Welcome To The 32nd Tucson International Jewish Film Festival

Schedule:
Special Pre-Festival Screenings
Sunday, January 8, 2022
Green Valley: 2pm at Beth Shalom Temple Center 1751 N Rio Mayo, Green Valley, AZ 85614
Saddlebrook: 4pm at DesertView Performing Arts Center 39900 S Clubhouse Dr, Tucson, AZ 85739

Thursday, January 12, 2022
7:00pm: Man In The Basement
114 minutes
SiMonday, Helen, and their daughter live in Paris in an old apartment that has belonged to his Jewish family for generations. They decide to sell the basement storeroom to a seemingly harmless older man. After the deal is done, they begin to uncover disturbing facts about his past. This about the antisemitism that lurks beneath the surface of modern society will keep you on the edge of your seat.

7:00pm: Post-Film Program: Immediately Following The In-Person Film Screening
Deborah Kaye, Senior Lecturer at The University of Arizona, and Lori Shepherd, Executive Director of Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center, will be in conversation about the rise of antisemitism today and how we can reverse this troubling trend.

Location: The J

Friday, January 13, 2022
1:00pm: Love And Mazel Tov
88 minutes
What begins as a flirtatious fib snowballs into a wildtangle of lies, ensnaring two couples in a comedy of errors in this breezy, sexy German comedy. Though not a member of the tribe, Anne has immersed herself in the Jewish world to pay off a karmic debt. One evening, awkward Anne meets Daniel, a newly single gynecologist. Instantly wise to Anne’s pseudo-Semitism, he impulsively feigns being Jewish to impress her, a harmless enough ploy until he develops real romantic feelings. The comedy envelopes a quartet of funny and entirely winning characters.

Location: The J

Saturday, January 14, 2022
7:00pm: Where Life Begins
100 minutes
An ultra-orthodox Jewish family from Aix-les-Bains travels to a farm in southern Italy every year to carry out a sacred mission: harvesting citrons (etrogs), an important element in the celebration of Sukkot. Here Elio, the farm owner, secretly helps Esther, the rabbi’s daughter. She is tired of the constraints imposed by her religion. Their stories intersect and hint at a forbidden romance, all told with understated elegance and enhanced by striking cinematography.

Location: The J

Sunday, January 15, 2022
11:00am: Berenshtein
Post-Film Program 2021 / Israel / 105 minutes / Multiple Languages with English subtitlesIn this riveting, lavishly produced film based on a true story, a heroic Jewish Red Army battalion commander revisits his traumatic past. The last surviving member of the great partisans, Leonid Berenshtein was a highly decorated anti-Nazi fighter who sabotaged German train transports. But beyond his valor is a personal story of adversity and sacrifice. Through flashbacks and reenactments, there emerges a moving profile of a modest man who survived against all odds without surrendering his human decency.

Post-Film Program: Immediately Following The In-Person Film Screening
Director, Roman Shumunov and script writer, Simon Shechter will be in conversation with Sharon Glassberg, Wellness and Support Specialist at Jewish Family and Children's Services, about the film.

Post-Film Program: Food
The Kosher Pizza Truck will be taking pre-orders and is available to take walk-up orders after the film screening and post-film program.Pre-order details will be available on Eventive.

2:00pm: Fiddler's Journey To The Big Screen
88 minutes
This gem is not to be missed. In this new, fascinating and nostalgic documentary, Jeff Goldblum, narrates thehistory of the making of the 1971 film, Fiddler on the Roof.

Location: The J

Monday, January 16, 2022
7:00pm: Exodus 91
90 minutes
The film follows Israeli diplomat, Asher Naim, on a seemingly insurmountable and suspenseful mission to bring 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the middle of a civil war in Ethiopia. As Asher learns more about these African Jews, he finds himself torn between worlds and facing a crisis of faith in himself and his country.

7:00pm: Post-Film Program
Join us over Zoom for a post-film program conversation with film director, Micah Smith, and past shinshinit (youth emissary), Leah Yuval Genie. Moderated by Todd Rockoff, Tucson J President and CEO.

Location: Online

Tuesday, January 17, 2022
7:00pm: Xueta Island
60 minutes
In the 1400’s, an isolated group of Jews on Mallorca were forced to convert to Catholicism or be burned alive. Today, their story is sparking a Jewish renaissance across the community. After recently moving to the island, Jewish-American expat Dani Rotstein leads us on a journey of discovery across Mallorca, or Xueta Island. He enthusiastically takes us on an illuminating tour of Mallorca’s medieval Jewish quarter seeking to reconcile the painful past with a vision of a brighter, more inclusive future.

