popular 1930s radio show that was subsequently a weekly TV program. Berg pioneered the family-based sitcom format that has proven to be television’s most durable and popular genre. More remarkably, she did it by presenting America with an outwardly Jewish family that wore its immigrant heritage on its sleeve. The film also examines the stand Berg took against McCarthyism when she refused to fire her long-time co-star Philip Loeb – who resigned to prevent the cancellation of the show and later committed suicide.

Co-presented by the
Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series

ON SALE NOW!
On January 15th, 2015, a few weeks after completing his memoir, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks learned that the rare form of cancer for which he had been treated seven years earlier had returned, and that he had only a few months to live. One month later, he sat down with the producers for a series of marathon filmed interviews. He spoke with astonishing candor, and with unflinching honesty – a profoundly gifted 81-year-old man facing death with remarkable courage and vitality who was still vigorous while facing the end. He was determined to come to grips with what his life has meant and what it means to be, as he put it, “a sentient being on this beautiful planet.”

Drawing on these riveting and profoundly moving twilight reflections, OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE explores the extraordinary life and work of the renowned neurologist, clinician and writer.

ON SALE NOW!
On January 15th, 2015, a few weeks after completing his memoir, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks learned that the rare form of cancer for which he had been treated seven years earlier had returned, and that he had only a few months to live. One month later, he sat down with the producers for a series of marathon filmed interviews. He spoke with astonishing candor, and with unflinching honesty – a profoundly gifted 81-year-old man facing death with remarkable courage and vitality who was still vigorous while facing the end. He was determined to come to grips with what his life has meant and what it means to be, as he put it, “a sentient being on this beautiful planet.”

Drawing on these riveting and profoundly moving twilight reflections, OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE explores the extraordinary life and work of the renowned neurologist, clinician and writer.

Join us after the film for a conversation with Niki Russ Federman, fourth generation owner of Russ & Daughters. What’s the connection between Oliver Sacks and Russ & Daughters? Throw in a little schmaltz herring and you’ll find out!

MEET NIKI RUSS FEDERMAN
Niki is the fourth-generation owner of Russ & Daughters, the home of bagels and lox since 1914. Since taking over her family’s 106 year-old food legacy, Niki and her cousin Josh Russ, have expanded the business beyond Russ & Daughters’ original appetizing store on New York’s Lower East Side. Together they launched and oversee Russ & Daughters Cafe, Russ & Daughters at the Jewish Museum and Russ & Daughters Brooklyn, which includes their jewish bakery and nationwide shipping facility. Niki is frequently featured in the media, including “The Sturgeon Queens,” an award-winning documentary about the Russ family and Russ & Daughters.

Is your mouth watering? Check out Russ & Daughters selection of deli delectables that can be shipped directly to your home: russanddaughters.com.

POSTPONEDIn 1923, shortly after receiving the Nobel Prize, Albert Einstein arrived in Palestine in his first and only trip to the Holy Land. For the next 12 days, he recorded his impressions of the emerging Jewish State in a personal journal which wasn’t meant to be published. Using this never before seen travel log, EINSTEIN IN THE HOLY LAND traces Einstein’s historic visit, revealing the human side behind the genius.

Einstein was also an accomplished amateur violinist. He once said, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Santa Fe Institute Professor Cris Moore joins us after the film for a talk about “Einstein, Music, and Math”. Moore, in addition to his contributions in the field of mathematics and computer science, wrote and co-hosted the award-winning NMPBS documentary, “The Majesty of Music and Math” which also featured the Santa Fe Symphony.

EINSTEIN IN THE HOLY LAND is presented in conjunction with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale’s ROARING ’20S program which is on tap this summer. Einstein epitomizes the genius of the period.

For more information and tickets to the Santa Fe Desert Chorale’s ROARING 20’s program, visit www.desertchorale.org.

POSTPONED
In this cooking demo and talk presented by Kol BeRamah and co-sponsored by the Santa Fe JFF, Israeli Chef Yahav Kriti discusses how Jewish communities from Arab lands brought their signature dishes, spices and flavors to Israel and how these influences have created a modern Israeli cuisine. Find out why Forbes magazine said “Israel just might have the world’s best restaurant scene” and Conde Nast named Tel Aviv one of the Ten Best food capitals in the world!

Included in the presentation is a sampling of dishes which are representative of this modern fusion.

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J. Robert Oppenheimer may always be linked to the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb, but after World War II, this brilliant scientist fell from the innermost circles of American science, and at the height of the Red Scare, the veil of suspicion fell over him. Accused of being a Soviet spy, racked by his own inner guilt over a weapon that changed history, Oppenheimer faced a trial that changed his life. (PBS)

Rabbi Paul Citrin joins us after the screening to discuss what rabbinic and contemporary Judaism say about warfare of mass destruction with some surprising insights.

Suggested donation: $15, reservations required.

ENCORE PRESENTATION
The story of a family and a company that changed the world, told in three parts on a single evening. Golden Globe Winner Sam Mendes (1917 directs Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles who play the Lehman Brothers, their sons and grandsons.

On a cold September morning in 1844 a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside. Dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers and an American epic begins. 163 years later, the firm they establish – Lehman Brothers – spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, and triggers the largest financial crisis in history.

This critically acclaimed and five-time Olivier Award nominated play features stunning set design from Es Devlin (NT Live: Hamlet) and was filmed live from London’s West End as part of National Theatre Live’s 10th Birthday season.

Presented in association with the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival.

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Making its prestigious debut at Telluride, THOSE WHO REMAINED is a lyrical story of the healing power of love in the midst of conflict, loss and trauma. It reveals the healing process of Holocaust survivors through the eyes of a young girl in post-World War II Hungary and is a reminder that the liberation of survivors from the camps was in a physical sense only. The emotional scars remain, taking time to fade.

THOSE WHO REMAINED is Hungary’s submission for the Oscar for Best international Film and is one of the ten films on the “shortlist” for that award.

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They had been there since biblical times, today virtually none remain. These are the Jews of Iraq, and this is their story.

In REMEMBER BAGHDAD, five families from the Jewish community look back on a scarcely imaginable time in Baghdad – Iraq was booming, it was pleasure-seeking, and there was inter-communal trust. Iraq was once one of the most diverse places on earth, more tolerant of its minorities than any European nation.

Today, after decades of war and instability, Iraq is a very different place. In spite of the danger, North Londoner Edwin Shuker decides to return to the country he loved. We follow him back to Baghdad. He wants to buy a house in Iraq so that he can say “the Jews have not all gone”. He wants to plant a seed of hope for the future.

Season Underwriter Ellen Romm Lampert and Film Underwriter Doris Francis

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Winner of this year’s Israeli Academy Award for Best Picture, INCITEMENT is the gripping story of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin as told through the eyes of the assassin, Yigal Amir. Award-winning director Yaron Zilberman spent four years researching the subject, including interviews with Amir and his family as well as the head of the Shin Bet Security Forces, police investigators and others, to understand the transformation of a political activist to a dangerous extremist.

INCITEMENT premiered at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) earlier this year to significant acclaim. The Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival is pleased to bring this outstanding film to Santa Fe audiences. Our screening includes a Skype interview with the director. This is an event not to be missed.

THE UNORTHODOX is the “barely fictionalized” story of the rise of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, the first political party in Israel to represent the Sephardic and Mizrahi communities. Previously marginalized by the ruling Ashkenazi elite, Shas gave voice to the voiceless in a tale of the power of the people. Nominated for nine Israeli Academy Awards and winner of four, actor Shuli Rand delivers what has been described as a “galvanizing performance”.

Karen & Stan Weinstein

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Our Tenth Season opens with TOVAH FELDSHUH recreating her award-winning performance as Golda Meir (and,stunningly, 43 other characters) in GOLDAS BALCONY, THE FILM (2019), in this final masterpiece by the author of “The Miracle Worker”, WILLIAM GIBSON, makes its motion picture debut in 2019. A rare, multi-camera shoot from the play’s original run was recently unearthed (literally, from a safe) and assembled into a new but absolutely riveting motion picture. The rise of Golda Meir from Russian schoolgirl to Prime Minister of Israel is one of the most thrilling and amazing stories of the 20th Century. In GOLDA’S BALCONY, THE FILM (2019), her life has been transformed into a cinematic event of overwhelming power and inspirational triumph.

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Twenty years before Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu already understood the political benefits of a toxic relationship with the media, and direct communication with the public. KING BIBI explores Netanyahu’s rise to power, relying solely on archival footage of his media performances over the years: from his days as a popular guest expert on American TV, through his public confession of adultery, and his mastery of the art of social media. From one studio to another, “Bibi” evolved from Israel’s great political hope, to a controversial figure whom some perceive as Israel’s savior, and others – as a cynical politician who will stop at nothing to retain his power.

