The Weinstein JCC invites you to the movies! The 15th Annual Israeli Film Festival, presented by The Horwitz Family is coming soon!
A big thanks goes to the film festival committee chaired by Leslie and David Greenberg and includes David Buchsbaum and Leslie McManus, Lisa and Andy Fratkin, Jill and Ben Kutner, Risa and Jay Levine, Lea and Michael Schuldiner and Eileen Schulman. Here are some previews with more films to be announced in mid-December.
Check the website, www.weinsteinjcc.org, for updates.
Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen
Thursday, Jan. 19 at 6 p.m.
Weinstein JCC
The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) called “the most powerful movie musical ever made.”
Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, FIDDLER’S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison’s quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic.
The film explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepened Jewison as an artist and revived his soul.
Tickets include a pre-show dinner and cocktail reception with live music from Fiddler to set the tone for the evening’s film-viewing experience. Reception at 6 p.m. and film at 7 p.m.
The Levy’s of Monticello
Sunday, Jan. 22 at 2 p.m.
Virginia Museum of History and Culture
When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind a mountain of personal debt, which forced his heirs to sell his beloved Monticello home and all its possessions. The Levys of Monticello is a documentary film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, who owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants.
The remarkable story of the Levy family also intersects with the rise of antisemitism that runs throughout the course of American history. Talkback to follow with University of Virginia professor, Phyllis Leffler.
Valiant Hearts
Sunday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m.
At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Valiant Hearts tells the true story of exceptional bravery and survival against all odds. The story recounts the odyssey of six Jewish children in August 1942 who are forced to take refuge where no one will ever think to look for them: amidst the Louvre Museum artworks hidden in the Château de Chambord.
Between fear, outbursts of laughter, and unexpected encounters, the children learn about independence and discover solidarity and friendship in the midst of tumultuous circumstances. The character played by French actress, Camille Cottin, was inspired by Rose Valand, a conservator at Paris’s Jeu de Paume Museum and a member of the resistance who, for the full duration of the war, spied and documented artwork thefts carried out by Nazi officers. Valiant Hearts is a compelling film the whole family can enjoy as it brings history alive for the next generation.
