After the Truth
Germany, 1999, 120 minutes, 35 mm, German with English subtitles
Director: Roland Suso Richter

The classic 'what if' scenario is given a new twist in this riveting fictional drama, which postulates that Dr. Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's infamous "Angel of Death", voluntarily returns to Germany to stand trial and defend his crimes. A fast-paced thriller/courtroom drama, AFTER THE TRUTH forces the viewer into the role of judge and jury. Can Mengele and his reluctant German lawyer (Kai Wiesinger, THE COMEDIAN HARMONISTS, HKJFF '00) mount a believable defence? Will Mengele escape justice? And what made this doctor betray his Hippocratic oath in Auschwitz? Anchored by Gotz George's chilling, authentic performance as Mengele, AFTER THE TRUTH disturbs and provokes in equal measure. You won't soon forget it.


Almonds and Wine
Canada, 1999, 5 minutes, 35 mm, English
Director: Arnie Lipsey

Earlier in this century, an arranged marriage takes place in rural Eastern Europe. Fleeing the threat of war, the young bride and groom arrive in Canada, establish a new life together, and hand down their traditions to the generations that follow. This animated film is set to a classic Yiddish folk song, "Di Mame iz Gegangen in Mark Arayn," performed with gusto Russian-style by the group Kapelye, one of today's best exponents of 'Klezmer' music with a remarkable vocal performance by Michael Alpert.


Anne Frank's Diary
France/Ireland/UK/Netherlands/Luxembourg, 1999, 87 minutes, 35 mm, English
Director: Julian Y. Wolff

Anne Frank is by far this generation's most famous and tragic diarist. The story of the young Jewish girl who died in a concentration camp at age fifteen has been told many times and in many different ways. This animated new version makes her story easily accessible for a new generation without losing the power of the original text. We meet Anne on her 13th birthday before her family goes into hiding - scenes undocumented in previous tellings. Amsterdam is colourfully depicted as a magical city through which the typical teen rides her bike, attends school and gossips with classmates, but she is keenly aware of her changing surroundings. Once in hiding, the film focuses on life in the secret annex above her father's office. Animation brings a fresh and sensitive quality to Anne's internal struggles with life in isolation.


Cup Final
Israel, 1991, 107 minutes, 35 mm, Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
Director: Eran Riklis

It's June 1982. Israel has just invaded Lebanon. Unfortunately, this action is taking place in the middle of football's World Cup tournament. Cohen, an Israeli soldier, has tickets for the games in Barcelona, but he is stuck in the desert, seeking out the enemy. Things go from bad to worse for him when he is captured by a band of retreating PLO soldiers en route to Beirut. Cohen's only solace is that the PLO leader, Ziad, shares his passion for the Italian national football team. Laced with humour, wit and violence, CUP FINAL is a subtle tale of shared humanity.


The Diamond Nose
USA, 2000, 15 minutes, 16 mm, English
Director: David Bezmozgis

A magical realist story about a boy with the world's biggest nose. In an effort to win a beautiful girl, he resorts to extreme measures to rid himself of the nose, only to discover that it is indestructible - the product of ironic and Divine intervention.


god@heaven
USA, 1998, 21 minutes, 35 mm, English
Director: Joseph Neulight

A little boy sends an e-mail message to G-d with an important question.


Inside Out
South Africa, 1998, 98 minutes, 35 mm, English
Director: Neal Sundstrom

A young, Jewish struggling actress from Johannesburg gets stranded in a small conservative town where she is placed in charge of the Xmas nativity pageant. While she is welcomed by some in this quirky town, others are suspicious of her because she is Jewish and she wants to include blacks in the pageant. Filmed on location in the Mpumlanga Province and features South African comedian Gilda Blacher as Hazel.


Island on Bird Street, The
Denmark/UK/Germany, 1997, 107 minutes, 35 mm, English
Director: Søren Kragh-Jacobsen

During the Second World War, left alone in a ruined house in the deserted Polish ghetto, an adventurous young boy must use his wits and ingenuity to survive on his own, as he waits for his father's return. Courage and bravery are not uncommon in times of war, but Alex is only eleven, and his story is about faith, hope and the will to overcome cruelty and injustice.


L. A. Mohel
USA, 1999, 25 minutes, video, English
Director: David Bezmozgis

This film explores the lives of Los Angeles' top mohels, or ritual circumcisers - a rabbi, a nurse midwife, and a young physician who is the "mohel to the stars". What L.A. Mohel does exceptionally well is to show how this 3,700-year-old ritual is an occasion for joy and celebration, and how Jews of various cultural backgrounds express their identity, faith, and family ties, in these early moments of life.


