The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Jewish Museum Present the 25th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival January 13-26, 2016

NEW YORK, NY (December 1, 2015) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Jewish Museum will present the 25th annual New York Jewish Film Festival (NYJFF) at the Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater and Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, January 13-26, 2016. The festival is one of the oldest and most influential Jewish film festivals worldwide, unique in New York City, and one of the longest running partnerships of two major New York cultural institutions. Since its founding in 1992, the NYJFF has presented more than 675 films from 43 countries, of which 320 were world, U.S., or New York premieres, and many have gone on to win awards and gain wider distribution.

This year’s lineup includes 38 features and shorts from 12 countries—21 screening in their world, U.S., or New York premieres—providing a diverse global perspective on the Jewish experience. The 25th edition will feature a retrospective of film highlights from previous festivals, a poster exhibition, a panel discussion, and other special programming in honor of the New York Jewish Film Festival’s silver anniversary to be announced shortly along with the complete festival schedule.

The New York Jewish Film Festival opens on Wednesday, January 13 with the U.S. premiere of Yared Zeleke’s Lamb, the first Ethiopian film to be an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival and the country’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. This feature debut focuses on young Ephraim, who is sent by his father to live among distant relatives after his mother’s death. But when his beloved sheep must be sacrificed for the next religious feast, the boy will do anything to save the animal and return home.

Closing Night on January 26 will feature the New York premiere of A Tale of Love and Darkness, Academy Award winner Natalie Portman’s debut as screenwriter and director. Based on Amos Oz’s international best-seller, the film recounts the time Oz spent with his mother, Fania (Portman), who struggled to raise her son in Jerusalem at the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel.

Screening in its U.S. premiere is a special presentation of Amos Gitai’s Rabin, the Last Day, a thought-provoking thriller investigating the brutal 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin through a masterful combination of dramatized scenes and news footage of the shooting and its aftermath, shedding light on an ever-growing crisis of the impunity of hate crimes in Israel today.

Catherine Tambini’s documentary Art and Heart: The World of Isaiah Sheffer receives its world premiere, celebrating founder and artistic director of Symphony Space Isaiah Sheffer and his indelible influence on music, theater, television, and culture across three decades in New York. Also receiving its world premiere is Sarah Kramer’s short Period. New Paragraph., a loving portrait of a father by his daughter, as well as an homage to a past era.

Sam Ball’s The Rifleman’s Violin will receive its New York premiere as part of a special musical event. In this documentary short, violinist Stuart Canin recalls the private performance he gave at the request of Harry Truman to break the tension at post-World War II negotiations with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Following the film, Canin will recreate his performance with pianist Thomas Sauer before an on-stage discussion with Canin, producer Abraham Sofaer, director Sam Ball, and Stanford University historian Norman Naimark.

A trio of documentaries receiving New York or U.S. premieres examines three individuals whose lives intersected with the world of film. Marianne Lambert’s documentary I Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman, a U.S. premiere, dives into the 40-film oeuvre of the late Jewish Belgian pioneer, who traced a worldwide path of rugged avant-garde and political art from Brussels to Tel Aviv, Paris to New York. Barry Avrich’s The Man Who Shot Hollywood explores the life of Yasha Pashkovsky, a Jewish Russian immigrant photographer who practiced his art anonymously during Hollywood’s golden age and amassed 400 portraits of movies stars, including Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Gary Cooper, and Shirley Temple. Tatiana Brandrup’s Cinema: A Public Affair charts the rise and fall of the Moscow State Central Cinema Museum under the leadership of Russian film historian Naum Kleiman, who founded the institution in 1989 as the Soviet Union was collapsed and gave rise to the perestroika reform movement.

See below for the full lineup.

This year’s New York Jewish Film Festival was selected by Florence Almozini, Associate Director of Programming, Film Society of Lincoln Center; Rachel Chanoff, THE OFFICE performing arts + film; Jaron Gandelman, Curatorial Assistant for Media, Jewish Museum and Coordinator, New York Jewish Film Festival; Jens Hoffmann, Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Public Programs, Jewish Museum and Curator for Special Programs, New York Jewish Film Festival; Dennis Lim, Director of Programming, Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Aviva Weintraub, Associate Curator, Jewish Museum and Director, New York Jewish Film Festival.

