THREE MOTHERS March *8, 10, 11
Dina Zvi-Riklis. 2006. 106 min. NR. Israel, in Hebrew with subtitles.
Nominated for a stack of Israeli awards, Three Mothers is a gripping, beautiful melodrama about a set of Egyptian-Jewish triplets whose lives are shrouded in secrets and regret. Rich in colors, characters, striking twists and turns, and even some terrific singing, the film traces six decades of history from 1943 Alexandria, where the sisters were born into wealth, to the contemporary Tel Aviv apartment where they coexist uneasily in a tangle of unresolved history. Written and directed by Dina Zvi-Riklis, whose mother was one of the real-life triplets.
*Opening Night Thurs. March 8 at 7:00: Q&A and reception. Join filmmaker Dina Zvi-Riklis for a discussion after the screening, to be followed by a reception upstairs in the Jane Peck Gallery.
Tickets: $12/members; $16/nonmembers

WHO KILLED WALTER BENJAMIN...
March 10, *12
David Mauas. 2005. 73 min. NR. Spain/Netherlands, in Spanish with subtitles. Ruth Diskin Films.
Walter Benjamin, one of the giants of 20th-century philosophy, melding influences from Marx, Brecht, Adorno, and Jewish mysticism, killed himself on September 27, 1940. This act, committed while he was in flight from the Nazis - of whom he was a fierce critic - subsequently became inseparable from his work. But did he really commit suicide? Or was he actually murdered? An elegant and exciting reinvestigation of Benjamin's precious last days, and an inquiry into time and history that is finally, and unexpectedly, exhilarating.
*Mon. March 12 at 7:15: Q&A w/Michael Taub. Michael Taub is adjunct professor of Liberal Studies at Purchase College and the author of Films about Jewish Life and Culture.

2 OR 3 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HIM
March 10, 12, *28
Malte Ludin. 2005. 89 min. NR. Germany, in German with subtitles. National Center for Jewish Film.
This knockout of a documentary - just off its run at the Film Forum - is about the filmmaker's father, Hanns Ludin, a prominent, unapologetic Nazi who was tried and executed as a war criminal in 1947 for his role as German ambassador to Slovakia. He's easy to damn - except, of course, if he's your father and you're one of six children, all of whom have a very different sense of just what to make of the family heritage. Filled with fascinating exchanges among exasperated family members and terrifically put together with wartime "home movies" of "Dad" addressing the Brown Shirts, this film is a must-see.
*Wed. March 28 at 7:30: Q&A w/Deidre Berger and reception. Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee's Berlin office, promotes transatlantic dialogue, advocates for Israel, handles Holocaust memory issues and German-Jewish relations, and develops anti-bias education programs.
Tickets: $9/members; $13/nonmembers

North American Premiere
THE LAST FIGHTERS March 10, 15
Ronen Zaretzky/Yael Kipper Zaretzky. 2006. 76 min. NR. Israel, in Hebrew/English/Yiddish/Polish with subtitles. Ruth Diskin Films.
The six remaining survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising describe their experiences in this powerful documentary. Their memories of the 1943 event - in which hundreds of ill-equipped Jewish fighters were able to hold off the Nazi war machine for a month - are far more complex than the version that has come down in history. The whole heroic moment, rich in detail, is brought to life through the voices of these tough, resilient, and philosophical survivors.

NUREMBERG: THE NAZIS FACING THEIR CRIMES March 11, 14
Christian Delage. 2005. 90 min. NR. France, in English/German/Russian/French with subtitles. Delphis Films.
Christian Delage's new documentary on the Nuremberg Trial is gripping from its very first moments, when we watch rare footage of Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher, Albert Speer, and others entering the dock and taking their seats. From there we're immersed in a quiet, procedural drama of such monumentality that it threatens to burst the confines of the room. And when the commandant of Auschwitz is asked if he killed two million Jews, and he answers, simply, Yes, it has a cumulative impact beyond description. A story we think we have seen, but haven't.