Best-selling author, noted historian, and subject of the critically acclaimed movie “Denial”, Deborah Lipstadt, is coming to Santa Fe. The New York Times Book Review has described Lipstadt’s latest book, “Antisemitism, Here and Now” as one that “combines erudition, clarity, accessibility and passion at a moment when they could not be needed more”and The Washington Post has said her book is “crucial” for understanding the “resurgence of antisemitism on both the right and left”. Ms. Lipstadt will speak on this subject and some of its less overt but equally insidious forms. In light of the recent synagogue shootings in San Diego and Pittsburgh and the doubling in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. from 2015 to 2018, her talk could not be more timely.

Deborah Lipstadt is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. She gained national attention in 1996 when she and her publisher, Penguin, were sued in an English court for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving for Lipstadt’s characterization of some of Irving’s writings and public statements as “Holocaust denial”. The trial, which Lipstadt won, was the subject of the recent film “Denial” starring Rachel Weisz.

Lipstadt is the author of a number of other books, including The Eichmann Trial which was published in commemoration of the trial’s 50th anniversary, and hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as “a penetrating and authoritative dissection of a landmark case and its after effects”. Her His­to­ry on Tri­al: My Day in Court with David Irv­ing was a Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award-win­ner.

Ms. Lipstadt has served as an historical consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and was a President Clinton appointee to the Holocaust Memorial Council. She is the recipient of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs highest honor, the Albert D. Chernin Award which is given to “an American Jew whose work best exemplifies the social justice imperatives of Judaism, Jewish history and the protection of the Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment.” Previous winners included Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Professor Alan Dershowitz.

Ms. Lipstadt’s talk is a presentation of the Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series and the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival with additional support from Jewish Federation New Mexico.

Celebrate the 130th anniversary of Trinidad, Colorado’s Temple Aaron at a gala event, June 21-23 in Trinidad and see the fascinating documentary RAISE THE ROOF on June 22 in this historic synagogue. RAISE THE ROOF follows artists Rick and Laura Brown who are not Jewish and not Polish, who decide to rebuild Gwodziec, a magnificent wooden eighteenth century synagogue in Poland that was later destroyed by the Nazis. Their vision inspires hundreds of people to join them, using their hands, old tools and techniques to bring Gwodziec’s history, culture, science, and art back to life.

Filmmakers Yari and Cary Wolinsky’s beautifully photographed and rendered film RAISE THE ROOF, tells the story of this remarkable 10 year project against the backdrop of the 1000 year history of Jews in Poland.

RAISE THE ROOF is co-sponsored by the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society

Nominated for eight Israeli Academy Awards, SHOELACES is the story of a complicated relationship between an aging father and his special-needs son, whom he abandoned while he was still a young boy. As a result of the death of the mother, the father is thrust into an uncomfortable relationship with his son for whom he is now temporarily responsible. Through the film’s portrayal of a relationship full of love, rejection and co-dependency, it manages to shed some light and question the importance of human life, human connection and if life is even possible without it either one of them.

Join us for an optional dinner following the film at Midtown Bistro.
Cinema Bistro Sample Menu

SHOELACES has been generously sponsored by Festival Angels Ruth Anne and Halley Faust with additional support from Film Sponsors Eva and Ed Borins

From his difficult childhood in Poland to his adolescence under Nice’s sun, to his career in the air force in Africa during World War II… Romain Gary has lived an extraordinary life. He owes this relentless enterprise to live a thousand lives, to become a great man and a famous writer, to his mother Nina. It’s the wild love of
his eccentric and endearing mother that drives him to become one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century, to lead a life full of twists, passion, and mystery. But this unconditional maternal love will also be a burden that he bears his whole life… Promise at Dawn is the film adaptation of Romain Gary’s best-selling autobiographical novel.

In November 1940, days after the Nazis sealed 450,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, a secret band of journalists, scholars and community leaders decided to fight back. Led by historian Emanuel Ringelblum and known by the code name Oyneg Shabes, this clandestine group vowed to defeat Nazi lies and propaganda not with guns or fists but with pen and paper. Now, for the first time, their story is told as a feature documentary.

Written, produced, and directed by Roberta Grossman and executive produced by Nancy Spielberg, WHO WILL WRITE OUR HISTORY mixes the writings of the Oyneg Shabes archive with new interviews, rarely seen footage and stunning dramatizations to transport us inside the Ghetto and the lives of these courageous resistance fighters. They defied their murderous enemy with the ultimate weapon – the truth –and risked everything so that their archive would survive the war, even if they did not.

WHO WILL WRITE OUR HISTORY has been generously sponsored by Film Sponsors Connie & David Girard-diCarlo, Linda Krull and Noreen & David Perlmutter

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CITY OF JOEL follows an Hassidic community’s battle for turf. With unprecedented access, director Jesse Sweet looks at all sides: from religious zealots to dissidents, from rabbis to people who doubt their own faith as they struggle to find their place among and within the Hassidic community of Kiryas Joel in Monroe, New York.

CITY OF JOEL is a captivating documentary that pits freedom of religion against the norms of a community’s secular neighbors.

With special guests Profs. David Myers and Nomi Stolzenberg!
Joining us for a post film talk are Professor David Myers, Chair of Jewish Studies at UCLA and Professor Nomi Stolzenberg, Professor of Law at USC. Professor Myers was a consultant for the film and he and Professor Stolzenberg just completed a book on Kiryas Joel. They will be sharing with us their insights and answer questions.

STOCKHOLM, Israel’s record-smashing TV mini-series and the first Israeli TV show to premier at TIFF, is coming to the Santa Fe JFF! Join us for a TV “binge” afternoon (including refreshments) and find out why critics loved this dark comedy.

“Just days before the laureates are announced, a leading contender for the Nobel Prize in Economics is found dead in his bed. His four closest friends decide to keep him “alive” a little bit longer for the one thing he wanted more than anything.

Director Daniel Syrkin and his accomplished cast, including award winning actor Sasson Gabay (star of the Tony Award winning musical, The Band’s Visit), strike the perfect balance in tone, lending chutzpah to the comedy behind serious topics. Playing like a Jewish version of The Big Chill for an older demographic, Stockholm is, above all, an endearing portrait of friendship in the twilight years.” Michael Lerman – TIFF

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In this riveting historical drama, Nelson Mandela and his inner circle of Black and Jewish supporters face a possible death sentence for conspiracy to commit sabotage after they are arrested by the apartheid South African government during a raid in the town of Rivonia during the summer of 1963. Bram Fischer (exceptionally played by Peter Paul Muller), a sympathetic lawyer, risks his career and freedom to defend these men, attempting to hide the fact that he, too, frequently convened on the farm where they were arrested.

With AN ACT OF DEFIANCE, Dutch filmmaker Jean van de Velde (The Silent Army) captures a dark period in South Africa’s recent history, skillfully balancing a nail-biting political thriller with spectacular courtroom intrigue while paying tribute to the legendary figures who fought to end segregation and corruption in their country.

IN COMMEMORATION OF HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
In November 1940, days after the Nazis sealed 450,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, a secret band of journalists, scholars and community leaders decided to fight back. Led by historian Emanuel Ringelblum, this clandestine group vowed to defeat Nazi lies and propaganda not with guns or fists but with pen and paper. They defied their murderous enemy with the ultimate weapon – the truth – and risked everything so that their archive would survive the war, even if they did not.

WHO WILL WRITE OUR HISTORY is their history. The documentary is being shown in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The film’s cinematographer, Dyanna Taylor, will be joining us in person to discuss the making of the film.

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This breathtakingly beautiful Tony® Award-winning Broadway musical, inspired by the Oscar® winning MGM film, tells the impassioned story of discovering love in the ‘City of Lights’.

Featuring the gorgeous music and lyrics of George and Ira Gershwin (including the classic hits ‘S Wonderful and I Got Rhythm), stunning designs, and show-stopping choreography. With a record-setting 28 five-star reviews from critics, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS is coming from the stage where it was filmed to the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival for an Encore Screening, an event not to be missed.

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FLIX & CHOPSTIX, our signature holiday event of a movie and Chinese food on Christmas, is back! This year’s film is AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, THE MUSICAL, with an optional Chinese dinner at LuLu’s Chinese Cuisine. Come to the movie, come to the dinner or come to both. Tickets are on sale now for a specially priced film and dinner package as well as for the film only. A limited number of “dinner only” tickets will be on sale shortly.