The New York Jewish Film Festival is made possible by the Martin and Doris Payson Fund for Film and Media. Generous support is provided by Mimi and Barry Alperin, The Liman Foundation, Sara and Axel Schupf, Monica and Andrew Weinberg, a gift in memory of Max Weintraub, and through public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional funding is provided by the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York and the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

Most of the New York Jewish Film Festival’s screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, located at 165 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway. Some of the special programs will take place at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway.

NYJFF tickets will go on sale Tuesday, December 22. A pre-sale to Film Society and Jewish Museum members will begin Thursday, December 17 at noon. Tickets are $14; $11 for students and seniors (62+); and $9 for Film Society and Jewish Museum members. Tickets may be purchased online or in person at the Film Society's Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and Walter Reade Theater box offices, 144 & 165 West 65th Street. For our free event ticket policy and complete festival information, visit www.NYJFF.org.

 

FILM DESCRIPTIONS & SCHEDULE

 

Opening Night

Lamb

Yared Zeleke, Ethiopia/France/Germany/Norway, 2015, DCP, 94m

Amharic with English subtitles   

Yared Zeleke’s remarkable feature debut tells the story of young Ephraim, who is sent by his father to live among distant relatives after his mother’s death. Ephraim uses his cooking skills to carve out a place among his cousins, but when his uncle decides that Ephraim’s beloved sheep must be sacrificed for the next religious feast, the boy will do anything to save the animal and return home. Lamb is the first film from Ethiopia to be included in the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival and the country’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. U.S. Premiere

Wednesday, January 13, 3:30pm & 8:00pm

 

Closing Night

A Tale of Love and Darkness

Natalie Portman, Israel/USA, DCP, 98m

Hebrew with English subtitles

Based on Amos Oz’s international best-seller, A Tale of Love and Darkness recounts the time Oz spent with his mother, Fania (Natalie Portman), who struggles with raising her son in Jerusalem at the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel. Dealing with a married life of unfulfilled promises and integration in a foreign land, Fania battles her inner demons and longs for a better world for her son. New York Premiere
Tuesday, January 26, 3:30pm & 8:45pm

 

Art and Heart: The World of Isaiah Sheffer

Catherine Tambini, USA, 2015, HDCAM, 52m

One of New York’s great Renaissance men, Isaiah Sheffer left an indelible mark on music, theater, television, and culture across three decades in the Big Apple. He was the founder and artistic director of Symphony Space, the originator of Bloomsday on Broadway, and the comic genius behind the Thalia Follies. He hosted the popular WNYC Radio program Selected Shorts and earned an Emmy nomination for his Road to the White House series on NBC. He was a husband and a father, and a mentor to many. Art and Heart: The World of Isaiah Sheffer celebrates his life through interviews with Morgan Freeman, Stephen Colbert, Leonard Nimoy, and many others. World Premiere

 

Screening with:

The Man Who Shot Hollywood

Barry Avrich, Canada, 2015, DCP, 12m

Yasha Pashkovsky was a Jewish Russian immigrant and photographer who practiced his art anonymously during Hollywood’s golden age. Unable to keep up with the swift business pace of the West Coast, Pashkovsky photographed movie stars and stored the prints under his bed. By 1950 he had amassed 400 portraits of movies stars, including Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Gary Cooper, and Shirley Temple, which went undiscovered until 2001, the year of his death at age 89. This short compiles and releases these gems as part of an inquiry into Pashkovsky’s motivations and the glamour of anonymity. New York Premiere

Thursday, January 14, 1:30pm & 6:30pm

 

Ben Zaken

Efrat Corem, Israel, 2014, DCP, 85m

Hebrew with English subtitles

Shlomi Ben Zaken lives with his mother, brother, and 11-year-old daughter on a run-down housing estate in the small Israeli city of Ashkelon. As a single parent of a troubled child, he confronts a series of hardships and difficult decisions: space is tight in the apartment, work life is stagnant, and social services threaten to break up the family. Efrat Corem’s remarkable debut feature is a sensitive and austere portrait of a father and family attempting to redefine themselves against all odds. New York Premiere

