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Source: Lincoln Film Society
The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center announce the main slate lineup for the 26th annual New York Jewish Film Festival (NYJFF), January 11-24, 2017. Among the oldest and most influential Jewish film festivals worldwide, unique in New York City, and one of the longest running partnerships of two major New York cultural institutions, the NYJFF each year presents the finest narrative and documentary films from around the world that explore the diverse Jewish experience.
The festival´s 2017 main slate features 29 wide-ranging and exciting films and shorts from the iconic to the iconoclastic, of which 26 are screening in their world, U.S., and New York premieres.
The NYJFF opens on Wednesday, January 11 with the New York premiere of Dorit Hakim´s impressive debut feature Moon in the 12th House, which follows two estranged Israeli sisters on the road to reconciliation. Closing Night is the New York premiere of Aimée and Jaguar star Maria Schrader“˜s Stefan Zweig, Farewell to Europe, a dramatic chronicle of the German-Jewish writer´s years in exile from Nazi Germany, on Tuesday, January 24. For the first time in its history, the NYJFF will have a Centerpiece screening on Wednesday, January 18: the U.S. premiere of Peshmerga by French-Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who documented his travels to Iraqi Kurdistan in an effort to better understand the psychology of a culture on the frontlines of the war against ISIS.
Special presentations include the World Premiere of Amos Gitai´s latest, Shalom Rabin, a personal film diary utilizing the director´s own archival footage, featuring a moving interview with Yitzhak Rabin completed shortly before his assassination; the World Premiere of Andrea Simon´s Angel Wagenstein: Art Is a Weapon, a portrait of the revolutionary Bulgarian Jewish filmmaker and novelist, paired with a screening of Konrad Wolf´s 1959 film Stars, for which Wagenstein wrote the screenplay; and the U.S. premiere of Doing Jewish: A Story from Ghana, which follows documentarian Gabrielle Zilkha as she discovers a centuries-old Jewish community in Ghana.
This year´s edition of the festival also features a number of intimate documentaries about captivating Jewish performing artists, including the U.S. premiere of Samantha Peters´s Bette Midler: The Divine Miss M, an ode to the entertainer´s spectacular fifty-year career; Mr. Gaga, Tomer Heymann´s intimate portrait of Ohad Naharin, the renowned choreographer and artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company, in its New York premiere; and Barak and Tomer Heymann´s Who´s Gonna Love Me Now?, which follows HIV-positive Israeli expat Saar Moaz, a member of the London Gay Men´s Chorus.
Other highlights include the New York premiere of culinary documentary Hummus! The Movie; Scarred Hearts, the latest from Radu Jude (Aferim!), based on the novel by Romanian author Max Belcher; the U.S. premiere of Emmanuel Bourdieu´s Louis-Ferdinand Céline, based on the real-life encounter between the controversial French author (played by Denis Lavant), an accused Nazi supporter, and a young Jewish professor in 1948; and the New York premiere of Marie Noëlle´s Marie Curie, The Courage of Knowledge, an intimate biopic of the trailblazing physicist and chemist.---------------------------------------------
See below for the full main slate lineup. The NYJFF´s special events sections will be announced later this week.
This year´s New York Jewish Film Festival was selected by Rachel Chanoff, Director, THE OFFICE performing arts + film; Jaron Gandelman, Curatorial Assistant for Media, Jewish Museum and Coordinator, New York Jewish Film Festival; Jens Hoffmann, Director of Special Exhibitions and Public Programs, Jewish Museum and Curator for Special Programs, New York Jewish Film Festival; Dennis Lim, Director of Programming, Film Society of Lincoln Center; Aviva Weintraub, Associate Curator, Jewish Museum and Director, New York Jewish Film Festival; and Tyler Wilson, Programming Coordinator, Film Society of Lincoln Center.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NYJFF tickets will go on sale to FSLC and Jewish Museum members on Thursday, December 15 and to the public on Thursday, December 22. Tickets may be purchased online or in person at the Film Society's Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and Walter Reade Theater box offices, 144 & 165 West 65th Street. For our free event ticket policy and complete festival information, visit www.NYJFF.org.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The New York Jewish Film Festival is made possible by the Martin and Doris Payson Fund for Film and Media. Generous support is also provided by Mimi and Barry Alperin, Wendy Fisher and Dennis Goodman, The Liman Foundation, The Jack and Pearl Resnick Foundation, Sara and Axel Schupf, an anonymous gift, and through public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council. Additional support is provided by Israel´s Office of Cultural Affairs, the Polish Cultural Institute New York, and the German Consulate General New York.
