FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE LOS ANGELES
JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES WINNERS
LOS ANGELES,
CA (May 21, 2008) – The third annual Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival
(LAJFF)
is pleased
to announce the audience award winners for Best Narrative Feature, Best
Documentary and Best Short Film.
Lynn Roth’s The
Little Traitor won the Audience Award for Best Narrative
Feature. Based on Panther in the Basement by
world-renowned novelist, Amos Oz, the movie takes place a few months
before Israel becomes a state. Proffy, a spirited 11 year old militant
wants the occupying imperialists off his land. What starts as a confrontation
with British officer Sergeant Dunlop, builds into a friendship between
these two foes that changes their lives forever.
The Little Traitor opened
the festival on May 8th with a commemoration of the 60th
anniversary of Israel and an award ceremony honoring the work of Theodore
Bikel who starred in the film. The director Lynn Roth attended
the Opening Night along with the stars of the film Alfred Molina and
Theodore Bikel. Consul General of Israel Jacob Dayan also attended,
in addition to the film’s Executive Producer, Marilyn Hall and husband
Monty Hall, Joan Hyler and Army Archerd.
Laura Bialis’s Refusenik
won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. Refusenik
is the first retrospective to chronicle the thirty-year international
movement to free Soviet Jews - the film is a tapestry of first person
accounts of heroism, sacrifice, and ultimately, liberation told by activists
on both sides of the Iron Curtain - many whom survived punishment in
Soviet Gulag labor camps. Director Laura Bialis and film subjects Zev
Yaroslavsky and Si Frumkin attended the festival screening of the film
and answered audience questions after the film. Attending the film as
well, was Dennis Prager.
Jochen Alexander Freydank’s
Spielzeugland (Toyland) won the Audience Award for Best Short
Film. To protect her son from the horrors of 1942 Germany,
Marianne tells him that his Jewish best friend and his parents are packing
for a journey to ‘Toyland’. He begs to go along until one morning
her son and the neighbors have disappeared.
The Festival ended on Thursday
May 15th with a Closing Night screening of Paul Weiland’s
(Made of Honor) Sixty Six
starring Helena Bonham-Carter. England in the summer of
1966 is about to be consumed by World Cup Fever, just as 12 year-old
Bernie enthusiastically prepares for his Bar Mitzvah. When England makes
it through the qualifying rounds, Bernie’s longed-for Bar Mitzvah
looks headed for disaster.
LAJFF and the MorningStar Commission
honored Joan Rivers on Tuesday May 13th with the Marlene
Adler Marks Woman of Inspiration Award. Following the ceremony, the
Festival held the Los Angeles premiere of Making Trouble
produced by the Jewish Women’s Archive.
Rachel Talbot’s documentary tells the story of six of the greatest
female comic performers of the last century who broke new ground and
delighted audiences for over three generations.
The Los Angeles
Jewish Film Festival is a week of events celebrating the diversity of
the Jewish experience through film. Most screenings are co-produced
with local partners and enhanced by panel discussions with the filmmakers,
cast and special guests. By featuring films that highlight Jewish culture,
traditions and challenges, the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival seeks
to promote tolerance and encourages dialogue within the Greater Los
Angeles community.
The Festival
took place May 8-15, 2008 with over thirty features, documentaries,
short subjects and cultural events at various locations around Los Angeles
and the Valley. Venues included the WGA Theatre, Laemmle’s
Town Center (Encino), Laemmle’s One Colorado (Pasadena), Laemmle’s
Music Hall (Beverly Hills), Arclight Cinemas Sherman Oaks, Westside
JCC, Skirball Cultural Center, Knitting Factory Hollywood, Valley Beth
Shalom, Sinai Temple, Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Temple Beth Haverim,
Hillel at UCLA and the Emanuel Arts Center Theatre.
