The Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg (JFFB) took place for the 30th time this June 18–23.
Founded in 1995 by Nicola Galliner, who at the end of 2020 stepped down after 25 years of standing up for the films at her festival with all her impressive personality, the Festival was acquired by FilmFestival Cottbus which had become known as The Place to see films from Eastern Europe when it began in 1991, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
In that context of Eastern Europe and Jewry, the two in the past jointly presented the documentary Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon about the Jewish-Bulgarian film author and novelist Angel Wagenstein and other films during a partnership of a couple of years. Vishniac, the famed Eastern European photographer, produced by Nancy Spielberg and directed by Laura Bialis is one of several Eastern European/ Jewish subjects.
The largest section called Break or Continuity? ‘Anti-Zionism’ and Anti-Semitism in Socialism and After shows films Poland’s Gdansk Railway Station(2007), and films from USSR (The Commissar, 1967), the DDR (Die Sturmer, 1967) and Israel 74 from 1974, the DDR — Soviet Union 1971 copro Goya about the famous painter living a comfortable life as a court painter simultanously as the Inquisition goes on, the Czech 2020 film He Who Digs a Pit: Rudolf Slansky about the Soviet show trial against Slansky. In fact,there were four films on the famous Stalin show trials in the 1950s, centering around Rudolf Slansky. Also showing was Pawel Pawlikowski’s powerful Ida of 2013, and some other films from DDR, Poland, Czech Republic or Czechoslovkia.
Both festivals want to show good films and give them access to the market. In addition, they both aim to strengthen talents, to arouse curiosity about world Jewry as well as Eastern Europe, to question common clichés and to promote dialogue. Therefore, almost every film is followed by an exciting film discussion (Q&A).
Clichés abide and are still the topic of discussions including a public debate about Anti-Semitism and panels focusing on right wing violence and terrorism, politics of the images of terror, anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism, filming with and about trauma. Quite a Tzimmes broke out over more than one subject.
Three notable films from France were Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, A Nice Jewish Boy by Noe Debre who says his French distributor asked him to change the French title Le Dernier Juif (The Last Jew) because of its sinister connotations. It is a comedy by the way. S
Someone remarked how easy it seems for the French to include Jewish characters and even to make a comedy about French Jews (except for the post-October 7 anxiety about the title mentioned above), whereas in Germany, no one laughs about the Jews and most films are about Nazis and Jews.
The French-German coproduction directed by Julia von Heinz, Treasure Treasure was about a man wanting to return to Poland where his family had been wiped out.
The feature film competition and documentary competition films were all from USA, France and Israel, with one from Australia (Revenge: Our Dad the Nazi Killer), one from Canada (Less Than Kosher), a short from UK (The Soldier on Smithdown Road).
Only one film in compeititon was from Germany — Salty Water Sudsee in Feature Competition and one German-Israeli coproduction by Assaaff Lapid, The Return from The Other Planet in the Doc Competition.
There was a section called Facing the Fear — Cinematic Reflections on Terror, Trauma and Resistance which addressed forms of terrorist violance in various attacks: Iciar Ballain’s Maixable from Spain about terrorism and the assassination of a Basque politician and One Year, One Night from France and Spain about the Bataclan night club attack in France, Maalbeck a short about the Maalbeek metro bombing in Brussels and a Scandinavian film Recontructing Utoya about the terrorist attack of July 22, 2011 and Utoya July 22 about the same terrorist attac on a holiday camp in Norway, and a Kenyan-German short Watu Wote/ All of Us, about a bus hijacking by Islamist Al-Shabaab terrorists. In the discussion it was noted that several films are now in the works about October 7, including one being produced by Nancy Spielberg who was in town for her documentary Vishniac.
As you see from these topic, the JFBB is a serious affair.
In addition, the first edition of JBFF-Pro explored aspects of the film industry beginning with how post October 7 some mainstream festivals are cutting off alliances with Jewish Film Festivals because their backers are requesting it, and the Jewish references to films are being excised from published film descriptions.
American producer of Vishniac Nancy Spielberg and Marcia Jamel, a producer, jury member and the Director of the Jewish Film Institute in San Francisco noted that since October 7, some Jewish films have been dropped by exhibitors or by festivals because they were too Jewish and they feared trouble.
No one was sure if this was a trend or would soon end. It made for some powerful discussions.
A Market for Jewish films?
A panel of international producers, curators and film distributors addressed the question of what expectations exist for films with Jewish themes and what prospects and market opportunities these productions have. The panel also discussed the important role of Jewish film festivals in this context.
Other panelists aside from Jamel and Spielberg included Christian Sommer (Motion Picture Association) and Dana Schlanger (Bucharest Jewish Film Festival).
Another panel discussions of great interest was How to Write Jewish Characters, an international conversation between experienced screenwriters attempting to answer this question against the backdrop of differing national production conditions, various perspectives on the portrayal Jewish characters between stereotyping, authenticity and subjectivity. Participants were Noé Debré (Screenwriter and Director), Dani Levy (Screenwriter, Director, Actor), David Hadda (Screenwriter and Producer) and Natalia Sinelnikova (Screenwriter and Director)
In cooperation with the association Deutscher Drehbuchverband e. V.
When Nicole Gallina retired at the end of 2020 she handed over the reins to Doreen Goethe and Andreas Stein, who organize, among other things, the FilmFestival Cottbus, and the program directors Bernd Buder (FilmFestival Cottbus, Cinedays Skopje) and the film scholar Lea Wohl von Haselberg who are responsible for the film selection, together with a board of trustees consisting of the producer Naomi Levari, the filmmaker Amos Geva, and the director Arkadij Khaet.
The FilmFestival Cottbus (FFC) is one of the leading international festivals of Eastern European film. It will take place from November 5 to 10, 2024.
Further information: www.jffb.de
Double head of program management: Bernd Buder and Lea Wohl von Haselberg
BERND BUDER
(*1964 in Berlin) is program director of the JFBB. He studied political science at the FU Berlin. Since then, he has been on the road as a curator, film journalist and lecturer in the international film landscape. Since 2015, he has been program director of the FilmFestival Cottbus. In addition, he worked for the Berlin Filmkunsthaus Babylon, the Turkish Film Week Berlin and the co-production market Connecting Cottbus. He advises the European film festival Cinedays in Skopje and the Berlinale Forum.
-> Mail to Bernd Buder: b.buder [at] jfbb.info
LEA WOHL VON HASELBERG
(*1984) is a film and media scientist and received her doctorate in Hamburg and Haifa with a thesis on Jewish feature film characters in West German film and television. She researches and teaches at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. The focus of work is on the representation of Jewish topics in Federal Republic discourses, Jewish film history and (audiovisual) cultures of remembrance. She is also co-editor of the Yalta magazine. Positions on the Jewish present.
— > Mail to Lea Wohl von Haselberg: l.wohlvhaselberg [at] jfbb.info
The Jewish Film Festival Berlin Brandenburg has, as one of its prospective goals, not only the establishment as the largest Jewish audience festival in Europe, but also to become the first point of contact for Jewish filmmakers and worldwide representatives of the film industry in Europe.
JFFB Pro events are all held in English.
Participation is free of charge, but requires registration. email Merlin Webers pro [at] jfbb.info to participate.
Cooperation partners are the Berlin artist program of the DAAD, the Motion Pictures Association and the German Screenplay Association.
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