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This December, as it has now for the past 20 years, the Washington Jewish Film Festival (WJFF) will bring together over 7,000 people to watch new and award-winning films that explore the great diversity and universality of the Jewish experience. These films bring to life stories, issues and ideas that open minds and change people's perspectives. The WJFF, one of the largest and most respected Jewish film festivals in North America, is dedicated to creating dialogues between audiences and filmmakers, actors, scholars and journalists - encounters that enrich the movie-going experience. WJFF screenings are held for 11 days in December at the Washington DCJCC and venues throughout the DC-metro area. Presented by the Washington DC Jewish Community Center's Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts. Co-sponsored by the Embassy of Israel and Washington Jewish Week.
Advance tickets for all screenings can be purchased ONLY online at wjff.org or boxofficetickets.com or by calling 800.494.8497. Tickets will go on sale November 19: general admission $10, students and seniors $9. Tickets will only be available at the AFI Silver Theatre on the day of the show.
Mid-Atlantic Premiere!
CAMERA OBSCURA
[La Cámara Oscura]
Grand Prize, Pays de Caux International Latin Film Festival 2009
Best Film, International Jewish Film Festival of Uruguay 2009
Honorable Mention, Leipzig Argentine Film Festival 2009
 At the end of the 19th century, an ugly duckling enters the world--and the New World--as a ship of immigrants docks in Buenos Aires. Shy and self-conscious, Gertrudis grows up in a colony of Argentinean Jews, keeping herself almost invisible, even hiding her face in photographs. After she is married off to an older, wealthy Jewish rancher, Gertrudis quietly raises a family until the arrival of a visionary French photographer jolts her into really seeing herself for the first time. A lyrical film with visual innovations, including original Surrealist-inspired photographs and films, hand-drawn color animation and film-within-a-film sequences drawn from the characters' imaginations. Co-sponsored by the Embassy of Argentina, Lilith Magazine and Women in Film and Video DC.
DIR/SCR María Victoria Menis; SCR Alejandro Fernández Murriay, based on a story by Angélica Gorodischer and Angelica Fischer. Argentina/France, 2008, color and b&w, 85 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Saturday, December 5, 7:00
DC Premiere!
CYCLES
[Les Murs Porteurs]
As the French title, literally "load-bearing walls," implies, the weight of life can threaten even the strongest foundations. Frida (Shulamit Adar) is an aging Holocaust survivor who increasingly confuses the past with the present. Facing middle age, her daughter (Miou-Miou) and son (Charles Berling) are losing their mother, while their own children slip away into adulthood. A stellar ensemble cast brings life to this engaging story of loss and the fragility of family and cultural heritage, as well as the foundations of tenacity and hope upon which every generation builds. Co-sponsored by the Embassy of France, the Embassy of Switzerland and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Presented in cooperation with The Generation After, Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Friends of Greater Washington.
DIR/SCR Cyril Gelblat; PROD Caroline Adrian, Christoph Hahnheiser, Antoine Rein. France, 2007, color, 92 min. In French with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Saturday, December 5, 9:30
DC Premiere!
WILL EISNER: PORTRAIT OF A SEQUENTIAL ARTIST
In person: Director Andrew D. Cooke
Will Eisner began drawing comics in the 1930s, just as the art form was exploding in popularity and cultural relevance. Eisner's creations, combining art, literature and film, were some of the most original of all, and led to a successful career in what he called "sequential art," the forerunner of today's graphic novels. His gritty crime fighter series, "The Spirit," incorporated film noir aspects with elements of the Jewish experience and the fight against anti-Semitism. This documentary captures Eisner's groundbreaking genius using his own artwork, imaginative visual techniques and interviews with novelists and luminaries from the world of comics and beyond.
DIR Andrew D. Cooke; PROD Jon B. Cooke. US, 2007, color, 98 min. In English. NOT RATED
Sunday, December 6, 12:15
East Coast Premiere!
BROKEN PROMISE
[Nedodrzany Slub]
Audience Award - Best Narrative Feature, Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival 2009
Special Jury Prize - Silver Dolphin, Festroia IFF 2009
Best Actor, Festroia IFF 2009
Based on the remarkable true story of Martin Friedmann, born in 1926 in Western Slovakia. On the eve of WWII, as his bar mitzvah approaches, young Martin's carefree life of soccer playing and boyish idleness in his small town is abruptly changed. He narrowly escapes deportation to a concentration camp partly thanks to his soccer skills and primarily thanks to luck and a string of unlikely coincidences. This inspirational film is a tribute to one young man's incredible inventiveness, determination and will to survive. Co-sponsored by the Embassy of Slovakia and the Embassy of the Czech Republic.
DIR Jirí Chumský; SCR Jan Novák, based on the autobiography of Martin Friedmann-Petrásek; PROD Iveta Cerna Ivanova. Slovakia/Czech Republic/US, 2009, color, 129 min. In Slovak and Russian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Sunday, December 6, 5:45
DC Premiere!