DETAILS: The film is from 2 to 5 PM at The Screen, with an intermission and complimentary refreshments. The Chinese dinner at LuLu’s will start at 5:15 PM. Vegetarian and gluten-free dishes are available.

A limited number of “DINNER ONLY” tickets are available for our signature holiday event, FLIX & CHOPSTIX, a movie and Chinese food. Dinner is at LuLu’s Chinese Cuisine. Or better yet, come to the movie, the Tony award-winning musical, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, brought to you on the screen at The Screen.

BEN-GURION,EPILOGUE brings to life an historic lost interview with one of modern history’s greatest leaders, David Ben-Gurion. It is 1968, he is 82 and lives in the desert. Ben-Gurion’s introspective soul-searching provides a surprising vision for crucial decisions Israel needs to make today. At the time of the global leadership crisis, the film also brings thought-provoking insights about the role of leaders in today’s complex world.

Children of the first kibbutzim in Israel were born in the early 20th century to youthful parents, full of hope. They have been called “Children of the Sun”, because they considered them children of the “Sun of Nations” Revolution in Israel. They were born into a utopia and were destined to become the “New Man”. They were educated in a ideological society that aspired to replace the traditional family with the collective one, to subjugate the will of the individual in favor of the common good and a life of equality.

CHILDREN OF THE SUN tells the story of the journey in search of a society’s memory and the concepts that have passed from the world. The film is a collage comprised of over eighty amateur films. Rare footage that was shot at the kibbutzim between 1930 and 1970, rare recordings and conversations with family and friends. The tapestry of rare materials from which the film is compiled creates both a very personal and very public story, a form of super story about one of the most fascinating myths of the Zionist movement in the Land of Israel. (Ruth Films)

CHILDREN OF THE SUN has been generously supported by Film Sponsors Joan & Jeffry Less, Kathy & Manny Marczak, Tom Margittai, and Tricia Rosenberg in honor of Bonnie Ellinger

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As part of the opening of our Ninth Season, NY Times best-selling author Ronen Bergman will be joining us for a special talk about his latest book RISE AND KILL FIRST. Bergman is Israel’s best known investigative reporter. RISE AND KILL FIRST IS THE first definitive history of the Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF’s targeted killing programs, hailed by The New York Times as “an exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject.”

Mr. Bergman is a contributor to the New York Times, and his byline appeared recently on stories about the targeted assassination of one of Syria’s top nuclear scientists and Israel’s secret activities to obtain Iran’s nuclear secrets.

RONAN BERGMAN has been generously underwritten by Festival Angels Susan and Steven Goldstein with additional support from Film Underwriters Renee and Arthur Goshin and Film Sponsors Gloria Abella Ballen, Ron Duncan Hart and Jacqueline and Barry Panter

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For years the Mossad, Israel’s legendary foreign intelligence agency, has been sealed off to the media. Now, for the first time, a dozen of Mossad’s former spies give us a first-hand recount into their inner work and their moral dilemmas. Viewers are drawn into a personal account of the top-secret operations that have shaped Israel’s past and may yet shape its future. Go2Films

The Santa Fe JFF opens its Ninth Season with the spellbinding documentary THE MOSSAD and its eye-opening revelations about Israel’s ‘secret service’.

THE MOSSAD has been generously underwritten by Festival Angels Susan and Steven Goldstein with additional support from Film Sponsors Marlene and Gene Frank and Hope Curtis

Join us for our “end of season” event, the screening of the Oscar nominated short, JOE’S VIOLIN, followed by David Felberg’s UP String Quartet performing live in concert.

JOE’S VIOLIN is the story of an improbable friendship that is forged when a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, Joe Feingold, donates his violin to a 12-year-old Bronx schoolgirl Brianna Perez, proving that the power of music can bring light into the darkest of times, and that a small act can have a significant impact. David Felberg, Concert Master of the Santa Fe Symphony and founder of the popular Chatter series, is bringing his UP String Quartet to perform three pieces by Jewish composers. The film and concert will be followed by an hors d’oeuvres reception.

Film Underwriters Linda Schoen & Daryl Giddings, Linda Krull. Film Sponsors Doris Francis & Marcia Torobin in Memory of Elaine Stanton

(M)any Israelis still wax nostalgic about that old Friday afternoon ritual, back in the times when television had just one channel. Everyone would watch the Arab movie of the week, but did anybody ever wonder how Israel’s official TV station .. insisted on showing movies made by “the enemy”?

The Arabic-language movie from Egypt let some of us escape back to our original homeland, and let others peek out from our “villa in the jungle” and catch a glimpse of our neighbors across the border. … ARABIC MOVIE brings us the stars and the songs, the convoluted plots, and that fleeting moment when we shared the same cultural heroes as everyone else in the Middle East. But this film about the richness and intensity of Egyptian cinema also raises some disturbing questions. Go2Films

THE MUSEUM is an exploration of the Israeli soul through the galleries, storerooms and visitors of the Israel Museum, Israel’s most important cultural institution. … With a trenchant, ironic eye the film follows the visitors, observes the observers, listens to the speakers and descends to the storerooms, labs and conference rooms. The American museum director, the singing security guard, the Jerusalemite curator, the Haredi kashrut inspector, the Palestinian guide and the blind visitor are just a few of the characters that take part in a chain of activities which add up to the museum.

Pastry dough is far from the only thing that requires — and duly receives — delicate handling in THE CAKEMAKER. This tender, tactile and just-sweet-enough story of hidden love, challenged faith and unwittingly shared grief marks an auspicious feature debut for Israeli writer-director Ofir Raul Graizer.

Tracing with exemplary sensitivity the unlikely bond formed between a gay German baker and the Jerusalem-based widow of the man they both loved, Graizer’s film works a complex range of social and religious tensions into its heartsore narrative, without ever feeling sanctimonious or button-pushing. (VARIETY)

MONSIEUR MAYONNAISE is an artist’s epic adventure into his family’s secret past. Artist and film-maker, Philippe Mora, investigates his father’s clandestine role in the French Résistance in WW2 and his mother’s miraculous escape enroute to Auschwitz.

Philippe, a Hollywood cult-horror movie director and pop-artist, packs his paints and easel, as he embarks on a journey to create an audacious comic book about his parents, their survival and the Holocaust. From LA to Berlin, Paris to Melbourne, MONSIEUR MAYONNAISE is a richly layered, road movie starring artists, real life heroes, Nazi villains … and baguettes with lashings of tasty French mayonnaise!

BLUE LIKE ME is the story of Indian-American artist Siona Benjamin. Raised in the small Jewish Bene Israel community in Mumbai, Benjamin’s art fuses Jewish and other world religions with Eastern myths and Western pop culture to create vibrant new worlds. BLUE WITH ME travels with Siona to Mumbai revisiting the Bene Israel Jews portrayed in her recent Fulbright project.

MS. BENJAMIN WILL BE JOINING US IN PERSON for this special event of film and talk at CCA.

Denounced by Israel’s Minister of Culture yet acclaimed by the critics, Director Samuel Moaz’s FOXTROT is one of the year’s most eagerly anticipated films. It’s blend of realism with surrealism pack a powerful punch.

FOXTROT is a story of mourning told against the backdrop of two traumatized generations by the Israeli military service. It is a remarkable film in its honesty, and an example of the soul searching often apparent in Israeli cinema. Maoz previous film was the critically acclaimed “Lebanon”. FOXTROT made its premier at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Silver Lion Award as well as the award for Best Film.

Sammy Davis, Jr. had the kind of career that was indisputably legendary, so vast and multi-faceted that it was dizzying in its scope and scale. And yet, his life was complex, complicated and contradictory. Davis strove to achieve the American Dream in a time of racial prejudice and shifting political territory. He was the veteran of increasingly outdated show business traditions trying to stay relevant; he frequently found himself bracketed by the bigotry of white America and the distaste of black America; he was the most public black figure to embrace Judaism, thereby yoking his identity to another persecuted minority.

Featuring new interviews with such luminaries as Billy Crystal, Norman Lear, Jerry Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg and Kim Novak, with never-before-seen photographs from Davis’ vast personal collection and excerpts from his electric performances in television, film and concert, Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me explores the life and art of a uniquely gifted entertainer whose trajectory blazed across the major flashpoints of American society from the Depression through the 1980s.

INTIMATE GRAMMAR is an inner journey rich in detailed observation. Based on critically acclaimed Israeli author David Grossman’s THE BOOK OF INTIMATE GRAMMAR, the film follows the young Aharon Kleinfeld as he strives to survive a domineering mother, an anti-intellectual father and his own diminutive stature.

