At the first Atlanta Jewish Film Festival a decade ago, founding director Judy Marx got yelled at by an irate filmmaker. It was during the screening of his work, and he went on and on about the aspect ratio being wrong.
“I consider myself an intelligent person, so I told him, ‘I know what aspect means,’ ” Marx said. “ ‘I know what ratio means. But I don’t know what those two words mean together.’ ”
What the filmmaker meant was that the projection of the film was so off that the actors’ heads were partially cut off on screen.
Ooops.
“I had to learn,” Marx said. “Our biggest obstacle was not being industry-savvy. But we jumped in with both feet.”
What began in 2000 with 24 films about Jewish life and about 2,000 viewers now is Atlanta’s largest film festival, is the second-largest Jewish film festival in the world out of 115 and is a significant event on the local Jewish cultural calendar. Since this year marks the festival’s 10th anniversary, organizers are going all out.
The 12-day event kicks off with an opening gala Monday night at the Woodruff Arts Center. Maestro Richard Kaufman, former music coordinator for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and on the music staff at 20th Century Fox, will direct the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a performance of film scores from Jewish-themed Hollywood blockbusters. While music from “The Ten Commandments,” “The Producers” and “Schindler’s List,” among others, fills Symphony Hall, images from those films will be shown on screens above the stage.
Then, on Jan. 13, the first film of the series, “Berlin ’36,” will be shown at Atlantic Station. “Berlin ’36” is based on the true story of a Jewish athlete’s attempt to participate in the 1936 Olympics when Berlin was a Nazi stronghold. It is one of 50 films to be shown Jan. 13-24 that explore, directly and indirectly, what it means to be Jewish in the world. Organizers expect that by festival’s end the number of tickets sold will exceed 20,000. Last year, 17,200 tickets were sold, organizers said.
But there was a time when festival founders weren’t so confident.
Early days
There were already 60 Jewish film festivals in existence around the world when the Atlanta festival began in November 2000. Until then, Atlantans had to travel to Miami, New York City or San Francisco for such a festival.
“We were late to the game,” Marx said.
San Francisco’s festival, the world’s oldest, began 30 years ago, said Peter L. Stein, executive director. That festival served as an early model for the Atlanta venture. While Stein is quick to say that his festival is the venerable one, Atlanta’s tremendous growth has captured the attention of many in the Jewish film community as a venue for strong independent films that push the envelope.
“You talk to filmmakers and they have said their films were treated very well there and that they were brought in to participate and talk about their work, which isn’t always the case,” Stein said. “I’ve really been impressed with the growth, and I have to say it ranks among the most thoughtfully produced and presented Jewish film festivals out there.”
Early on, the Atlanta office of the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that produces the festival, made two decisions that it hoped would set Atlanta’s event apart. One was to chose films that, while Jewish in theme, would have broad crossover appeal and that would serve as a bridge between communities. The other decision was to involve a wide swath of Atlanta’s Jewish and film communities in the selection of films, meaning the festival would have more of a community vision rather than a solely artistic one, Marx said. Both decisions have produced a provocative series.
For example, last year’s offering “A Road to Mecca” chronicled the life of a Jew who converted to Islam and became one of the world’s noted modern Islamic thinkers. At the screening, one-third of the audience was Jewish, another third Muslim and the rest Christian and other denominations. The discussion after the screening was spirited. From that, several audience members now serve as sort of interfaith emissaries, Marx said.
A major turning point for the organization came six years ago when it hired a new executive director to succeed Marx, who went on to become director of the American Jewish Committee’s Atlanta office.
As a New York University film school graduate and executive news producer at WXIA, Kenny Blank had been a volunteer with the festival for a year, serving as chair of its film selection committee. He knew what an aspect ratio was. He also knew that he wanted to turn the festival into a major cultural event.
“I’ve been trying to program a film festival that defies people’s expectation of what a Jewish film festival is,” said Blank, who this year has a $450,000 budget.
“It’s not 12 days of Holocaust films or films about the Palestinian conflict. We wanted to surprise and delight people with the diversity of offerings and have it be a way for the larger community to experience first-class film.”
“Off and Running” is a film about a Jewish New York couple who adopt an African-American child, but the movie is as much about being an interracial family as it is about Jewish identity.
By keeping the offerings broad, it would seem to ensure large audiences. But there is the question of whether in the effort to appeal to many, focus and meaning are lost.
Peter Weishar is the dean of the School of Film, Digital Media and Performing Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah.