La Vie, La Mort & Le Foot
Belgium/France, 2000, 6 minutes, 35 mm, French with English subtitles
Director: Sam Garbarski

Two rabbis wonder if after life, up there in heaven, there will still be football games.


Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, The
USA, 1998, 90 minutes, 35 mm, English
Director: Aviva Kempner

As Hitler was invading Europe, a handsome, young Jewish baseball player was challenging Babe Ruth's home run record. This award-winning documentary reveals how Detroit Tiger Hank Greenberg transcended American religious prejudice, shattered stereotypes, and became an American hero. Part social history, part humorous Americana, this compelling and entertaining movie cross-cuts thoughtful and sentimental interviews with family, friends and celebrity fans like Walter Matthau and Alan Dershowitz with rich archival footage from the 1930s and '40s. Twelve years in the making, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG delivers thrills and chills, edge-of-your-seat scenes of Hammerin' Hank in action, and the only rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in Yiddish sung by Mandy Patinkin!


Madame Jacques Sur la Croisette
France, 1995, 40 minutes, 35 mm, French with English subtitles
Director: Emmanuel Finkiel

At an annual spring retreat in Cannes, a group of elderly French Jews reflect on ageing, loving in late life and their underlying bond of Yiddish culture. Breaking away from the group and its monotonous rhythm, widower Maurice pursues Madame Jacques.


Mamele
Poland, 1938, 100 minutes, 16 mm, Yiddish with English subtitles
Director: Joseph Green

Mamele is a musical comedy that embraces the entire gamut of inter-war Jewish life in Lodz in all its diversity, with tenements and unemployed Jews, nightclubs and gangsters, and religious Jews celebrating Succoth. But the film belongs to Molly Picon who romps undaunted through her dutiful daughter role, saving siblings, keeping the family intact, singing and acting her way through the stages of a woman's life from childhood to old age. Picon stars as Khavtshi, a young woman who promises her dying mother that she will take care of her family. She's so busy cooking, cleaning and matchmaking for her brothers and sisters that she barely has any time for herself, until she discovers the violinist across the courtyard! The musical score also includes Picon's trademark theme song, "Abi Gezunt."


Melody of the Street
Hungary, 1999, 10 minutes, 35mm, no dialog
Director: Diana Groo

"Nothing has changed in the old Jewish quarter of Budapest. It remains as it was, a hundred years ago. This is the place I come from. When I pass through the streets, I hear Mahler's symphony and memories of the past and present come together." - filmmaker Diana Groo.


Natie the Pirate
USA, 1998, 11 minutes, 16 mm, English
Director: Ron Yavnieli

An uproarious animated adventure as a crew of pirates mistake Natie, a poor peddler in Odessa, for their captain because of his eye patch, hook and peg leg. To make matters worse, the pirates are convinced that Natie's Hebrew prayer book is actually an encoded treasure map.


One Day Crossing
USA/Hungary, 2000, 25 minutes, 16 mm, Hungarian with English subtitles
Director: Joan Stein

October 1944 in Budapest, as the Hungarian Nazi movement Arrow Cross grows stronger, a young Jewish woman posing as a Christian is consumed with protecting her family. Yet, this charade is challenged when her husband brings home a Jewish boy he has saved from execution. Set in the tumultuous closing years of the Second World War, ONE DAY CROSSING examines how identity, moral responsibility and simple humanity are shaped and persevere amidst horrible chaos.


Packing For Two
USA, 1999, 13 minutes, 16 mm, English
Director: Lisa Kaufman

Sybil, about to embark on a trip with best friend, Eleanor, suddenly realises that she has not yet come to terms with the death of her husband, Manny. A poignant look at loss and longing.


Pastry, Pain & Politics
Switzerland, 1998, 30 minutes, 16 mm, English, Yiddish, Swiss dialect with English subtitles
Director: Stina Werenfels

For Mr. Weintraub, an elderly Jew from New York, all Arabs are terrorists, and for Hayat, a young Palestinian woman, all Jews are thieves and murderers. Mrs. Weintraub, a Holocaust survivor, never again wants to set foot on German soil. The story unfolds when the Weintraubs, on their way to Israel, stop in Switzerland. While eating rich German pastry, Mr. Weintraub collapses, and is rushed to a hospital where Hayat, the nurse, has to take care of him.


Personal Goals
Israel, 1996, 16 minutes, 16 mm, Hebrew with English subtitles
Director: Ran Carmeli

A nine-year-old boy wants to please his football-loving father who is hell-bent on his son becoming a famous football player. But try as he may, he remains a lousy athlete. Yet Yaron's talents lie elsewhere. Will love prove stronger than machismo?


