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December 5-15, 2002
Echoes of the Past - A Shorts Program
In
cooperation with the British Embassy, the Canadian Embassy,
the Embassy of France, The Alliance Fran�aise de Washington,
DC, the Embassy of Israel, the Embassy of Ukraine, Washington
Jewish Women�s Project, and Yiddish of Greater Washington
Saturday, December, 7th, 5:45pm
This
is not necessarily the order in which films will be presented
Dust
Ukraine/UK, 2001, 35mm
29 minutes
Yiddish with English Subtitles
Director: Michale Boganim
Yiddish Odessa, once a flourishing center of Eastern European Jewish culture has all but faded into the sands of time and history.
Bathed in whispered shadow and liquid light, Michale Boganim's
haunting Dust resurrects this storied past by introducing
us to the three remaining Jews of this ancient community.
In a ramshackle room in one of the poorest quarters of the
city, lifelong friends Esther, Valery and Tanya recall moments
of joy and pain, war and peace. Singing traditional Yiddish
songs, they transform the room into a salon where old souls
come to life once more. Eccentric, funny and tragic, the
story of their lives is in many ways the story of the city,
now a faded relic of its former self.
with
 Mémoires Incertaines
France, 2002, 35mm
37 minutes
French with English Subtitles
Director: Michale Boganim
Assassin.
Croupier. War hero. British spy. Mossad agent. The late
Henry Hall, it seems, may have had one, many or none of
these identities. In Mémoires Incertaines,
director Michale Boganim endeavors to learn the truth about
this man she knew only as her uncle. Shot in velvety black
and white, the film unfolds like a dreamy detective story
as Boganim sifts through old books and letters, and interviews
family and friends.
with
Silent Song
Canada, 2002, Video
6 minutes
English
Director: Elida Schogt
also
screening Thursday, December
12th, 7:00pm
In the
pandemonium of the liberation of Dachau, an American army
cameraman filmed a young boy playing the accordion. This
haunting fragment continues Elida Schogt's exploration of
family history and Holocaust memory first set forth in Zyklon
Portrait (WJFF 2000) and The Walnut Tree (WJFF
2001).
with
 Madonna
with Child, XX Century Latvia,
2001, Video
10 minutes
English Subtitles
Director: Herz Frank
also
screening Thursday, December
12th, 7:00pm
Filmed
in the forests outside the Latvian capital of Riga, where
thousands of Jews were executed between 1941 and 1944, this
meditative short film focuses on the meaning of a monument
erected to memorialize those who perished.
Strange Fruit
USA, 2002, Video
57 minutes
English
Director: Joel Katz
Saturday,
December 7th, 7:30pm
"Southern
trees bear a strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood
at the root. Black body swinging in the southern breeze.
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees." This is the
haunting first stanza of the song "Strange Fruit," which
became one of the most important protest songs of the 20th
century. Most famously sung by Billie Holiday in 1930, the
song gives a bitter description of a lynching in the Southern
U.S. While many people mistakenly assumed that "Strange
Fruit" was written by Holiday herself, the words and music
were actually written by Abel Meeropol, a Jew of Russian
origin and New York City public school teacher, who published
under the name "Lewis Allan." Meeropol is also known for
having adopted the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,
who were executed for allegedly passing atomic secrets to
the Soviets in the 1950s. Joel Katz's Strange Fruit
T is an important anecdote in the history of Black/Jewish
relations, music history, and leftist politics.
This
screening is part of the on-going Windows and Mirrors series
co-sponsored by the DCJCC and the African American Resource
Center at Howard University. Windows and Mirrors celebrates
shared traditions between the African American and Jewish
Communities.
Welcoming
Remarks: E. Ethelbert Miller, former co-chair, The
Humanities Council of Washington DC and Director of the
African American Resource Center at Howard University
Special
Guest: Joel Katz, Director
with
 The
House I Live In USA,
1945, 16mm
10 minutes
English
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Another
song by Abel Meeropol, was an appeal for religious and racial
tolerance. Written in 1942, the song was recorded by Frank
Sinatra and later made into this Academy Award winning short
(Film note adapted from San Francisco Jewish Film Festival).
 Giraffes
Israel,
2001, 35mm
115 minutes
Hebrew with English Subtitles
Director: Tzahi Grad
Saturday,
December 7th, 9:45 pm
Efrat,
Dafna (Liat Glick from Kippur, 2000 WJFF) and Abigail
(Tinkerbell from Time of Favor, 2001 WJFF) are twenty-somethings
living in the same Tel Aviv apartment building. Their quiet
lives are turned dangerously upside down in a single evening
when Abigail is picked up by a driver sent to bring Dafna
to a film audition, Dafna then mistakenly jumps into a car
driven by Efrat's blind date, leaving behind a distraught
Efrat who begins roaming the city streets - only to be picked
up by a sympathetic cabdriver. When the cabdriver collapses
at the foot of the cab, a night of mistaken identities descends
into deceit, escape and murder.
Co-sponsored
by the Embassy of Israel
Welcoming
Remarks: Arnona Shir-On, Director, Cultural Affairs,
Embassy of Israel
Special Guest: Tzahi Grad, Director
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