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| Diversity at UK Jewish film festival
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'Forever Yours'
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The UK’s ninth Jewish film festival kicks off in London next week, with the aim of “celebrating diversity through film.”
Screening more than 400 films, it tackles subjects as diverse as lesbianism in the Orthodox Jewish community and a German-Jewish comedy which was highly praised at the German Oscars.
But with a proliferation of Jewish directors and actors across the world, many of whom are already high profile, some might question the need for this dedicated celebration.
 Our festival enables a huge diversity to be seen by the public, from films about Orthodox Jewish lesbians and Israeli rappers, to feature films starring some of Hollywood’s biggest names
Judy Ironside, festival director | Judy Ironside, festival director, believes the event remains relevant today, and has high hopes for its future.
“The UK Jewish Film Festival enables all aspects of Judaism to be celebrated and enjoyed by a wider audience,” she explained.
“Yes, there are lots of Jewish actors and directors in Hollywood whose films feature aspects of Judaism.
“But, a ’Jewish film’ is one which has a Jewish theme or a theme which is relevant to Jewish history or cultural experience.
“Our festival enables a huge diversity of Jewish film to be seen by the public, from short films, films about Orthodox Jewish lesbians [‘Keep Not Silent’], and Israeli rappers, to feature films starring some of Hollywood’s biggest names.”
Small beginnings
The festival was born in Brighton in 1997 out of a feeling that there was a gap in the market, which could be filled by a Jewish festival of films from around the world.
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When Do We Eat?
Dir. Slavador Litvak | An independent organisation and a registered charity relying solely on private funding to keep it going, it has fostered links with other Jewish film festivals around the world, such as the those in Jerusalem, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Australia and Berlin.
“There are many highly reputable Jewish film festivals around the world,” Ironside commented.
“One of the biggest is the San Francisco festival which has been running for 26 years and had over 30,000 attendees in 2005.
“The Berlin Film festival features a large number of films with Jewish themes and is a popular meeting place for Jewish Festival directors.”
Discussion and debate
Ironside’s personal favourite from the upcoming festival will be the premiere of Jes Benstock’s film, ’Holocaust Tourism: Whatever happened to Never Again’, which won the festival’s first ever short film competition in 2004.
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Live and Become
Dir. Radu Mihaileanu | Other highlights include ‘Live and Become’, the joint Israeli/French production which will show on the festival’s gala night, ‘On The Objection Front’, a documentary following the story of Israeli army refuseniks, ‘The First Time I Was Twenty’ from the French director Lorraine Levy and the retrospective of short films from the Sam Spiegel School of Film and Television in Jerusalem.
Also planned are panel discussions and Q&A sessions with directors and filmmakers.
As for upcoming talent, Ironside has her money on Josh Apignanesi’s first film, ’Song of Songs’. Telling the story of forbidden love between a brother and sister, she says it is a “sign of impressive things to come.”
Max Minghella, son of director Anthony Minghella, who will be making his acting debut in ‘The Bee Season’ with Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche is another star in the making, as is director Jes Benstock.
“The UK Jewish Film Festival is relatively young, this is its ninth year, but it is growing incredibly fast,” Ironside said.
“It is the only Jewish film festival which has attempted to go ’nationwide’ in an attempt to reach as many communities as possible.”
The UK Jewish Film festival runs from Saturday, 5 November to Thursday, 10 November at the Screen on the Hill, in London’s Belsize Park, before heading to selected cinemas across the capital, including The Tricycle in Kilburn, The Gate in Notting Hill and the Curzon Mayfair.
It will tour until the end of March 2006 in Brighton, Liverpool, Southampton, Manchester, Leeds, Belfast, Glasgow and Cardiff.
For full festival listings, visit www.ukjewishfilmfestival.org.uk
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