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You are here: Home / Film / NY Jewish Film Festival 2020 at Lincoln Center
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NY Jewish Film Festival 2020 at Lincoln Center

POSTED BY
Evelyn Kanter

new york jewish film festival 2017

The 29th New York Jewish Film Festival features documentaries, dramas and romcoms about the Jewish experience around the world, including about sports, fashion, civil disobedience, immigration, war, hope and resilience.

As always, you do not have to be Jewish to enjoy international films with universal themes.

A special event is a 50th anniversary showing of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, the iconic drama by renowned director Vittorio de Sica.

  • This beloved Italian drama, based on the classic novel by Giorgio Bassani, is set amidst the rise of Fascism in the 1930s.
  • The wealthy, intellectual Finzi-Contini family’s estate serves as a gathering place for the local Jewish community that tries to remain sheltered from the country’s growing anti-Semitism.
  • While romance unfolds behind the tall, stone walls of the garden, an increasingly hostile reality sets in.

This year’s festival includes:

  • an inspiring documentary about Aulcie Perry, the legendary athlete who put Israeli basketball on the map, a
  • a documentary about an Auschwitz survivor confronting her past,
  • Crescendo, a gripping drama about a conductor’s determination to create an Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra that transcends borders, religion and politics,
  • a documentary about the Holocaust survivor who founded Gottex, the trend-setting swimwear empire.

Another film is told through 8mm images from the 1930s about German Jewish immigrants to the USA, struggling to find their way in a new culture.

Yet another follows a young Jewish woman in Mexico City in struggling to navigate a forbidden love, in a contemporary take on a timeless love story. 

The New York Jewish Film Festival is January 15-28, with nearly 40 films include from Israel, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, and Mexico,  including several world, U.S. and New York premieres and special events that include Q&A sessions with the director.

There is  more than one screening a day, at different theaters in Lincoln Center, and several films have multiple screenings on different days, to fit your schedule.

Here are the films and the schedule

Aulcie

Aulcie

  • Dani Menkin
  • 2019
  • Israel
  • 72 minutes
  • English and Hebrew with English subtitles

Opening Night · New York Premiere · Aulcie Perry, Dani Menkin, and Nancy Spielberg in Person

In 1976, Aulcie Perry was playing basketball in Harlem when scouts from Maccabi Tel Aviv spotted and signed him. A year later, he led the team to their first European Championship, converted to Judaism, and become an Israeli citizen. Dani Menken’s documentary tells the story of this legendary athlete.

  • January 16 at 8:30 PM
The Birch Tree Meadow

The Birch Tree Meadow

  • Marceline Loridan-Ivens
  • 2003
  • France/Germany/Poland
  • 91 minutes
  • English, French, and Polish with English subtitles

Centerpiece Selection · Introduced by Richard Peña

Anouk Aimée and August Diehl star in this astounding autobiographical drama by Marceline Loridan-Ivens, an iconoclastic filmmaker and memoirist from France who passed away in 2018. The film follows an Auschwitz survivor who returns to the camp to confront her past and the young descendant of an SS guard she meets there

  • January 22 at 1:15 PM
  • and again at 8:15 PM
Crescendo

Crescendo

  • Dror Zahavi
  • 2019
  • Germany
  • 106 minutes
  • English and German with English subtitles

Closing Night · New York Premiere · Alice Brauner and Michael Zechbauer in Person

When a world-famous conductor (played by Toni Erdmann’s Peter Simonischek) accepts the job to help establish an Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra, he steps into a firestorm of conflict and mistrust. Can the two factions of young musicians come together in harmony?

  • January 28 3:15 PM
  • and again at 8:30 PM
Broken Barriers (Khavah)

Broken Barriers (Khavah)

  • Charles Davenport
  • 1919
  • USA
  • 76 minutes
  • Silent with English intertitles

World Premiere of the Restoration · Live Piano Accompaniment by Donald Sosin

This long-lost 1919 silent gem, based on the same Sholem Aleichem stories as Fiddler on the Roof, follows Tevye the milkman’s daughter Khavah, who falls in love with the gentile boy Fedka and must navigate the reverberations from this with her community and her family. Restored by the National Center for Jewish Film. With live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin.