“Broadening the scope is not a problem as long as a festival is thoughtful in how it’s curated,” Weishar said. “And they’re one of the best.”
In Atlanta, the film review committee usually has a waiting list of people who want to be on the 70-member panel of judges that culls more than 400 entries down to 70 or 80. Judges range from Orthodox and Reform rabbis to non-Jews, said Tom Karsch, co-chair of the film selection committee and former executive vice president for Turner Classic Movies.
There’s a wide range of tastes among the judges, but ultimately each film selected must have some Jewish sensibility.
“It can be a movie that just has one central character that is Jewish,” Karsch said.
Or it can be a film such as “Mary and Max,” a feature-length Claymation movie about a 20-year, pen-pal relationship between two misfits, voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. Or it can be the documentary “American Radical,” which profiles Norman Finkelstein, a controversial author who some in the Jewish community call self-hating because of his stance on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“It is about confronting difficult questions and tackling controversial subjects,” Blank said. “But the festival is about storytelling, and you don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate these stories.”
Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
Jan. 13
“Berlin ’36” 7:30 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
Jan. 14
“Breaking Upwards” (young adults night) 7:30 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
Jan. 15
“Berlin ’36” 12:15 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
“Breaking Upwards” 2:55 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
Jan. 16
“Anita” 6:50 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Within the Whirlwind” 9:10 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Berlin ’36” (sold out) 8 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“A Matter of Size” 6:50 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
“Ajami" 8:55 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
Jan. 17
“Cinema’s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood” 10:20 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Where I Stand” 10:30 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Nora’s Will” 1 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Eli & Ben” 1:10 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Saviors in the Night” (sold out) 3:15 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“War Against the Weak” 3:25 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“A Matter of Size “7 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Ajami” (sold out) 7:50 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“The Wedding Song” 9:05 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Within the Whirlwind” 10 a.m. Regal Atlantic Station
Shorts Program 112:10 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
“Anita” 2:20 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
“Lost Islands” 4:40 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
“Eyes Wide Open” 7 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
“Mary and Max” 9:30 p.m. Regal Atlantic Station
Jan. 18
“A History of Israeli Cinema” 10 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Leaving the Fold” and “Leap of Faith” (double feature) 10:25 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness” 2:15 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“The Wedding Song” 2:25 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Off and Running” 4:20 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Mary and Max” 4:30 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Eyes Wide Open” 6:45 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein” 8 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“The Girl on the Train” 9:15 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
Jan. 19
“American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein” 11 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Broken Promise” 1:25 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Eli & Ben” 4:10 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Against the Tide” 6:55 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“The Seven Days” 7:50 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Zrubavel” 9:35 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
Jan. 20
“Against the Tide” 10:55 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“The Seven Days” 1:35 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“War Against the Weak” 4:15 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Zion and His Brother” 6:45 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Mein Kampf” 7:30 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Jaffa” 9:05 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
Jan. 21
“Jaffa” 10:50 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Zion and His Brother” 1:25 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Mein Kampf” 3:45 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Seven Minutes in Heaven” 6:50 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Room and a Half” 7:30 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Ultimatum” 9:15 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
Jan. 22
“Seven Minutes in Heaven” 11 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Where I Stand: The Hank Greenspun Story” 11:05 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Ultimatum” 1:20 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Breaking Upwards” 1:25 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Lost Islands” (sold out) 3:30 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Nora’s Will” 3:40 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
Jan. 23
“Camera Obscura” 7 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“The Yankles” (sold out) 7:30 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Protektor” 9:10 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“A Matter of Size” 7 p.m. Regal Medlock
“Who Do You Love” 9:15 p.m. Regal Medlock
Jan. 24
“Camera Obscura” 10 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“In Search of Memory: The Neuroscientist Eric Kandel” 10:05 a.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
Shorts Program 2 12:10 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Protektor” 12:15 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Killing Kasztner” 2:20 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“The Yankles” (sold out) 2:30 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina” 5:15 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Yes, Miss Commander!” 5:25 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Who Do You Love” (sold out) 8:10 p.m. Lefont Sandy Springs
“Where I Stand: The Hank Greenspun Story” 10 a.m. Regal Medlock
“Ajami” 12:15 p.m. Regal Medlock
“Anita” 2:50 p.m. Regal Medlock
“Within the Whirlwind” 5:10 p.m. Regal Medlock
“The Yankles” 7:25 p.m. Regal Medlock
Times and ticket availability are subject to change. Please visit www.ajff.org .
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