The Jewish Community Center’s third annual Chicago Jewish Film Festival grew by 50 percent last year, from 1,000 to 1,500 attendees and the JCC is confident the audience will double this time around.
JCC Chief Advancement Officer Addie Goodman doesn’t find that sort of exponential growth surprising at all.
“Chicago has long been unusual in the sense that it did not have a Jewish Film Festival,” said Goodman, whose duties include overseeing marketing and fundraising and programming areas including the cultural arts. “And for a Jewish metropolis such as ours, that’s a real miss, a real absence in the cultural arena.” (The city does have the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, which focuses on presenting Israeli culture, www.israelifilmchi.org.)
This year’s festival will present 18 films over 10 days beginning March 10 in city and suburban venues including the AMC River East 21, the AMC Northbrook Court 14, Landmark’s Century in Chicago and Renaissance Place in Highland Park theaters and the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie. The fest has also added the McCormick Auditorium at Northwestern University in addition to a grassroots innovation — “parlor screenings” in private homes where people host films for friends and community.
The festival will also present two niche screenings this year. The John Barleycorn tavern in Chicago will present the German romantic comedy “Hanna’s Journey” March 10 in an attempt to attract younger viewers. And several animated shorts from the “Frog and Toad” series will be shown March 13 at the Bernard Weinger JCC in Northbrook as part of a Purim carnival for kids and families.
The fest is the centerpiece for the JCC’s major fundraiser this year, with Peter Sagal of NPR’s “Wait Wait. . . Don’t Tell Me!” hosting the preview gala event March 6 at Bernard Weinger JCC in Northbrook. Tickets range from $125 for event admission to $250 for VIP admission to $1,800 for VIP table sponsorships.
“JCC Chicago has the mission of enriching lives and building community. And the cultural arts are a primary way people connect with each other,” Goodman said. “Of course, it’s also an opportunity to make the wonderful attributes of Jewish film available for the community at large.”
As it was last year, the theme for the 2016 Chicago Jewish Film Festival is emotion — and the ways people connect.
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“Crying, laughing, loving, playing, remembering — films that make you feel and evoke reaction and response — that’s what we’re always looking for,” Goodman explained. “Films that bring people together in a way that’s thought-provoking and discussion-worthy.”
Some of the films featured in this year’s lineup include:
“Surviving Skokie” — One of three local films in the fest (including the documentaries “Breakfast at Ina’s” about longtime Chicago “Breakfast Queen” Ina Pinkney and “That Bites!” a documentary on food allergies by Wilmette eighth-grader Jack Yonover), “Surviving” is a documentary co-directed by Eli Adler, recalling the way his father Jack, a concentration camp survivor, coped when a neo-Nazi group announced plans to march through Skokie in the late 1970s.
“Mamele” — Digitally restored by the National Center for Jewish Film, this 1938 film stars Molly Picon, “The Queen of the Yiddish Musical,” in a Cinderella story about a dutiful daughter who takes on the care of her family after her mother dies.
“Very Semi-Serious” — This documentary on cartoons in “The New Yorker” features a rare behind-the-scenes look at the magazine plus interviews with cartooning legends and hopefuls.
“Dough”— In this British dramedy, an old Jewish baker (Jonathan Pryce) with a failing business on his hands lucks into a possible reprieve after accepting a young Muslim apprentice—a refugee from Darfur.
“Projections of America” — This documentary assembles highlights from a series of 26 short films created by a team led by Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Riskin (“It Happened One Night”) during the darkest days of World War II—and intended to illustrate the American way of life to audiences around the world.
“Felix and Meira” — This winner of the Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival tells the story of a young Hasidic housewife and mother falling in love with a man outside the faith, who is suffering after the death of his wife.
JCC Chicago Jewish Film Festival
When: March 10-20
Where: Chicago and suburban venues.
Tickets: Admission is $12; $10 for students and seniors.
Contact: (847) 763-3507; www.jccfilmfest.org