Concerns about anti-Semitism even made it into Super Bowl ads this year. It may never have been more important to acknowledge, explore, support and celebrate Jewish tradition and history in any of the other 28 years in which the Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival has been held than it is this troubled year. The event, which kicks off on Sunday, February 18 and runs through March 3, features a variety of films from across the Jewish cultural spectrum.
The slate of more than 20 films is divided between three venues around the Valley: Harkins Shea in Scottsdale, Harkins Chandler Fashion and Harkins Arrowhead in Peoria. The opening night selection, Sunday night at Shea, is the historical drama One Life, with Anthony Hopkins as Sir Nichoals Winton, who arranged the rescue of hundreds of Jewish children ahead of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. It’s sold out at this writing.
Subsequent features include the family drama All About the Levkoviches; the Tel Aviv-set story Children of Nobody; the French drama Everything Went Fine; the docudrama Exodus 91, about the rescue of Ethiopian Jews in 1991; J’Accuse, a documentary about the attempt to distort the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania; the Italian love story The Shadow of the Day and the Canadian comedy Less Than Kosher. There are also documentary portraits ranging from Gene Wilder to Bella Abzug to philanthropists Lottie and Howard Marcus.
Many of these features are accompanied by short films and/or guest speakers. Single-film tickets cost $15; a pass to the whole festival is $250; various package deals are available in between. For more information or to buy tickets go to gpjff.com.