AJAMI
Five Ophir Awards including Best Picture, Israeli Film and Television Academy 2009
Camera D'Or - Special Mention, Cannes Film Festival 2009
Wolgin Award - Best Feature, Jerusalem Film Festival 2009
Set on the mean streets of Jaffa's Ajami neighborhood, this compelling crime drama reveals the complexities of life and relationships in a melting pot of cultures. Stories are intertwined: a sensitive young boy and his brother live in fear of clan retaliation; a naive young Palestinian refugee works to save his mother's life; an affluent Palestinian dreams of a future with his Jewish girlfriend; a Jewish policeman searches for his missing brother. Human values, not politics, dominate the lives of people who want the same things, but rarely are able to overcome conflicting views among Jews, Muslims and Christians. Co-sponsored by the Embassy of Israel.
DIR/SCR Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani; PROD Moshe Danon, Thanassis Karathanos. Germany/Israel, 2009, color, 120 min. In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Sunday, December 6, 8:15
DC Premiere!
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
[La Fille du RER]
Jeanne (Emilie Dequenne) lives in the suburbs of Paris with her mother Louise (Catherine Deneuve), and spends her days halfheartedly looking for work. When Louise finds a help wanted ad on the internet, she believes that fate has intervened, and moves to get her daughter a job with a famous attorney she knew in her youth. Jeanne's world and that of the Jewish attorney are light-years apart, but on a collision course due to an incredible lie she is about to tell--a lie that was at the heart of one of the most highly publicized and politicized news items in France in recent years. Co-sponsored by the Embassy of France and Alliance Francaise de Washington.
DIR/SCR André Téchiné; SCR Odile Barski, Jean-Marie Besset; PROD Saïd Ben Saïd. France, 2009, color, 105 min. In French with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Monday, December 7, 7:00
DC Premiere!
MARY AND MAX
Crystal Bear, Berlin International Film Festival 2009
Meet Mary Daisy Dinkle and Max Horowitz, two lonely souls reaching out for a friend in this quirky claymation tale. One day, Mary,a chubby young Australian girl with a crazy family, flips through a phone book and finds Max, an obese middle-aged New York Jew with Asperger's syndrome. The two become unlikely pen pals, sharing years of life's ups and downs. Fleshed out by the brilliant voice work of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette, the film is a poignant tale of two eccentrics struggling in their own worlds thousands of miles apart, but at peace in a special place in each other's lives. Co-sponsored by the Embassy of Australia.
DIR/SCR Adam Elliot; PROD Melanie Coombs. Australia, 2009, color, 80 min. In English. NOT RATED
Monday, December 7, 9:00
North American Premiere!
MARCEL REICH-RANICKI--AUTHOR OFHIMSELF
[Marcel Reich-Ranicki - Mein Leben]
In person: Director Dror Zahavi; Producer Katharina Trebitsch; Dr. Barbara Buhl, Head of Fiction, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Television; moderated by Marc Pachter, Cultural Historian and former Director of the National Portrait Gallery
Marcel Reich-Ranicki is arguably the most well-known, influential and controversial critic of German literature today. Yet far more riveting than much of the fiction he reviews is his own life story, rooted in the darkest hours of the 20th century. Based on Reich-Ranicki's autobiography, this film retraces his remarkable life from his childhood in Poland to captivity in the Warsaw Ghetto, his escape and hiding with his wife until the end of the war, joining and then cutting ties with the Polish Communist Party, and, finally, his departure for West Germany in the late 1950s. Through it all, he never loses his love for German literature, leading to his career as a literary critic that he has now passionately pursued for over 50 years. Co-sponsored by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and Goethe-Institut Washington.
DIR Dror Zahavi; SCR Michael Gutmann; PROD Katharina Trebitsch. Germany, 2009, color, 91 min. In German with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Wednesday, December 9, 7:00
East Coast Premiere!
JUMP!
In person: Producer Lilly Berger
Legendary photographer Philippe Halsman, who shot more covers of LIFE magazine than any other photographer, often captured the essence of celebrity personalities on film. His own personality, however, was defined by the tragic experiences. As re-told in the film, the young Halsman (Ben Silverstone) was on a hike with his father, Jewish dentist Morduch Halsman (Heinz Hoenig) in Austria in 1928. After a fall, his father dies. Halsman is put on trial for murder, defended by the Jewish lawyer Richard Pressburger (Patrick Swayze in one of his last roles). The trial causes an uproar all over Austria, and an increasingly anti-Semitic crowd judges the defendant. Using transcripts from the trial and newspaper accounts, the film tells the gripping story of one man's personal tragedy that foreshadowed events yet to come in Europe. Co-sponsored by the Embassy of Austria.
DIR/SCR Joshua Sinclair; SCR Ryan James; PROD Lilly Berger. Austria, 2007, color, 102 min. NOT RATED
Saturday, December 12, 7:30
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