Newton will host five screening programs, including a live tango performance and conversations with filmmakers, during the 38th Boston Jewish Film Festival, Nov. 4–15.
Four programs take place at the JCC Riemer-Goldstein Theater and one at West Newton Cinema. Each begins at 7 p.m., according to the festival schedule.
The festival features 15 films from nine countries across Greater Boston. Founded in 1989, Boston Jewish Film is now part of JCC Greater Boston.
Newton’s lineup begins Thursday, Nov. 5, with Looking for Yadida. Director Israela Shaer-Meoded investigates the disappearance of her aunt, one of more than a thousand Mizrahi babies who vanished from Israeli hospitals in the 1950s. The JCC screening will be followed by a discussion with Suffolk University scholar Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber, moderated by JCC Greater Boston President and CEO Lily Rabinoff-Goldman.
On Monday, Nov. 9, the JCC screens Silvio Soldini’s The Tasters. Adapted from Rosella Postorino’s novel At the Wolf’s Table, the drama follows a woman who escapes wartime Berlin only to be forced into tasting Hitler’s meals for poison.
Music takes the spotlight Tuesday, Nov. 10, at West Newton Cinema. The Boston Tango Orchestra performs before I Had the Heart, an Argentine film directed by Oliver Kolker and Hernan Javier Findling. It follows a struggling rock producer who discovers a mechanic’s talent for tango singing and sees an opportunity to revive his career.
The documentary Sapiro v. Ford: The Jew Who Sued Henry Ford screens Thursday, Nov. 12, at the JCC. The film examines attorney Aaron Sapiro’s 1920s libel case against the automaker over antisemitic attacks. Director Gaylen Ross will join a discussion moderated by Boston Jewish Film Committee member Ken Shulman.
The final Newton program, Saturday, Nov. 14, pairs Gidi Dar’s The Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan)with Daniel Moreshet’s short The Holiness. Dar’s film follows a Hasidic wedding comedian seeking work to help pay for his daughter’s wedding. The short explores a religious couple’s secret embrace of secular entertainment.
Actor Malky Goldman will participate in the post-screening conversation, moderated by Shayna Weiss, senior associate director of Brandeis University’s Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.
The JCC Riemer-Goldstein Theater is at 333 Nahanton St. West Newton Cinema is at 1296 Washington St. Tickets and the full lineup are available through the festival website.