Award-winning director Nir Bergman, who also wrote the screenplay, joins us via Skype to discuss the challenges of bringing Grossman’s novel to the screen

The role of Jewish artists/writers in comics and the graphic novel is the subject of FROM SUPERMAN TO SPIEGELMAN – COMICS AND THE GRAPHIC NOVEL. This talk, accompanied by the insightful documentary THE ART OF SPIEGELMAN, will look at the development of the graphic novel and its roots in comics, tracing the contributions of Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman and others. Spiegelman’s groundbreaking MAUS catapulted the graphic novel into the sphere of high art when it won the Pulitzer Prize.

Plus – Special Comics/Graphic Novel Exhibit from the collection of Bobby Mogill.

1905. A Jewish Shtetl. Shimek and Buzya are two 10 year olds. Of course, she is a princess and he is a prince. They live in the same yard, in neighboring palaces. What Buzya really means to him, Shimek begins to understand only years later when, far away from home, he receives the news that Buzya is about to be married off.

Award-winning Ukranian director Eva Neumann translates Sholem Aleichem’s words into a lyrical portrait that leisurely unfolds on the screen.

A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS is based on Amos Oz’s book of the same name. It is heartfelt rendering of his memories growing up in Jerusalem before the establishment of the State of Israel, and it’s a story of a family with hopes and dreams living through the terror of war. Amos Oz, one of Israel’s greatest writers, witnessed the birth of a nation as he came to terms with his own new beginning.

Natalie Portman makes her directorial debut with this film and also portrays Oz’s mother.

Based on Arthur Miller’s only novel, FOCUS centers on Lawrence Newman (William H. Macy) who is mistaken as Jewish in an anti-Semitic neighborhood in Brooklyn. He and his wife (Laura Dern) find that formerly friendly neighbors look at them askance while flaming an environment of anti-Semitism. FOCUS is as timely today as it was when the book was written in the 1940s.

THE NATURE OF DREAMS is the story of Israeli author Amos Oz, told in his own words. The film examines the society in which Oz lives and follows the biographical, literary, political and philosophical aspects of his personality. It is an Israeli narrative reflected through Oz’s literary gaze and exposes his love-hate relationship with Europe which had rejected his family.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, the famous Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize winner wrote with a ‘harem’ of dozens of translators behind him. Beyond simple translation, these women were a vital source of his creativity. The inspiration he drew from them came in many forms, often mixing romance with professional aspirations.

Today nine remain to tell his story. Intimate, poignant interviews and exclusive archival footage combine to portray the unknown story of an author who charmed and enchanted his audiences, just like he charmed and enchanted his translators. A film about both the very art of translation and one of the great figures of twentieth century literature.

Jessica Cohen, translator for Israeli author David Grossman and co-winner of the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, joins us in conversation with Bonnie Ellinger, Ph.D. Applied Linguistics. Ms. Cohen will speak not only about the challenges of translating one language to another, but translating imagery and humor across cultures. Cohen shared the Man Booker Prize with Grossman for his book A HORSE WALKS INTO A BAR. It’s a talk not to be missed.

Santa Fe resident Bonnie Ellinger is no stranger to the complexities of translation from Hebrew to English. She taught English at Israel’s Bar Ilan University for over twenty years, and has taught Hebrew in Santa Fe for many years.

When poverty and persecution compel his Polish landsmen to leave their shtetl, “Uncle” Moses, the crude and lusty former butcher, welcomes them to the promised land of his Lower East Side clothing factory. A master in the harsh new American system, with its fourteen-hour workday, Moses attempts to reconstruct the lost harmony of the shtetl community in the paternalistic order of his sweatshop.

Based on Philip Roth’s award winning novella, GOODBYE, COLUMBUS is a delicious satire of the Jewish nouveau riche. Ali MacGraw in her debut major film role captures the archetypal Jewish American Princess, and Neil Klugman (Richard Benjamin) as a working class Rutger’s graduate is the perfect foil. Released in 1969, it is a reminder of the distance the Jew had come in America from the early days on the Lower East Side.

From the Talmud to Woody Allen, from Jack Benny to Jerry Seinfeld, Professor Dauber traces Jewish humor in its many forms. He looks at the role of irony and satire and influences from Kierkegaard to Freud in this lively talk based on his forthcoming book “Jewish Comedy: A Serious History” (Norton, October 31, 2017). A book signing will follow his remarks.

MEET JEREMY DAUBER
Jeremy Dauber is Professor of Yiddish Literature at Columbia University and Director of Columbia’s Institute of Israel and Jewish Studies. Dauber’s previous books include THE WORLDS OF SHOLEM ALEICHEM and ANTONIO’S DEVILS: WRITERS OF THE JEWISH ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN HEBREW AND YIDDISH LITERATURE.

Sholem Aleichem may be the best known of the Jewish Eastern European writers but a panoply of writers from the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) and early 1900s contributed to the canon of Jewish inflected literature. Their influence is reflected today in the writings of authors from Philip Roth to Michael Chabon and most recently in the Tony award-winning play “Indecent”. Professor Jeremy Dauber brings life to these early writers and their legacies.

MEET JEREMY DAUBER
Jeremy Dauber is Professor of Yiddish Literature at Columbia University and Director of Columbia’s Institute of Israel and Jewish Studies. His newest book is JEWISH COMEDY – A SERIOUS HISTORY (forthcoming, Norton). Previous books include THE WORLDS OF SHOLEM ALEICHEM and ANTONIO’S DEVILS: WRITERS OF THE JEWISH ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN HEBREW AND YIDDISH LITERATURE.

NICOLE KRAUSS joins in conversation with LOIS RUDNICK, Professor Emerita, American Studies to discuss Ms. Krauss latest book, FOREST DARK. Ms. Krauss is the author of the New York Times bestseller GREAT HOUSE which was a finalist for the National Book Award and Orange Prize, and THE HISTORY OF LOVE, which won the Saroyan Prize for International Literature and France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger.

In 2010 the New Yorker named Ms. Krauss to the Twenty Under Forty list. Her fiction has been published in the New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories, and her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages.

Professor Rudnick is well-known to Santa Feans for her books on Mabel Dodge Luhan and courses she’s taught at Renesen. This event kicks of our LITERARY JEWELS series. A book signing follows the event.

Herman Wouk, Saul Bellow, Phillip Roth, Arthur Miller, and Michael Chabon are among the great writers and playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries. All were winners of the Pulitzer Prize, and these and many more were also Jewish. The contributions of Jewish writers and the thread that binds them is the focus of the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival’s LITERARY GEMS – JEWELS FROM AMERICA, EASTERN EUROPE AND ISRAEL.

The ALL FILM pass is no longer available. Single film tickets are $10. There is no charge for talks by NICOLE KRAUSS, JEREMY DAUBER, and JESSICA COHEN, but tickets are required.

SOLD OUT!
In this astonishingly haunting film, deep undercurrents run beneath the simple surface in a quaint village that’s ultimately forced to face up to its “ill-gotten gains” from the Second World War.

On a sweltering August day in 1945, villagers prepare for the wedding of the town clerk’s son. Meanwhile, two Orthodox Jews arrive at the village train station with mysterious boxes labeled “fragrances.” The town clerk fears the men may be heirs of the village’s deported Jews and expects them to demand their illegally acquired property back, originally lost during the second World War. Other villagers are afraid more survivors will come, posing a threat to the property and possessions they have claimed as their own.

SOLD OUT!
Harold and Lillian Michelson are two of the best-known names in Hollywood that you have likely never heard of. Their work left an indelible mark on classics by Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, and more. Academy Award®-nominated director Daniel Raim gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the influential yet largely uncredited contributions of storyboard artist Harold and researcher Lillian. The charming love story of these two Hollywood figures is tenderly told through a mix of love letters, film clips and interviews with Harold and Lillian, Danny DeVito, Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola and others, and paints a moving portrait of a marriage and a celebration of their talents.

SOLD OUT – Wait List Only
THE PULITZER AT 100 tells the story of this prestigious prize through the riveting stories of the artists who have won it. Pulitzer prize winning journalists Carl Bernstein, Nick Kristof, Thomas Friedman, and David Remnick; authors Toni Morrison, Michael Chabon, Junot Díaz, Tony Kushner, and Ayad Akhtar; and musicians Wynton Marsalis, David Crosby, and John Adams, among others, share their experiences. Pulitzer prize winning works are read by Helen Mirren, Natalie Portman, Liev Schreiber, John Lithgow and Yara Shahidi.

Equally inspiring is the life of Pulitzer himself. Authors Theodore Glasser, James McGrath Morris, Roy Harris and others provide insight into the career of a man who was raised in a Jewish Hungarian home, came on his own to America not speaking English and rose to the highest ranks of journalism.

