New York Jewish Film Festival Celebrates 20th Anniversay

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of The New York Jewish Film Festival, The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are presenting a variety of special programs during the run of the festival. Highlights include performances by contemporary magical entertainer Josh Rand (following a special screening of George Marshall's HOUDINI) and musicians Socalled and Katie Moore, a discussion featuring Lou Reed, and a book signing with film critic J. Hoberman. In addition, several other film screenings will be followed by filmmakers and special guests in on stage question and answer discussions.

The majority of The New York Jewish Film Festival's screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, located at 165 West 65th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway. One additional screening will be held at The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street.

20TH ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Thursday, January 13 at 8:30 pm
The Klezmatics: ON HOLY GROUND
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Erik Greenberg Anjou | Germany/Hungary/Israel/Poland/USA 2010 | 106m
This high-energy documentary about the Grammy Award-win­ning, New York-based superstar klezmer band features mesmerizing performances and soulful interviews. Anjou and crew followed The Klezmatics for over three years capturing the band's highs, lows, and relentless march forward. Director Erik Greenberg Anjou and members of The Klezmatics (Matt Darriau, Lisa Gutkin, Paul Morrissett, Lorin Sklamberg and Richie Barshay) will take part in a post-screening discussion.

Saturday, January 15 at 9:15 pm
RED SHIRLEY
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Lou Reed | USA | 2010 | 28m
Red Shirley, receiving its New York premiere, is directed by Lou Reed and photographed by portraitist Ralph Gibson. The film is a portrait of Reed's 100 year-old activist, unionist cousin. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Lou Reed and Ralph Gibson.

Sunday, January 16 at 1:30 pm
LIES MY FATHER TOLD ME
U.S. PREMIERE OF RESTORED PRINT
Ján Kádar | Canada | 1975 | 104m
This classic film, based on a story by Ted Allan, is set in the 1920s Montreal Jewish immigrant community and follows 6-year old David, who lives with his Canadian-born parents and his beloved grandfather, a junk peddler who emigrated from Russia. Producer Harry Gulkin and actress Marilyn Lightstone will take part in a post-screening discussion.

Sunday, January 16 at 9:00pm
Wednesday January 26 at 1:15pm
ROMEO AND JULIET IN YIDDISH
U.S. PREMIERE
Eve Annenberg | USA | 2010 | 91m
A middle-aged ER nurse who is a bitterly lapsed observant Jew undertakes a Yiddish translation of Shakespeare's great classic. In perhaps the first Yiddish "mumblecore" film, Annenberg creates a parallel universe where Romeo and Juliet stem from divergent streams of ultra-Orthodox Judaism and speak their lines in street-smart Yiddish. Director Eve Annenberg, seven cast members and composer Joel Diamond will take part in a discussion following both screenings.

Monday, January 17 at 1 pm
HOUDINI
George Marshall | USA | 1953 | 106m
This special screening is in memory of Tony Curtis and in conjunction with The Jewish Museum's current exhibition, Houdini: Art and Magic. This film stars Curtis as the legendary magician and escape artist Harry Houdini and Janet Leigh as his wife. The screening will be followed by a performance by contemporary magical entertainer Josh Rand.

Wednesday, January 19 at 8:15 pm
JEWISH SOLDIERS IN BLUE AND GRAY
WORLD PREMIERE
Jonathan Gruber | USA | 2011 | 86m
This fascinating documentary is a first-of-its-kind film that reveals the struggles that faced Jewish Americans in battle and on the home front during the Civil War. Through period photographs, rare documents, letters and artifacts, and exclusive interviews with experts and descendants, fhe film chronicles the sacrifices Jews made as they took up arms both in the Union and Confederacy. Featuring the voice of Sam Waterston as Abraham Lincoln. A discussion with the film's director Jonathan Gruber and Dr. Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University, will follow the screening.