Return of Tuvia, The
USA, 2000, 5 minutes, 16 mm, English
Director: Akiva Potok

Fifty years later, a Holocaust survivor walks into a clock store hoping to find employment; instead, he finds a fragment of his past.


September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill
Canada, 1995, 86 minutes, 35 mm, English and German with English subtitles
Director: Larry Weinstein

This tribute to the life and music of Kurt Weill features Lou Reed, Teresa Stratas, Elvis Costello and the Brodsky String Quartet, Betty Carter, PJ Harvey, William S. Burroughs, Charlie Haden, The Persuasions and a host of others performing many of the composer's most celebrated songs, including "Mack the Knife," "September Song" and "Alabama Song." Set in a turn-of-the-century warehouse, the lavish designs echo many of the themes of Weill's work. From the steely austerity of a 1930's factory floor to the glittering spectacle of a Broadway musical stage, each performance reflects the magic of the music and captures Weill's creative spirit.


Silence
UK, 1998, 15 minutes, 35 mm, English
Directors: Orly Yadin & Sylvie Bringas

This imaginative animated film captures the haunting, surreal world of a child who survived Theresienstadt thanks to her resourceful grandmother.


Solomon and Gaenor
UK, 1998, 102 minutes, 35 mm, English, Welsh and Yiddish
Director: Paul Morrison

The background is of industrial unrest in the mines in Wales in 1911. Solomon, the Jewish boy from the next valley, peddles fabrics door to door, and hides his religion. Gaenor, the local Welsh Christian girl from a mining family, gets pregnant, and flees with Solomon, but they get separated. As industrial tensions mount, the local Jewish families become the target of resentment. When the bosses put the pressure on, it's not the bosses who catch the rage, but any other outsiders who appear to be competing at the same level.


Superman is Only a Movie
Israel, 2000, 21 minutes, video, Hebrew with English subtitles
Director: Sharon Pais

A sensitive film about a daughter's fears of her parents' ageing and her voyage in search of the answers and the solace that will comfort her. SUPERMAN IS ONLY A MOVIE is a film that talks about death and getting old from the perspective of a young woman.


Village of Idiots
Canada, 1999, 13 minutes, 35 mm, English
Directors: Eugene Fedorenko and Rose Newlove

An hilarious story about a loveable fool who leaves his village on a circuitous quest for knowledge, only to find it in a very surprising place. Oscar™ winning directors Fedorenko and Newlove give a new slant to the adage "The grass is always greener¡K". Based on a Jewish folk tale, THE VILLAGE OF IDIOTS will delight children and amuse adults with its practical and simple approach to a complex, existential dilemma.


Visas And Virtue
USA, 1997, 26 minutes, 35 minutes, English and Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Chris Tashima

Haunted by the sight of hundreds of Jewish refugees outside his consulate, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania at the beginning of World War II must decide how much he is willing to risk. VISAS AND VIRTUE explores the moral and professional dilemmas that Consul General Chiune Sugihara faced with a life or death decision: defy his own government's orders and risk his career by issuing life-saving transit visas, or obey orders and turn his back on the horror he was witnessing.


Vulcan Junction
Israel, 1999, 98 minutes, 35 mm, Hebrew with English subtitles
Director: Eran Riklis

Love, disappointment, ambition and loyalty are tested in this highly charged film by the director of CUP FINAL. Just prior to the Yom Kippur War, four members of a talented local rock band, a famous football player and his beautiful girlfriend are all on the verge of dramatic personal change. They must make life decisions that will affect each other drastically.

VULCAN JUNCTION is a nostalgic voyage to the last days of innocence in the lives of young people and the last moments before a whole country was engulfed by a war that would forever change it. Featuring the music from Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, King Crimson, The Hollies, Jethro Tull, The Zombies, and The Animals.


Yidl Mitn Fidl (Yiddle With His Fiddle)
Poland, 1936, 92 minutes, 35 mm, Yiddish with English subtitles
Director: Joseph Green

The great Yiddish actress Molly Picon cross-dresses to become Yidl, a fiddler in a band of musicians who roam the countryside in 1930s Poland. Yidl is sassy, independent, and hopelessly in love with a fellow band member, creating a series of hilarious and melodramatic situations. Location shooting in the shtetl Kazimierz, in the nearby countryside, and in Warsaw gives this film authenticity and atmosphere; we meet shtetl innkeepers, kidnapped brides on the run, big-time Warsaw producers, and hear some great music (including songs like "Oy Mama I'm In Love!"). Old world values and new world feminism exist side by side - in the end Yidl gets her career and her man! More than a great musical comedy, YIDL MITN FIDL was also an act of cultural solidarity, produced at a time of growing fascism and anti-Semitism. The film was an immediate smash hit, had worldwide distribution and became the most successful Yiddish musical of all time.

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