The 22nd annual New York Jewish Film Festival begins this Wednesday, January 9 and runs through Thursday, January 24, with screenings at both the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Launched in 1992 in part due to the newfound access to Jewish stories from the recently dismantled Eastern Bloc, the festival seeks to explore the multiplicity of Jewish identity, experience, and culture via cinema. The latest edition includes nearly thirty feature-length films, with half that number documentary.
Among the New York stories on offer that I’ve seen and recommend are Tracie Holder and Karen Thorsen’s JOE PAPP IN FIVE ACTS, on the celebrated Public Theatre founder; and Neil Barsky’s KOCH (pictured), about NYC’s outspoken three-term mayor.
For an international, and intergenerational, perspective, I’d also point viewers to two other docs I’ve previously seen:Tamar Tal’s LIFE IN STILLS, in which a 96-year-old and her grandson fight to preserve her late husband’s Tel Aviv photo studio; and Alexa Karolinski’s OMA AND BELLA (pictured), a warm profile of the filmmaker’s grandmother and her best friend, both Holocaust survivors, living in Berlin.
Speaking of Germany, I’m intrigued by Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir’s CABARET-BERLIN: THE WILD SIDE (pictured), an ode to the entertainment-rich Weimar Republic; and Brigitte Bertele and Julia Willmann’s MAX RAABE IN ISRAEL, in which the Berlin performer and his orchestra bring their review of Weimar-era standards to an Israeli audience.
Finally, I’m also drawn to two projects focused on the Holocaust: Michael Prazan’s THE TRIAL OF ADOLF EICHMANN, on the capture and conviction of the infamous Nazi leader and Final Solution mastermind; and Dana Doron and Uriel Sinai’s NUMBERED (pictured), an exploration of the legacy of the death camps as revealed through the relationship Auschwitz survivors have with their prisoner ID tattoos.
what (not) to doc 