Saturday, January 22 at 9 pm
THE "SOCALLED" MOVIE
Garry Beitel | Canada | 2010 | 86m
The ‘Socalled' Movie is a kaleidoscopic portrait of artistically fearless klezmer hip-hop artist Socalled, aka, Josh Dolgin. A pianist, singer, arranger, rapper, producer and composer (and also a magician, filmmaker, and visual artist), he is blasting through the boundaries that separate music from different cultures, eras and generations. Filmed in Socalled's Montreal neighborhood, where Hasidic Jews and hipsters crowd the sidewalks, and in New York, France and Ukraine. The klezmer hip-hop artist Socalled and singer Katie Moore will perform following the screening on Saturday, January 22.

Monday, January 24 at 3 pm at The Jewish Museum
TEVYE
Maurice Schwartz | USA | 1939 | 96m
This adapta­tion of the classic Sholem Aleichem play centers on dairyman Tevye's daughter, whose marriage to the son of a Ukrainian peasant pits Tevye's love for his daughter against his deep-seated faith and loyalty to tradition. Schwartz, a beloved Yiddish theater and stage actor, brings to life a microcosm of the larger world of Russian Jewry in the early 1900s. Restored with new English subtitles by The National Center for Jewish Film, Tevye will be introduced by J. Hoberman, author of the newly expanded Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds, and followed by a book signing.

Single screening tickets for The New York Jewish Film Festival are $12; $9 for students; $8 for seniors (62+); and $7 for Film Society and Jewish Museum members.

Tickets for screenings at the Walter Reade Theater and The Jewish Museum are at the Walter Reade Theater Box Office; and online at www.FilmLinc.com. For complete festival information, visit www.FilmLinc.com, www.TheJewishMuseum.org, or call 212.875.5601. For tickets and information about the screening at The JCC in Manhattan, call 646.505.5708 or visit www.jccmanhattan.org/film.

The New York Jewish Film Festival is made possible by donors to The Martin and Doris Payson Fund for Film and Media, and by generous grants from The Martin and Doris Payson Charitable Foundation, The Liman Foundation, Northern Trust, Mimi and Barry Alperin, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other donors. Additional support has been provided through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State's 62 counties. Warner Bros. Entertainment is a lead supporter of the Martin and Doris Payson Fund for Film and Media. The Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York, the French Embassy, and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York provided travel assistance.

Media Sponsor: WNET.ORG.

About The New York Jewish Film Festival
Be it French romance, family sagas, fascinating documentaries or dramas from all corners of the earth, each January The New York Jewish Film Festival brings together innovative and provocative films, distinguished directors and actors, and passionate, articulate audiences. Most of these films receive their United States or New York premieres; many go on to commercial release; and several have been nominated for or received major awards.

It began in 1992, at a time when films from the newly liberated Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc satellite nations were flooding into the West. Twenty years later, The New York Jewish Film Festival is New York's preeminent showcase for world cinema exploring modern Jewish identity in all its diversity and complexity. The result of an enduring partnership between The Jewish Museum and Film Society of Lincoln Center, The New York Jewish Film Festival has presented 500 films from 36 countries and over 300 premieres.

About The Jewish Museum
Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent United States institution exploring 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture. The Jewish Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection. Today, located at Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, the Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000 objects-paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media. For more information, visit www.TheJewishMuseum.org.

About Film Society of Lincoln Center
Film Society of Lincoln Center was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, to recognize and support new directors, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of film. Advancing this mandate today, the Film Society hosts two distinguished festivals. The New York Film Festival annually premieres films from around the world and has introduced the likes of François Truffaut, R.W. Fassbinder, Jean-Luc Godard, Pedro Almodóvar, Martin Scorsese, and Wong Kar-Wai to the United States. New Directors/New Films, co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art, focuses on emerging film talents. Since 1972, when the Film Society honored Charles Chaplin, its annual Gala Tribute celebrates an actor or filmmaker who has helped distinguish cinema as an art form. Additionally, the Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming at its Walter Reade Theater and offers insightful film writing to a worldwide audience through Film Comment magazine. For more information, visit: www.FilmLinc.com

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from 42BELOW, Audi, American Airlines, GRAFF, The New York Times, Stella Artois, The New York State Council on the Arts, and The National Endowment for the Arts.