IRA AND ABBY March 11 at 6:45
Robert Cary. 2006. 100 min. NR. US. Brad Zions.
Winner, Best Film, U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.
A hilarious, sly, and snappy romantic comedy that plays like a hyper Seinfeld riff on New York love and marriage, and the impossibility of either - particularly when both your parents are psychiatrists. Starring and written by Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) and with an ensemble cast that includes Robert Klein, Hayden Adams, Fred Willard, Jason Alexander, Frances Conroy, Judith Light, and others. The runaway Audience Award winner at the Boston Jewish Film Festival.
Shown With
THE PITY CARD
Bob Odenkirk. 2005. 12 min. NR. US.
This politically incorrect, hilarious short film by Saturday Night Live and Mr. Show comedy writer Bob Odenkirk asks if the Holocaust Museum is really the best place for a first date. A staple of this year's Jewish film festivals, it's bound to score the most uncomfortable laughs in the series.

SISTERS Wed. March 14 at 7:30
Julia Solomonoff. 2005. 89 min. NR. Argentina, in Spanish with subtitles. Latido Films.
After almost a decade of separation, two Argentine sisters - a dogged journalist and a suburban Texas wife and mother - reunite. One hopes to come to terms with the effect on their family of the brutal 1970s Argentine "dirty war," while the other just wants to move on. When unanticipated secrets come to light, this "perceptive and beautifully acted" (New York Times) drama builds to a powerful finale.
Unfortunately, Argentine Ambassador Hector Timerman won't be able to join us for a discussion following the screening.

FROZEN DAYS March 15 at 7:15
Winner, Best Film, Haifa Film Festival
Danny Lerner. 2005. 90 min. NR. Israel, in Hebrew with subtitles. Bleiberg Entertainment.
Frozen Days is the story of Meow (Anat Klausner), a mysterious young loner roaming the streets and nightclubs of Tel Aviv, living in empty apartments and hanging out in Internet chat rooms. The night she goes to meet an online buddy in person, everything goes completely awry - a suicide bomb hits, identities shift, and reality itself is called into question. Edgy, moody, and mind-bending.
Q&A w/actress Anat Klausner. "Wow is the word," reported Variety, calling Anat Klausner "a magnetic presence" in this role, her first in a feature film.

THE RAPE OF EUROPA
March 17, 18, *20
Richard Berge/Nicole Newnham/Bonni Cohen. Co-Producer: Robert M. Edsel. 2006. 116 min. US. Menemsha Films.
One of the most talked-about new films is this epic documentary on the Nazi's colossal theft and destruction of European art during World War II. An incredibly timely film, beginning with the struggle to repatriate the famous Klimt paintings to their rightful Jewish heirs, and scanning the vast panorama of the World War, the film takes the viewer on a journey that goes deeply to the power of art - and the power that resides in its possession. If you missed this in our "FrameWorks" series, here's a last, precious chance to see it.
*Tues. March 20 at 7:00: Lynn Nicholas and Linda Wolk-Simon, book signing. Lynn Nicholas is the author of the acclaimed The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. Her latest book is Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web. Linda Wolk-Simon is Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, and Coordinator of Provenance Research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

NINA'S HOME March 17, 19
Richard Dembo. 2005. 107 min. NR. France, in French with subtitles.
Starring the wonderful Agnes Jaoui (Look at Me, The Taste of Others), this somber, moving French film is a "quietly magnificent" (Variety) drama about two groups of young refugees during World War II who clash at an orphanage outside Paris. One group is composed of children left behind during the war, while the others are bedraggled, haunted survivors of the camps.

FIRST LESSON IN PEACE March 17, 20
Yoram Honig. 2005. 56 min. NR. Israel, in Hebrew with subtitles. Ruth Diskin Films.
An exploration of the Jewish-Arab conflict through the experience of the director's six-year-old daughter, who is enrolled at the mixed Arab-Jewish primary school in the Israeli village of Neve Shalom/ Wahat al-Salam. As it delves into the school's search for lasting solutions to the conflict between the two peoples, the film also reveals the parents' tortured second thoughts, especially when the celebration of Israeli Independence Day - which means diametrically opposite things to the two groups - throws the complexity of this ambitious venture into relief.

