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.
Remember
July 6, 2017 | 2015 (94 Min) R
Directed by: Atom Egoyan
Written by: Benjamin August
Starring: Christopher Plummer, Dean Norris, Martin Landau
Zev (Christopher Plummer) and his best friend Max (Martin Landau) make a pact to dedicate their remaining days to resolving unfinished business: tracking down and exacting revenge on the Nazi commandant responsible for killing their families during the war. As Zev is losing his memory to Alzheimer’s and Max is too frail to leave the nursing home, Zev must embark upon the remarkable journey to find their former tormentor before it’s too late. The shocking truth that awaits Zev when he finally comes face-to-face with him will turn his life upside-down. From acclaimed filmmaker Atom Egoyan comes a powerful thriller about the ultimate cost of revenge and the terrifying truths unearthed when we are forced to confront our past.” Glad to see Dean Norris (who rose to fame thanks the awesome TV series “Breaking Bad”) on the big screen!
Anna B’at Chai Wrobel
Our Speaker
Anna is a historian, teacher, poet, and speaker about the Holocaust. Her parents were partisans and survivors, and she is a first generation American. Wrobel’s poetry collection, MARENGO STREET, was published in 2012, and her historical essays and poems have appeared in several journals, and poetry collections. She is currently completing a new work that intertwines poetry, history, and memoir.
Crossing Delancey
July 20, 2017 | 1988 (90 Min) PG
Directed by: Joan Micklin Silver
Written by: Susan Sandler
Isabelle (Izzy) Grossman lives in two separate worlds: at 33, she still hasn’t found the right partner, but she does work in the trendiest book store on the upper West Side of Manhattan, mingling with the literati at the job, and enjoying their flirtations after-hours. At the same time, she is loyal to her beloved grandmother who still lives on the lower east side, a place once steeped in old-world Jewish culture, and now gradually transforming to the needs of new generations of new immigrants. Her grandmother wants Izzy to settle down with “a nice Jewish boy.” This doesn’t match at all with Izzy’s upper west side self-image. ''Crossing Delancey,'' is about the process whereby Izzy finally figures out what’s really important in her life.
Rick Winston
Our Speaker
Rick Winston was the co-owner of Montpelier’s Savoy Theater for 29 years, and was Programming Director for the Green Mountain Film Festival for 14 years. He has taught film history at Burlington College, Community College of Vermont, Goddard College, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and has made presentations throughout Vermont on film history.He is the Author of the book “Red Scare in the Green Mountains: Vermont in the McCarthy Era 1946-1960”.
The Attack
August 3, 2017 | 2012 (93 Min) PG-13
Directed by: Ziad Doueiri
Starring: Ali Suliman, Reymonde Amsallem, Evgenia Dodina
Languages: Hebrew, English subtitles
An esteemed Israeli Palestinian doctor (portrayed by international award-winner, Ali Suliman) has lived and worked in Tel Aviv for his entire career and has been happily married for many years. Suddenly his world turned upside down by a suicide bombing, in which his wife his killed. The tragedy grows exponentially for her husband, Amin, as he begins to learn why she was caught in the explosion, and how much of her life he didn’t know. What is most impressive about "The Attack" is its ability to be sympathetic to all sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and most especially to Amin, the husband, who finds himself stranded in the middle. Alive to the pain everyone feels, the film captures the nuances of a problem that has defied solution.
Dov Waxman
Our Speaker
Professor Waxman is an expert on Israel. His research focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli foreign policy, U.S. – Israel relations, and American Jewry’s relationship with Israel. He is Northeastern University’s Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies and co-director of Northeastern’s Middle East Institute. His latest work, “TROUBLE IN THE TRIBE: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel,” will be available for purchase at the film festival.
Professor Waxman is Northeast University's Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Culltural Studies, and co-director of Northeastern's Middle East Institute. Waxman is an expert on Israel and focuses his research on the American Jewry's relationship with Israel, Israeli foreign policy, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and U.S. - Israel relations. His latest work is Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict Over Israel. A limited number of signed copies will be available to purchase before the film.
The Debt
August 17, 2017 | 2010 (113 Min) R
Directed by: John Madden
Written by: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman
Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Tom Wilkinson
This story begins in the mid-1960s with the triumphant return of a trio of young Mossad agents from a secret overseas mission. Their accomplishment was killing “the Surgeon of Birkenau,” an infamous Nazi (obviously inspired by Josef Mengele) living comfortably in East Berlin under an assumed name. Leap forward 30 years, and the three legendary figures (played by Helen Mirren in the present, and Jessica Chastain in the past) are compelled to revisit the pivotal event that shaped their lives and careers and races towards a nail-biting finish!
Larry Lowenthal
Our Speaker
Adjunct Professor at Northeastern University, he has taught courses on “Anti-Semitism in 20th Century American Film and Literature” and “The Impact of Jews on Popular American Culture: The Hollywood Film, The Broadway Musical, Literature, Poetry, Stand-Up Comedy, Drama and Television”. Until 2008, Professor Lowenthal served as Executive Director of the Boston chapters of several Jewish organizations, culminating in his 20 years of service as executive director of the American Jewish Committee’s Boston Chapter
I’m Not Rappaport
August 31, 2017 | 1996 (135 Min) PG-13
Directed by: Herb Gardner
Written by: Herb Gardner
Starring: Walter Matthau, Ossie Davis, Amy Irving
In ''I'm Not Rappaport, Mr. Matthau has one of the richest characters of his career, Nat Moyer, an 81-year-old unreconstructed New York Jewish radical, fantasist and troublemaker…. In Mr. Matthau's hands, Nat attains a crusty, cantankerous nobility. His rash, eccentric campaigns against injustice and cruelty are an old man's way of raging against the dying of the light, of trying to make a difference in an indifferent world. It is with an almost vengeful glee that Mr. Matthau brings home the play's message: Imagination is the best defense.
Lawrence Bush
Our Speaker
Author of many books for children and adults, poet, and the editor of JEWISH CURRENTS Magazine and its engaging website (http://jewishcurrents.org). His daily blog, JEWDAYO, highlights events from Jewish life and history on the anniversary of their occurrence. Mr. Bush was our Guest Speaker for our 2015 Closing Night Film “The Front”
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