7:00pm: Post-Film Program
Dani Rotstein, the film’s producer, protagonist, and co-director, Ofer Laszewicki, co-director, journalist and additional camera, and Felipe Wolokita, co-director, director of photography and editor, will be in conversation with Rabbi Yosef Lopez.

Location: Online

Wednesday, January 18, 2022
7:00pm: The Levys Of Monticello
70 minutes
When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind a mountain of personal debt, which forced his heirs to sell his beloved Monticello home and all of its possessions. The Levys of Monticello is a film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, who owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants. The remarkable story of the Levy family also intersects with the rise of antisemitism that runs throughout the course of American history.

Post-Film Program: Immediately Following The In-Person Film Screening
The film’s director, Steven Pressman, will be in conversation with Jennifer Selco, Tucson J Director of Jewish Life and Learning, about the making of the film and the messages of history that are relevant today.

Location: The Loft Cinema

Thusday, January 19, 2022
7:00pm: Marry Me However
100 minutes
The film explores the stories of LGBTQ+ people who decide to marry against their own sexual orientation to comply with Torah laws and be accepted into their families and religious communities. Some share their secret with their partners, some keep it hidden, and some lie even to themselves. The film also follows the women who married and divorced homosexual partners, as well as rabbis and psychologists who seek a solution to a perceived unsolvable conflict.

7:00pm: Post-Film Program
Join Rabbi Steve Greenberg, Founding Director of Eshel, Miryam Kabakov, Executive Director of Eshel, and Motti Salzberg, clinial social worker in private practice who specializes in the treatment of sexual and other traumas, for an informative and inspiring conversation about the film. Moderated by Lynn Davis, Jewish Community Relations Council Director. Eshel’s mission is to create a future for Orthodox lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, and their families.

Location: Online

Friday, January 20, 2022
1:00pm: Farewell, Mr. Haffmann
115 minutes
Paris 1942. François Mercier is an ordinary man who aspires only to start a family with Blanche, the woman he loves. He is also the employee of a talented jeweler, Mr. Haffmann. When faced with the German occupation, the two men will have no other choice but to reach an agreement that will turn their lives upside down.

Location: The J

Friday, January 21, 2022
7:00pm: Persian Lessons
127 minutes
It is 1942. Gilles, a young Belgian man, is arrested by the SS alongside other Jews and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but then Gilles is assigned a seemingly untenable mission, to teach the Persian language to the officer in charge of the camp’s kitchen.

Location: The J

Sunday, January 22, 2022
11:00am: Back In Berlin
58 minutes
Shortly after his father dies, Bobby returns to England and finds an old suitcase revealing the truth his father hid - about his family who perished in the Holocaust. He invites Manuel, his childhood friend with a German background, to translate the documents. Manuel shares that he too discovered a family secret. Together they embark on a journey to Berlin that puts their friendship to the test.

Post-Film Program: Immediately Following The In-Person Film Screening
Jeff Stone, University Distinguished Professor, Director of Social Psychology of Sport Laboratory, and Director of Self and Attitudes Laboratory at the University of Arizona will be in conversation with Dana Narter, Film Festival Auxiliary Committee Member, about the prejudices we carry and how we might inspire a change of antisemitic attitudes today.

2:00pm: Rose Dramedy
102 minutes
Suddenly widowed at 78, Sephardic matriarch Rose rejects the social pressure to “act her age.” She turns her grief into a powerful impulse of life much to the concern of her children. Rose is an all-embracing effusion of Jewishness, both Sephardi and Ashkenazi, that promises to be a crowd-pleaser.

Location: The J

For frequently asked questions about Eventive or Zoom visit tucsonjcc.org/film and click on the button that says TECH HELP, call the Tucson J at (520) 299.3000*, or email us at [email protected].

Date: January 12 - 22, 2023

Location:
Tucson Jewish Community Center - 3800 East River Rd. Tucson, AZ 85701
The Loft Cinema - 3233 East Speedway Boulevard Tucson, AZ 85716
Zoom

Tickets:
Single Film: $12
Festival 6 Pack: $60
Festival Pass: $120

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