KZ March 17, *22
Rex Bloomstein. 2005. 88 min. NR. UK. Films Transit International.
Clean, airy, brightly lit, Mauthausen now waits for its tourists. Without a shred of archival footage, this powerhouse documentary relives the memories of that notorious death camp through the non-Jewish Austrian tour guides who have taken it upon themselves to act as the keepers of its dark history. Why do they do it? Under the bright blue skies of this quaint Austrian village, they guide us on a journey through the strange world of Holocaust tourism and the deep and increasing toll this work takes on their psyches.
*Thurs. March 22 at 7:30: Q&A w/Rabbi Andrew Baker & Hannah Lessing, reception. Rabbi Andrew Baker is the AJC's director of International Jewish Affairs. He is a leading expert on anti-Semitism in Europe and on challenges facing Jewish communities, including Holocaust restitution issues.
Hannah Lessing is the head of the Austrian Fund for Nazi Victims, which compensates victims of the Nazi regime who had property and assets seized during World War II.
Tickets: $9/members; $13/nonmembers

51 BIRCH STREET March 18 at 5:00
Doug Block. 2006. 90 min. NR. US. Dragomon Films.
Picked by the New York Times as one of the best movies of 2006, this revealing and unexpectedly funny documentary will glue you to your seat. Filmmaker Doug Block's first-person examination of his parents' lives and marriage brings his assumptions into clashing contrast with the truths he gradually uncovers. Using snapshots, two decades of home movies, and contemporary interviews, he constructs a timeless tale about what can happen when one's most fundamental certainties are called into question.
Q&A w/Doug Block & Rabbi Jonathan Blake. Filmmaker Doug Block produced, directed, wrote, and shot 51 Birch Street. Rabbi Jonathan Blake, the associate rabbi of Westchester Reform Temple, Scarsdale, appears in the film.
Sponsored by Westchester Jewish Chronicle

WIDE AWAKE March 18, 21
Alan Berliner. 2006. 79 min. NR. US.
An ultra-personal film exploring the lifelong struggle of celebrated independent filmmaker Alan Berliner's (Nobody's Business, The Sweetest Sound) crazy battle with insomnia and the toll it takes on him and his family. Everyone's pretty much had it with Alan's off-kilter waking hours, exacerbated by his determination to make this film documenting their annoyance and impatience, particularly since it's the very act of filmmaking that seems to keep him up at night. "A deliriously intimate portrait." (Sundance)

LONELY MAN OF FAITH: The Life and Legacy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Mon. March 19 at 7:15
Ethan Isenberg. 2006. 99 min. NR. US. Second Look Productions.
Soloveitchik was arguably the most influential rabbi of the 20th century, ordaining over 2000 rabbis (more than any figure in Jewish history). This brilliant documentary tracks the life and beliefs of "The Rav," the intellectual leader of Modern Orthodox Judaism, who performed a delicate balancing act, embracing modernity while clinging to tradition. He ultimately experienced a deep sense of isolation, especially as he confronted the advocates of a strict fundamentalism. A resonant dialogue about the coexistence of modernity and belief - in all religions.
Q&A w/Richard M. Joel & Ethan Isenberg. Richard M. Joel was inaugurated as Yeshiva University's fourth president in 2003. A nationally renowned speaker, he has traveled the globe giving talks at universities and Jewish federations on Jewish leadership and identity. Ethan Isenberg directed Lonely Man of Faith. This is his first feature film.

BETWEEN TWO NOTES March 21, 25
Florence Strauss. 2006. 85 min. NR. France/Canada, in Arabic/Hebrew/ French/English with subtitles. National Film Board of Canada.
An elegant and lyrically ecumenical documentary on the common musical roots that animate both Jewish and Arab culture. Traveling from Cairo to Tel Aviv to Beirut and Damascus, filmmaker Florence Strauss traces the origins of cantorial chant to its sources in ancient Arab music and illuminates the cross-cultural fusion that has nourished this deeply spiritual and timeless musical tradition. As she travels, the film becomes a kind of road movie paying tribute to the musicians who embody this poetic piece of common Middle Eastern history. An absolute feast for the ears.

FAMILY LAW March 22, 24
Daniel Burman. 2005. 102 min. NR. Argentina/Italy/France, in Spanish with subtitles. IFC Releasing.
In another moving and sprightly drama by Argentine director Daniel Burman (Lost Embrace), an underachieving Justice Department worker with a distant relationship with his larger-than-life lawyer father, begins the slow, invisible transition to adult understanding after marriage and a child. This "tragicomic celebration of an unassuming man's unsung goodness," says the Village Voice, "broadens into a meditation on secular-Jewish identity in a less-than-tolerant society."

