Jewish Film Festival specializes in a rarity: smart movies

Note to Hollywood and North American film distributors: There is intelligent life in the moviegoing universe, smart people who want to watch challenging titles beyond the handful of prestige Oscar nominees each year.

For proof, we submit for consideration the case of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, whose 11th edition kicks off Tuesday with a Fox Theatre gala showing of the documentary "Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story."

Atlanta's biggest film festival and the second-largest Jewish film fest in the country (after San Francisco's), the AJFF drew more than 20,000 movie lovers, about 20 percent of them non-Jewish, last year for a heady mix of narrative films, documentaries and shorts. Based on that success, organizers are significantly expanding the offerings. The festival will grow from 12 to 20 days and present 66 films and 99 screenings at six theaters, compared to 51 films and 76 screenings at three multiplexes last year.

Best of all, there's no sign of needless sequels, blood-thirsty slashers, over-the-hill superheroes or Adam Sandler.

While some factors in the AJFF's success must be acknowledged -- it's well organized and heavily promoted, and benefits from an obvious built-in audience of film fans in Atlanta's Jewish community -- many feel the quality slate of films is the main factor in growing attendance.

"The fact that there is a 60-plus-person selection committee means the choices are not made by jurors who are trained experts in film, but people who love movies and are smart, and thus do reflect this appetite for quality, mature, intelligent films being screened in Atlanta," says festival co-chairman Matthew Bernstein, an Emory University film studies professor.

Bernstein laments the "bottleneck" in commercial distribution for such offerings, especially documentaries and foreign films. The latter "have gotten poor distribution" here, he notes, pointing out that only one of the five best foreign language film Oscar nominees, Mexico's "Biutiful," has been shown in Atlanta so far.

"Perhaps at most two films a year from Israel get theatrical distribution" in the U.S., Bernstein adds. That, of course, is a strength of the AJFF, whose schedule is roughly one-third Israeli.

Overall, the films are drawn from 19 countries.

Bernstein is also bullish on the AJFF's documentaries: "a real strength of the festival -- so many great untold stories that are so well-done," he says. This year's edition, in fact, includes 31 documentary features and two documentary shorts.

Among Bernstein's top documentary picks:

• "100 Voices: A Journey Home," about a group of world-class cantors performing in Poland, birthplace of songful Jewish prayer.

• "Ahead of Time," about foreign correspondent-photographer Ruth Gruber, who escorted Holocaust refugees to America in a secret World War II mission.

• "Precious Life," about a Palestinian infant being treated for a rare immune disorder by Israeli doctors.

• "Voices Unbound: The Story of the Freedom Writers," the Oscar-nominated docu about the California high school teacher of at-risk students who was portrayed by Hillary Swank in the drama "Freedom Writers."

• "Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny," examining the British prime minister's anti-Nazi stance.

Bernstein's favorite fiction films include:

• "The Round Up," a portrayal of the 1942 arrest and deportation of Parisian Jews and the gentiles who rallied to their aid. He puts it in the strong company of "The Pianist" and even "Schindler's List."

• "Bride Flight," a romantic epic charting the lives of a trio of women on a 1953 flight to New Zealand escaping the gloom of post-war Holland.

• "Five Brothers," about a quintet of French-Algerian brothers and their families who get stuck in a criminal underworld web.

• "Little Rose," an espionage drama set in late 1960s Communist Poland.

• "The Loners," about two Russian emigre soldiers in the Israeli army who are falsely accused of treason.

• "The Matchmaker," an Israeli coming-of-age fable about a 16-year-old who works for a slick Romanian matchmaker.

• "Five Hours From Paris" and "The Names of Love," both of which he terms "superior to any mainstream rom-com released this past year."

"Will these films ever get American distribution?" Bernstein asks rhetorically. "Difficult to know. And if they do, it will be very few, and through boutique distributors perhaps years after we’ve shown them."

But with the  AJFF expanding, Atlantans need neither wait nor wonder.

SIDEBAR

From Tuesday's kick off at the Fox Theatre to the closing night Academy Award viewing party at Strip on Feb. 27, organizers have not only expanded this year's Atlanta Jewish Film Festival but attempted to enhance the feeling of attending a film-centric event.

• The opening night gala, which routinely had sold out early at Regal Cinemas Atlantic Station 16, will be staged at the 4,600-seat Fox, where the film will be Peter Miller's documentary "Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story." Adding some luster, there will be a pre-film VIP reception in the Egyptian Ballroom with food and wine from some top Atlanta chefs.

"That was an ingredient perhaps that we were missing," acknowledges AJFF executive director Kenny Blank. "Something that makes for a fully classy film festival experience is a really nice opening night kickoff."

Blank says "Jews and Baseball" was given the prime opening night slot because, "It's a real crowd-pleaser, bridging between ages and faiths and people are sports fans and non-sports fans. It has broad themes of combating bigotry and overcoming prejudice, as well as the heroism of sports."

• The Young Professionals Night on Feb. 9 will also move from Atlantic Station to the larger Buckhead Theatre, for a showing of the documentary "The 'Socalled' Movie." It's about Montreal musician Josh Dolgin (aka Socalled), who mashes klezmer with jazz and hip-hop. A party will precede the screening and a Socalled concert will follow.

• The festival also is adding hospitality lounges for pre- and post-screening socializing and networking. Audiences at Regal Cinemas Atlantic Station 16 can get their "nosh on, " as the AJFF program describes it, at Strip. Lefont Sandy Springs guests will have a reserved space at Three Sheets; Regal's Medlock Crossing Stadium 18 in Johns Creek at Pastas and Tapas; and visitors to a new festival venue, Georgia Theatre Co.'s Merchants Walk 12 in Marietta, Marlow's Tavern.

The expanded slate affords several program threads:

• A strong grouping of musical films, including "Gainsbourg, " a biopic on the late French pop music star Serge Gainsbourg, and "Wagner & Me," about British personality Stephen Fry's attempts to reconcile a love for the composer's music with his Nazi associations.

• A classics component, screening the restored Yiddish film "Yiddle with His Fiddle" (starring silent era standout Molly Picon) on its 75th anniversary, the Olympics-set "Chariots of Fire" on its 30th and the animated "An American Tail" on its 25th.

• Comedy and romance showing on Valentine's Day.