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 Wednesday, MARCH 26
Opening Springfield Reception
Someone to Run With
6:30 pm ~ Reception
7:30 pm ~ Film
Showcase Cinema, West Springfield
Come early to the opening film screening in Springfield to shmooze with your friends and neighbors and enjoy a bagel nosh generously provided by Springfield Smoked Fish.
Someone To Run With is based on the bestselling novel by David Grossman, Someone to Run With captures the original’s unrelenting pace, suspense and heartfelt drama as it sends viewers on a riveting ride through the streets of Jerusalem at the end of a Labrador’s leash. While trying to track down the owner of a lost dog, a shy 17-year-old named Assaf pieces together the incredible story behind the disappearance of the dog’s owner. Drama | 2006 | Hebrew w/subtitles | 112 min. | Director: Oded Davidoff
 Thursday, MARCH 27
Lunch ‘n Film
Souvenirs
12:00 pm
Springfield JCC
Out-of-work filmmaker Shahar Cohen and his father Sleiman -an 82-year-old Yemeni-Israeli - take to the road, following Sleiman’s WWII path through Europe with the Jewish Brigade. Shahar hopes they discover a “souvenir” - that is, his father’s offspring by a wartime Dutch girlfriend. Winner, 2006 Israeli Academy Award for best documentary. | Documentary | 2006 | Hebrew, Italian & Dutch w/subtitles | 75 min. | Director: Shahar Cohen & Halil Efrat | $15 w/reservations
 Sunday, MARCH 30
Commonwealth Opera Performance
Brundibar
4:00 pm
Elms College, Veritas Auditorium, Chicopee
An opera for youth that comes out of the Holocaust, Brundibar will be performed by the Commonwealth Opera of Western Massachusetts. Ela Stein Weissberger, an original cast member of Brundibar when it was performed at the Nazi concentration camp, Theresienstadt, will share her personal testimony preceding the performance. Co-sponsors: Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center, Commonwealth Opera of Western Massachusetts. | For regular tickets call The Commonwealth Opera: 413-587-0067. For Hatikvah Patron tickets call 413-734-7700.
http://www.commonwealthopera.org/opera.html
http://www.hatikvah-center.org/events/future.html
 Tuesday, April 1
Art Opening, Reception, Film Talk!
Beyond Genocide and Kabul Transit
7:00 pm ~ Art Opening
7:30 pm ~ Film
Smith College, Helen Hills Chapel, Northampton
“As Jews who know firsthand the consequences of silence from the
international community, we must do all that we can to prevent or stop deliberate attempts to annihilate any people.” - Ruth Messinger, American Jewish World Service
Beyond Genocide is an exhibit of contemporary illuminated manuscripts by artist Amy Fagin, honoring worldwide victims of genocide, past and present.
Kabul Transit, a street-level documentary, explores the soul of a city devastated by nearly three decades of war, attesting to the often overlooked cultural genocide taking place in Afghanistan. Film Talk! w/director David Edwards. Co-sponsors: 20th Century Illuminations, Smith College Hillel, Smith College Office of the Jewish Chaplain | Documentary | 2007 | 84 min. | Directors: David Edwards, Maliha Zulfacar, Gregory Whitmore.
 Wednesday, APRIL 2
Music for Peace
7:00 pm
Academy of Music, Northampton
Music education is transformative for many young people, especially for those living in challenging situations. Is the power of music strong enough to unite young people separated by differences in religion and politics?
Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra
The Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Festival join forces to present a special program of music and film dedicated to nurturing hope in the power of music to make a difference.
