Jewish Film Series

JOIN US for Columbia Jewish Congregation’s (CJC) 2011 - Nineteenth Season of Movies

TICKET SALES WILL BEGIN AND DOORS WILL OPEN AT 7:30

Four evenings of thought-provoking, varied, entertaining films, including refreshments & optional discussion group

Showings: Saturdays, 8:00 PM, Rm. 200, The Meeting House in Oakland Mills, Columbia, MD
$30 for 4-film series, $24 for 3-film series, $17 for 2-film series, $9.00 for single ticket

• Choice of films is yours and you need not choose in advance.
• If any movie is canceled because of snow, that movie will be shown at the end of the season – May or early June. Date will be announced later if it is needed.
• Provided as a Service to All in the Community
• FYI: Each of the films being presented has been shown, or will be shown, at multiple Jewish film festivals around the country.
• Note: All films are subject to change based upon availability.

January 22, 2011 A Matter of Size–2009 - Israel - Hebrew and Japanese with English subtitles - 90 min. Winner of 9 International Film Awards plus 10 nominations (e.g. Israel Film Academy, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Washington Jewish Film Festival). "Herzl (Itzik Cohen) is tired of being fat. But he's even more tired of dieting . . . he has devised his own plan: He's becoming a sumo wrestler. Herzl persuades his three best friends to quit the diet club - 'They are selling us self-hate here' - and join his fledgling team. Their coach is Kitano, a former professional sumo referee and owner of the Japanese restaurant where Herzl washes dishes for a living. Kitano puts them through difficult workouts and delicious-looking meals as they train for a tournament in Japan. Herzl's approach might not be great for one's cholesterol or blood pressure, but it brings up an intriguing idea . . . Maybe it would be better to be fat and happy than thin and miserable." (The Washington Post)

February 12, 2011 Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg– 2005 - USA - English - 92 min. New York Times' critics pick. Winner of 2005 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Award. "In this film, award-winning director Aviva Kempner once again educates and entertains with unexpected tidbits and just plain good old-fashioned filmmaking. 'Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg' explores the life of the almost forgotten Gertrude Berg, who was not only a comedian and performer but a very savvy businesswoman. Among other things, Berg (born Tillie Edelstein in New York in 1898), created, wrote and produced the first television sitcom in 1949, 'The Goldbergs,' starring herself as the upwardly mobile Jewish housewife and yoo-hooer Molly Goldberg. Berg received the first Best Actress Emmy, and paved the way for women in the entertainment industry. The film includes interviews with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, actor Ed Asner and NPR correspondent Susan Stamberg, among others." (San Francisco Chronicle and Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival Guide)

March 12, 2011 Ajami–- 2009 - Israel - Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles - 120 min. Oscar nomination for best foreign film and winner of many awards including Israel Film Academy, Boulder and Ghent International Film Festivals. " Ajami takes its name from a rough neighborhood in Jaffa, a mostly Arab city just south of Tel Aviv. This particular urban conflict zone bears a definite kinship to mean streets we know very well in movies and television. Crime is endemic, bonds of family and friendship can be both sustaining and fatal, and the urge to escape is no match for the gravitational pull of the place itself. The population includes innocent imperiled children, restless young guys in love with beautiful, unattainable women, honorable thieves, dirty cops, and powerful men who dwell on both sides of the law. How exactly these people will cross paths with a policeman named Dondo is one of the mysteries that holds us in a state of dread through much of the movie. But though it is partly an underworld crime story, Ajami uses the genre as a way of exploring the conditions in which its characters live as well as their psychological complexities." (New York Times)

April 16, 2011 A Late Marriage–Marriage - 2001 - Israel - Judaeo-Georgian language and Hebrew with English subtitles - 102 min. Winner of 18 awards and 7 nominations (e.g. Israel Film Academy, Bratislava and Thessalonika International Film Festivals). "Set within the Georgian emigre community of Tel Aviv, [this movie offers] a look at what happens when human beings get stuck between the rock of true love and the hard place of family tradition. ..Thirty-one year old Zaza, son of Georgian immigrants, humors his parents as they expound on the need for him to marry a young virgin and suffers as they drag him from one 'suitable' girl [after] another. But he is uninterested, as he is in love with Judith, a beautiful 34-year-old Moroccan divorcee and mother of a six year old . . . Forced to choose between his familial obligations and his body-and-soul love for Judith, Zaza doesn't know where to turn." (Rotten Tomatoes)