  • January 19 at 12:30 PM
The Day After I’m Gone

The Day After I’m Gone

  • Nimrod Eldar
  • 2018
  • Israel
  • 95 minutes
  • Hebrew with English subtitles

New York Premiere

When the adolescent daughter of a prominent Tel Aviv veterinarian expresses a wish to end her life, father and child embark on a journey of mutual discovery in this tender debut feature.

  • January 20 at 9:15 PM
  • January 26 at 1:00 PM
 
Dolce Fine Giornata

Dolce Fine Giornata

  • Jacek Borcuch
  • 2018
  • Poland
  • 96 minutes
  • Italian, Polish, and French with English subtitles

New York Premiere

After a terrorist attack in Rome leads to anti-immigrant hysteria, a freethinking Jewish Nobel Prize–winner living in Tuscany boldly speaks out against the European perspective, and her comments wreak unexpected havoc.

  • January 27 at 12:45 PM
  • again at 6:00 PM
Four Winters: A Story of Jewish Partisan Resistance and Bravery in WWII

Four Winters: A Story of Jewish Partisan Resistance and Bravery in WWII

  • Julia Mintz
  • 2020
  • USA
  • 96 minutes

World Premiere · Julia Mintz in Person

This essential documentary tells the stories of the Jewish partisans who took up arms against Hitler’s war machine in World War II. The last surviving partisans tells their stories to director Julia Mintz who shines a spotlight on their bravery through interviews, archival footage, and historic war records.

  • January 16 at 6:00 PM
  • January 19 at 2:45 PM
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

  • Vittorio De Sica
  • 1970
  • Italy/Germany
  • 94 minutes
  • Italian with English subtitles

50th Anniversary Presentation · Introduction by André Aciman on January 26

Presented for its 50th anniversary, this classic, Oscar-winning Italian drama is set amid the rise of Fascism in the 1930s. The wealthy, intellectual Finzi-Contini family’s estate serves as a gathering place for the local Jewish community that tries to remain sheltered from the country’s growing anti-Semitism.

  • January 26 at 3:15 PM
  • January 27 at 8:30 PM
 
God of the Piano

God of the Piano

  • Itay Tal
  • 2018
  • Israel
  • 79 minutes
  • Hebrew with English subtitles

New York Premiere

A concert pianist from a respected musical family with the dream of raising a musical prodigy is devastated when her son is born deaf. When she doubles down on her expectations for him, her obsession threatens to crush her child.

  • January 22 at 3:30 PM
  • January 25 at 7:00 PM
An Impossible Love

An Impossible Love

  • Catherine Corsini
  • 2018
  • France/Belgium
  • 130 minutes
  • French with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

A young office clerk meets a charismatic man from a bourgeois family, and amid their whirlwind romance a daughter is born. Over the next 50 years, mother and daughter attempt to preserve their love, despite an absent and abusive father.

  • January 25 at 9:00 PM
  • January 27 at 3:15 PM
Incitement

Incitement

  • Yaron Zilberman
  • 2019
  • Israel
  • 122 minutes
  • Hebrew with English subtitles

New York Premiere · Yaron Zilberman and Tamar Sela in Person

This gripping historical drama, Israel’s submission for the 2020 Academy Awards, follows the radicalization of Israeli ultranationalist Yigal Amir in the year leading up to his assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

  • January 19 at 5:30 PM
  • January 20 at 12:30 PM
An Irrepressible Woman

An Irrepressible Woman

  • Laurent Heynemann
  • 2019
  • France
  • 103 minutes
  • French with English subtitles

New York Premiere

The year is 1940, and the French-Jewish socialist reformer Prime Minister Leon Blum has been imprisoned at Buchenwald. This touching drama tells the story of Jeanne Reichenbach, who has loved Blum since they were teenagers and risks everything to reunite with him in prison.

