Un Cielo Stellato Sopra Il Ghetto Di Roma
Thursday, February 24
7:30 PM
Cinema Café Kemps River
1220 Fordham Drive
Virginia Beach
Limited seating, pre-purchase strongly suggested.
Join us in the theater or watch at home, LIVE!
Director Giulio Base | 100 min
Italy | 2020
Italian with English Subtitles | Not Rated
Led by a talented ensemble of young actors, this inspirational interfaith story is a reminder of the importance of memory, coexistence and resolving generational friction. When teenaged Sofia finds a wartime photo of a Jewish child hidden in an old suitcase, she enlists the help of a group of students from Rome’s Jewish community to discover the fate of this person. Her quest will have life-changing consequences as she discovers the truth about the child’s history, as well as that of her own family. The film offers a refreshing look at history through the eyes of a new generation.
THE BIG SATURDAY NIGHT CELEBRATION
INCLUDES A CONVERSATION WITH JUDI BEECHER, ONE OF THE FILM'S STARS, AND A CHAMPAGNE AND DESSERT RECEPTION TO-GO
[See Ticket Pricing section below for Kids Night Out babysitting during this film!]
Saturday, February 26
7:30 PM
Susan S. Goode Fine and
Performing Arts Center
Virginia Wesleyan University
5817 Wesleyan Drive
Virginia Beach
Limited seating, pre-purchase strongly suggested.
Join us in the theater or watch at home, LIVE!
Director Gabriel Bologna | 115 min
USA | 2020
English | PG-13
How fitting the first film in history that the Vatican, a Hasidic Synagogue, a Mosque and a Sikh Temple would collaborate on, is a comedy! From the director of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” “Tango Shalom” features an award-winning ensemble cast including Lainie Kazan, Renee Taylor, Joseph Bologna, Judi Beecher, and Dancing with the Stars pro, Karina Smirnoff.
Moshe Yehuda, a Hasidic Rabbi and amateur Hora dancer, played by Jos Laniado, enters a Tango competition to save his Hebrew school from bankruptcy. There is one problem: due to his orthodox beliefs, he is not allowed to touch a woman! At odds with his family, the Grand Rabbi of his orthodox sect, and the entire Hasidic community, Moshe asks a Catholic priest, a Muslim Imam and a Sikh holy man to help him dance in the Tango contest “without sacrificing his sacred beliefs.” “Tango Shalom” tests the bonds of family and community, and the bounds of tolerance and faith.
FOLLOWED BY A DISCUSSION WITH PRODUCER AND EDITOR, YAEL PERLOV
Sunday, February 27
2:30 PM
Susan S. Goode Fine and
Performing Arts Center
Virginia Wesleyan University
5817 Wesleyan Drive
Virginia Beach
Limited seating, pre-purchase strongly suggested.
Join us in the theater or watch at home, LIVE!
Director Yariv Mozer | 70 min
Israel | 2016
Hebrew with English Subtitles | Not Rated
An interview with David Ben-Gurion, one of modern history's greatest leaders, emerges from the obscurity of an archive where it has lain unrecognized for decades. It is 1968, and Ben-Gurion is 82 years old, five years before his death. He lives in the seclusion of his home in the desert, remote from all political discourse, which allows him a perspective on the Zionist enterprise. His introspective soul-searching is the focus of this film, and his reflections provide a surprising vision for today's crucial decisions and for the future of Israel.
Yael Perlov is the two-time winner of the Israeli Academy Prize for film, laureate of the Art of Film prize of the Ministry of Art and Culture, senior lecturer at the Film and Television Department at Tel Aviv University, and is currently a visiting scholar at Duke University.
As part of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, Simon Family JCC, Embassy of Israel and community partners’ 11th annual Israel Today series.
A sparkling new 4K restoration in honor of the film’s 40th anniversary
AN EVENING DEDICATED TO LONGTIME FRIEND OF THE FESTIVAL, MAL VINCENT
INCLUDES A CONVERSATION WITH RABBI MICHAEL PANITZ
Monday, February 28
7:00 PM
Naro Expanded Cinema
1507 Colley Avenue
Norfolk
Limited seating, pre-purchase strongly suggested.
Join us in the theater or watch at home, LIVE!
Director Joan Micklin Silver | 89 min
USA | 1975
English | PG
Among the great cinematic portraits of Jewish life in America, Joan Micklin Silver’s debut feature is anchored by her own screenplay (adapted from Abraham Cahan’s 1896 novella Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto) and an unforgettable, Oscar-nominated performance by Carol Kane. Kane stars as Gitl, one half of an Eastern European Jewish couple alongside Yankel (Steven Keats). Upon arriving in New York’s Lower East Side in the late 19th century, Gitl finds that Yankel, who’d come over to America before her and their young son Yossele, has begun an affair with a dancer, and Gitl finds herself in an unenviable situation in a strange new place. Hester Street reconstructs this bygone haven for Jewish immigrants to paint one woman’s journey to assimilation and her arrival at the crossroads of tradition and modernity.
Offering shared experiences and connections through film and cultural programs inspired by Jewish legacy and values over the last 28 years, here’s a look back at the most recent films the community has enjoyed, many of which are now available online at little or no cost.
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015