With more than fifteen films in its lineup, the 5th Annual Houston Jewish Film Festival is one of the biggest local film festivals in Houston. The festival opens on March 17th at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) with Allen Mondell and Cynthia Salzman Mondell’s The Monster Among Us, a documentary exploring the recent rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. If you are in the mood for a lighter film, there is Ayelet Menahemi’s Noodle, a dramedy about an Israeli flight attendant’s attempt to return a Chinese boy to his family.
At the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), viewers will get a chance to see Eran Riklis’s Lemon Tree before it comes to theaters later this year. In this Berlin Film Festival Audience Award winner, Palestinian widow Salma Zidane (Hiam Abbass) is forced to take matters to the courts when her new neighbor, who happens to be the Israeli Defense Minister, threatens to take down her family’s old lemon tree for so-called security reasons. Collaborations between Israelis and Palestinians have produced some of the finest films in the past five years, including the melancholic comedy The Band’s Visit and the suicide-bomber psychological thriller Paradise Now.
Ran Tal’s documentary Children of the Sun looks into life growing up in a kibbutz, a Zionist and Socialist community where children are not raised by their parents but by the nannies of a communal children home. The film is composed of home videos and archival footage, with commentaries by the individuals who spent their childhood in this one of a kind environment. Another notable documentary is first-time filmmaker Hava Volterra’s The Tree of Life, a personal account of the director’s quest to explore her father’s Italian roots, and on her way, she also uncovers the history of the Jewish people in Italy. Volterra’s do-it-yourself effort is commendable, but the film’s poorly made animated sequences highlight the film’s amateurish moments.
Don’t forget to attend a screening of Jan Schuette’s Love Comes Lately at the end of the festival. Based on three short stories by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, the humorous film centers around the septuagenarian writer Max Cohn and his struggle for love and sex.
Film Monitor will be reporting on the 5th Annual Houston Jewish Film Festival from March 17th to March 29th. Please visit our website for extensive coverage. For a complete schedule of screenings, please visit www.jcchouston.org and www.mfah.org/films.
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