The 14th annual Milwaukee Jewish Film Festival of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center will include more than just films this year.
For the first time, the series, which runs Oct. 23-27, will be partnering with the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to present a lecture about Yiddish culture in America to go with films on that topic.
This will happen on the festival’s second day — Monday, Oct. 24 — at 6 p.m. Renowned klezmer musician and Yiddish culture scholar-teacher Henry Sapoznik, director of the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture at UW-Madison, will discuss “Roots and Restlessness in American Yiddish Culture.”
This will precede the showing at 7:30 p.m. of two films relating to the lecture topic: a short by Gordon Grinberg “The Tailor,” and a documentary about the man many consider the greatest Yiddish author, “Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness,” by Joseph Dorman.
The other films explore Jewish life from Israel to Nazi-collaborationist Vichy France to Argentina. The schedule is as follows:
• Sunday, Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m.; “The Matchmaker.” Israeli director Avi Nesher’s comedy-drama tells of a teenage boy in Haifa in 1968 who goes to work for a Holocaust-survivor matchmaker. This film is presented in collaboration with the Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
• Tuesday, Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m.; “La Rafle (The Round Up).” Writer-director Roselyne Bosch re-creates the Vichy regime’s mass imprisonment and disposal of 13,000 Parisian Jews in the Velodrome D’Hiver, in summer 1942. Not for children under 14.
• Wednesday, Oct. 26, 7:30 p.m., “Te Extraño (I Miss You).” From 1976 to 1983, thousands of Argentineans “disappeared.” A disproportionate number of them were Jews, including students and young activists. Argentinian Fabian Hofman’s semi-autobiographical feature film looks at the effect of “the Dirty War” on one Jewish family, as seen through the eyes of its youngest member. Not for children under 14. This day’s showing will include a repeat screening of “The Tailor.”
• Thursday, Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m., “Mary Lou.” Acclaimed Israeli director Eytan Fox (“Yossi & Jagger”) tells the story of Meir, a young gay man coming of age in Israel, grappling with his mother’s desertion and living a double life as one of Tel Aviv’s most celebrated drag performers, all to a soundtrack by 1970s Israeli rock star Svika Pick. This was originally a television miniseries; this screening will present all four episodes. Hebrew with English subtitles. Presented in cooperation with the Israel Center and the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival.
Admission to Sapoznik’s lecture is free. Movies each evening are $10 general admission, $9 for students and seniors. A pass for the whole festival is $45 general admission, $40 for seniors and students. A Patron Pass for $100 includes one reserved seat for each movie; $50 is tax-deductible.
For more information and tickets, contact Micki Seinfeld, JCC Director of Special Events, mseinfeld@jccmilwaukee.org or 414-967-8235.
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