Directed by Boris Sandler (New York)
30 minutes, Yiddish with English subtitles
“Glimpses of Yiddish Czernowitz” is a visual tale of the all but lost Jewish community of Czernowitz (Ukraine). Short but abundant in historic and contemporary imagery, this filmic essay expresses critical historical moments of Jewish life in Czernowitz and in the region of Bukovina, from the landmark 1908 Jewish language conference to the torment of the Transnistrian deportation and subsequent decline of Jewish life in the post War period. Featuring contemporary interviews alongside original archival images, the film presents Czernowitz through native personalities such as fabulist and pedagogue Eliezer Steinbarg, beloved actress Sidi Tal, drama critic Moyshe Loyev, writer Josef Burg, poet Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, and linguist Professor Wolf Moskovich.
In 2010, Glimpses of Yiddish Czernowitz (2010) appeared in
Film - Sunday, September 5th at 9:00pm in the Studio Theatre
Directed by Radu Gabrea (Romania)
60 minutes, English, Yiddish, and Romanian with subtitles
“Goldfaden's Legacy” is a musical romp celebrating the songs, stars and stories of Yiddish Theatre. From the wine cellars of Romania to Tin Pan Alley and the Broadway stage, the film pays tribute to the music of Yiddish Theatre, its role in the Jewish-American experience and its amazing influence on American popular culture. Like the Yiddish Theatre it celebrates, the film is spirited, colorful, vibrant and fun! Our guide on this musical journey is Zalmen Mlotek, the Artistic Director of The Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre, the oldest venue for Yiddish theatre in the world, founded in 1915. Mlotek, a dynamic performer and world renowned expert on Yiddish folk and theatre music, and film director Gabrea weave segments of Mlotek's one-man show with archival photos, film clips, recordings and interviews.
In 2010, Goldfaden's Legacy (2004) appeared in
Film - Sunday, September 5th at 9:30pm in the Studio Theatre
Various directors, 60 minutes
Founded in 2006, the David A. Stein Memorial Filmmaking Scholarship program has given emerging filmmakers an annual opportunity to creatively explore the KlezKanada Festival in Lantier, Quebec through the camera’s eye. Immersed in KlezKanada’s weeklong camp environment under the mentorship of veteran documentary filmmaker Garry Beitel, participating filmmakers have honed their documentary skills through workshops and filmmaking projects—using performances and interactions with KlezKanada participants as their source material. The first three years of the program have produced a wide array of interesting works, including filmic portrayals of such KlezKanada rituals as the “backwards march”, and loving portraits of Jewish music icons like Elaine Hoffman-Watts, Danny Rubinstein, Irving Fields and German Goldenshteyn.
In 2010, KlezKanada Film Scholarship Retrospective appeared in
Directed by Slawomir Grunberg (Poland)
30 minutes, English with Polish subtitles
Mayer Kirshenblatt left his hometown of Opatow, Poland, in 1934 at the age of seventeen and emigrated to Toronto. In 1990, at the urging of his daughter and his wife, he took up painting and completed more than 300 paintings before his passing in late 2009. Kirshenblatt's vivid tableaux provide an insight into the shtetl world he left behind; a world that no longer exists. He painted what he remembered: the streets, the buildings and the people of his hometown. This film follows Kirshenblatt on a journey back to Opatow and shows off the vibrant colours and bold canvases he created. It also shows Kirshenblatt in his adopted hometown of Toronto and relates the story of his life over many decades.
In 2010, Paint What you Remember (2009) appeared in
Film - Sunday, September 5th at 7:00pm in the Studio Theatre
Directed by David Kaufman (Toronto)
120 minutes
Klezmer supergroup Brave Old World's haunting musical program of songs from the Lodz Ghetto is the framework on which producer/director David Kaufman has created his definitive new documentary about the Lodz Ghetto, once the second largest ghetto in Poland. Combining chilling narrative, evocative music, and unforgettable photographs, this is the first major film to feature extensive interviews with survivors of the Holocaust from Lodz. The film focuses on the lives of two historical figures: the beloved and popular street-singer, Yankele Herszkowicz, whose remarkable songs lifted the spirits of the Jews of the ghetto when their lives were full of despair, and whose own tragic life mirrored the fate of Polish Jewry, and the despotic, Nazi-appointed Jewish leader of the ghetto, Chaim Rumkowski. The documentary also explores in detail daily life in the Lodz Ghetto and the uplifting role that music and culture played for ghetto dwellers who faced the constant presence of terror and death. Director David Kaufman's history of the Lodz Ghetto is an extraordinary Holocaust narrative.
In 2010, Song of the Lodz Ghetto (2010) appeared in
Directed by Garry Beitel (Montreal)
90 minutes
Ashkenaz audiences are no doubt familiar with the brilliant boundary-breaking work of Montreal's Yiddish hip-hop madman Josh Dolgin—aka Socalled. He's graced Ashkenaz stages many times (most recently with the klezmer-funk supergroup Abraham Inc.), but now you can see him up close and more personal than ever before in this National Film Board-produced, feature documentary. Directed by Garry Beitel, the film offers a kaleidoscopic portrait composed of 18 entertaining cinematic vignettes capturing magical moments of musical creation, and globetrotting exploits from Montreal to Paris, Ukraine to New York. Featuring musicians Katie Moore, David Krakauer, Fred Wesley, Irving Fields, C-Rayz Walz, Matt Haimovitz, Arkady Gendler, Benjamin Steiger Levine, D-Shade, Gonzales and many others.
In 2010, The Socalled Movie appeared in
Film - Monday, September 6th at 6:30pm in the Studio Theatre
