Award-winning films presented in 3-day mini festival at Mary D. Fisher Theatre
Sedona AZ (October 23, 2019) – The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to team up with the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley to present the Eighth Annual Sedona Jewish Film Festival Nov. 2-4 at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre. The program will feature five award-winning feature films from around the world.
GOLDA’S BALCONY, THE FILM — Opening Night Film
Saturday, Nov. 2 at 7:00 p.m.
Tovah Feldshuh recreates 100 years of Jewish history playing 45 different characters (including Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Holocaust survivors, Israeli soldiers and, of course, Golda Meir herself), in one of the greatest acting performances of the last 50 years — now captured on film for all time, in this brand new motion picture, “Golda’s Balcony, The Film”.
Never has the whole Jewish century been dramatized with such heart, dazzle, and sheer jaw-dropping artistry, than in this 85-minute movie which has become, perhaps, the ‘Cinderella Film’ of the 2019-20 Jewish Film Festival season.
In this final masterpiece (brilliantly directed by Scott Schwartz) by William Gibson, author of “The Miracle Worker,” the rise of Golda Meir from Russian schoolgirl to Prime Minister of Israel is one of the most thrilling and amazing stories of the 20th Century. In “Golda’s Balcony, The Film”, her life has been transformed into a cinematic event of overwhelming power and inspirational triumph.
As a play on Broadway and Off, Golda’s Balcony sold out over 500 performances, becoming the longest-running, one-woman show in Broadway history. Tovah Feldshuh’s galvanizing, Tony Award-nominated rendition of Golda has been so dramatically edited that audiences may now get up close and personal to Tovah’s marvelous work: her face, her expressions — and the subtlety and unprecedented brilliance of her Golda Meir (and the other 44 characters she plays!). (USA, 2019, 85 minutes)
This special screening of “Golda’s Balcony, The Film” will be followed by a Skype Q&A with Tony Award-nominated actress and star of the film and play, Tovah Feldshuh.
WORKING WOMAN
Sunday, Nov. 3 at 4:00 p.m.
Orna, (Liron Ben Shlush) is the mother of three young children with a husband struggling to start his own restaurant. To help support her family Orna returns to the workplace, landing a job with a former army superior, Benny (Menashe Noy) who is now a successful real estate developer.
While Orna embraces her new position and tries to balance its demands with her home life, she begins to experience escalating sexual harassment from her boss. Her rapid rise through the ranks and her increasing financial success seem to parallel a pattern of predatory behavior which ultimately brings her career and marital relationship to the brink. This timely and devastating story is expertly told by long time feminist filmmaker Michal Aviad. (Israel, 2018, 93 minutes)
IT MUST SCHWING! THE BLUE NOTE STORY
Sunday, Nov. 3 at 7:00 p.m.
In 1939, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, two young émigrés from Berlin, founded the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records in New York. The label dedicated itself exclusively to the recording of American jazz music and developed its own unmistakeable recording style and sound.
Blue Note Records discovered and produced an impressive roster of international jazz stars. This included Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk and Quincy Jones. At a time when Afro-American musicians in the USA were discriminated against and ostracised, Blue Note records respected them as artists and equals. Not only did the label value their talents, it also gave them a much-needed platform. “It Must Schwing!” tells the moving story of two friends, united by a passionate love for jazz, and of their profound belief in equality and freedom for every single human being. (Germany, 2018, 115 minutes)
THE SAMUEL PROJECT
Monday, Nov. 4 at 4:00 p.m.
When one man’s story becomes art.
Eli (Ryan Ochoa) gets to know his grandfather Samuel (Hal Linden) for the first time when he makes him the subject of an animated art project for school. With dreams of becoming a professional artist, the high school senior discovers that his grandpa, a Jewish dry cleaner, was heroically saved from Nazi capture in Germany by a young woman when he was a boy.
“Art can unearth stories long-buried and bring to light stories so marginalized, they were never even told.” — Nadia Akiyama, The Samuel Project (USA, 2018, 92 minutes)
FIDDLER: A MIRACLE OF MIRACLES – Closing Night Film
Monday, Nov. 4 at 7:00 p.m.
“Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles” is the origin story behind one of Broadway’s most beloved musicals, Fiddler on The Roof, and its creative roots in early 1960s New York, when “tradition” was on the wane as gender roles, sexuality, race relations and religion were evolving.
“Fiddler” is the first in-depth documentary film that chronicles the life and themes of this iconic offering of American theater and culture. The goal of our documentary is to understand why the story of Tevye the milkman is reborn again and again as beloved entertainment and cultural touchstone the world over.
Opening in 1964, “Fiddler on the Roof” held the record for the longest running musical for almost 10 years, won nine Tony Awards, and spawned five Broadway revivals. The show is still performed more than any other show, from middle schools in inner cities to high schools in rural America, around the world from grand state theaters in Japan and Vienna to Johannesburg and Mexico City.
“Fiddler” features interviews with lyricist Sheldon Harnick, producer Hal Prince, original cast member Austin Pendleton, Broadway figures Lin-Manuel Miranda, Chaim Topol and Harvey Fierstei, and authors Fran Lebowitz, Calvin Trillin and Nathan Englander. (USA, 2019, 92 minutes)
“Fidder: A Miracle of Miracles” will be preceded by the short film, “The Fiddle” by director Asher Schwartz. On a lonely slanted roof in Anatevka, a hunched figure plays the fiddle. His soulful music finds its way into the simple homes of even simpler Jews. But this fiddler didn’t always sit on the roof. Come to think of it, he didn’t always have a fiddle to play either. And were it up to his father, Sholom wouldn’t know what a fiddle was at all. Based on Sholem Aleichem’s short story “The Fiddle”, this is the story of Sholom, the boy that was destined to become the fiddler on the roof. (Israel, 2018, 9 minutes)
The Sedona Jewish Film Festival is presented by the Cultural Committee of the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley and the Sedona International Film Festival.
Tickets for each show are $12 general admission, or $9 for Film Festival members. For tickets and more information, please call 928-282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona. For more information and to order tickets online, visit: www.SedonaFilmFestival.org.