Mr. Morris, who is featured in the film, will be joining us at the screening. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, “Pulitzer, A Life in Politics, Print and Power”.

Special guest author James McGrath Morris

Coming to the ABQ Jewish Film Fest!
It’s a real life adventure story of the American West with a most unlikely character taking center stage. In 1853 Solomon Carvalho, an observant Sephardic Jew who had never saddled his own horse, accompanied the famed explorer John Fremont on Fremont’s Fifth Westward Expedition and became one of the first photographers to document the far West.

The new documentary, CARVALHO’S JOURNEY, is the story of Carvalho’s harrowing adventure, one that took him from New York to California, passing through New Mexico on the way. Carvalho’s daguerreotypes captured the sweeping vistas of the rough and tumble West, and his best-selling memoir of 1867 left a vivid record of the journey itself. The Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival is presenting the regional premier of CARVALHO’S JOURNEY at 3:00 PM on Sunday, November 20th at CCA. Santa Fe resident Robert Shlaer, who retraced parts of that journey and recreated many of Carvalho’s daguerreotypes, will be at the screening to share his insights about this piece of history.

SOLD OUT!
Artists Rick and Laura Brown are not Jewish and not Polish, yet they set out to rebuild Gwodziec, a magnificent wooden eighteenth century synagogue in Poland that was later destroyed by the Nazis. Their vision inspires hundreds of people to join them, using their hands, old tools and techniques to bring Gwodziec’s history, culture, science, and art back to life.

Filmmakers Yari and Cary Wolinsky’s beautifully photographed and rendered film RAISE THE ROOF, tells the story of this remarkable 10 year project against the backdrop of the 1000 year history of Jews in Poland.

RAISE THE ROOF has been generously sponsored by Season Underwriter Ellen Romm Lambert with additional support for Film Underwriter Joan Vernick in memory of Louis Erhard and Edith Garfield

SOLD OUT!
The critics agree, this standout feature film at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival is not to be missed. Filmed in the heart of one of New York’s ultra-Orthodox communities, MENASHE is the story of a father struggling to keep custody of his son. Filmed in Yiddish (with English subtitles) and loosely based on the real life of the main character, MENASHE is a unique look into an otherwise closed world. It is a tender film of love and faith and the struggle to balance both, with a back story that makes you wonder how the film ever got made.

SOLD OUT!
Israel’s number one film of the year is coming to Santa Fe as part of the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival’s new Cinema Bistor, movies and dinner. THE WOMEN’S BALCONY, which was nominated for five Israeli Academy Awards, is a light-hearted story that pits a determined group of Orthodox women against a young rabbi who sees the world differently. When the women’s balcony at a local Orthodox shul collapses, the women are determined to do something about it, the rabbi is not. An optional dinner follows at one of Santa Fe’s top restaurant’s, MIDTOWN BISTRO. Seating is at community and smaller tables.

COMING TO ABQ!

We’re bringing ON THE MAP to Albuquerque for a special screening in association with the Jewish Community Center of Greater ABQ. If you missed seeing it in Santa Fe, it’s another chance to see this award winning film. It’s all part of an Israel Independence celebration at the JCC.

It was 1977, stunned by the murder of its athletes at the Munich Olympics, demoralized by the Yom Kippur War, and reeling from Entebbe, Israel’s underdog basketball team faced the formidable Soviet Union Red Army Moscow team in the European Championships. The game was played in Belgium because the Soviets refused to travel to Tel Aviv and would not allow the Israelis to enter the Soviet Union, simply because they did not recognize Israel’s right to exist.

ON THE MAP is the story of the “miracle on hardwood” that put Israel “on the map” and captured the heart of a nation in the process. Your heart will be captured too by this documentary and the remarkable David and Goliath story it tells.

SPECIAL “TEEN SCREENING”

The year was 1943 in Vichy France when 13 year old Fanny is put in charge of a group of Jewish children who find they must leave in order to save their own lives. With ingenuity and bravery Fanny is left to lead her sisters and classmates from France to Switzerland where they find safe haven.

FANNY’S JOURNEY, which is based on the memoirs of Fanny Ben-Ami, is the story of this remarkable journey. The screening, which is in French with English subtitles, is for “teens” and mature pre-teens only. Pizzas will be served starting at 6:00 PM with the film starting at 6:30 PM.

There is no charge for tickets but reservations must be made in advance.

SOLD OUT!
SECOND SCREENING ADDED. Featuring Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Pinchas Zukerman, Joshua Bell and others, ORCHESTRA OF EXILES is the suspenseful chronicle of how one man helped save Europe’s premiere Jewish musicians from obliteration by the Nazis during WWII.

In the early 1930’s Hitler began firing Jewish musicians across Europe. Overcoming extraordinary obstacles, violinist Bronislaw Huberman moved these great musicians to Palestine and formed a symphony that would become the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. With courage, resourcefulness and an entourage of allies including Arturo Toscanini and Albert Einstein, Huberman saved close to 1000 Jews – along with the musical heritage of Europe.

There is no charge for tickets but advance reservations are required. A Yom Hashoah Remembrance service will be held at Temple Beth Shalom following the screenings.

COMMUNITY SCREENING
ORCHESTRA OF EXILES will be shown in place of NEVER AGAIN IS NOW.
NEVER AGAIN IS NOW has been called “one of the most important documentaries of the decade”. It explores the troubling rise of antisemitism in Europe through the eyes of a woman who fled to America in 2004 to escape it. At times controversial but powerful, the film is a stark reminder that the watch words of the Holocaust need to be more than just words.

Evelyn Markus was raised in Holland by parents who witnessed the growing anti-Jewish violence of the 1940s. Her parents survived the Holocaust when Allied soldiers liberated them in 1945. When Markus saw signs of the same disturbing trends returning to the Netherlands, she left the land her family called home for centuries. Today she confronts the hatred that drove her out, and embraces her life’s mission — to prevent one of history’s darkest chapters from repeating.

There is no charge for tickets but advance reservations are required.

ENCORE! ENCORE!
If you missed our original sold out screening of Maysaloun Hamoud’s debut film, IN BETWEEN, we’re bringing it back for one more showing. It’s an absorbing tale of three Palestinian Israeli women, each living a split life in secular Tel Aviv. Their relationships reveal the tension between modernity and the more traditional society from which they come and their struggles to be true to themselves. As a female Palestinian Israeli, Maysaloun infuses a natural authenticity into the characters. IN BETWEEN had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and took home the award for BEST FILM at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

SOLD OUT!
Maysaloun Hamoud’s debut film, IN BETWEEN is an absorbing tale of three Palestinian Israeli women, each living a split life in secular Tel Aviv. Their relationships reveal the tension between modernity and the more traditional society from which they come and their struggles to be true to themselves. As a female Palestinian Israeli, Maysaloun infuses a natural authenticity into the characters. IN BETWEEN had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and took home the award for BEST FILM at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Award winning writer, producer Kirk Ellis will introduce the film.

The story of Ethiopian Jewry and the mass immigration to Israel is one of heroism, secrecy, danger, and challenges. With the determination and planning of the Israeli and American governments, world Jewish organizations, and Jewish Ethiopian activists, the vast majority of Ethiopia’s Jewish community was brought to Israel.

EXODUS: THE ETHIOPIAN JOURNEY fills in the canvas of this most extraordinary story with the regional premiere of RED LEAVES, a talk (A VIEW FROM WITHIN) by Avishai Mekonen who at ten years of age made the journey from Ethiopia to Israel, and a lunch featuring Ethiopian dishes. Attend the film and/or talk and stay for the optional lunch.

EXODUS kicks off with the screening of Bazi Gete’s RED LEAVES, winner of the Jerusalem Film Festival’s award for BEST DEBUT FILM. The story follows Meseganio Tadela, an Ethiopian émigré to Israel and family patriarch. Meseganio grew up in a world a universe away, one that clung to Jewish traditions over 2,000 years old. Now with his children growing up in a secular society and a modern world he doesn’t understand, Meseganio is adrift. The promise of the “Promised Land” is out of reach. RED LEAVES will be introduced by Dr. Halley Faust. The Fausts have had a long-time connection to Israel’s Ethiopian community.

Ruth Anne and Halley Faust

Tradition clashes with modernity in Bazi Gete’s RED LEAVES. Winner of the Jerusalem Film Festival’s award for BEST DEBUT FILM, the story follows Meseganio Tadela, an Ethiopian émigré to Israel and patriarch of his family. Meseganio grew up in a world a universe away, one that clung to Jewish traditions over 2,000 years old. Now with his children growing up in a secular society and a modern world that he doesn’t understand, Meseganio is adrift. The promise of the “Promised Land” is out of reach.

