The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center announce the special events 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 2017 festival features a tribute to comedy legends
Zero Mostel and
Gene Wilder with a 50th anniversary screening of
Mel Brooks's The Producers, alongside a poster exhibition honoring their lives and work. The exhibition will be on view in the Furman Gallery of the Walter Reade Theater for the duration of the festival, and there will be a video tribute running continuously in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater showing a compilation of film and television clips from some of Mostel and Wilder's best moments on camera.
NYJFF's special events lineup will also honor forgotten star
Valeska Gert, the Weimar-era German-Jewish cabaret dancer and pioneering performance artist. Three works starring Gert-by G. W. Pabst, Carl Junghans, and Alberto Cavalcanti-will be presented, as well as Volker Schlöndorff's intimate documentary portrait of the artist later in life. To accompany the films,
Mel Gordon, professor emeritus of theater arts at University of California, will give an illustrated lecture about Gert's fascinating life, including rare clips of her "grotesque" dances.
Two unique free talks complete the roster of special events: a master class on documentary filmmaking by returning NYJFF filmmaker Tomer Heymann (The Queen Has No Crown, 2011), who has two films in this year's main slate, Mr. Gaga and Who's Gonna Love Me Now? (the latter co-directed with his brother, Barak); and a panel about film biopics, featuring filmmakers from this year's festival and moderated by the Jewish Museum's Director of Special Exhibitions and Public Programs, Jens Hoffmann.
See below for the full special events lineup and complete festival schedule. The main slate was announced earlier this week and can be found here.
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.
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