By David Amos
SAN DIEGO–We are very fortunate to have in San Diego a yearly film festival on Jewish subjects that never ceases to be interesting, provocative, educational, and entertaining. This year is no exception. Starting February 9 and ending the 19th, there are many interesting choices available.
Due to my various activities in the community, I have been asked to give you a brief summary of the films I previewed. Simply stated, I recommend to you all the films I saw. Your personal interests may lead you to prefer some of them over others, but to my opinion, they all offer valuable insights into today’s Judaism, religion, Israel, tradition, and the arts.
As expected, I gravitated to films where music was involved. A couple of them which I do not mention were covered by other reviewers in SD Jewish World, but I would strongly recommend that you see them also. They include God’s Fiddler:Jascha Heifetz,and Wunderkinder.
Here are the films I saw:
Amnon’s Journey. Shown at the Clairemont Reading 14, Sat. Feb. 11, 7:00 p.m., and Friday, Feb. 17, 1:30 p.m. (My colleague Eileen Wingard will provide the pre-film comments on the first showing, and I will cover the second presentation)
This is a documentary which follows the career and quest of Israeli violin maker Amnon Weinstein, who has made it his life’s project to look for violins with a Holocaust background and with a Jewish past, restore these instruments for future generations, and culminate with an orchestral performance in Jerusalem. All of this was portrayed in great detail. There are subtitles, and we hear conversations in French, Hebrew, and English. Violinist Shlomo Mintz is seen in a lot of the footage, as Weinstein’s friend, supporter, and collaborator. There is extensive and insightful on-location filming inLithuania,Norway,Paris,Israel, andAuschwitz.
Amnon’s Journey will be exhibited as a double feature, together with I Will Not Die. (Same dates, times and location). This is a touching account of Canadian composer-violinist Ruth Fazal, who upon learning about the concentration camp Terezin (named Teresienstadt by the Nazis), read the poetry of the children imprisoned there, and was inspired to compose an oratorio for orchestra, choruses, and vocal soloists with the words of these children, most of whom perished there or in the death camps. There are also various Biblical quotations from the scriptures. Although Fazal is not Jewish, she meticulously researched her subject, and created an emotional, accessible, and very effective musical work, called Oratorio Terezin. The film also documents interviews with Terezin survivors. There is also a vivid description of Terezin, with its four active orchestras, chamber, jazz ensembles and opera, in what the Nazis labeled “A model Jewish Settlement”, which was nothing more than propaganda and the first step to send the people to the death camps. The musical journey takes us to the CzechRepublic ,Slovakia, Canada, and Isral.
But to me, the prevailing message of both the survivors and what is written in the poems was the prevailing optimism and the strong belief in life, as the title of the oratorio tells us.
The Kissinger Saga. At the JCC Garfield Theatre, Friday, Feb. 10, 10:30 a.m.: Henry and Walter Kissinger were fairly young and happy when their parents decided to leave their comfortable home in Furth, Germany in 1938 and immigrate to the U.S. This is a German film, with extensive recent interviews of the two brothers, visits to their hometown and encounters with old acquaintances. Curiously, as we all know, Henry retained his strong Germanic accent while speaking English, but his younger brother Walter is practically accent-free, due to the time in their lives when they were immersed into American society.
This is the first time I have heard Henry speaking in fluent German. Through the words of correspondent Marvin Kalb, we are taken through the careers of the two brothers. Henry’s well publicized accomplishments are highlighted, including his involvement in the 1974 peace process with Israel. Walter had an outstanding professional life both in public service and business, and the contrast between the two brothers who are very different but very close, is fascinating.
Another unexpected bonus was the generous and welcome use of classical music in the background through the use of familiar and beloved masterpieces.
Mahler, Autopsy of a Genius. Clairemont Reading 14, Wed. Feb. 15, 4:00 p.m.: So much has been written about Mahler, his life, his times, his friends and relationships, his physical and mental troubles, his conflict with religion, and the prevailing anti-Semitism of the times. All of this is meticulously explored in this sumptuous film, which gives us musical quotes from many of his compositions, including all of his ten symphonies. There are precious film clips of Leonard Bernstein talking and conducting Mahler, as well as commentaries by Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abado, and others. We are exposed to his anguish, his many conflicting thoughts, not only as a composer, but also as one of the leading conductors of his time. Bernstein declared him as the shining light that continued the symphonic traditions of Beethoven, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Bruckner. Boulez said that Mahler “put the first stick of dynamite in the world of tonality”.
His passion and eventual anguish about his wife Alma are also vividly mentioned. And as the announcer’s script read, “To the Austrians, he was a Bohemian-Moravian, to the Germans, he was an Austrian, and to everyone, he was a Jew”.
We see his trips to New York, and his struggles and successes with the Vienna State Opera, where he served as principal conductor, with the enthusiastic support of the Kaiser.
Here is a Mahler quote certainly worth repeating and emulating: “Tradition is tending the flame, not worshipping the ashes. But we have to protect true tradition”.
For ticket reservations to the entire San Diego Jewish Film Festival, call (858) 362 1348, or go on line, sdjff.org.
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Did you see the Super Bowl last Sunday? Aside from the game, I enjoy trying to see how many of their first-run commercials utilize classical music. I identified six: Beethoven (with various settings of the 5th Symphony), Rossini, Verdi, Bach, Richard Strauss, and a bit of quasi-Satie. Did you spot any other ones? Let me know.
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Amos is the conductor of the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO) and a guest conductor of professional orchestras around the globe. He may be contacted at david.amos@sdjewishworld.com