The story told has echoes in other societies where traditional worlds have begun to crumble. But the story is also particular to Israel, a country that has tried to make the promise a reality but has yet to fully do so.

Ruth Anne and Halley Faust

Award winning director and photographer, Avishai Mekonen, relates his harrowing escape and journey from Ethiopia, through the Sudan, to Israel in his talk “A View from Within”. Kidnapped from a refugee camp, walking through rebel held territory, led by guides that left one with little of their belongings, Avishai and his family eventually make it to the “Promised Land”.

The full story of the rescue and immigration of Ethiopian Jewry and the critical role that community played has not been told and is the subject of a new documentary, “Heroes”, that Mekonen has in the works. He will also speak about the role of the Jewish Ethiopian activists, the unsung heroes in an epic saga.

On the eighth of May 1972, four hijackers from the Palestinian organization “Black September” took control of Belgian Sabena Flight 571 from Brussels to Tel Aviv.

The hijacking marked the beginning of thirty nerve-wracking hours, bringing together the fascinating human, military and political drama inside and outside of the plane. SABENA HIJACKING – My Version is the story of the events woven together with genuine archival material and exclusive interviews with three revered Israeli political leaders who were in charge of the rescue effort at the time, as well as the only surviving hijackers.

SABENA HIJACKING has been generously sponsored by Festival Angels Susan and Steven Goldstein

Nora Ephron’s witty script under the deft direction of Rob Reiner and the talents of Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal combine to make WHEN HARRY MET SALLY one of the classic romantic comedies of all time. Ephron garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay for the film and won the British Academy of Film and Television’s award for the same.

The film follows Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) who first meet in college and reconnect after a ten year hiatus. Arguing over whether a man can be a good friend with a woman without having sex, their own friendship becomes an unknowing testing ground. The romantic romp, with it’s snappy dialogue and iconic “deli scene”, is one of the smartest and sweetest comedies around, a perfect way to wrap up the year.

Written and directed by her son, Jacob Bernstein, EVERYTHING IS COPY tracks Nora Ephron’s rise from the mailroom of Newsweek to a notable stint reporting for the New York Post, where she caught the eye of influential editors like Harold Hayes, Clay Felker and Helen Gurley Brown. Marked by biting honesty and intelligent humor, her incisive writing soon began appearing regularly in Esquire, New York Magazine, the New York Times and Cosmopolitan, winning devoted fans and foes alike. No one –including her parents, her former bosses, or, most famously, her spouses –was safe in her work.

It’s our fourth annual FLIX & CHOPSTIX, movies and Chinese food on Christmas Day! This year we’re featuring a tribute to author and screenwriter Nora Ephron, starting with critically acclaimed bio-doc, EVERYTHING IS COPY. Directed by her son, Jacob Bernstein, the film is a loving and insightful look at Ephron’s life. We’re pairing the doc with the Ephron film our audience voted as its favorite, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY.

Join us for the movies then stay for the optional Chinese dinner. Specially priced double feature packages available as well as single film tickets. Chinese dinner is only available with purchase of ticket to one or both films

It’s a real life adventure story of the American West with a most unlikely character taking center stage. In 1853 Solomon Carvalho, an observant Sephardic Jew who had never saddled his own horse, accompanied the famed explorer John Fremont on Fremont’s Fifth Westward Expedition and became one of the first photographers to document the far West.

The new documentary, CARVALHO’S JOURNEY, is the story of Carvalho’s harrowing adventure, one that took him from New York to California, passing through New Mexico on the way. Carvalho’s daguerreotypes captured the sweeping vistas of the rough and tumble West, and his best-selling memoir of 1867 left a vivid record of the journey itself. The Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival is presenting the regional premier of CARVALHO’S JOURNEY at 3:00 PM on Sunday, November 20th at CCA. Santa Fe resident Robert Shlaer, who retraced parts of that journey and recreated many of Carvalho’s daguerreotypes, will be at the screening to share his insights about this piece of history.

CARVALHO’S JOURNEY has been generously underwritten by Season Underwriter Satya Kirsch in memory of Jesse Liebowitz with additional support from Film Underwriters Leslie Nathanson and Hervey Juris.

It was 1977, stunned by the murder of its athletes at the Munich Olympics, demoralized by the Yom Kippur War, and reeling from Entebbe, Israel’s underdog basketball team faced the formidable Soviet Union Red Army Moscow team in the European Championships. The game was played in Belgium because the Soviets refused to travel to Tel Aviv and would not allow the Israelis to enter the Soviet Union, simply because they did not recognize Israel’s right to exist.

ON THE MAP is the story of the “miracle on hardwood” that put Israel “on the map” and captured the heart of a nation in the process. Your heart will be captured too by this documentary and the remarkable David and Goliath story it tells.

“Gaga” is the dance movement language developed by Ohad Naharin, one of the pre-eminent choreographers in the world of modern dance today. Amy Morrow, Adjunct Professor of Dance at the University of Texas, Austin and one of a handful of instructors in the US who studied under Naharin and is certified to teach “gaga” will be in Santa Fe to conduct the class.

“Gaga/People” provides a framework for discovering and strengthening the body and adding flexibility, stamina, and agility while lightening the senses and imagination. No dance experience is necessary. Open to ages 16+.

Enter the world of Ohad Naharin, renowned choreographer and artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company. MR. GAGA, eight years in the making, captures the elusive beauty of contemporary dance and immerses the audience in the creative process behind Batsheva’s unique performances. Using intimate rehearsal footage, extensive unseen archive materials and stunning dance sequences, acclaimed director Tomer Heymann (“Paper Dolls”, “I shot my Love”) tells the fascinating story of an artistic genius who redefined the language of modern dance.

“Gaga” is the dance movement language developed by Ohad Naharin, one of the pre-eminent choreographers in the world of modern dance today. Amy Morrow, Adjunct Professor of Dance at the University of Texas, Austin and one of a handful of instructors in the US who studied under Naharin and is certified to teach “gaga” will be in Santa Fe to conduct the class.

Intermediate to advanced dance students ages 14+ are invited to this special Master Class. Learn to connect body to imagination, deepen awareness of physical sensations, and expand the possibilities of movement options to engage their explosive power.

For those with a hankering to learn how to cook Israeli style, the SANTA FE CULINARY ACADEMY is offering a cooking class with Chef Rocky Durham. Chef Durham will unravel the secrets of Israeli cuisine in this demonstration class highlighting recipes from the award-winning cookbook of Israeli food, Zahav. Then settle back and partake in a casual dinner of the dishes prepared.

THE MENU
Hummus Pitriyot
Crispy Houlimi Cheese with Dates, Walnuts and Apples
Fried eggplant with tehina and pomegranate seeds or Grilled Japanese eggplant
Cashew Baklava Cigars
followed by dinner of the foods prepared
Wed Aug 31, 5:30 PM
Santa Fe Culinary Academy

Taste the kinds of dishes that have helped put Israel on the culinary map with a special feast of mezzes, kabobs, and desserts all prepared by Chef Leroy Alvarado of GEORGIA. The menu highlights recipes inspired by award-winning chef Michael Solomonov’s cookbook of Israeli food, Zahav. Named the James Beard Best Cookbook of the Year, Zahav exemplifies the diverse textures and flavors that make Israeli cuisine so extraordinary. This special prix fixe dinner brings a “taste” of Israel to Santa Fe.

Menu

Turkish hummus with pita
Tabbouleh with quinoa, peas & mint
Pilaf with walnuts & poppy seeds
Watermelon with feta, pistachios, & mint
Crispy cauliflower with herbed lebneh

Choice of kebabs:
Lamb shishlik with tehini
Pomegranate glazed salmon

Dessert assortment:
Mom’s Honey Cake
Cashew Cigar Baklavas
Turkish Ice Cream

Coffee and tea

The new documentary, IN SEARCH OF ISRAELI CUISINE, is a behind the scenes look at the restaurants, wineries and artisanal purveyors that have put Israel on the culinary map.
Award winning Chef Michael Solomonov takes us on a “mouthwatering” trip to reveal a culinary melting pot of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Palestinian and other cuisines. See a different face of Israel, one that will leave you hungry for more.

In Search of Israeli Cuisine has been generously sponsored by Natasha and Jonathan Chisdes

Few figures encapsulate the conflicted character of postwar Germany better than Fritz Bauer, the Attorney General who was instrumental in bringing the elusive Adolf Eichmann to trial in Israel. THE PEOPLE vs. FRITZ BAUER is both a portrait of this complex man and a riveting historical thriller that chronicles the Herculean efforts and tremendous risks undertaken en route to apprehending the chief engineer of the Nazis’ Final Solution.

