It’s back! The spring edition of the 35th annual William & Irene Weinberg Family Baltimore Jewish Film Festival kicks off next Tuesday, Apr. 25, at 7 p.m. and runs through Sunday, May 28.
This year marks the first time that the festival — which will feature eight films from around the world — has been presented in a hybrid fashion. It also marks the first time that any in-person film festival events will be held since the start of the pandemic.
Sara Qureshi, film program director at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts in Owings Mills, says the decision for the festival to be presented hybrid this season was based on data showing that many members of the film community enjoy the flexibility of virtual viewing and discussions, while others prefer “the shared viewing experience.”
The hybrid model, she says, is “an effort to bring the best of both worlds” to viewers..
The festival opens with an in-person screening of the 2023 Israeli docu-narrative film “Exodus 91,” which will be presented as part of the local Jewish community’s celebration of the 75the anniversary of Israel’s founding.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Micah Smith, “Exodus 91” tells the true and amazing story of Operation Solomon, the 1991 covert diplomatic and military operation to evacuate 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel during the Ethiopia’s civil war.
The evening will include a brief concert and remarks by Ethiopian-Israeli singer-songwriter AvevA.
Another festival highlight will be the closing film “March ‘68,” an award-winning 2022 narrative film directed by Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Lang. Presented virtually, “March ‘68” focuses on a pair of young students, Hania and Janek, who fall in love in the midst of social turmoil and antisemitism in Warsaw in the late 1960s.
Sponsored by the Polish Embassy, virtual ticket holders will be invited to an in-person panel discussion with a representative from the embassy on Wednesday, May 24, at 7 p.m. in the Gordon Center’s newly renovated lobby.
“The film is about a critical turning point in Polish history at which time the communist regime expelled many of the Polish Jewish citizens,” says Qureshi. “‘March ‘68’ is very special because it had the highest and only perfect score I’ve seen among my film committee in my entire time serving in this position since 2019.
“They loved it not just because it’s a well-made film with very compelling characters, but many of the members of the committee were unfamiliar with the events it presents about that specific era of Polish history,” she says. “So not only did they find it to be a compelling piece of art, they also felt that they learned something.”
Other films being shown virtually include the Israeli dramas “Barren,” directed by Mordechai Vardi, which deals with an Orthodox couple grappling with fertility problems; and director Pini Tavger’s “More Than I Deserve,” about a mother and son who immigrate to Israel from Russia. Both films will feature virtual discussions with the directors.
Holocaust-related films to be presented by the festival include “Valiant Hearts,” a 2022 French film directed by French-Moroccan filmmaker Mona Achache about six Jewish children hidden from the Nazis in Chambord castle and its park in southern France; and “Reckonings,” directed by award-winning American filmmaker Roberta Grossman, about the negotiations between Jewish and German leaders for Holocaust reparations.
Grossman will participate in a virtual discussion on Thursday May 18 at 7 p.m..
Another World War II-themed film to be presented at the festival will be Giusseppe Piccioni’s “The Shadow of the Day,” a love story set in central Italy in 1938 in which a Fascist-sympathizing restauranteur grapples with the government’s racial laws when a young woman with a dangerous secret comes to work at his bistro.
Viewers interested in lighter fare can view the romantic comedy “Matchmaking,” directed by Tel Aviv-born Erez Tadmor, which will be available throughout the month of May.
The film — described as “Romeo and Juliet” with a light Orthodox twist — chronicles the dating trials and tribulations of Moti Bernstein, a young man who has everything except the girl of his dreams.
Film viewers can purchase a subscription to the virtual series or buy individual tickets to the films. Qureshi notes that the subscription is “the best value,” and also that one virtual ticket “serves an entire household.”
For information and to purchase tickets to the festival, visit jcc.org/gordon-center/baltimore-jewish-film-festival.
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