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Films
My Mexican Shiva
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Directed by Alejandro Springall
Feature
Mexico, 2006
102 minutes
In Spanish and Hebrew with English subtitles
Rating equivalency PG-13
Set in Polanco, a Jewish quarter of Mexico City, and spoken in Spanish, Yiddish and Hebrew, "My Mexican Shivah" is a dramatic comedy about how the death of a man results in the celebration of his life. According to Jewish belief, from the moment a Jew is born, he or she is accompanied by two angels: the angel of light and the angel of darkness. With the passing of 75-year-old Moishe Tartakovsky, his family and friends gather to sit shivah, the 7-day Jewish mourning ritual. The spirit angels Aleph and Bet, divine accountants, watch over the mourners actions and what is being said about the deceased to calculate which angel will accompany Moishe's soul to the afterlife. If the shivah reveals anything, it's that Moishe's dysfunctional family and friends loved him with all his flaws and mystery - and most of all, his spirit.
Showing Saturday, March 8, 7:30 p.m.,
at the Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E. Broad St.
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The Bubble
Directed by Eytan Fox
Feature
Israel, 2006
117 minutes
In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
Rating equivalency R for graphic sexuality
Three young Israelis, two guys and a girl, share an apartment in Tel Aviv's hippest neighborhood: headstrong Lulu, who works in a bath products boutique; flamboyant Yali, who manages a trendy cafe; and brooding music store clerk Noam, who spends his weekends serving at checkpoints in the National Guard. When Noam meets and falls in love with a Palestinian man named Ashraf, he and his friends conspire to help Ashraf stay on in Tel Aviv illegally. But ultimately, their carefully constructed "bubble" is shattered by the political and social realities of the Middle East, and the constant outbursts of violence.
Showing Saturday, March 8, 10:00 p.m.,
at the Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E. Broad St.
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Souvenirs
Directed by Shahar Cohen and Halil Efrat
Documentary
Israel, 2006
75 minutes
In Hebrew with English subtitles
Rating equivalency PG-13
Shahar is an unemployed filmmaker. His father, Sleiman, a strict 82-year-old Yemenite, suggests that Shahar should make a film about the Jewish Brigade, in which he served during WW II. They set out together on the trail of the Jewish Brigade, beginning in Israel and continuing through Italy, Germany and ending in Holland with a surprising discovery about the "souvenirs" the father may have left with local girls in Amsterdam. With humor and compassion the film exposes a complex father-son relationship and raises universal questions and thoughts about the tension between myths of bravery and reality and between memory and historical truth.
Showing Sunday, March 9, 11 a.m.,
at the Gateway Drexel Theater, 1550 N. High St., at South Campus Gateway
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Orthodox Stance
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Directed by Jason Hutt
Documentary
United States, 2006
82 minutes
In English
Rating PG-13
Dmitriy Salita is an oxymoron: a champion boxer and an uncompromising Orthodox Jew. Director Jason Hutt follows the 24-year-old Russian immigrant for three years chronicling the trials and celebrations of this up and coming professional athlete. Viewers are treated to ringside seats and colorful characters as Dmitriy travels in truly contrasting worlds; from his Russian Brooklyn neighborhood to his Orthodox synagogue to his Black and Hispanic gym to the grandiose stages of Las Ve?as and Atlantic City. Dmitriy proves that one can have love and dedication for two opposing passions that initially seem incompatible. (The film's title refers to an actual boxing position.)
Showing Sunday, March 9, 1 p.m.,
at the Gateway Drexel Theater, 1550 N. High St., at South Campus Gateway
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Making Trouble
Directed by Rachel Talbot
Documentary
United States, 2006
85 minutes
In English
Rating PG-13
Produced by the Jewish Women's League, Making Trouble tells the story of six of the greatest female comic performers of the last century - Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner and Wendy Wasserstein. Using an exhilarating mix of contemporary performances, interviews and archival footage, this documentary celebrates three generations who successfully went from vaudeville and the Yiddish Theater to Broadway, from the Ziegfeld Follies to Saturday Night Live. Meeting in a NYC delicatessen, our guides on this journey are four of today's leading Jewish comedians, Judy Gold, Cory Kahaney, Jackie Hoffman and Jessica Kirson.