  • January 16 at 3:30 PM
  • January 18 at 9:15 PM
I Was Not Born a Mistake

I Was Not Born a Mistake

  • Rachel Rusinek, Eyal Ben Moshe
  • 2019
  • Israel
  • 52 minutes
  • English and Hebrew with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere · Eyal Ben Moshe & Rachel Rusinek in Person

This beautiful documentary tells the story of Yiscah Smith, who was living as an ultra-orthodox married man with six children and deep ties in the Hasidic community before abruptly leaving Israel. Twenty years later, Smith returned—as a woman. Screens with Butterflies in Berlin: Diary of a Soul Split in Two.

  • January 21 at 3:30 PM
  • again at 8:30 PM
Leona

Leona

  • Isaac Cherem
  • 2018
  • Mexico
  • 95 minutes
  • Spanish with English subtitles

New York City Premiere · Isaac Cherem in Person

A young Jewish woman in Mexico City struggles to do the right thing as she navigates a forbidden love in this heartfelt, dramatic, and contemporary take on a timeless love story.

  • January 15 at 3:15 PM
  • January 18 at 7:00 PM
Ma’abarot: The Israeli Transit Camps

Ma’abarot: The Israeli Transit Camps

  • Dina Zvi Riklis
  • 2019
  • Israel
  • 84 minutes
  • Hebrew with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere · Dina Zvi Riklis and Arik Bernstein in Person

The Israeli transit camps of 1948-1952 were built to accommodate the surge of immigrants following World War II. This documentary explores the controversial initiative, in which over 300,000 immigrants lived in tents, tin huts, and contributed to the divide between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews in Israel.

  • January 26 at 5:30 PM
Marceline. A Woman. A Century

Marceline. A Woman. A Century

  • Cordelia Dvorak
  • 2018
  • France/Netherlands
  • 76 minutes
  • French with English subtitles

New York Premiere

The effervescent and brilliant French director, author, producer, and actress Marceline Loridan-Ivens dazzles in this documentary portrait, which dives into her life as a radical filmmaker, Holocaust survivor, and loving partner.

  • January 22 at 6:00 PM
Mrs. G

Mrs. G

  • Dalit Kimor
  • 2019
  • Israel
  • 55 minutes
  • English, Hebrew, and Hungarian with English subtitles

New York Premiere · Dalit Kimor in Person

The Gottex swimwear empire was founded by legendary designer, Holocaust survivor, and larger-than-life character Lea Gottlieb. Her unyielding vision and complex relationships with her daughters are on display in this inspiring documentary. Screening with Gurit Kadman.

  • January 16 at 1:00 PM
  • January 20 at 6:45 PM
My Polish Honeymoon

My Polish Honeymoon

  • Elise Otzenberger
  • 2019
  • France
  • 88 minutes
  • French with English subtitles

New York Premiere · Elise Otzenberger in Person

When two French newlyweds take their honeymoon in Poland, the home of their Jewish grandparents, excitement about their families’ histories gives way to anxiety and culture clash in this dark romantic comedy.

  • January 21 at 1:00 PM
  • again at 6:00 PM
Picture of His Life

Picture of His Life

  • Yonatan Nir, Dani Menkin
  • 2019
  • USA/Israel/Canada
  • 71 minutes
  • English, Hebrew, and Inuit with English subtitles

New York Premiere · Dani Menkin, Amos Nachoum, and Nancy Spielberg in Person on January 15

Yom Kippur War veteran Amos Nachoum is one of the greatest underwater photographers of all time, but he has struggled to safely photograph one beautiful predator: the polar bear. Picture of His Life is the breathtaking portrayal of Nachoum’s search for the formidable bear and, with it, some semblance of inner peace.