BLUES BY THE BEACH March 24, *26
Joshua Faudem. 2005. 75 min. NR. Israel/US, in English.
Mike's Place was an easygoing Tel Aviv nightspot where people gathered to put aside their daily concerns. And then on April 30, 2003, in an instant, tragedy struck in the form of a suicide bomb - three were killed and more than 50 wounded. Both a testimony to the days before the attack and a chronicle of its aftermath, this powerful documentary asks what it's like to live in a place where one thin second separates normality from tragedy.
*Mon. March 26 at 7:30: Q&A w/ David Harris, reception. David Harris, AJC's executive director, is a widely recognized expert on Jewish communities worldwide, global anti-Semitism, Israel's quest for peace and security, and human rights.
Tickets: $9/members; $13/nonmembers
Sponsored by Aix Restaurant and Bar

CLOSE TO HOME March 24, 26
Vidi Bilu/Dalia Hager. 2005. 90 min. NR. Israel, in Hebrew with subtitles. IFC Releasing.
Just off its N.Y. theatrical premiere! Two young female Israeli Defense Force recruits - a real odd couple - are supposed to patrol the streets of Jerusalem in a state of perpetual vigilance. One is a diligent soldier, but the other is far more interested in meeting hot guys, and their youthfulness is pitted against a danger that may or may not emerge. A compelling movie that's yet another example of an Israeli film industry producing first-rate dramas. "A very impressive feature bow by writer-directors Vidi Bilu and Dalia Hager," says Variety.

THE YIDDISH THEATER: A LOVE STORY March *25, 27
Dan Katzir. 2006. 80 min. NR. Israel/US, in English/ Yiddish, with subtitles.
A delightful, touching documentary about an aging but tenacious Yiddish theater star, Zypora Spaisman, her young, spirited troupe, and their determination to preserve a 1000-year-old culture by reviving a 1916 Yiddish play in circa 2000 New York. When the production receives surprisingly glowing reviews, hope turns into a desperate search for money to take the show "uptown." A warm and wonderful little film you're guaranteed to love - no matter how you feel about Yiddish theater.
*Sun. March 25 at 5:30: Q&A w/David Romeo & Stefan Kanfer, book signing, reception. David Romeo was general manager and producer of the Yiddish Public Theater's production of Grine Felder (Green Fields), featured in the film. Stefan Kanfer is the author of Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy, and Mishugas of the Yiddish Theater in America, which traces the rise and fall of the Yiddish theater and its lasting impact on American culture.
Tickets: $12/members; $16/nonmembers

TOOTS March 25, *27
Kristi Jacobson. 2006. 84 min. NR. US. Menemsha Films.
"One of the most compelling, yet forgotten tales of the 20th century." (Walter Cronkite)
A friend to the famous and a crook to the feds, most of all Toots Shor was the owner of America's greatest saloon, a place where celebrities - from Sinatra to Gleason to DiMaggio to Ruth - could relax and exchange wisecracks. Directed by Shor's granddaughter, this wonderful portrait "brimming with quips and stories from a cavalcade of quintessential New Yorkers" (Variety) features Walter Cronkite, Bert Sugar, Mike Wallace, Frank Gifford, Yogi Berra, and Gay Talese, among many others. A jazzy and nostalgic love song to the dazzling New York nightlife of the '40s and '50s.
*Tues. March 27 at 7:15: Q&A w/director Kristi Jacobson, who is Toots Shor's granddaughter; and boxing's "living logo" (NY Times) Bert Sugar. Bert Sugar, sportswriter and author of more than 50 books, was a regular at Toots Shor.

Closing Night Thurs. March 29 at 7:00
IN TREATMENT
In Treatment is the most celebrated Israeli television series of all time, but never seen in this country. A journey into the world of psychotherapy, each episode is a 30-minute session between therapist and patient. It's conceptually brilliant, dazzlingly written (by the show's creator, Hagai Levy), and superbly acted. We've assembled five shows for this very special evening, and we guarantee that these two and a half hours will fly by. You'll leave moved, a bit wiser - and eager for the American remake, which HBO has just signed on to create. In Hebrew with subtitles.

Sponsored By
          

In Association With


With Support From
AIX Restaurant and Bar; Cuddy & Feder LLP Attorneys at Law; Ganer, Grossbach & Ganer, LLC Certified Public Accountants; Robison Oil, Gas, Air Conditioning; and Two's Company
        

Sponsors
Andrew and Froma Benerofe
Marvin Israelow and Dorian Goldman
Richard and Heidi Rieger
Silverweed Foundation
Michael Sonnenfeldt and Katja Goldman
Howard and Mindy Unger

Food at all "Westchester Celebrates Jewish Film 2007" receptions prepared by Simply Divine kosher catering.