Showing Sunday, March 9, 3 p.m.,
at the Gateway Drexel Theater, 1550 N. High St., at South Campus Gateway
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5 Days
Directed by Yoav Shamir
Documentary
Israel, 2005
94 minutes
In Hebrew with English subtitles
Rating equivalency PG-13
In this gripping documentary, Yoav Shamir and his eight camera crews captured history being made when the Israeli Defense Force moved to evict the 8,000 remaining Jewish settlers from their Gaza homes. With exclusive access to settlers and soldiers, the film follows key players during this tumultuous period in Israeli history; Major General Dan Harel, head of the Southern Israeli Defense Forces and Noam Shapiro, the leader of the resistance movement.
Showing Sunday, March 9, 5 p.m.,
at the Gateway Drexel Theater, 1550 N. High St., at South Campus Gateway
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Gorgeous
Directed by Lisa Azuelos
Feature
France, 2006
84 minutes
In French with English subtitles
Rating equivalency PG-13
A snappy romantic comedy set in Paris, Gorgeous celebrates the au courant Parisian woman, with tons of wit, smarts and not an insignificant amount of sex. A huge hit in France with more than a million tickets sold, Gorgeous, features four Sephardic Jewish women who support each other through the ups and downs of their messy love lives, motherhood, and careers.
Showing Monday, March 10, 7:30 p.m.,
at the Drexel Theater, 2254 E. Main St., Bexley
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Greensboro: Closer to the Truth
Directed by Adam Zucker
Documentary
United States, 2007
83 minutes
In English
Rating PG-13
On Nov. 3, 1979, members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazis opened fire on a Communist Workers Party rally, killing five protesters and injuring many others in Greensboro, N.C. Police assigned to the rally were far away from the scene, and desp?te damning television footage, no one involved in what was to become to be called the Greensboro Massacre was ever convicted. Twenty-five years later, a variety of witnesses tell their stories, from the Klan Imperial Wizard to the bereaved spouses of the murdered activists and chronicles how their lives have evolved in the long aftermath of the killings.
Showing Tuesday, March 11, 6 p.m.,
at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N. High St.
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The Champagne Spy
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Directed by Nadav Schirman
Documentary
Israel/Germany, 2007
90 minutes
In Hebrew with English subtitles
Rating equivalency PG-13
Major Ze'ev Gur Arie, Oded's father, was an Israeli officer drafted by the Mossad in 1960 to penetrate the circle of German scientists developing weapons of mass destruction in Egypt. German born, Aryan blond and blue eyed, Gur Arie was the perfect candidate for the mission. His Mossad operatives could not foresee that his controversial personality would later cause unpredictable complications. Oded Gur Arie was twelve when he moved to Paris with his mother "because of dad's work". In a small corner cafe his father and a "Mossad" (the Israeli Intelligence Agency) operative revealed to Oded that his dad was a covert agent leaving on a mission for the state. They told Oded that he must never speak about this secret because his father's life depended on it. Since that day, Oded has never spoken about his father - until now.
Showing Wednesday, March 12, 7:30 p.m.,
at the JCC of Greater Columbus, 1125 College Ave., Bexley
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Sweet Mud
Directed by Dror Shaul
Feature
Israel/Germany, 2006
100 minutes
In Hebrew with English subtitles
Rating equivalency PG-13
On a kibbutz in southern Israel in the 1970's, Dvir Avni, age 12, realizes that his mother, Miri, is mentally ill. It is the year of his Bar Mitzvah, and in a series of sometimes funny, sometimes frightening tasks, Dvir and his classmates have to prove their ability to live up to the social standards of the Kibbutz. In this closed, unique society, bound by rigid rules, Dvir navigates between the kibbutz motto of equality and the stinging reality that his mother has, in effect, been abandoned by their collective community.
Showing Thursday, March 13, 7 p.m.,
at the Arena Grand, 175 W. Nationwide Blvd.
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Only Human
Directed by Dominic Harari and Teresa de Pelegri
Feature
Argentina, 2004
85 minutes
In Spanish with English subtitles
Rating equivalency R for some sexual content, nudity and language
Only Human is a wonderfully twisted Spanish black comedy. When Leni brings her Palestinian fiance, Rafi, home to meet her hyperactive Jewish family, a Meet the Parents-type comedy of errors unfolds. The tense family encounter quickly spirals out of control, thanks to a series of hilarious misunderstandings and a zany cast of characters, including Leni's newly Orthodox brother, belly dancing sister, and her blind, rifle-toting Zionist grandfather.
Showing Thursday, March 13, 7:30 p.m.,
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