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Jewish Film Festival: This year, its focus is on women

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18123/full/18123/jewish-film-festival-this-year-its-focus-is-on-women/ Jewish Film Festival: This year, its focus is on women Friday, July 19, 2002 | by JOE ESKENAZI Juxtapose the words "Jewish women" and "movie," and, more likely than not, you'll conjure up images of neurotic yentas, pampered princesses and bad rhinoplasty jokes. But at the 22nd annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the story isn't so much the depiction of Jewish women in front of the camera but the large numbers of them behind it. While only four of last year's 44 films were directed by women, female directors are responsible for 24 of the 51 selections at this year's festival, which kicks off on Thursday and runs until mid-August. "I think it's a tribute to the independent film movement, in which women now have opportunities in all aspects of the creative process," said Janis Plotkin, longtime executive director of the festival. "Independent film allows that to happen. I think it's pretty clear that 2 percent, maybe only 1 percent of big Hollywood films are made by women." Was Plotkin on the lookout for female-directed films? Or is this just a coincidence? The answer is yes to both questions. After watching Michal Aviad's "Ramleh," a documentary following the lives of three Israelis and one Palestinian woman in this blue-collar city, Plotkin decided to add "Gimme a Kiss" and "Dancing with My Father," films in which female Jewish filmmakers put their fathers under the microscope. But, other than that, "everything else is coincidental. There are films we liked that are good, and they just turned out to be directed by women." In fact, this year's festival includes an examination of the characterization of Jewish women in movies and television. Not suprisingly, the film is directed by a Jewish woman. Australian Monique Schwartz's "Mamadrama: The Jewish Mother in Cinema" peels back layer upon layer of celluloid history to research the origins of the archetypal Jewish mother as witnessed in "Portnoy's Complaint" or "Where's Poppa?" and also examines how the stereotype has changed over time. "She also contrasts it with the image of the Jewish mother in Israel," added Plotkin. "In American cinema Jewish women are presented as overbearing in older films and spoiled in recent ones. But in Israeli films, they're presented in a complex and diverse manner." In addition to a glut of films directed by women, this year's festival also features an abnormally large number of movies created by local filmmakers. Bay Area natives directed 10 and produced one of the festival's offerings. One unique local flick is "Not Another Jewish Movie," a 13-minute short created by 11 teenagers participating in the JFF's New Filmmaker Project. The film is a semi-autobiographical montage of the young filmmakers grappling with what it means to be a Bay Area Jew. In one scene a boy gauges peer reaction when he saunters down the halls of Berkeley High or bounces through San Francisco on a pogo stick while outfitted in a yarmulke and tallit. In another, a girl originally from the former Soviet Union muses that discerning her Jewish identity is as easy as picking up the distinct odors of Russian Jewish cuisine permeating her mother's kitchen. "We had a desire, to steal a phrase from Bill Clinton, to assemble a group that 'looks like the Jewish community of the Bay Area.' The majority had a non-Jewish parent. The program includes a girl of Tunisian Jewish descent, a Latina Jew and two Russian emigres," said Sam Ball, director of the teen filmmaking project. "They worked for three months acquiring camera skills before they even shot a frame of film. They were really treated like adults. We told them, 'This is your budget.'" "Not Another Jewish Movie" is one of several films Plotkin feels make this year's festival the most accessible to children, teenagers and families yet staged. In a family program, "Shalom Y'all"—the story of Brian Bane's exploration of the Jewish culture of the Deep South in a meandering road trip—is paired with "Wanderings," a trip by Canadian filmmaker Nikila Cole and her 12-year-old daughter to Jewish communities in locales such as the Caribbean, Holland and Korea. A children's matinee featuring several animated films is also scheduled. In the first Jewish Film Festival since Sept. 11, four films examine the dark day's impact on Jews and America—but not in a conventional manner. In "Isaiah's Rap," 14-year old Isaiah Gage, who lives two blocks from Ground Zero, performs a rap song he wrote responding to the attacks. In "Bin and Jerry's Fundamental Principles," Bart Weiss compares extremist notions as espoused by Osama bin Laden and the Rev. Jerry Falwell. And, in "The Wax and the Wicks," Rabbi David Floyd Nesenoff lugged a camera into a Long Island beauty parlor, capturing the local ladies' chatting about recipes, hairdos and, of course, terrorism. The reverberations of Sept. 11 won't just be experienced on screen. The festival has hired additional security, and patrons are strongly urged not to carry large bags into the theaters. The security outlay cuts into a budget that's grown uncomfortably tight. The film fest was forced to cut $50,000 off its budget and let two staffers go this year, and won't be able to stage elaborate musical numbers or rent a parking lot near the Castro Theatre as it has in past years. "I think the dot.com boom is over and we're back to the bad old days of really struggling," said Plotkin with a laugh. That being said, ticket sales are described as "brisk."

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