It is the late 1950s. Flourishing under the economic miracle, Germany grows increasingly apathetic about confronting the horrors of its recent past. Nevertheless, Fritz Bauer (Burghart Klaussner) doggedly devotes his energies to bringing the Third Reich to justice. One day Bauer receives a letter from Argentina, written by a man who is certain that his daughter is dating the son of Adolf Eichmann. Excited by the promising lead, and mistrustful of a corrupt judiciary system where Nazis still lurk, Bauer journeys to Jerusalem to seek alliance with Mossad, the Israeli secret service. To do so is treason — yet committing treason is the only way Bauer can serve his country.

THE PRIME MINISTERS is an insider’s view of two soldiers who would become peacemakers, Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin. Based on Ambassador Yehuda Avner’s best-selling book, it is a rich history full of emotion.

THE PRIME MINISTERS takes us from the negotiations of the first bilateral treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1975, to the raid on Entebbe, to Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem, to the Camp David Accords, to the Lebanon War and to Rabin’s assassination in 1995. Michael Douglas is the voice of Yitzhak Rabin and Christoph Waltz is the voice of Menachem Begin. Rare, never before seen photos and film footage make this a “must see” film.

In commemoration of Israel Independence Day, we are presenting two films that frame some of the most important events in Israel’s history THE PRIME MINISTERS, FROM SOLDIERS TO PEACEMAKERS, which is based on Ambassador Yehuda Avners best-selling book, is the story of two soldiers who would become peacemakers, Itzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin.

RABIN, IN HIS OWN WORDS is a first hand more detailed account of Rabin’s life told though family photos and films by Rabin himself. Both films contain never before seen archival footage and are a fascinating look at their extraordinary lives and legacies. An optional Israeli Salad Sampler and special two film pass are available.

RABIN, IN HIS OWN WORDS, is Yitzhak Rabin’s story told entirely in his own voice. His story, both the personal and professional dramas, unfold through a combination of rare archival footage, home movies and private letters. Rabin takes us from his childhood as the son of a labor leader before the founding of the State of Israel, through a change of viewpoint that turned him from a farmer into an army man who stood at some of the most critical junctures in Israeli history, through his later years during which he served as Prime Minister and made moves that enraged a large portion of the public, until the horrific moment when his political career and life were suddenly brought to an end.

RABIN, IN HIS OWN WORDS was the winner of the BEST DOCUMENTARY award at this season’s Haifa International Film Festival. An optional Israeli Salad Buffet Bites will be available before the screening.

Based on a true story, LES HÉRITIERS takes us inside a high school in a tough Paris suburb. Determined to motivate her disaffected students, many of whom are Muslim, Madam Gueguen decides to enter her class into France’s annual contest about World War II and the Shoah. While the class initially resists the idea and sees no connection between their lives and the Shoah, Madame Gueguen creates a bridge and teaches her class about racism and resilience in the process. This César nominated film for best actor is an inspirational one that has garnered numerous four and five star reviews.

Temple Beth Shalom, in association with the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival, is hosting a special free screening for teens and their families in commemoration of Yom HaShoah.

Norman Lear was arguably the most influential creator, writer and producer in the history of television. Using comedy and indelible characters, his legendary 1970s shows such as All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons, boldly cracked open the dialogue and shifted the national consciousness, injecting enlightened humanism into sociopolitical debates on race, class, creed, and feminism. The Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival brings the new documentary, NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU, to Santa Fe audiences for its regional premier.

MEET RON BLOOMBERG

Ron is an award winning comedy writer-producer whose TV network credits include “All in the Family,” “Three’s Company,” “Home Improvement” “227” plus pilots for CBS, NBC and MTV.

Upon moving to Santa Fe in 2004, Ron began writing one act plays. Seven have been produced. A reading of his full length play THE QUEEN OF MADISON AVENUE was presented at the Lensic Performing Arts Center featuring Ali MacGraw.

Last year Ron wrote and directed three one-act plays. SERIOUSLY FUNNY which sold out all performances at Warehouse 21.

Based on a true story, LES HÉRITIERS takes us inside a high school in a tough Paris suburb. Determined to motivate her disaffected students, many of whom are Muslim, Madam Gueguen decides to enter her class into France’s annual contest about World War II and the Shoah. While the class initially resists the idea and sees no connection between their lives and the Shoah, Madame Gueguen creates a bridge and teaches her class about racism and resilience in the process. This César nominated film for best actor is an inspirational one that has garnered numerous four and five star reviews.

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss of two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening. Au Revoir won the 1988 Cesar for Best Picture and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It is as poignant and powerful today as it was when it won the Cesar.

AU REVOIR has been generously supported by Season Underwriter Ellen Lampert

Writer/director Karin Albou explores the close relationship between two young girls, one Muslim and the other Jewish, living in Nazi occupied Tunisia in 1942. The exploration of their sexuality, impending marriages and shifting loyalties against the backdrop of war weave a textured coming of age story and a unique glimpse into two cultures. Ms. Albou’s prior film, “La Petite Jerusalem”, won best screenplay at Cannes, and LE CHANT DES MARIÉES (“The Wedding Song”) has received accolades at film festivals around the globe.

LE CHANTS DES MARIEES has been generously supported by Film Underwriters Abigail Davidson and Joan Vernick.

Bernard Natan was one of the fathers of French cinema whose name has since been forgotten. Merging his own film company to form Pathé-Natan, he experimented with early color, sound and widescreen processes, worked with some of the greatest filmmakers of the era, and produced over 60 feature films. Born in Romania but eventually becoming a French citizen, Natan’s status as Jew and ‘foreigner’ along with a dubious early association with pornography became the fodder for his downfalI.

NATAN made its North American bow at Telluride and makes its regional premier at the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival. The directors will fill in more of the intriguing story of this important figure in film history in a post-film Skype interview.

NATAN has been generously supported by Season Underwriter Satya Kirsch in memory of Jesse Leibowitz

Our French film mini-fest kicks off with a documentary that casts light on the experience of Jews in France today, followed by a talk by author and lecturer Dr. Gunther Jikeli. Dr. Jikeli is a visiting professor at Indiana University’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. His most recent book, European Muslim Antisemitism Why Young Urban Males Say They Don’t Like Jews, provides important insights into the “new” Antisemitism in Europe and recent attacks in France.

JEWISH IDENTITY IN FRANCE has been generously supported by Festival Archangels Bonnie Ellinger and Paul Golding

MORGENTHAU tells the epic story of one American family whose careers brought them to the forefront of some of the most dramatic events of the last hundred years. The dynamic arcs of their exemplary public service – Henry Morgenthau Senior as United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire; Henry Morgenthau Junior as United States Secretary of Treasury under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and Robert M. Morgenthau as District Attorney of New York County for over 30 years – reveal new perspectives on the social and political shifts in twentieth century history. From fighting for international action against the genocide of Armenians on the cusp of WWI, through the efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust despite American political obstruction, and on to the struggle to reduce street crime and pioneer the prosecution of white collar corruption in the financial capital of the world, New York City, the trajectory of the three Morgenthau generations epitomizes the American experience and the continual fight for justice.

MOUNTAIN, a Danish Israeli co-production, opens the new year for the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival on January 24. Making it’s initial debut at the Venice Film Festival and snagging a nomination for Best Film in the Horizons section, Mountain is the story of the sexual awakening of an Orthodox woman who lives with her family in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives. Shot in a muted palette, it features Shani Klein in what has been described as a “breakthrough performance”.

Mountain was written and directed by Yaelle Kayam and the film reflects Ms. Kayam’s interest in geographic and cultural landscapes. The setting of the Mount of Olives figures significantly in Orthodox belief about the age of redemption. Those buried on the Mount of Olives are believed to be the first to be resurrected. Ms. Kayam notes that “the tension between a mountain that is a graveyard and a mountain that symbolizes salvation” inspired the film, in addition to a Talmudic story about a rabbi who loses interest in his wife.

A post-film discussion follows the screening with Doris Francis, Ron Duncan Hart, Gloria Abella Ballen, and Linda La Bove. Plan to stay for an exploration of the themes and questions raised by this enigmatic film.

AVALON is a story of a Jewish-immigrant family who arrives in Baltimore and encounters a brave new world of freedom, self-betterment, and TV sets — i.e., the American Dream. The stern and loving patriarch Sam Krichinsky (Armin Mueller-Stahl) tell us, ”I came to America in 1914!” His heavily accented voice is breathless, almost childlike, and his mythical arrival at Baltimore Harbor is photographed as though he were entering a giant red-white-and-blue theme park where every day is the Fourth of July. The movie, which is about the passage of the Old World into the New, tells how those who came over from the peasant villages of Eastern Europe found the freedom of America both intoxicating and crazy, and how it was up to the next generation to make the place home.

