The San Diego Jewish Film
Festival
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The Joyce Forum presents outstanding
Jewish-themed short-subject, documentary,
and feature films by student and earlycareer
filmmakers from all over the world.
Named in honor of San Diego Jewish Film
Festival Founder Joyce Axelrod, the Joyce
Forum supports emerging filmmakers by
showcasing their talent and exposing
their work to established filmmakers,
artists, and industry peers. This year the
Joyce Forum will also present early works
by veteran filmmakers Alan Berliner and
Dan Katzir whose latest films are also being
screened in the festival.
12:00 P.M.
Director: Alan Berliner
USA, 1996, 60 min., DigiBeta, English
Categories: Documentary, English Language
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Nobody’s Business
[ Film Details ]
This multiple-award winner delves into both the
humorous and the poignant sides of aging. For
filmmaker Alan Berliner, it’s an uphill battle to
coerce his father, Oscar, into sharing his life story.
Their complex father-son dynamic is at times funny,
painful, and ultimately enlightening, proving that
even the deepest family wounds can be healed.
Guest Artist: Director Alan Berliner
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2:00 P.M.
| Joyce Shorts: “Shorts in Winter”
Director: Turner Hoffman
Canada, 2006, 5 min., BetaSP, English
Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects, English Language, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression
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Sunday School Lockout
[ Film Details ]
Melissa Hoffman would rather do 180,000
push-ups than go to Sunday School. The Toronto
fourth-grader has “a dream come true” when her
Hebrew School is canceled because of a locked
building. This charming gem is told through
Melissa’s eyes, produced by her mother, but filmed
by her six-year-old brother Turner, the festival’s
youngest-ever filmmaker.
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Director: Sarah Lazarovic
Canada/USA, 2004, 14 min., Animated, English
Categories: Documentary, History, Short Subjects, English Language
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Dorchester Street playing with Two Ladies
[ Film Details ]
Canadian director Sarah Lazarovic uses a
unique, whimsical style that combines live action
footage and animation in her charming shorts.
Dorchester Street is an affectionate tribute to
Montreal’s Dorchester Street district. The
filmmaker’s friends and family bring its colorful
past to life. Two Ladies compares and contrasts
Lazarovic’s two grandmothers, a Bronx-born
firebrand and a Czech-born cynic. The loving tribute
entices the audience to sing and dance along with
its seemingly familiar characters.
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Director: Naomi Levari
Israel, 2004, 18 min., BetaSP, Hebrew w/ subtitles
Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects,Family Relation & Coming of Age, Arab/Israeli Issues
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Draft
[ Film Details ]
In this emotionally powerful film, writer/director
Naomi Levari introduces a father and son at
ideological odds. The father, a 60s-era pacifist, has
just twenty-four hours to stop his son from enlisting
in the army. Draft was awarded Student Visionary
Special Mention at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2005.
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Director: James Breese
UK, 2005, 17min., DigiBeta, Englishs
Categories: Benjamin’s Struggle, English Language, Holocaust
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Benjamin’s Struggle
[ Film Details ]
This short-subject film is a tale of persecution and
ironic justice. In 1924, while imprisoned in
Landsberg Castle, Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf,
his terrifying blueprint of things to come. A decade
later, during the Nazi’s reign of terror, a nine-yearold
German boy chances upon the highly prized
original manuscript of Hitler’s book and begins a
lifelong quest. Stars Andrew Sachs, who, as a boy,
escaped the Nazis.
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Director: Melanie Yashar
USA, 7 min., DVD, Farsi w/ subtitles
Categories: Holocaust, Faith & Spirituality, Human Rights & Freedom of Expression, Short Subjects, History, Faith
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Faith
[ Film Details ]
Produced at UCSD, this documentary depicts an
Iranian-Jewish man, now living in Los Angeles. As
the one-time leader of the Communist Party in
Tehran, imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis, and
facing discrimination since birth, he reflects on how
his faith has galvanized him.
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Director: Nadav Lapid
Israel, 2005, 17 min., BetaSP, Hebrew and Arabic w/ subtitles
Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects, Israeli Films, Arab/Israeli Issues
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Road
[ Film Details ]
In the Judean desert, on a narrow winding road,
a young couple is making love beside a
memorial pillar. Only a year before, on the very
same road, four Palestinian workers kidnapped
their Israeli employer and placed him on trial,
charging him with injustices of Zionism and
crimes of occupation.
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The Metamorphosis
[ Film Details ]
This short comedy is the story of Stan Leiber,
who is surprised to awaken one morning and
find that the unexplained pain in the back of his
head is actually a yarmulke growing there.
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Director: Julia Kots
2006, USA, 8 min., DigiBeta, English
Categories: Fiction, Short Subjects, English Language, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Faith & Spirituality
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Naturalized
[ Film Details ]
A Russian immigrant to the United States wages a
hilarious battle with his overbearing parents when
he decides to undergo the ultimate rite of male
Jewish identity.
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5:00 P.M.
Director: Dan Katzir
Israel, 1997, 55 min., BetaSP, Hebrew w/subtitles
Categories: Documentary, History, Israeli Films, Family Relations & Coming of Age
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Out For Love, Be Back Shortly
[ Film Details ]
Dan Katzir’s autobiographical account of the
uncertainty experienced by his generation, the
children of those who founded the State of
Israel. Despite growing up with wonderful role
models, he finds himself doubting his country
and his culture. Made in 1997, and considered
the most important film about the Rabin era,
Out for Love… explores the trials of finding love
in a world filled with hatred and terror.
Guest Artist: Director Dan Katzir
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6:00 P.M.
Dinner and Discussion
with filmmaker Dan Katzir
Call the JCC Box Office to reserve tickets and your meal today!
7:30 P.M.
Director: John Mounier
USA, 71 min., DigitBeta, English
Categories: Documentary, English Language, Family Relations & Coming of Age, Faith & Spirituality
[ click to close ]
Beyond Eyruv
[ Film Details ]
Twenty-year-old Moshe Galan longs to escape
the narrow confines of his close-knit ultra-
Orthodox Chasidic community and to satisfy his
curiosity about the “world out there.” Severely
lacking basic skills, but with the help of his
secular grandparents, he leaves behind the only
life he’s ever known and ventures out into
modern America. Trying to decide where he truly
belongs, Moshe finds his biggest challenge is
reformulating his personal faith and relationship
with G-d.
Guest Artist: Director John Mounier
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Click here for more information about the Joyce Forum
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