A look into the past
We have saved our past film series logs for your knowledge base. If you need assistance finding a past film or have suggestions for future seasons, please email Artistic Director Dorothy Goldstone at dorothygoldstone@gmail.com.
Driving Miss Daisy
2015 Film Series | 1989 (99 Min) PG
Directed by: Bruce Beresford
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd
An elderly Jewish widow living in Atlanta can no longer drive. Her son insists she allow him to hire a driver, which in the 1950s meant a black man. She resists any change in her life but, Hoke, the driver is hired by her son. She refuses to allow him to drive her anywhere at first, but Hoke slowly wins her over with his native good graces. The movie is directly taken from a stage play and does show it. It covers over twenty years of the pair's life together as they slowly build a relationship that transcends their differences.
The Front
2015 Film Series | 1976 (95 Min) PG
Directed by: Martin Ritt
Written by: Walter Bernstein
Starring: Woody Allen, Zero Mostel
In the early 1950s Howard Prince, who works in a restaurant, helps out a black-listed writer friend by selling a TV station a script under his own name. The money is useful in paying off gambling debts, so he takes on three more such clients. Howard is politically pretty innocent, but involvement with Florence - who quits TV in disgust over things - and friendship with the show's ex-star - now himself blacklisted - make him start to think about what is really going on.
Holy Rollers
2015 Film Series | 2010 (89 Min) R
Directed by: Kevin Asch
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Bartha, Danny A. Abeckaser
Inspired by a true story of a young Hasidic man who was lured into the world of international drug trafficking in the late 90s. In Brooklyn, a youth from an Orthodox Jewish community is lured into becoming an Ecstasy dealer by his pal who has ties to an Israeli drug cartel.
Liberty Heights
2015 Film Series | 1999 (127 Min) R
Directed by: Barry Levinson
Starring: Adrien Brody, Bebe Neuwirth, Joe Mantegna
Anti-Semitism, race relations, coming of age, and fathers and sons: in Baltimore from fall, 1954, to fall, 1955. Racial integration comes to the high school, TV is killing burlesque, and rock and roll is pushing the Four Lads off the Hit Parade. Ben, a high school senior, and his older brother Van are exploring "the other": in Ben's case, it's friendship with Sylvia, a Black student; with Van, it's a party in the WASP part of town and falling for a debutante, Dubbie. Sylvia gives Ben tickets to a James Brown concert; Dubbie invites Van to a motel: new worlds open. Meanwhile, their dad Nate, who runs a numbers game, loses big to a small-time pusher, Little Melvin; a partnership ensues.
Fill the Void
2015 Film Series | 2012 (90 Min) PG-13
Directed by: Rama Burshtein
Starring: Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein, Irit Sheleg
Eighteen-year-old Shira (Hada Yaron) is the youngest daughter of the family and is about to be married off to a very promising young man of the same age. On Purim, her twenty-eight-year-old sister, Esther (Renana Raz), dies during childbirth, leaving her husband Yochay to care for the child and postponing Shira's promised match.
When the Shira’s mother finds out that Yochay may leave the country with her only grandchild, she proposes a match between Shira and the widower, which leaves Shira to choose between her heart's wish and her family's wish to keep the child with them. Fill the Void was the 2012 Venice Film Festival winner for Best Actress (Yaron), and was selected as the Israeli entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards. It was featured in the Spotlight Program at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
When Comedy Went to School
2015 Film Series | 2013 (76 Min) PG-13
Directed by: Mevlut Akkaya, Ron Frank
Produced by: Mevlut Akkaya, Ron Frank, Lawrence Richard
Deftly woven interviews and clips document the contribution of the Catskills to the development of a generation of comedians who went on to influence and entertain audiences around the world. It captures precious moments, always to be treasured, and leaves the viewer with an inspiring portrait of this country's greatest generation of comedians. The interviews include Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, Robert Klein, Jackie Mason, Mort Sahl, Jerry Stiller, Larry King, and others, all of whom make appearances in the film, telling jokes and sharing their stories.
Enemies, A Love Story
2015 Film Series | 1989 (119 Min) R
Directed by: Paul Mazursky
Starring: Ron Silver, Anjelica Huston, Lena Olin
Set in 1949 New York, a Holocaust survivor who makes a living as a ghostwriter for a Jewish rabbi, finds himself involved with three women - his current wife, a passionate affair with a married woman, and his long-vanished wife whom he thought was killed during the war and suddenly reappears. The film concentrates on the views of the Jewish survivors, who no longer abide by religious morales and question a God who could let the Holocaust occur.
Sweet Lorraine
2015 Film Series | 1987 (91 Min) PG-13
Directed by: Steve Gomer
Starring: Maureen Stapleton, Trini Alvarado, Lee Richardson
In its heyday, the Lorraine Hotel saw its fair share of guests, laughter and good times. But now that the aging inn is well past its prime, owner Lillian Garber must decide whether to repair the Catskills landmark - or sell to developers. As Lillian and her zany staff enjoy what may be the Lorraine's best- and last-summer season, they realize that not even a wrecking ball can demolish life's sweetest treasures. A slice-of-life comedy about old friendships, new romance, and letting go of the past.
A Walk on the Moon
2015 Film Series | 1999 (107 Min) R
Directed by: Tony Goldwyn
Starring: Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Bobby Boriello
Summer, 1969: men on the moon, and Woodstock happening near the cabin where the Kantrowitz family stays every summer. The camp's a Jewish fish-bowl. Marty's there weekends; he repairs TVs in Brooklyn. He's square and decent. His wife Pearl and his mother camp with Alison (she's 14) and their younger son. Pearl got pregnant at 17 and feels she missed her youth. While Alison experiences her first date, first kiss, first period, and stealing off to Woodstock with the lifeguard, Pearl has her own sexual awakening with "the blouse man," a peddler who sells at the camp. They too go to Woodstock. Marty confronts Pearl about the affair; she and he have to decide what to do next.
Other Film Series
We have saved our past film series logs for your knowledge base. If you need assistance finding a past film or have suggestions for future seasons, please email Artistic Director Dorothy Goldstone: dorothygoldstone@gmail.com