11th Annual Film Festival
Welcome to the 11th Annual Beth Tzedec Jewish Film Festival! We have an exciting line-up of films and special guests in store for you, as we enter our second decade of bringing the community together to explore and celebrate the richness and diversity of our Jewish world through the magical lens of cinema. We are extremely pleased to announce that our annual Tikkun Olam Screening, which this year features the inspiring documentary Nicky’s Family, has been endowed in perpetuity through a generous donation from the Gurevitch family in honor of Dr. Ralph Gurevitch on the occasion of his 75th birthday, and will now be called “The Dr. Ralph Gurevitch Tikkun Olam Screening”. I would like express our sincere gratitude to the Gurevitch family for their generosity and support of the festival. Among our special guests this year, we are delighted to welcome Karen Tal, the subject of our Opening Night film, the Oscar-winning Strangers No More, who is one of Israel’s most celebrated educators, and was the 2011 recipient of the prestigious Charles Bronfman Prize for her humanitarian achievements; Joseph Dorman, the writer/director/producer of Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness; Gloria Greenfield, producer/director of Unmasked: Judeophobia; Amir Bar Shalom, the military correspondent for the Israel Broadcast Authority’s Channel One news, who co-directed the film Slightly, Seriously, Critically Injured, and will be joined by co-director Avital Ben-Moshe. Another highlight of this year’s festival will be a live musical performance following the screening of Dreamcoat: A Documentary, by four of the individuals featured in the film, under the direction of Cantor Daniel Benlolo of Ottowa’s Tamir Foundation. They will be joined by the Akiva Academy and Calgary Jewish Academy choirs. We are delighted to have the Council for Jewish Education (CJEd)’s Task Force on Inclusion as co-sponsors of this event. Another special musical event will be a concert by Zeev Berger and the Schmoozers , who will be releasing their new CD at the festival. And on the subject of music, be sure not to miss the films Zubin and I, Iraq ‘N Roll, and The Concert. We are pleased to have Calgary Jewish Federation join us as co-sponsors of a free screening of the film Heart of Auschwitz, as part of our community-wide Kristallnacht commemoration. And we feel honored by The Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta’s choice of our film festival, once again, as the venue for their Jay Joffe Memorial Program. And we're delighted to have worked with Jewish Family Service Calgary, who will be presenting a panel discussion on At-Risk Youth following the film Intimate Grammar. In addition to the artwork of Lilly Rosenberg, Bezalel, a group of local Jewish artists, will also have their art on display throughout the festival. And the JCC’s Jewish Book Fair will also be there with a selection of books. As always, we would like to express our deepest thanks to all of our sponsors, without whom this festival would not be possible. It is their generosity, community-mindedness and commitment to Jewish culture that enables us to offer this event to the community. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my hard-working committee for all of the time and effort that they have put into planning this year’s festival. We hope you’ll enjoy and be enriched by our 2011 Jewish Film Festival! Harvey Cyngiser |
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KAREN TAL, 