On behalf of Knesset Israel and the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival, we extend a warm Welcome Back to you as BJFF embarks upon its 38th season. We are so happy to be able to present six Mondays of excellent film programming in person at the Duffin Theater at the Lenox Memorial Middle and High School.
Our screening committee has chosen the best of the many films they watched this year. We are excited to bring you a wide range of documentaries and narrative films from the US, Israel, Germany, Italy and Canada. Please visit our website to read about the films and speakers, sign up for our e-newsletter, make a much-appreciated donation, and purchase your Season Pass. As in past years, individual tickets can only be purchased on the day of the show.(Cash or Check Only)
Schedule:
4pm - Vishniac
Vishniac Eastern Europe to the Princeton offices of Albert Einstein. We see it all through the lens of the groundbreaking 20th-century photographer Roman Vishniac. For the first time, the story of this brilliant and flamboyant character comes to life in this compelling feature-length documentary, made by Laura Bialis. She traces his emergence in Weimar Berlin as a biologist who goes on to transform scientific photography. But, as she highlights, Vishniac is best known for his images of shtetl life in Central and Eastern Europe from 1935-1938; these iconic pictures were called a “haunting eulogy for a world on the brink of destruction.” The film follows his family’s escape in 1940 from Europe to the United States and his return after the war, when he documents a Berlin in ruins and the haunted children in displaced persons camps. This clear-eyed portrait of a complex man is narrated movingly by his daughter, Mara Kohn Vishniac, who says her father viewed himself as “a mixture of Moses and Superman.”
USA 2023, English, Documentary, 90 minutes
Director: Laura Bialis
8pm - Seven Blessings
Jewish tradition honors a new bride and groom with seven days of festive meals, and this bittersweet comedy focuses on the family secrets and lies at the heart of what should be a happy and celebratory week. Winner of Israeli Academy awards, Seven Blessings also is a rich and knowing portrait of Moroccan Israeli culture in the ‘90s. At 40, successful bank executive Marie has returned from France with her French Jewish fiance to marry and then feast at one overcrowded home after another of her exuberant but dysfunctional Moroccan clan. Each meal exposes more of her story and the wounds at its core, along with the jealousies, guilt and resentments of her family.
Israel 2023, Hebrew (English subtitles) Narrative, 111 minutes
Director: Ayelet Menahemi
Date: July 8 - August 12
