Even with the need to be heard in these confrontational times, we accept the idea that we will watch a film in silence. We give the film space to enfold us and carry us to its conclusion. Can this unwritten agreement be extended into the light of day to give all of us the space to speak… and to be heard?
Films depict the unequal treatment of Mizrahi Israelis, Ethiopian Israelis and Arab/Palestinian Israelis, and the poor treatment of foreign workers. Forget the early Zionist ideal of the nobility of Jewish labor in the Promised Land. Discrimination against women, a frequent subject of this festival, was problematic even in the early kibbutz days.
Jewish and Muslim women come together in conversation.
The Finzi-Contini enchanted garden doesn’t even give them the protection of a ghetto. They are rounded up and shipped out along with the lower-class Jews they disdained.
It’s hard to imagine a male filmmaker admitting terror. It seems natural for a woman.
At this year’s festival, remorse and regret seep from the screen.
Decades later, at a Jewish symposium on abortion, a male leader self-righteously intoned, “Abortion is never an easy decision.” He’d obviously never been there.
By now these items are standard fare at a feminist seder – the once transgressive orange on the Seder Plate; Miriam’s cup of clear, life-giving water next to Elijah’s cup… Read more »
Carole Zabar’s founding vision was a film festival showing the “Other Israel” – minorities, women, Palestinians not part of the Zionist dream or Israel propaganda.
A loving friend and filmmaker recorded the last 15 months in the life of mindfulness teacher and rabbi Rachel Cowan.