Monday, January 18, 6:45pm

Wednesday, January 20, 1:30pm

 

Carvalho’s Journey

Steve Rivo, USA, 2015, DCP, 85m

Carvalho’s Journey tells the extraordinary story of Solomon Nunes Carvalho, an explorer and artist who photographed the sweeping vistas and treacherous terrain of the American West in the mid-19th century. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Carvalho was a middle-class portrait painter and an observant Sephardic Jew who had never saddled a horse. Everything changed in 1853 when he joined the famed explorer John C. Frémont on his Fifth Westward Expedition, a 2,400-mile journey from New York City to California. Carvalho’s experience as a Jew on the Western trail was unprecedented, and his photography provides a clear window into the interethnic cultural exchanges that shaped America in the era of Manifest Destiny. New York Premiere

Monday, January 25, 1:00pm & 6:00pm

 

Cinema: A Public Affair

Tatiana Brandrup, Germany, 2015, DCP, 100m

Russian, German, and Hebrew with English subtitles

In 1989, as the Soviet Union was collapsing and giving rise to the perestroika reform movement, Russian film historian Naum Kleiman founded the Moscow State Central Cinema Museum. Within a decade, the museum accrued more than 150,000 titles in its electronic catalog and became a haven for artistic and intellectual discourse in the new political era. It was a tragic and symbolic gesture, then, when the cultural ministry scandalously closed the museum and dismissed Kleiman amid nationwide censorship. Tatiana Brandrup’s new documentary charts the rise and fall of the museum under Kleiman’s legendary leadership. New York Premiere

Tuesday, January 19, 8:45pm

Wednesday, January 20, 4:00pm

 

Hot Sugar’s Cold World

Adam Bhala Lough, USA, 2015, DCP, 87m

Hot Sugar’s Cold World is a fly-on-the-wall portrait of Nick Koenig, a New York–based record producer who works under the name Hot Sugar. He constructs beats using only sounds from the world around him, and many of his days are spent in search of new and exotic samples. After his girlfriend, the rapper Kitty, goes on tour and they break up, Koenig heads to Paris, where he stays in the apartment of his late grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. Featuring appearances by the legendary filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and former members of Das Racist.

Saturday, January 23, 9:30pm

 

How to Win Enemies

Gabriel Lichtmann, Argentina, 2015, DCP, 78m

Spanish with English subtitles

In Argentinean filmmaker Gabriel Lichtmann’s zany caper about betrayal and revenge, Lucas, a young Jewish lawyer and an avid consumer of detective fiction, meets Bárbara in a café, and is instantly smitten. She is smart, beautiful, and shares his taste in literature. But the morning after the two go home together, Lucas wakes up to find Bárbara—and his financial savings—gone. Inspired by the heroes of his favorite crime novels, Lucas sets out to crack the case with just a few clues but no shortage of wits. New York Premiere

Thursday, January 21, 3:30pm & 8:30pm

 

I Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman

Marianne Lambert, Belgium, 2015, DCP, 67m

French with English subtitles

From Brussels to Tel Aviv, Paris to New York, the late experimental filmmaker Chantal Akerman traced a worldwide path of rugged avant-garde and political art. Her celebrated 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles was declared by The New York Times upon its release as the “first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema.” Now, the documentary I Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman dives into the 40-film oeuvre of the Jewish Belgian pioneer. U.S. Premiere

Wednesday, January 20, 6:30pm

 

The Law

Christian Faure, France, 2015, DCP, 90m

French with English subtitles

In the fall of 1974, the French health minister Simone Veil was in charge of a daunting task: to pass a law legalizing abortion in France. Christian Faure’s riveting courtroom drama follows Veil, an Auschwitz survivor, in her heroic battle on behalf of her country’s women. She faces fierce resistance from the Catholic Church and the opposing party, but refuses to back down even in the face of increasingly aggressive personal attacks. Emmanuelle Devos delivers a brilliant performance in the lead role. New York Premiere

 

Preceded by:

Period. New Paragraph.

