New York Jewish Film Festival: Cinema & The Jewish Experience at Lincoln Center

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 13 January 2025 19:55

Written by Brad Balfour

 Jacob Fortune-Lloyd in Midas Man

This January, the Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center collaborate once again for the annual New York Jewish Film Festival (NYJFF).  Running January 15th through the 29th at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street), the festival features  documentary, narrative, and short films from around the world that explore the Jewish experience. 

Along with its slate of almost two dozen features, documentaries, and shorts, the NYJFF also has special classic screenings. The 1975 period drama, Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin Silver, will have a 50th anniversary screening of a new restoration. The film recreates Jewish immigrant life on New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the century, and features Carol Kane in an Oscar-nominated performance. The 1922 silent feature Breaking Home Ties, a film once believed lost, will be shown with a new digital restoration by the National Center for Jewish Film, and is now presented with a newly recorded score performed by Grammy Award-winning musicians.

The Opening Film of the festival, Midas Man, is an empathetic biopic on Brian Epstein, the Jewish and gay music lover and visionary man who discovered and then managed the Beatles in the 1960s before his tragic death at age 32. The seismic impact of the Beatles on popular culture continues to reverberate 60 years after they took The Ed Sullivan Show by storm in February 1964. Yet that revelatory TV appearance never would have taken place—and the band may never have been discovered—if not for Epstein. Directed by Joe Stephenson and written by Brigit Grant, the film features a deeply moving Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (The Queen’s Gambit) as Epstein, with a cast that includes Jonah Lees as John Lennon, Blake Richardson as Paul McCartney, Emily Watson and Eddie Marsan as Epstein’s parents, and Jay Leno as Ed Sullivan. 

In the Centerpiece Film, Of Dogs and Men, filmmaker Dani Rosenberg dives headfirst into the psychological horrors of our contemporary world with this experiential account of a teenager named Dar (Ori Avinoam), who returns home to her kibbutz searching for her missing dog in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 attacks in Israel, filmed in late October 2023. Of Dogs and Men takes a humanist approach to the ongoing conflict, reckoning with both the horrifying losses within her Jewish community and the imminent tragic violence of retribution in Gaza.

The Closing Film, Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round, is a timely and uplifting evocation of cooperative political protest. Ilana Trachtman’s documentary recalls a crucial 1960 chapter in the Civil Rights Movement when protesting Black students were joined by Jewish locals as they perched defiantly on a merry-go-round in Maryland’s segregated Glen Echo Amusement Park. Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round reminds viewers of the importance of collaboration and humility in the face of injustice and features a voice-over cast that includes Mandy Patinkin, Jeffrey Wright, and Dominique Thorne, among others.

To learn more, go to: https://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/new-york-jewish-film-festival/

New York Jewish Film Festival
January 15 - 29, 2025

Film at Lincoln Center - Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street
New York, NY 10023

Animation First Festival Showcases New & Classic Francophone Animation

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 09 January 2025 20:47

Written by Brad Balfour

The Twelve Tasks of Asterix

Presenting new and classic works of Francophone animation, the Animation First festival runs from January 21 to the 26th. Held at L'Alliance New York's Florence Gould Theater (55 E 59th St.) the festival showcases seven feature-length films and five short film programs, with a special focus on Swiss animation. The festival features works for adults to youngsters.

Special screenings include the US premiere of the new restoration of the 1972 film The Twelve Tasks of Asterix. Fifteen guests from around the world take part in the festival with filmmaker talks, a first look presentation, and Q&A discussions. The festival will also feature virtual reality experiences, a Student Short Film Competition, and even an interactive make-your-own stop-motion experience for guests in the Tinker Lounge.

To learn more, go to: https://lallianceny.org/event/animation-first-2025/

Animation First Festival
January 21 - 26, 2025

L'Alliance New York
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022

Dances With Films: NYC Presents Fiercely Original Films

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 04 December 2024 10:11

Written by Brad Balfour

Since 1998, Dances With Films touted itself as a film festival unfettered by the constraints and internal politics of mainstream film festivals. Now it’s New York installment is back, December 5th to the 8th at NYC’s Regal Union Square (850 Broadway) with 146 projects including features, documentaries, shorts, and midnight specials.

The festival opens with the world premiere of Peas and Carrots from director Evan Oppenheimer. Joey Wethersby is a typical 16 year-old New York girl — if your typical New Yorker had parents who were in a one-hit wonder band in the 90’s. And if your typical New Yorker found themselves traveling every night to a bizarre alternate reality, where everybody only says three words: “Peas and Carrots”.

The Midnight Series Features are films a little more out there, such as Itch!. In this gripping survival tale, a horrific outbreak called the ITCH! transforms its victims into self destructive shells. Jay, a widower grappling with grief, takes refuge in a seemingly safe department store with his estranged young daughter, Olivia. However, their sanctuary quickly becomes a nightmarish trap, revealing that danger lurks among them. As paranoia rises and the infection closes in, they must battle the outbreak and the darkness within themselves. With life-and-death decisions to make, they confront their fractured bond in a harrowing climax that challenges the true meaning of protection and love.

The festival closes with Here’s Yianni!.  Yianni and Plousia (Joe Cortese and Julia Ormond) own a charming family diner by the beach, where Yianni is a convivial host. Lately, Plousia has noticed that her husband of 40 years is not quite himself and is often wistfully distracted. One day, Yianni slips into a parallel realm, a world of his fractured mind, imagining himself as the host of a latenight talk show. Plousia learns that Yianni is facing dementia but hides his illness from coworkers and best friends (Kevin Pollak and Rosanna Arquette). As his condition worsens, Plousia becomes Yianni’s full-time caregiver and lifeline. But then, long-suppressed grief and a heartbreaking delusion comes over Yianni. With Plousia’s determination and her whimsical inventiveness, they discover how to smile through the sadness, and celebrate every moment they have together. Inspired by a true story.

This is a sampling of the films being shown at the festival.

To learn more, go to: https://danceswithfilms.com/

Dances With Films: NYC
December 5 - 8, 2024

Regal Union Square
850 Broadway
New York, NY 10003