Posted by Larry Gleeson
Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival
March 6-10, 2019
The New Vic Theatre
33 W. Victoria Street, Santa Barbara
The Fourth Annual Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 2019 Festival which will be held at the New Vic Theatre, in downtown Santa Barbara, Calif., from March 6th through March 10th.
SBJFF co-chair Mashey Bernstein sees the key word for the festival as “community.” “Our films reach out not only to the Jewish community, but the Santa Barbara community as a whole. We want EVERYONE who attends to come away with a positive feeling; one that they can only get by sharing the warmth and joy of shared community in the darkness and warmth of a movie theater.”
This year’s lineup includes critically acclaimed feature films, documentaries, and shorts from Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Israel, Mexico, United Kingdom and the United States, including World and American premiers. The films cover a range of topics from the life of a well-known author to the mysteries of the ritual bath, from the unexpected triumph of an Israeli baseball team to the darkest hours of our history. Numerous films and programs will also feature invited directors, actors and experts in the field to supply personal information and context.
Highlights for this year’s festival include the 1924 silent movie, City Without Jews, with an original music score and performance by San Francisco based Composer Sascha Jacobson and his string quintet (Saturday, March 9th at 7:15 pm). Believed to have been lost until a copy was discovered in a Paris flea market in 2015, this silent gem was restored by the Austrian national film archive. The sometimes ironical and humorous tale foretells a future that became all too frighteningly real less than ten years later. Other highlights include the opening night film Promise at Dawn by renowned French director Eric Barbier, that tells the story of Jewish writer Romain Gary who twice won the Goncourt Prize for French literature. On Friday March 8th at 1:00 pm, the Festival will show Dear Fredy, a story of a proud and openly gay Jew in a time of great peril who finds love in the most unlikely of places before his mysterious death. Following Dear Fredy, the Festival will screen the American premier of the Australian movie, Outback Rabbis. Outback Rabbis follows two indefatigable Chassidic Rabbis who go to the hinterlands of Australia to find lost Jews.
On Sunday March 10th there will A FREE program Heading Home about the formation of the Israeli baseball team and its entry onto the world stage. (10:30 am), a shorts program with a wide variety of takes on the Jewish experience (1:00 pm), and the Festival conclusion, a delightful yet thought provoking movie from Mexico, Leona, that explores the issue of assimilation in its large Sephardi community.
Awards for best feature, documentary and short will be announced prior to Leona’s screening at 7:00 pm.
For a listing of films, sponsors, the Festival schedule, film trailers, and to purchase passes, please visit: www.sbjewishfilmfestival.org.
ABOUT SBJFF
Organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, the 2019 Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival includes five days of high quality, unique films that showcase a wide range of documentaries, dramas, comedies, and shorts by American, European, and Israeli filmmakers.
Mission Statement: The Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara produces the Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival specifically to celebrate the diversity of Jewish history, culture, and identity, while hoping that the films and their stories will resonate beyond these settings and speak to universal experiences and issues that confront our common humanity.The 2019 Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival is chaired by Mashey Bernstein and Ron Zonen.
The 2019 SBJFF is a proud recipient of an Events and Festivals Grant from the City of Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture.
So come on out, see some excellent films and help support these fine filmmakers. Until next time, I’ll see you at the movies!
(Sourced from: SBJFF Press release)
