Crossposted from Midnight East An adventure of the heart, mind and sea, “Dolphin Boy,” screening August 1 to 15 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, dives into the blue mystery of the ocean and its redemptive powers with all the suspense of a thriller. Written and directed by Dani Menkin and Yonatan Nir, the film tells…
Courtesy of Go2Films One is tempted to declare that “Torn,” the documentary by Israeli filmmaker Ronit Kertsner making its American debut at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, is about the “Who is a Jew?” question. It is. But it is also about more than that. The film tells the story of Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel,…
Courtesy of Cinema Guild A version of this post appeared in Yiddish here. It is not by chance that Vadim Jendreyko’s documentary, “The Woman With the 5 Elephants,” about an 87-year-old Russian-to-German translator, opens with the image of a train crossing a bridge. As the lights from the windows of the moving train flicker through…
Courtesy of First Hand Films Crossposted from Israeli Film & Filmmakers Following the recent jury issues and conflict of interest at the Jerusalem Film Festival, I’ve decided to award my own prize for the best Israeli film. And the award goes to…. Arnon Goldfinger’s “The Flat,” a triumph of personal documentary filmmaking. Though it didn’t…
Courtesy of Yonathan & Masha Films Yonathan and Masha Zur’s recent documentary “Amos Oz: The Nature of Dreams,” screening May 17 at the New York Israel Film Festival, expertly circles around the question: What is the place of politics in literature, and vice versa? For Oz, the two cannot be disentangled. “To write what they…
Crossposted from Haaretz One of the interviewees in the film “Doma” sits in her house next to a window overlooking the sea. Only parts of her are reflected in the window pane. In quiet, almost whispered tones, the woman offers a heartbreaking tale of the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her uncle…
Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce in ‘Lenny’ (1974). Courtesy Toronto Jewish Film Festival Nearly 50 years after his landmark Carnegie Hall performance, and 44 years since his drug-related death, Lenny Bruce still has the power to shock. And as long he’s onscreen, it’s impossible to look away from Elan Gale’s Looking for Lenny, a new…
Crossposted from Haaretz In 1979, Channel One broadcast “Memories of the Eichmann Trial,” a documentary directed for the Israeli television station by David Perlov. The movie, shot on 16mm film, was aired only once and for the 32 years since has remained unseen in the channel’s archives. The director, who passed away in 2003, did…
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