The SJFF Lineup Asks Us to Look at Ourselves
This year's Seattle Jewish Film Festival explores what it means to be Jewish.
But First
»Check out my latest episode on Callin, with filmmaker Yoav Brill on his documentary, Apples and Oranges, about the kibbutz volunteer craze following the Six Day War.
»The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) approved a resolution to support BDS by 80 percent on Tuesday. It joins the American Anthropological Association, the American Studies Association, and the Modern Languages Association. Academic freedom, right?
»Madeleine Albright passed away at 84 on Wednesday. Albright discovered her Jewish roots as an adult and wrote one of the most powerful books about the Holocaust I’ve ever read, Prague Winter, about the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia and the lengths they went to to terrify and murder civilians. I had the honor of interviewing Madam Secretary for the JT News back in 2013.
»Four Israelis were killed in Beer Sheva on Tuesday when an assailant ran down a cyclist then stabbed three people outside a mall. He was stopped when a bus driver shot him. The victims are Doris Yahbas, Laura Yitzhak, Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, and Menahen Yehezkel. This was the third stabbing attack in a week’s time in Israel. Baruch Dayan HaEmet.
»Do you need a reason to eat bagels?
BTW, check out my review of Muriel’s for the South Seattle Emerald!
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival Lineup Asks Us to Look at Ourselves
The Seattle Jewish Film Festival opened last night. I immediately noticed a strong theme in the film lineup: diversity of Jewish experience. The festival has films about Kurdish Jews, Spanish Jews in Inquisition times, Ugandan children raised in Israel, Israeli capers, aging, and documentaries about Rome’s Jewish ghetto and Israel’s kibbutzim. The theme “See and Be Seen/See Yourself and Others on Screen” didn’t fully make sense until I saw the lineup. This festival is in many ways about looking in and asking, what does it mean to be Jewish?
To discuss this theme and the role of Jewish cinema in general, I interviewed local film educator and Walla Walla Movie Crush shorts film festival Warren Etheredge, who will be curating a series of shorts at SJFF called “When We See Ourselves.”
This year the festival is a hybrid of in-person and virtual screenings. Take advantage of the virtual option, which allows for some films to be screened for 10 days, allowing you to watch them at your convenience.
“A good short film is like good haiku.”
Warren Etheredge of short films and Jewish cinema.
Why don't we just start with the films themselves and what you like about them?
Ooh, that's a big question. I love short films. I watch about 2,000 a year. I last calculation I'm closing in on 40,000 shorts that I've watched. It's probably more shorts than one should watch. I start with that only because I love short films in part, because if you make a short film, you do it for the love. It's not a commercial venture, so you still make a really have to be committed the stories. The other thing I love about shorts is that you can create a different experience for an audience than you can with a feature, because you have the capacity, rather than taking one movie, which may address one issue or look at one facet of life, you can actually take an issue or an idea and explore it from multiple directions.
So what does that look like in terms of these films?
I think the film that opens the package is one of the strongest shorts that I’ve watched in a long time, Masel Tov Cocktail. Cinematically, it's just dynamic, it's popping, it has style, lots of style. Content wise it's intriguing, because it's the story of this Russian Jew who's moved to Germany, and the anti-Semitism he faces in school and how he responds to it. And it really plays with some of our notions of whether or not we are victims by allowing the character to directly address the audience through the camera. He does a lot of things and says a lot of things that are unexpected and at times uncomfortable, but almost always exhilarating and somehow empowering.
That's a lot right there. Russia, Germany, Jews. Are any of the films a complement to that, a little lighter comic look at ourselves?
Yeah, absolutely. Golden Gym is an animated piece and sort of looks at our self-perceptions of our vitality. It's light, it's vibrant, it's golden in many ways. So it both pokes fun at us as we age and yet also celebrates the little triumphs we have.
Given your experience with films and Jewish film, are you noticing any changes in themes or how people are dealing with issues of Jewish identity?
That's a fantastic question. Yeah, I think so. There was a time where Jewish culture, whether we're talking about spiritually or just culturally, it can feel a little exclusive. And that goes two directions. It can feel sort of exclusive and, sort of shunning outsiders. And it can also feel sometimes like we don't get outside our bubble as much as we could or should. I think some of this has been reflected in a movement in filmmaking. They felt very insular for a long time, and now I feel like there's more storytelling, which is seeing Jews more integrated into the world beyond the community, and not just as Holocaust survivors or victims of anti-Semitism, but actually weaving into society. And then it does change the storytelling.
There are movies with overt Jewish themes, and movies that aren’t explicitly Jewish but are still “so Jewish.” I have always wanted to see films that deal more with American Jewish reality in a more authentic way. So I'm curious what you think makes a Jewish movie. And if we could produce a bunch of films and fund them, what would you like to see?
You could say the same thing about any sort of black cinema in the mainstream. Certainly, there are stories, but it feels like a redundant set of stories. I don't mean that just meant simply. I just mean that as an issue of what's getting funded and what's getting out there and possibly what the creators feel is the necessity in the moment, there are tons of black stories that are untold. There are tons of Jewish stories that are untold. There are tons of LGBTQ stories that aren't told, because there's been such a burden to address the big issues that we miss the drama of the mundane, of the everyday. I do think it's out there, but it's not out there as much as it should be.
What, in your opinion, makes a good short film?
There are a lot of different types of good short films. But to me, the best ones have a specificity, not only of content, but of artistic approach that treats these little unforgettable gems. Sometimes the way I explain it to students is that often people say, Oh, that book made a terrible movie. And of course it did, because movies are closer to being short stories than they are novels. In turn, short films in my mind are closer to being haikus. A good short film is like good haiku. When you see it, like reading a haiku, something speaks directly to your heart.
Is there anything else you feel is really important to talk about in the context of seeing ourselves on film?
Pardon a soap-boxy moment. I think we live in a time where it’s tempting and almost reflexive to point fingers. And it seems like there's no better time to actually put our hands down and look in the mirror. Not to find fault In ourselves, but to find our shared humanity with those we consider other.
Community Announcements
Check out the Seattle Jewish community calendar and the virtual calendar.
This week’s parasha is Shemini.
Candlelighting in Seattle is at 7:11 p.m.
Shoutouts!
Kol Hakavod to Karen Treiger and all who helped arrange and read for the Women's Megillah Reading this year. Todah rabah! —Linda Clifton
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