Ronen Shnidman
By Ronen Shnidman
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The Schmooze A Holocaust Survivor’s Confounding Choices
When filmmaker Yael Reuveny sought backing in Israel and in Germany to make “Farewell, Herr Schwarz,” film people would ask her, why make another Holocaust film after so many have been made? “The answer,” Reuveny told the Forward, “is that the movie is not about them [Holocaust survivors], it’s about now. It’s about who we…
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The Schmooze Pluralistic Shavuot at Tel Aviv City Hall
Photo courtesy of Beit Tefilah Israeli This Shavuot, the Tel Aviv Municipality broke new ground in the effort to develop a native-grown pluralistic form of Judaism that meets the spiritual and cultural needs of Israel’s non-Orthodox Jewish majority. In conjunction with the liberal, independent, egalitarian minyan Beit Tefilah Israeli, the local government of Israel’s cultural…
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The Schmooze Pushing Ben-Gurion off the Roof
In his latest tour de force, Assi Dayan, Israeli cinema’s enfant terrible, seeks to push Israel’s Ashkenazi elite into its grave, literally and figuratively. Produced on a budget of just NIS 1 million (roughly $250,000), “Dr. Pomerantz” premiered last year at the Haifa International Film Festival and was nominated for Best Screenplay at September’s Ophir…
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The Schmooze Nominees for Israel’s Most Coveted Film Award
For Israeli filmmakers the most wonderful time of the year is almost here. No, it’s not Hanukka or even Christmas — it’s the Ophir awards. Recently the Israeli Academy of Film and Television announced its nominations for the 2012 awards, which will be distributed at a ceremony in September. Modeled after Hollywood’s Oscars, the Ophir…
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The Schmooze Slideshow: The Sound of Painting
Painting can be a lot like playing music. Just as a jazz musician riffs on a standard, so too a painter can create a scene on canvas that evokes familiarity but still contains creative flourishes and emotional depth. That’s the notion behind Israeli artist Ishay Rossano’s latest series of paintings, first displayed in a solo…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: Gypsy Jazz in Jaffa
Photo by Ronen Goldman Finding my way through the cavern-like passages of Jaffa’s old city to the appropriately named Alleyway Theater (“Teatron Hasimta”) was an apt beginning to an evening of music with Israeli gypsy jazz trio Swing de Gitanes. On an intimate red-lit stage surrounded by bare, black walls Oren Sagi (double-bass), Yacov Hoter…
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The Schmooze Friday Film: Exiles in Any Land
Once in a blue moon you get the chance to see a real talent in the making. That was my main thought after seeing first-time director-screenwriter Guy Yeroslavsky’s new TV pilot, “Forced Landing,” last October at the Haifa International Film Festival. Luckily, Israeli viewers may soon have a full-season of “Forced Landing” in store for…
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The Schmooze Friday Film: Lost on the Way to the Witness Stand
“Testimony” is the rare movie that contains all the building blocks of an aesthetically powerful political statement, only to fall short in its execution. Put plainly, “Testimony” — which recently screened at the Haifa International Film Festival and the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival — amounts to a good deal less than the sum…
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