LA JOLLA, California (Press Release)– The 21st Anniversary San Diego Jewish Film Festival, Feb. 10-20, will once again feature the Joyce Forum, a celebration of both emerging and seasoned filmmakers on Mon., February 14, at the Clairemont Reading Cinemas 14 beginning at 3:00 p.m. The Joyce Forum presents outstanding Jewish-themed short-subject, documentary and feature films 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.
Shorts in Winter — A collection of eight short films will screen at 3:00 p.m., including 1:0, Banana Bread, Last Respects, The Little Duke, Memory Game, My Father Joe, Sour Milk, and Written in Pencil.
According to Mark Title, past president of the Visual Arts Foundation and short film critic, “Every short film is a small gem, revealing a short story in its most basic elements – the rawest, purest essence of character, conflict and resolution. There is no time wasted expounding on a character’s childhood, the roots of a convoluted conflict, or a drawn-out resolution. Instead, in a tight sequence the stage is set, the characters presented, and all comes to a twist or surprising climax. If you enjoy drama in its purest, most powerful form, you’ll like these short films.”
Real to Reel – Filmmaker Sam Ball— At 5:00 p.m., the distinguished filmmaker Sam Ball will discuss his work in progress, Joann Sfar Draws from Memory, which follows a celebrated graphic novelist on a whimsical journey through the Algerian-Jewish heritage that inspires his work, culminating in a delightful blend of storytelling and outrageously inventive philosophical musings. Joann Sfar Draws from Memory is one of 2010’s recipients of the Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film.
Sam Ball is a co-founder of Citizen Film. His documentaries have been widely exhibited at museums and film festivals around the world, including some of America’s most prestigious venues for independent film, ranging from the Sundance Film Festival to the Museum of Modern Art – New York.
Projects Ball is currently working on also include : 1) In the Maze of Our Own Lives, which reexamines the significance of the Depression Era Group Theatre, whose members included Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets and Elia Kazan. The Group was the first American ensemble theatre and the first Broadway company to seriously examine American blue-collar and immigrant experiences; 2) The New Jewish Filmmaking Project, an interactive online documentary exhibit, on the theme “Half-remembered stories,” co-directed by 11 young multi-media artists; and 3) Pearls of Yiddish Poetry (working title) – a television documentary about the life and work of Yiddish cultural activists Chana and Yosl Mlotek.
Joyce Forum Evening Featured Film – Over 90 and Loving It — The Joyce Forum concludes with the 8:00 p.m. screening of Over 90 and Loving It, a film made by local filmmaker Susan Polis Schutz. A Valentine treat, this uplifting film will inspire everyone of all ages to be exhilarated about the future. It features people in their 90s and 100s living extraordinary and passionate lives, seemingly unaware of chronological age, as though youth springs eternal. Filmmaker Schutz, a resident of Rancho Santa Fe, introduces us to some of the most incredible seniors you can imagine. La Jolla visual artist and writer Laura Simon (age 105), who is featured in the film, will appear as a guest speaker with Schutz.
Schutz is also a poet, a producer of greeting cards, and the mother of U.S. Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado. A longtime activist for women’s rights and antiwar causes, she initially worked as a freelance writer. In 1971, she turned her hobby of writing poetry into a commercial venture by founding (with husband Stephen Schutz) the greeting card and poster company Blue Mountain Arts.
Schutz is the executive producer and director of the documentary film Anyone and Everyone. The film features the coming-out stories of gay sons and daughters and their parents and premiered on KPBS public television in San Diego, California in August 2007 before being scheduled to air on a number of other public television stations in the United States.
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Preceding provided by the Center for Jewish Culture