San Jose Jewish Film Festival marks its bar mitzvah

The San Jose Jewish Film Festival has come a long way since it began showing about four films 13 years ago. Now celebrating its bar mitzvah year, the festival — which begins Sunday, Oct. 17, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 21 — is showing 28 films over a five-week period.

The festival has also graduated from a long sheet of paper touting its offerings, to an official program for the first time. Last year, more than 3,000 tickets were sold.

While there is some overlap with the films that were shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, that is not deliberate, said Lorin Fink, the San Jose festival's president.

"We have a programming committee that meets every Tuesday for six months out of the year that watched 60 films," said Fink. "While there is usually some overlap, we pick independently, as we have different audiences. Our community may be a bit more traditional and conservative, and may be more Israeli."

While the San Francisco festival constantly pushes the envelope by showing films critical of Israeli policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians, San Jose has been less likely to do so. It is, this year, though, with "Ford Transit," a popular showing at this past summer's San Francisco festival. Made by a Palestinian director, the film follows around a service taxi driver as he picks up passengers in the West Bank, and shows the annoyances he must deal with as a result of checkpoints and roadblocks.

For the first time this year, the San Jose festival has received a grant from the city of San Jose's Office of Cultural Affairs. The grant allowed the festival to co-sponsor films with other communities for the first time.

"Ford Transit" is co-sponsored by Cinemayaat, the Bay Area Arab Film Festival, "Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness" is co-sponsored by the San Jose Japanese American Museum and "Can We Build a Bridge Together?" is co-sponsored by the Bay Area Latino Film Festival.

"Can We Build a Bridge Together?" a short documentary about a program that brings together Latino and Jewish college students in a social action program, is a world premiere by Fink, the festival president. Another of his short documentaries is also being shown for the first time. "One Arab, One Jew, One Stage, Two Very Funny Guys" is about a rabbi and a Muslim Arab American comedian who tour together.

While Fink said he was excited about premiering his two films at the festival, he emphasized, "The whole festival is exciting."

The festival is also offering a "Teen Screen," with a showing just for teenagers. Called "Confrontation at Concordia," the documentary is about an event at a Canadian university where pro-Palestinian activists prevented Benjamin Netanyahu, a former Israeli prime minister, from speaking. After the showing, a discussion will feature Jewish student activists from local campuses. The sing-along "Fiddler on the Roof" is for families, and a late-night showing of an Israeli film called "The Wisdom of the Pretzel" is for young adults.

The films are shown on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons, making it possible for viewers outside the area to come, said Fink.

For the schedule and to buy tickets go to www.sjjff.org, or call (408) 874-5907.