Jewish Studies: 2010 Long Beach Jewish Film Festival

Individual tickets cost $10, while a festival pass is $45 (this includes admission to all films). Parking is free.

Full information at http://www.alpertjcc.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=LongBeachJewishFilmFestival&category=community_events

Abbreviated program of the films:

Thursday, November 11, 7:30 pm
Nora’s Will (Mexico 2010 – in Spanish and Hebrew with English subtitles) (comedy/drama – 92 minutes).
Synopsis: Not satisfied with a life spent trying to control her family, Nora doesn’t intend to let death stop her. Her ex-husband is willing to go to ridiculous lengths to thwart her Passover plan, revealed through Nora’s post-mortum notes, but even though he’s still alive, he’s up against a master manipulator.

Saturday, November 13, 7:30 pm
Anita (Argentina 2009 – in Spanish with English subtitles) (drama – 105 minutes)
Synopsis: Anita’s sheltered life with her mother in Buenos Aires is shattered one day, and the guileless Jewish child with Down Syndrome is cast adrift on the streets of the city. The resources she summons during her odyssey are as remarkable as the way she illuminates the souls of the strangers she encounters.

Sunday, November 14, 10:00 am and 2:00 pm
Advice & Dissent (United States 2002 – in English) (dark comedy – 21 minutes)
Synopsis: If you want your wife to die of a curse, there’s a right way and a wrong way. Only a rabbi can tell you what halacha (Jewish law) permits.

Sunday, November 14, 10:30 am
Inside Hana’s Suitcase (Canada/Czech Republic – in English) (docudrama – 90 minutes)
Synopsis: Children in a Japanese school and their teacher receive a battered suitcase from among those found at Auschwitz and set about finding out about the woman whose name is written on it while trying to understand what happened to her.

Sunday, November 14, 2:30 pm [change from the earlier program]:
The Yankles (United States 2009 – in English) (comedy – 115 minutes)
Synopsis: Charlie Jones, an ex-major league ballplayer, has to serve nearly 200 hours of community service, and while he’s eager to coach an amateur team as part of his penalty, no one seems willing to take a chance on him. However, that’s before he meets Elliot, an Orthodox Jew studying to become a rabbi. Elliot is trying to salvage his hapless Yeshiva school baseball team.

A Question and Answer with the director, writer, and producers will follow the screening.

Sunday, November 14, 5:00 pm
A Love to Hide (France 2005 -in French with English subtitles) (drama – 102 minutes)
Synopsis: a Jewish girl fleeing the Gestapo in occupied France finds refuge with a friend from childhood summer vacations. But he is now part of a gay couple, and all three are marked for extermination by the Nazis.