Sarah Kramer, USA, 2015, Digital projection, 14m

Period. New Paragraph. is a loving portrait of a father by his daughter. It’s also an homage to a past era and an encounter with someone who has to let go of what they love. Technology can change; the tools of our work can change; and yet nothing can change our passion for the things we love to do. In the case of 85-year-old Herb Kramer, he is forced to confront the end of his career and his mortality as he winds down his legal practice, closing the office he has worked in for the last 40 years. World Premiere

Monday, January 18, 4:00pm

Tuesday, January 19, 4:00pm

 

Natasha

David Bezmozgis, Canada, 2015, DCP, 93m

Russian and English with English subtitles            

Mark Berman is the son of Russian immigrants and a typical teenager: hormone-fueled, mischievous, and prone to slacking. One fateful summer, his uncle’s Russian fiancée moves to Canada with her daughter, Natasha, and Mark is tasked with introducing her to the new neighborhood. Before long, the two teenagers fall for each other and a forbidden summer romance begins. Mark learns of Natasha’s troubled and promiscuous life in Moscow, and together they build a web of secrecy that ultimately leads to tragedy. Adapted from the director David Bezmozgis’s award-winning book Natasha and Other Stories. New York Premiere

Thursday, January 14, 4:00pm

Saturday, January 16, 7:00pm

 

Projections of America

Peter Miller, Germany/USA/France, DCP, 2015, 52m

English, French, and German with English subtitles

During the darkest hour of World War II, a team of idealistic filmmakers were commissioned by the American government to create 26 short propaganda pieces about life in the United States. The Projections of America series presents stories of cowboys and oilmen, farmers and window washers, immigrants and schoolchildren, capturing both the optimism and the messiness of American democracy. The creation and dissemination of these works is the subject of this documentary, which includes pristine new transfers of the films, as well as interviews with their directors, audience members, and critics. New York Premiere

 

Preceded by:

The Autobiography of a Jeep

Irving Lerner, USA, 1943, Digital projection, 9m

This 1943 propaganda film was produced by the U.S. Office of War Information as part of their series of documentaries released throughout World War II. Told from the perspective of a jeep, the utilitarian military vehicle that exemplified America’s can-do attitude, the film received a particularly enthusiastic response in France, where it had its first screenings soon after D-Day. The Autobiography of a Jeep was directed by documentarian Irving Lerner, a left-leaning filmmaker who would eventually be caught up in the Hollywood blacklist, and written by Newbery Award winner Joseph Krumgold.

Wednesday, January 13, 1:30pm & 6:00pm

 

Special Presentation:

Rabin, the Last Day

Amos Gitai, Israel/France, 2015, DCP, 153m

Hebrew with English subtitles

On the evening of November 4, 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was shot down at the end of a huge political rally in Tel Aviv. The killer apprehended at the scene turned out to be a 25-year-old student and observant Jew. Investigation into this brutal murder reveals a dark and frightening world—a subculture of hate fueled by hysterical rhetoric, paranoia, and political intrigue, made up of extremist rabbis who condemned Rabin by invoking an obscure Talmudic ruling, prominent right-wing politicians who joined in a campaign of incitement against Rabin, militant Israeli settlers for whom peace meant betrayal, and the security agents who saw what was coming and failed to prevent it. Twenty years after the death of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, acclaimed filmmaker Amos Gitai sheds light on an ever-growing crisis of the impunity of hate crimes in Israel today with this thought-provoking political thriller, which masterfully combines dramatized scenes with actual news footage of the shooting and its aftermath. U.S. Premiere

Saturday, January 16, 9:30pm

Sunday, January 17, 12:45pm

 

Musical Event:

The Rifleman’s Violin

Sam Ball, USA, 2014, Digital projection, 14m

In July 1945, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin convened in Berlin to negotiate the fate of the world in the aftermath of World War II. The agenda included the division of Europe between East and West and the ongoing war with Japan (which would end less than a month later with America’s nuclear strike). To break the ice in these tense discussions, Truman requested a private performance by the young virtuoso violinist Stuart Canin, who had fought as a GI on the front lines earlier that year. In Sam Ball’s short documentary, a 90-year-old Canin recalls his performance with wit and verve. The Rifleman’s Violin was produced by Abraham D. Sofaer for the Potsdam Revisited: Overture to the Cold War multimedia project created by Citizen Film in partnership with the Hoover Institution Archive at Stanford University - www.potsdamrevisited.org.

