The Maine Jewish Film Festival (MJFF) is set to kick off its opening night on Mar. 13 in various theaters and venues in the city of Portland.
The festival, now in its 7th year of production, showcases films created by Jewish and non-Jewish filmmakers from all over the world. This year the festival will showcase 26 films over a five-night period, with featured directors Suzanne Wasserman and Yifat Kedar making guest appearances.
The MJFF’s focus is on Judaism, but its goal is to please its audience. “I work with a film selection committee to choose the films. We accept submissions and we work very hard to seek out films that we think our audiences will like,” said Bess Welden, executive director of MJFF.
This year, the MJFF received an Oscar award and a grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to help expand MJFF’s Women’s Filmmakers Forum. In the past, the Women’s forum has garnered only minimal interest, yielding a couple of films per year over the last five years. This year, with the grant from the AMPAS, and sponsors such as the Maine Women’s Fund, and USM’s Women’s Studies Program, the MJFF has been able to expand the forum to include additional films and guests throughout the entire week.
Welden said that USM students should enjoy the film “Divine Intervention.” It is a controversial film consisting of dark humor about filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s hometown of Nazareth. That movie will be showing at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 17 on the Movies on Exchange Street. Another movie, starring Harrison Ford and Gene Wilder called “The Frisco Kid,” is a classic “Jewish Western” about a Polish rabbi and a gun-slinging bank robber engaging in a hilarious cross country trip together, according to MJFF’s website.
The MJFF is similar to approximately 30 to 40 Jewish film festivals around the country – most notable are ones held in San Francisco, CA; Washington, D.C.; Boston, MA; San Diego, CA; and Palm Beach, Florida.
“Many other cities of comparable size to Portland have Jewish film festivals, but they are run under the auspices of a larger organization, like a community center or synagogue. The MJFF is the only independent one in a smaller city,” said Welden.
According to Festival Consultant David Hilton, The MJFF has been preceded by a handful of other film festivals to come to the city of Portland. The Peabody Diversity Festival is a two-day celebration of Gay & Lesbian inspired films that only lasted two years. Also short lived were the Festival of World Cinema, which lasted one year, and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which is a touring festival that came through Portland once in 2002.
Welden said that USM’s sponsorship of the festival has been more than helpful, and she promises that a number of films shown will be enjoyed by many students, Jewish or non-Jewish. “Although, the MJFF has a very specific focus as a Jewish festival, we have managed to showcase so many really wonderful films with such a broad range of themes that our program appeals to anyone who just loves movies.”
It will cost $7 to attend all the screenings of the five-day festival. Weldon urged the USM community to attend. “It’s our goal to bring films to Maine that otherwise would never be seen. And with our attendance growing each year, I think we fill a real need in not just Portland’s, but Northern New England’s arts and culture scene.”
For more information, including show times, visit the Maine Jewish Film Festival website or phone at 831-7495.
Joe Bilancieri can be contacted at [email protected]