Film
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The Schmooze 6 Movies About Ex-Orthodox Jews Everyone Should See
In contemporary cinema the representation of Jews is not so unusual. However, ex-Orthodox Jewish characters are portrayed far less often. Nonetheless, their role is significant and in some cases, iconic. (See my recent piece about Anna Wexler and Nadja Oertelt’s documentary ‘Unorthodox’ for one of the most recent examples.) Here are six of the best….
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The Schmooze Orthodox in Israel, Secular in Kathmandu
Courtesy Anna Wexler At 8 years old, Anna Wexler wanted to be a great Torah scholar. At 12 she started to question her faith, and by 16 she was an atheist. It was at this point that Wexler decided to break away from her Modern Orthodox, New Jersey upbringing, to live a life with no…
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Forward 50 2014 Darren Aronofsky
On paper, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky making a biblical blockbuster seemed inevitable. Hollywood’s obsession with the Bible is well established, and Aronofsky’s movies had steadily been growing in budget and ambition: His 2006 work, “The Fountain,” elegantly played with themes of love and existence unfolding over millennia, and 2010’s “Black Swan” grossed more than $300 million…
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Forward 50 2014 Alan Blassberg
Alan Blassberg can’t enter a Cheesecake Factory restaurant without thinking about breast cancer. That’s where he was lunching when he got the call that his sister Sammy Blassberg had been diagnosed. The call would turn Blassberg from documentary filmmaker to activist. Sammy Blassberg died in 2010, at age 47. That same year, Blassberg’s other sister…
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The Schmooze Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Top 8 Roles
It’s no surprise that the Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing” boasts Maggie Gyllenhaal in the role of Anna. She is a strong, intelligent activist and actor, a key player in this drama about marital love and infidelity. It’s the type of character Gyllenhaal regularly and successfully inhabits. For the young…
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Fast Forward Vietnam’s First Israeli Film Festival Marks 20 Years of Diplomatic Relations
A film festival in Vietnam will mark 20 years of diplomatic relations with Israel. The five-day festival organized by Israel’s embassy opens Saturday at the National Cinema Centre in Hanoi, moving on Nov. 6 to the BHD Star Cineplex ICON68 in Ho Chi Minh City, the embassy announced on its Facebook page earlier this week….
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Culture The Best Documentary Filmmaker You’ve Never Heard Of
Manny Kirchheimer is one of the New York City’s most under-appreciated documentary filmmakers. His film “Stations of the Elevated,” which is getting a retrospective theatrical run this week (Oct. 17 to Oct. 23) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is considered to be the first documentary about graffiti. However, calling “Stations of the Elevated a…
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The Schmooze Filming the Wives of Bali
Courtesy of Elemental Productions Filmmaker Robert Lemelson’s “Bitter Honey” is a documentary about polygamy and violence towards women in Bali, Indonesia. Lemelson filmed three families — three husbands, 17 wives and 20 children — over a seven-year period. Many were tricked into being co-wives and are psychologically manipulated and physically abused by their unfaithful and…
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