Israeli Perspectives: Two Film Festivals Come to Town
ON THE PITCH: Christopher Browne?s ?Sons of Sakhnin United,? a movie about Israel?s leading Arab soccer team, is featured in the Other Israel Film Festival.
Two film festivals showcasing Israeli cinema are coming to New York City in the next few weeks. The Israel Film Festival, which this year commemorates Israel’s 60th anniversary, will showcase 30 new feature films, documentaries, TV dramas and student films that celebrate Israeli life and culture. The Other Israel Film Festival, now in its second year, will explore the lives and culture of Israel’s Arab citizens, and will feature films and special presentations to illuminate the lives of Israel’s minority population.
ON THE PITCH: Christopher Browne?s ?Sons of Sakhnin United,? a movie about Israel?s leading Arab soccer team, is featured in the Other Israel Film Festival.
A selection of films at the Israel Film Festival include Ran Tal’s documentary, “Children of the Sun,” about the history of the Kibbutz movement; Eli Cohen’s “Altalena,” a drama about the tragedy aboard the ship on which 960 new immigrants, most of them Holocausts survivors, were caught in the middle of a conflict between David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin; and Eliezer Shapiro’s TV drama “Srugim,” about religious, single 30-somethings in Jerusalem who don’t find their place in the existing religious framework.
The Other Israel Film Festival will feature films as varied as the people who make up Israel’s Arab minorities. Ada Ushpiz’s “Desert Brides” is a documentary that looks at the practice of polygamy through the eyes of three Bedouin women; “Lady Kul El Arab,” from director Ibtisam Mara’ana, tells the story of Angelina, the first Druze woman to break into the world of Israeli fashion, and new episodes from Roni Ninio’s Arab television show “Arab Labor,” a look at the complicated issues of identity for Arab citizens of Israel.
Highlights from both festivals include panel discussions and Q&As with the directors. The Other Israel Film Festival will also feature open discussions, photography exhibits and musical performances to further shed light on the lives of Israel’s Christian, Muslim, Bedouin and Druze minorities.
Israel Film Festival; October 29-November 13. (877-966-5566 or www.israelfilmfestival.com)
Other Israel Film Festival; November 6-13. (646-505-5708 or www.otherisrael.org)
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward An elite Jewish society at Yale fractures over its director’s embrace of Itamar Ben-Gvir
-
News Trump would eliminate antisemitism envoy in proposed State Department overhaul
-
News Harvard’s Jewish president, in new lawsuit, says Trump crackdown has ‘nothing to do’ with fighting antisemitism
-
News Pope Francis, who advanced church’s relationships with Jews, dies at 88
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.