The screening of The Rifleman’s Violin will be followed by a reconstruction of the performance by violinist Stuart Canin and pianist Thomas Sauer as well as an on-stage discussion with Canin; the film’s producer Abraham Sofaer; director Sam Ball; and Stanford University historian Norman Naimark.

Sunday, January 24, 1:00pm

              

Song of Songs  

Eva Neymann, Ukraine, 2015, DCP, 76m

Russian with English subtitles

This exceptional Ukrainian feature tells a story that begins with the blossoming of simple childhood love in a shtetl in 1905. Shimek and Buzya’s bond is pure and uncomplicated, but Shimek leaves it behind to seek a life outside his father’s house. When he hears years later that Buzya is to be married, he comes home to find that nothing—in the town or in his heart—has changed, and yet everything somehow seems different. Song of Songs is a poignant tale of love, return, and the transience of youth. New York Premiere

Thursday, January 21, 1:00pm & 6:00pm

 

Those People

Joey Kuhn, USA, 2015, DCP, 89m

On Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a young painter, Charlie, has spent much of his life in unrequited love with his best friend, Sebastian, a charismatic and reckless partier who lives alone in his family’s townhouse now that his father has been imprisoned for Bernie Madoff–esque crimes and his mother abandoned them both in the wake of the scandal. Joey Kuhn’s feature debut vividly depicts a social circle in crisis, set against the glorious backdrop of autumnal New York.

Sunday, January 24, 6:00pm

 

Tito’s Glasses

Regina Schilling, Germany, 2014, DCP, 90m

German, Italian, and Croatian with English subtitles

In the documentary adaptation of Adriana Altaras’s best-selling autobiography, Altaras, the daughter of Jewish Croats who fought the Nazis alongside Tito, finds herself leading a normal, if somewhat frazzled, domestic existence in Berlin with her husband and two soccer-crazed sons. When her parents die, she inherits their apartment and begins to sort through decades of letters and photographs, revealing a gold mine of family secrets, persecution, and political heroism. Past and present meld as Altaras compassionately narrates the small details of life and family as a 20th-century European Jew. New York Premiere

Tuesday, January 19, 1:00pm & 6:15pm

 

Wedding Doll

Nitzan Gilady, Israel, 2015, DCP, 82m

Hebrew with English subtitles

Hagit, a young woman with a mild mental deficiency, works in a toilet-paper factory and lives with her mother, Sarah, a divorcée who gave up her life for her daughter. When Hagit embarks on her first romantic relationship, she keeps it a secret from her overbearing mom. Israeli director Nitzan Gilady sparkles in his feature debut, a richly detailed family drama for which Asi Levi’s performance as Sarah earned her the Best Actress prize at the 2015 Jerusalem Film Festival. U.S. Premiere

Monday, January 25, 3:30pm & 8:30pm

 

 

About the Film Society of Lincoln Center

Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center works to recognize established and emerging filmmakers, support important new work, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility, and understanding of the moving image. The Film Society produces the renowned New York Film Festival, a curated selection of the year’s most significant new film work, and presents or collaborates on other annual New York City festivals including Dance on Camera, Film Comment Selects, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, NewFest, New York African Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, New York Jewish Film Festival, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema and Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. In addition to publishing the award-winning Film Comment magazine, the Film Society recognizes an artist’s unique achievement in film with the prestigious Chaplin Award, whose 2015 recipient is Robert Redford. The Film Society’s state-of-the-art Walter Reade Theater and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, located at Lincoln Center, provide a home for year-round programs and the New York City film community.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from American Airlines, The New York Times, HBO, Stella Artois, The Kobal Collection, Variety, Loews Regency Hotel, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.org and follow @filmlinc on Twitter.