Page 2 - Jewish News_February 2020

2A February 2020 FEDERATION NEWS

Jewish Film Festival: Celebrating 11 years A philosophy of giving where you live

By Gayle Guynup By Marty Katz, Sr. Dir. of Communications & Marketing
ow celebrating its 11 year, tion – are everyone’s issues and they da’s Balcony made a triumphant return ner, Rosa Zeegers, left the land her
th
the 2020 Jewish Film Festi- are issues we are dealing with today,” to Broadway, this time as a one-woman family had called home for centuries
Nval, hosted by The Jewish Kenner explained. “Everyone who saw show starring Tovah Feldshuh, playing and moved to the United States – only
Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, is the play or the film around the world all 45 characters. to find anti-Semitism on the rise there,
planned for March 11-22, and will started to believe this was their story. “She was so sensational in how she as well.
feature 18 new films from around the I came to understand that Fiddler was shifted from character to character,” When Evelyn’s mother passed
world, giving viewers a panoramic and not strictly a Jewish story. It was every- Fishelson said. “It was a dizzying, but away in 2014 and they were cleaning
thought-provoking view of Jewish life, one’s story. “One of my favorite lines clear-minded tour-de- out her closets, Markus says
history, culture and values. from the movie is when a Japanese di- force.” they found a letter dated May
Most of the films will be screened rector of Fiddler says, ‘I don’t know In May 2003, a 1945, in which her mother de-
in three theaters at the Regal Holly- multi-camera video re- scribed how the Americans had
wood 11 in downtown Sarasota. The cording was made liberated her as she was on her
Opening Night film, Fiddler: A Miracle of one of the per- way to a death camp. Markus
of Miracles, will be shown on Wednes- formances, and was showed the letter to a friend,
day, March 11 at 7:00 p.m. at the Sara- promptly locked away who showed it to a documen-
sota Municipal Auditorium (801 N. in a safe for 14 years. tary filmmaker friend, and the
Tamiami Trail); the Centerpiece film, In January of last year, result was Never Again Is Now.
Golda’s Balcony, The Film, will be what you Americans see in Fiddler. It Fishelson took it from The first part of the film tells
shown on Wednesday, March 18 at is so Japanese.’” the vault and discov- Evelyn Markus the story of Evelyn’s parents,
7:00 p.m. at the Sarasota Event Center This year’s Centerpiece film will ered it was “highly cinematic, captur- including an opportunity Evelyn had to
(600 N. Beneva Road); and the Closing be Golda’s Balcony, The Film, with ing the magic of the play.” meet with a 97-year-old American vet-
Event film, Never Again Is Now, will special guest David Fishelson, the He created Golda’s Balcony, The eran who had been among those who
be shown on Sunday, March 22 at 3:00 film’s New York City-based producer, Film, and has screened it at more liberated her mother from the train on
p.m., also at the Sarasota Event Center. who will be at the screening to answer than 40 Jewish film festivals across that fateful day. The second part is the
For a complete list of films, please visit questions from the audience. The film the country, where it has consistently story of Evelyn and Rosa, as they faced
jfedsrq.org/jff20. traces Golda Meir’s rise from a Russian won Audience Choice Awards. The rising anti-Semitism in their homeland,
The festival will kick off with schoolgirl, to American school teacher, 18-month window during which he is and in 2006 made the decision to emi-
Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles, which to a leader on the global political stage allowed to show the film at film festi- grate to the United States. The final
explores one of Broadway’s most be- as Israel’s Prime Minister. vals will be coming to an end in Au- part of the film is about life in the Unit-
loved musicals – Fiddler on the Roof “If you tell the story of Golda Meir, gust, which means Sarasota audiences ed States, as she questions why anti-
– including intimate interviews with you are telling the story of the Jews for will be among the last to see the film. Semitism has found a new home here,
the show’s creators. The documentary the last 100 years, including, of course, At that point, Fishelson must wait five and is surging once again.
takes viewers inside a variety of inter- the birth of the State of Israel,” Fish- years before he can sell the film to “My hope is that this film will con-
national productions of Fiddler, detail- elson said. “It is an incredibly well- companies such as Netflix. vince people to take the early signs
ing how individuals of many different The Jewish Film Festival con- of anti-Semitism seriously,” she said.
cultures see themselves reflected in the cludes on March 22 with Never Again “There are ideologies out there every
residents of Anatevka. Is Now, with special guests Evelyn bit as lethal as Nazism was, and we
According to Executive Producer Markus and Rosa Zeegers, who will need to stand up against it. In the last
Patti Kenner, she became involved answer questions after the screening. two to three years, we are seeing the
when the film’s director, Max Lewkow- The film is a powerful documen- same signs that were there as the Nazi
icz, contacted her and two other women tary about the rise of global anti-Semi- movement started in Europe. We have
trustees at the Museum of Jewish Heri- tism, told through the eyes of Markus, to stop it. We have to stop it now.”

tage in New York, asking if they would a Dutch Jewish woman, against the For sponsorship opportunities or to
like to be involved in the project. written history of the Jews,” he added. backdrop of the Holocaust and the rise purchase tickets, visit jfedsrq.org/jff20,
“It is a play I have always adored Fishelson describes the creation of anti-Semitism. When Markus saw call 888.718.4253 option 1, or contact
and seen over and over again. Of of the film as a 50-year journey. The signs of anti-Semitism in her beloved Jeremy Lisitza at jlisitza@jfedsrq.org
course, we all said yes,” Kenner said. 45-character play, written by Wil- Netherlands, she and her lifelong part- or 941.343.2113.
“The issues confronted in the play liam Gibson, “crashed and burned” in
– tradition, marriage, rebellious daugh- its first Broadway incarnation, but in A Sneak Peek...continued from page 1A
ters, persecution, forced immigra- 2003, with Fishelson as producer, Gol-

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