Rupert Evans and Derek Jacobi in Sidney Turlebaum

Powerful programming at the San Francsico Jewish Film Festival, and . . One Sad Decision

Yes, yes yes. The folks who work very, very hard, year round at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival have put together a dynamic and strong selection of 71 films from 18 countries. It opens tonight, July 23, and runs through Aug. 10 at the Castro, the SF Jewish Community Center and Berkeley. However, as much as I am applauding the festival this year for their programming, they have also just made one very sad and unfortunate decision that makes me wish that the Yes Men could really fix the world.

Okay, for the Bay Times discerning readership, I guess I need to back up. The Yes Men are a loose knit group of genderless and oh-so-fabulous anti-corporate globalization pranksters who impersonate the mighty and powerful inside the corridors of big business where those types usually hang-out. The Yes Men then smuggle out the stories of their adven    tures, which provide a hilarious and rare view of what President Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex. Two of the Yes Men have just made a movie, The Yes Men Fix the World (7/27, Castro; Palo Alto, 8/2; Berkeley, 8/5; Rafael; 8/9) which is way funnier than most films and makes me wish “oh if only they could really fix the world.” But maybe that is the point of the film, for all of us to be Yes Men.

The film is part of a special program of Social Justice films that the 29-year-old San Francisco Jewish Festival is presenting. It makes sense; the festival has a strong record of doing the right thing. It has consistently programmed films that embrace Tzedek, or justice, and has sought to “catalyze conversations.” Sometimes segments of the Jewish community have not made this easy. And just Tuesday, the festival sadly made an announcement that made me wish that the Yes Men could come to the rescue.

Here is the scoop: although there have been a number of folks who have already beat me to this, story I am sure. This year the festival programmed a new film by the celebrated French-Israeli filmmaker, Simone Bitton, Rachel (7/25, Castro; 8/4, Berkeley), a documentary that explores the death of 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer while she was trying to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian home. Although Bitton, a Moroccan Jew, can’t attend the festival, the director suggested that the festival invite Corrie’s mother, Cindy, to a Q&A session following the July 25 screening. Cindy Corrie and her husband Craig recently participated in a post film Q & A at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival screening of the film in New York.

The film, which investigates the circumstances of Rachel’s death and why there was no independent inquiry, is a good film whether you are familiar with Rachel’s story or not, and Cindy is an eloquent and thoughtful speaker who has appeared in the Bay Area in the past.

Although Rachel presents the voices of the Israeli military as well as Rachel’s friends and parents, the festival has received a great amount of pressure from particular individuals and organizations railing against the screening of the film, the invitation of Cindy Corrie to speak at the screening and the co-sponsors of the screening. The co-sponsors of the screening include the Quaker group, the American Friends Service and Jewish Voice for Peace, a national organization of diverse Jews who oppose the Israeli occupation. Their advisory board members include a host of respected Jewish thinkers and artists including Tony Kushner, the Talmudic scholar Daniel Boyarin, Debra Chasnoff, Naomi Klein, Ed Asner, Ronny Gilbert, Adrienne Rich and the R & B pop-singer Goapele.

The festival has refused to pull the film or disinvite Cindy Corrie from speaking. This is the right thing to do. By contrast, a few years ago, Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival pulled a film they had programmed when they encountered too much heat.

However, unfortunately the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival just announced Tuesday the following: “We believe that, along with Cindy Corrie’s participation, offering our audience an additional perspective at the screening is appropriate, given the especially contested nature of its subject matter.

We have invited Dr. Michael Harris, a founder of the grassroots advocacy group SF Voice for Israel, to speak to the audience immediately prior to the film and to provide a perspective that many in our community are concerned may not otherwise be available in the film or in the post-film discussion...”

Alas, this decision, as far as I am concerned, is catering to shrill voices that are only interested in silencing true conversation about the Israeli policies in Gaza and the West Bank and Rachel Corrie’s death.

I wish the festival could have entirely stood its ground and can only hope that the discerning Bay Area audience will turn out for the film screening and engage in a quality discussion about the issues raised in the film.

Oh, how I wonder what the Yes Men, who by the way have recently decided to not show their film at the Jerusalem Film Festival in support of the boycott of Israel, are going to say in response to the Jewish Film Festival decision. Gee, maybe the Yes Men will impersonate Dr. Michael Harris!

This is surely another reason to attend the screening of Rachel on Saturday.

Tonight is the San Francisco Opening Night and you can treat yourself to Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger about a spunky teenage girl’s desire to just be herself. The San Francisco Closing Night film, The Wedding Song, is not to be missed. It will also be in Berkeley on Aug. 1. It’s a stirring film about the friendship between two girls, one Muslim and one Jewish, during the German occupation of Tunisia in 1942-1943.

The centerpiece film is a film where queer bears will find a brother’s story. Of course, anyone who is looking for a bit of fun and good sumo wrestling will also get a kick of this comedy. It is all A Matter of Size (7/29, Castro; 8/1, Palo Alto; 8/8, Berkeley), and according to my film viewing pal Douglas Conrad, the film provides “entertaining relief from the world of politics and under-employment. Its cast of large characters shed the dogma of socially imposed dieting lifestyles to take up Sumo wrestling, fall in love, come out, get pregnant and become stronger and happier human beings.”
Another strong film of gay interest, Sidney Turtlebaum, is in the Jews in Shorts program (Berkeley, 8/8). Derek Jacobi gives a brilliant performance in this very British film. Turtlebaum takes the despair of aging gay men, made so popular by Boys In The Band and gives it a Harold and Maude Twist, honing in on the art of crashing Jewish homes when families and friends are “sitting shiva,” and are mourning relatives who have died (thank you, Douglas). The short also plays with Hello Goodbye, a French-Israeli comedy starring Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant.

The festival always programs a number of films from Israel, which is home to an extraordinary group of talented directors. Among the films they have selected this year is a surprisingly effective and daring road movie by a Jewish director Yoav Shamir. Shamir felt that he did not know much about anti-Semitism, although it plays an important role in shaping Israeli society. So he deicided to make Defamation (7/26, Castro; 8/6, Berkeley; 8/8, Rafael Marin). He explores how contemporary Jews in Israel, Europe and America learn about and experience anti-semitism. You will never think about anti-Semitism the same way after seeing this film. Put it on your schedule.

I have already mentioned two of the films in the festival’s special social justice program, but the other films also deserve mention. They include a particularly interesting film about the civil rights lawyer William Kunstler (7/26, Castro; 8/2, Berkeley), The Heart of Stone (8/3, Berkeley; 8/8 SF Jewish Community Center), Refugees (7/27, Castro; 8/8; Berkeley) and Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech ( 7/30, Castro; 8/1, Berkeley; 8/4, Palo Alto). San Francisco’s own Jenni Olsen’s new short poetic essay with the voice of Harvey Milk plays with Shouting Fire.

Yikes, another long article and I didn’t mention a number of films that are really terrific. Desert Brides is a devastating film about polygamy in the Bedouin community in Israel. It follows a Bedouin woman wedding photographer who is one of the sexiest camerawoman I have ever seen. I cannot imagine why anyone would want another wife around when her observing eyes are in the room. There is also Yoo-Hoo, Mrs Goldberg and a number of narrative feature films from Kazakhstan, Argentina, Spain and the Netherlands. Check out the schedule and catalog on line at http://fest.sfjff.org/