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.
Heading Home: The Story of Team Israel
July 11, 2019 | 2018 (87 Min) NR
Directed by: Seth Kramer, Daniel Miller, and Jeremy Newberger
Starring: Ike Davis, Cody Decker, Sam Fuld, Ty Kelly, Ryan Lavarnway, Jerry Weinstein, and Josh Zeid
A stirring story of sports, patriotism and personal growth, Heading Home charts the underdog journey of Israel's national baseball team competing for the first time in the World Baseball Classic. After years of defeat, Team Israel is finally ranked among the world's best in 2017, eligible to compete in the prestigious international tournament. Their line-up included several Jewish American Major League players―Ike Davis, Josh Zeid and ex-Braves catcher Ryan Lavarnway―most with a tenuous relationship to Judaism, let alone having ever set foot in Israel. Their odyssey takes them from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem where they are greeted as heroes, to Seoul where they must debunk their has-been, wannabe reputations. With their Mensch on the Bench mascot by their side, the team laughs, cries, and does much soul-searching, discovering the pride of representing Israel on the world stage.
Seth Kramer
Our Speaker
Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger are Ironbound Films. Headquartered in an old inn on the Hudson River opposite West Point, Ironbound creates documentaries for theaters, television, and the web. They produced and directed Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel. In addition, Daniel wrote, Seth edited, and Jeremy did art direction for the film. Seth was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Historical Programming for Resistance: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans (PBS, 2002). Daniel was nominated for The Trial of Adolf Eichmann (PBS, 1997).
The History of Love
July 25, 2019 | 2016 (134 Min) NR
Directed by: Radu Milhaileanu
Written by: Radu Milhaileanu, Marcia Romano based on the novel by Nicole Krauss
Starring: Derek Jacobi, Eliot Gould, Gemma Arterton Sophie Nelisse, Mark Rendall
Languages: English, Yiddish
Based on American Author Nicole Krauss’ bestseller, “The History of Love” is a sprawling saga of undaunted ardor and merciless twists of fate. Spanning decades and continents the film’s central narrative begins in Pre-war Poland and follows Leo Gursky and Alma Mereminski, neighbors and sweethearts, whose romance is thwarted by the rise of fascism. Before the war Alma is sent to America; after the war Leo tries to find her, oblivious to the surprises that await him. Aided by a brilliant cast that includes Gemma Arterton and veteran actors Derek Jacobi and Elliot Gould, director Radu Mihaileanu deftly weaves the many threads of Krauss’ novel into a soaring epic that touches on the duties of Jewishness, literature, and love.
Carole Renard
Our Speaker: NEH Oral History Project Coordinator, Wexler Oral History Project.
Carole currently works in the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project where, in addition to interviewing community members and scholars about Yiddish history and culture, she works on transcribing and indexing the extensive collection of over 800 interviews to make them more accessible to the public. She has her BA in Anthropology and Jewish Studies from Smith College and her MA in Jewish Studies from University College London, where she wrote her thesis on Jewish involvement in the British suffrage movement.
Carole holds an MA in Jewish Studies from University College London and a BA in Anthropology and Jewish Studies from Smith College.
The German Doctor
August 8, 2019 | 2014 (93 Min) PG-13
Directed by: Lucia Puenza
Starring: Alex Brendemühl, Florencia Bado, Diego Peretti, Natalia Oreiro
Languages: Spanish, English subtitles
“A thriller with a historical basis, 'The German Doctor' is a somewhat fictionalized glimpse at a ghastly real-life villain.” — Linda Cook.
Patagonia, 1960. A German doctor meets an Argentinean family and follows them on a long desert road to a small town where the family will be starting a new life. Eva, Enzo and their three children welcome the doctor into their home and entrust their young daughter, Lilith, to his care, not knowing that they are harboring one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. At the same time, Israeli agents are desperately looking to bring "The German Doctor” to justice.
Marjorie Agos
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Our Speaker: Award-winning Chilean author, poet, and professor.
Marjorie Agosín was raised in Chile, the daughter of Jewish parents who fled Europe. The family moved to the United states to escape the military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende’s Socialist government.
In both her scholarship and her creative work, Professor Agosin focuses on social justice, feminism, and remembrance and has received numerous honors and awards for her writing and work as a human rights activist, including a Jeanette Rankin Award in Human Rights and a United Nations Leadership Award for Human Rights. The Chilean government honored her with a Gabriela Mistral Medal for Lifetime Achievement. Agosín is the Luella LaMer Slaner Professor in Latin American studies and a professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at Wellesley College.
As an author, she writes in many forms. Among her many books of poetry are AT THE THRESHOLD OF MEMORY (White Pine, 2003), AN ABSENCE OF SHADOWS (White Pine, 1998), and STARRY NIGHT (White Pine, 1996) , winner of the Letras de Oro Prize for poetry from the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Her most recent books of prose are WRITING TOWARDS HOPE: THE LITERATURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN LATIN AMERICA (Yale, 2006), SECRETS IN THE SAND: THE YOUNG WOMEN OF CIUDAD JUAREZ (White Pine,2006) and CARTOGRAPHIES: MEDITATIONS ON TRAVEL (Georgia, 2004), introduce by Isabel Allende.
Marjorie is an activist and spokesperson for women's rights in Third World countries. Her honors include a National Endowment for the Arts, the Letras de Oro Prize for Poetry, and the Latino Literature Prize. Massachusetts.
Trumbo
August 22, 2019 | 2015 (124 Min) R
Directed by: Jay Roach
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Alan Tudyk, Diane Lane , Elle Fanning, Helen Mirren, John Goodman, Louis CK
"Trumbo" is beautiful and eloquent as it tells a tale of politics, relationships, loyalty, and human nature”. Pamela Powell Daily Journal (Kankakee, IL)
“Entertaining, swiftly moving, and just as witty as the man himself”. Deirdre Crimmins Cinematic Essential
In 1947, Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was Hollywood's top screenwriter until he and other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs. TRUMBO (directed by Jay Roach) recounts how Dalton used words and wit to win two Academy Awards and expose the absurdity and injustice under the blacklist, which entangled everyone from gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) to John Wayne, Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger.
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 Women’s Balcony
August 29, 2019 | 2017 (96 Min) NR
Directed by: Emil Ben-Shimon
Starring: Orna Banai, Itzik Cohen, Einat Sarouf
New York Times and Los Angeles Times Critic’s Pick.
Israel’s #1 film of the year!
”The Women's Balcony is a feel-good, crowd-pleasing comedy that depicts what happens when extremism and traditional values collide” Danielle Solzman
A comedy/drama about community, old traditions and values and the power of women to keep all of these together in the face of modern extremism.
An accident during a bar mitzvah celebration leads to a gender rift in a devout Orthodox community in Jerusalem, in this rousing, good-hearted tale about women speaking truth to patriarchal power
Shayna Weiss
Our Speaker
Dr. Shayna Weiss is the Associate Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. Previously, she was the inaugural Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Israel Studies at the United States Naval Academy. She earned her PhD from New York University in Hebrew and Judaic Studies. She completed postdoctoral fellowships in Israel at Bar Ilan University and Tel Aviv University, where she taught courses about Israeli history and society. She has also taught at Brooklyn College and New York University. Her research interests converge at the intersection of religion and gender in the Israeli public sphere, as well as the politics of Israeli popular culture. She is completing a book on gender segregation in the Israeli public sphere.
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