Knowledge is the Beginning
World-renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim and late Palestinian scholar Edward Said generated controversy and admiration with the founding of their West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999. This documentary follows their unique musical collaboration, dedicated to furthering the cause of peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, bringing together young musicians from both sides of the divide: Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Palestinians and Israelis. Performance by the Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra precedes the film. Co-sponsor: Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra | Documen-tary | 2006 | 114 min. | Arabic, English, German, Hebrew w/subtitles | Director: Paul Smaczny
 Wednesday, APRIL 9
Kosher Mexican Dinner
My Mexican Shivah
6:30 pm
Springfield JCC
A delicious kosher Mexican dinner will heighten your appetite for the film. Film Talk! w/Ilan Stavans | Call JCC for price: 413-739-4715
Set in the Jewish Quarter of Mexico City against a rich tapestry of Spanish, Yiddish, and Hebrew, My Mexican Shivah is a dramatic comedy about how the death of a man results in the celebration of his life. Based on a story by Amherst College professor Ilan Stavans, produced by John Sayles, featuring an original score by The Klezmatics. Film Talk! w/Ilan Stavans. Co-sponsors: Mount Holyoke College Jewish Studies Program and Jewish Student Union | Comedy | 2006 | 102 min. | Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish w/subtitles | Director: Alejandro Springall | $18 for dinner and film.
 Sunday, APRIL 13
Israeli Tea Party
Like a Fish Without Water
3:00 pm
Springfield JCC
While adults and teens enjoy the film, children ages 4 and up can get creative with ArtVenture or delve into MovieMadness. Following the hour-long film, all are invited to an Israeli Tea Party with music, refreshments, games, and a good time for all.
Meet Argentinean immigrant, Marcelo, a non-religious single parent and struggling actor in Like A Fish Without Water. Seeking to improve his Hebrew, he turns to his religious Hebrew teacher, Anat, who has problems of her own; a mother who is desperate to get her married. Snappy humor and a quirky talented cast make this tender romantic comedy a charmer. Co-sponsors: Anna P. Housen Israel Desk & Young Leadership of the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts | Comedy | 2006 | 56 min. | Hebrew w/subtitles | Director: Leonid Prudovsky | $10 adults; $5 children 4-13.
 Wednesday, April 16
Raffle Drawing & A Bottle of Bubbly!
A Cantor’s Tale
Film Talk!
7:00 pm ~ Raffle Drawing
7:30 pm ~ Film
National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst
Enjoy some celebratory treats, applaud the three lucky winners of the Film Festival raffle, and meet the artists:
Molly Cantor, Nancy Katz & Emmett Leader.
The tradition of Eastern European Jewish cantorial music is alive and well in modern America thanks to the efforts of Brooklyn-born Cantor Jacob Mendelson. “Jackie” as he is affectionately called, explores the American roots of “hazzanut” (Jewish liturgical music) with a nostalgic journey through family, neighborhood, and tradition in A Cantor’s Tale. Film Talk! w/Jacob Mendelson. Co-sponsors: UMASS Magic Triangle Jazz Series, National Yiddish Book Center | Documentary | 2005 | 95 min. | Director: Erik Greenberg Anjou
 Thursday, April 17
Caught in the Crossfire: Hollywood 1947
Lecture
4:25pm
UMASS/Flavin Auditorium/School of Management 137
In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee initiated a political purge of the American movie industry. The widespread belief that Hollywood was a predominantly Jewish enterprise was dramatized in a spectacle pitting (mainly) Jewish producers against Jewish (and philo-Semitic) screenwriters. Lecturer J. Hoberman is the senior film critic at the Village Voice, where he recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of his first movie review. In 2003, Hoberman co- curated an exhibit at The Jewish Museum in New York City: “Entertaining America: Jews, Movies and Broadcasting.” Sponsor: UMass Judaic & Near Eastern Studies For more information call 545-2550 http://www.umass.edu/jewish/programs/hollywood_08/
 Thursday, APRIL 17
Magic Triangle Jazz Series
Frank London & Hazonos
8:00 pm
UMASS Fine Arts Center, Amherst
A member of the Klezmatics, trumpeter and composer Frank London is one of the mostimportant musicians of the New Jewish Renaissance. His Hazonos project features the sparkling rhythm section of Anthony Coleman, David Chevan and Gerald Cleaver, and Chazzan Jacob Mendelson, whose soaring voice gives the music a unique spiritual quality.
Frank London and Jacob Mendelson also appear with A Cantor’s Tale on Wednesday evening, April 16. For tickets call UMASS Fine Arts Center: 413-545-2511.
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