  • January 15 at 1:00 PM
  • January 19 at 8:30 PM
The State Against Mandela and the Others

The State Against Mandela and the Others

  • Nicolas Champeaux, Gilles Porte
  • 2018
  • France
  • 106 minutes

New York Premiere

This synthesis of archival footage, animation, and interviews chronicles the 1964 Rivonia Trial in apartheid South Africa, which led to Nelson Mandela and his nine other black and Jewish co-defendants being sentenced to life imprisonment. There were no cameras in court, but this rousing documentary puts 256 hours of newly discovered audio to brilliant use.

  • January 28 at 1:00 PM
  • again at 6:15 PM
They Ain’t Ready for Me

They Ain’t Ready for Me

  • Brad Rothschild
  • 2019
  • USA
  • 89 minutes

World Premiere · Brad Rothschild and Tamar Manasseh in Person

This moving and timely documentary tells the story of Tamar Manasseh, the African-American rabbinical student who is combating gun violence on the South Side of Chicago with magnetic, self-assured energy through her organization MASK, or Mothers Against Senseless Killing

  • January 23 at 1:00 PM
  • again at 6:30 PM
Those Who Remained

Those Who Remained

  • Barnabas Toth
  • 2019
  • Hungary
  • 83 minutes
  • Hungarian with English subtitles

New York Premiere

The 42-year-old Aldo lives a solitary life in Budapest in the years following his imprisonment and the loss of his wife and child during the Holocaust. When he meets 16-year-old Klara, whose family was also murdered by the Nazis, they form a father-daughter connection that helps them both heal. Screening with Life Is All There Is.

  • January 23 at 3:30 PM
  • again at 9:00 PM
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

  • Caroline Link
  • 2019
  • Germany/Switzerland
  • 120 minutes
  • German with English subtitles

New York Premiere

This stunning drama, based on the best-selling novel by Judith Kerr, tells the story of a 9-year-old girl and her family’s jarring dislocation, experienced by so many German Jews who fled the country before the war.

  • January 20 at 3:45 PM
Shorts by Women

Shorts by Women

  • 2018-2019
  • 66 minutes

Danielle Durchslag and Pearl Gluck in Person

These five compelling shorts directed by women offer bold, incisive, and darkly funny looks at contemporary Jewish femininity.

  • January 26 at 8:00 PM
Master Class with Yaron Zilberman

Master Class with Yaron Zilberman

  • 60 minutes

Free and open to the public · Presented by HBO

Join Yaron Zilberman, writer and director of NYJFF selection Incitement, for a master class on screenwriting and directing. In addition to Incitement, Israel’s submission for the 2020 Academy Awards, Zilberman is the award-winning writer-director-producer of A Late Quartet and Watermarks.

  • January 20 at 3:30 PM

The festival is sponsored jointly by The Jewish Museum and Lincoln Center.

Ticket prices are the same as in 2019:

Tickets are $15 general admission, and $12 for seniors and students.

See the full daily schedule and film trailers here.

As a journalist, last year’s festival featured a personal favorite of mine,a biography of the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer.  I wish it were being shown again this year, since the role of the media in a fake news universe remains an important subject for all of us, especially in a presidential election year.

Pulitzer’s World: The Role of the Media in a Fake News Universe

Pulitzer’s World: The Role of the Media in a Fake News Universe

Presented in conjunction with the NYJFF Main Slate selection Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People, join Jami Floyd, host of “All Things Considered” on WNYC; Adam Moss, editor-in-chief of New York magazine; filmmaker Oren Rudavsky; and Jodi Rudoren, Associate Managing Editor of The New York Times for a multifaceted conversation.


Evelyn Kanter TV appearancesEvelyn Kanter is a native New Yorker who has written for the NY Times, NY Daily News, NY Post, New York Magazine, and is a former on-air reporter for WCBS Newsradio 88 and WABC-TV Eyewitness News. 

Evelyn Kanter also is the author of several NYC and Hudson Valley guidebooks, including my latest, 100 Things to Do in NYC Before You Die.


 

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Posted by Evelyn Kanter on January 8, 2020 | Updated January 8, 2020 Filed Under: Arts & Culture · Best of NYC · Festivals · Film · Jewish New York Tagged With: Lincoln Center Film Society

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