Set mostly from the mid-’40s through the end of the ’50s, Avalon is a prequel to Director Barry Levinson’s Diner (1982) and Tin Men (1987), and in some ways it’s the most personal of the three. (source: Entertainment Weekly)

ARAB LABOR, which has been described as a cross between All in the Family and Curb Your Enthusiasm, is a big but controversial hit in Israel. Created by Sayed Kashua, an Israeli-born Palestinian journalist, Arab Labor is a valiant, consistently hilarious attempt to explore the tensions and contradictions of everyday life through the eyes of an Israeli Muslim Arab.

On one hand Kashua has managed to barge through cultural barriers and bring an Arab point of view – mostly expressed in colloquial Arabic – into the mainstream of Israeli entertainment. On the other, Arab Labor reflects a society still grappling with fundamental issues of identity and belonging in a Jewish state that, Kashua says, still largely relates to its Arab minority as “a fifth column or a demographic problem. “I want to bring likable Arabs into the average Israeli living room,” he said.

The Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival will screen three episodes. It’s a unique opportunity for Santa Feans to look at Israeli life through a very different prism.

SON OF SAUL, this year’s Grand Prix winner at Cannes and Oscar contender for Best Foreign Picture, is a film told from the perspective of Saul Auslander, a prisoner and member of the Sonderkommandos at Auschwitz. Seen solely through his eyes, the viewer is immersed in a palpable reality that bares the moral dilemma Saul faces. It is a searing film that for some, may be difficult to watch, but will remain unforgettable.

Son of Saul is the debut feature film of Hungarian director, Laszlo Nemes. It is rare for a first feature to be selected for competition at Cannes, and it’s appearance attests to the film’s power. In addition to winning the Grand Prix, Son of Saul won the FIPRESCI (Critics) award and two other honors at Cannes and was nominated for the Palme d’Or and Camera d’Or.

SON OF SAUL has been generously underwritten by Marcia and Len Torobin

From the establishment of her world-class collection of art, put together for a surprisingly small initial investment, to her rescue of works, and artists, from the Nazis during World War II, to her famed love life, Peggy Guggenheim was one of the key figures of 20th-century contemporary art. The latest from Lisa Immordino Vreeland (DIANE VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL) provides a Who’s Who of art, from Duchamp, Cocteau, Beckett and Rothko to Gagosian and Abramovic.

Guggenheim, one of the art world’s most colorful characters, had a bohemian flair and remarkable eye for the emerging avant-garde artist. Among those she championed were Jackson Pollock, Max Ernst (whom she briefly married), Georges Braque, and Wassily Kandinsky. Reported to have as many lovers as she did works of art, Guggenheim led a whirlwind life that took her from New York to London, Paris and Venice where she eventually settled. Venice’s Peggy Guggenheim Museum now houses her extraordinary art collection.Peggy was the child of two prominent Jewish German immigrant families, the Seligmans and the Guggenheims. The Seligmans made their fortune in banking. While the Guggenheim name today is mostly remembered for the eponymous museum founded by Peggy’s uncle Solomon, the family fortune was made in mining. Peggy’s father died aboard the Titanic when she was only 13, leaving her an inheritance that later helped fund her prodigious appetite for art.

Guggenheim’s first exposure to the bohemian world came working as a clerk in a Manhattan bookstore. But she quickly decided to spread her wings and left for Europe two years later where her collecting and exhibiting of newer artists began. Her impeccable eye, with some guidance, resulted in her amassing one of the most important collections in the modern art world. Her ability to select enduring works of art, though, did not translate to enduring marriage. She was married twice.

A live Skype interview with Director Lisa Immordino Vreeland and conducted by Joanne Lefrak follows the screening.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG is the story of a baseball player who transcended ethnic and religious prejudice to become a hero for all Americans. Hank Greenberg’s achievements during the “Golden Age of Baseball” in the thirties and forties rivaled those of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.The highlights of his inspirational career constantly made the national headlines and captured the imagination not only of sportswriters but also of his loyal fans. His 1938 attempt to beat Babe Ruth’s home run record was followed closely in the press and by baseball fans all over America. In May 1941, Greenberg again made headline news as the first star ballplayer to enlist in the Armed Services. In June 1945, he was the first ballplayer to attempt a comeback after so long an absence from the sport. He did so successfully by hitting a home run in the first game he played upon his return.

As America’s first Jewish baseball star, he helped break down the barriers of discrimination in American sports and society and was a beacon of hope to millions of American Jews who faced bigotry during the Depression and World War II. His last year in baseball, 1947, coincided with Jackie Robinson’s first. Greenberg was able to offer Robinson encouragement learned from his early days, when opposing teams and fans taunted him with anti-Semitic remarks.

Director Aviva Kempner will be in attendance and an optional “ballpark bites” lunch follows the screening. For more information about the “ballpark bites” lunch, click here.

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg has been generously sponsored by Festival Archangels Bonnie Ellinger and Paul Golding

A New York Times “Critic’s Pick”, ROSENWALD is the stirring story of Julius Rosenwald, a son of German-Jewish immigrants who never finished high school but rose to become the president of Sears, Roebuck. Inspired by the Jewish ideals of tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (repairing the world), deeply concerned about racial inequality in America, and influenced by the writings of Booker T. Washington, Rosenwald joined forces with African-American communities in the Jim Crow South to build over 5,300 schools for African-American children. Rosenwald’s foundation also awarded grants to promising African-Americans including such future notables as poet Langston Hughes, Nobel Laureate Ralph Bunche, singer Marian Anderson, and photographer Gordon Parks. Closer to home, he established Chicago’s exceptional Museum of Science and Industry. Because of his modesty, though, Rosenwald’s philanthropy and social activism are not well known today.

Director Aviva Kempner will be in attendance. A dessert reception follows the screening.

Rosenwald has been generously underwritten by Bonnie Ellinger and Paul Golding

“GETT is the first film in our new “pop-up” series: last minute selections of the hottest films from the top international film festivals. “GETT” made it’s international premier this year at Cannes and it’s North American premier at TIFF (Toronto). Winner of the Israeli Academy Award for Best Picture, it’s Israel’s submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture.

“GETT” is the story of an Israeli woman (Ronit Elkabetz, “The Band’s Visit”) seeking to finalize a divorce (gett) from her estranged husband who finds herself effectively put on trial by her country’s religious marriage laws. It is a powerhouse courtroom drama from sibling directors Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz.

GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem has been underwritten by xxxx

“Sukkah City” was the brainchild of best-selling author Joshua Foer and Reboot founder Roger Bennett. Foer asked, what if contemporary architects and designers were challenged to design and construct twelve radical sukkahs? And so was born the design competition and exhibition known as “Sukkah City.”

The film tracks the competition from jury day, as an all-star cast of architects, academics and critics (Thom Mayne, Paul Goldberger, Ron Arad) debate the merits of the 600 submissions; to the construction, installation and exhibition of the twelve winning structures in Union Square in the heart of New York City; and the critical and popular response of some of the 200,000 New Yorkers who attended the two-day exhibition.

Paralyzed with polio as a child, Brooklyn-born Jerome Felder reinvented himself first as a blues singer, renaming himself Doc Pomus, then emerged as a one of the most brilliant songwriters of the early rock and roll era, writing “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “A Teenager in Love,” “Viva Las Vegas,” and dozens of other hits.

For most of his life Doc was confined to crutches and a wheelchair, but he lived more during his sixty-five years than others could experience in several lifetimes. “A.K.A. Doc Pomus” brings to life Doc’s joyous, romantic, heartbreaking, and extraordinarily eventful journey.

New York Triptych has been made possible by Festival Angel Marlene Meyerson. “AKA Doc Pomus” and the DJ Pizza Party have been made possible by Season Underwriter Satya Kirsch in memory of her son Jesse Leibowitz.

“Regarding Susan Sontag” is an intimate and nuanced investigation into the life of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century. Passionate and gracefully outspoken throughout her career, Susan Sontag became one of the most important literary, political and feminist icons of her generation.

The documentary explores Sontag’s life through evocative experimental images, archival materials, accounts from friends, family, colleagues, and lovers, as well as her own words, read by actress Patricia Clarkson. From her early infatuation with books and her first experience in a gay bar; from her marriage in adolescence to her last lover, “Regarding Susan Sontag” is a fascinating look at a towering cultural critic and writer whose works on photography, war, illness, and terrorism still resonate today.