Thank you, Baton Rouge, for making the 13th annual Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival a rousing success. We couldn’t do this without your support. See you next year and thanks again!
“We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.”
The Talmud
Opening Night:
Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019 7:00pm
Big Sonia
The petite nonagenarian at the center of Big Sonia would be a compelling film subject under any circumstances. Sonia Warshawski is as vibrant as she is diligent, single-handedly running a six-day-a-week tailor shop. That it’s the only thriving business in a moribund Kansas City mall is itself a story; so, too, is the jolt of Old World glamor she brings to a suburban Midwestern setting. But for Sonia, the importance of keeping busy is no simple response to widowhood or means of fending off the loneliness of old age. A particular darkness has haunted her most of her life: her memories of the years she spent as a prisoner at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. As the only Holocaust survivor in the Kansas City area to speak publicly about her experiences, she has turned those memories into a form of action, enlightening and therapeutic. (2016, 93min. Directors: Todd Soliday, Leah Warshawski, in English, Not Rated)
Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019 7:00pm
The Mossad: Imperfect Spies
Over the nearly seven decades of its existence, the Mossad has cultivated its image as a daring, all-powerful intelligence agency for which no ‘mission impossible’ exists. This documentary brings to the screen for the first time the stories of 24 former spy-chiefs and operatives and with them a first-person perspective of the personal and operational challenges they overcame, the ethical dilemmas they faced and the personal price they were forced to pay for the rest of their lives for their chosen career path. (2018, 90 min. Director: Duki Dror, Hebrew, with subtitles, Not Rated)
Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019 7:30pm
Itzhak
From Schubert to Strauss, Bach to Brahms, Mozart to Billy Joel, Itzhak Perlman’s violin playing transcends mere performance to evoke the celebrations and struggles of real life. Alison Chernick’s enchanting documentary looks beyond the sublime musician to see the polio survivor whose parents emigrated from Poland to Israel, and the young man who struggled to be taken seriously as a music student when schools saw only his disability. Itzhak himself is funny, irreverent and self-deprecating, and here his life story unspools in conversations with masterful musicians, family and friends, and most endearingly his devoted wife of 50 years. Itzhak is a portrait of musical virtuosity seamlessly enclosed in warmth, humor, and above all, love. (2017,82 min. Director: Alison Chernick, in English, Not Rated)
Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019 3:00pm
Driver
“A story is never a lie.” So Ruzummy instructs the beggars and cons he chauffeurs around the city of Bnei Brak. With a list of the rich, lonely, and gullible in his pocket, Ruzummy is a driver who takes his clients to these potential marks in exchange for half of what they collect. He gathers stories, encouraging everyone to tell theirs as a way of hiding his own. Ruzummy is raising his daughter Chani alone. His driving forces him to leave her at night. Chani hates this, and one night demands her father bring her along to work. While dealing with the down-and-out, the hucksters, and the schemers, Driver becomes a warm and oddly beautiful tale of a father and daughter making their way against a world that has tried to beat them down. It may break your heart a little, but it will quickly fill the crack with tenderness and hope. (2017,87 min. Director: Yehonatan Indursky, in Hebrew with subtitles, Not Rated)
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OUR MISSION
OUR PROGRAM
We aim to highlight the diversity of the Jewish experience through film. We do this by bringing you movies that deal with universal issues as they relate to Jewish traditions, challenges, and characters.
OUR CITY
We aim to showcase Baton Rouge as a progressive, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic community.
OUR STUDENTS
We aim to reach a new generation of young adults by presenting a yearly Holocaust education program for junior high and high school students. This consists of a Holocaust-themed film accompanied by a speaker who is a Holocaust survivor.
OUR TEACHERS
We aim to support our community’s teachers by providing funding for Holocaust education. Deserving junior high and high school teachers from south Louisiana are encouraged to apply. Our program makes it possible for them to attend the Belfer National Conference for Educators, an internationally renowned conference held yearly in Washington DC’s US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
HOLOCAUST EDUCATION FUNDRAISER
As you might know, the Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival supports our community’s teachers by providing funding for Holocaust education. Our program makes it possible for them to attend the Belfer National Conference for Educators, an internationally renowned conference held yearly in Washington DC’s US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Similarly, we educate a new generation of young adults every year by presenting a yearly Holocaust education program for junior high and high school students. This consists of a Holocaust-themed film accompanied by a speaker who is a Holocaust survivor.
Now, you can help support this essential educational mission by purchasing this T-shirt (below). 100% of the profits from this sale will be go towards BRJFF’s Holocaust Education Teacher Training initiative. The shirts are premium quality and we’re offering them to you for $29 of which $15 will go towards the initiative.
Please support our initiative by purchasing a shirt… or two… or five! They make great gifts and show that you care.
Please click here to order and thank you for your support.
