In this slow post-holiday movie season, a film buff road trip may be in order. The Tucson J International Film Festival kicks off this week at the Tucson Jewish Community Center and other area venues, and continues through Sunday, January 18.
The festival offers feature films and short subjects that are intended, according the Center’s Director of Arts and Culture Chloe Loos, to “present a diverse tapestry of Jewish life and ensure the many ways of being and experiencing Jewishness can be represented.”
But if you can’t manage an actual road trip, a virtual road trip is also possible; many of the festival’s films are available to stream throughout Arizona. One of these is, at this writing, the only film from the festival that I have seen: Fiddler on the Moon: Judaism in Space.
Directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger, this documentary short begins, inevitably, with clips of the “Jews in Space” segment from the 1981 Mel Brooks epic The History of the World, Part I. It goes on to examine the culture’s sometimes fraught connection with real-life space exploration: the philosophical uncertainty as to whether it’s even proper for humans to leave the Earth at all, or the challenges of observing the Sabbath in orbit, when the sun rises and sets every ninety minutes or so, or of spinning a dreidel in zero gravity.
On the less conservative side is the recognition that Judaism is a “wandering” and “questing” religion and culture that fits space travel perfectly. We’re shown the men and women who have already boldly gone where no Jews have gone before, like Space Shuttle crew member Jeffrey Hoffman andInternational Space Station crewmember Jessica Meir. The film also shows Ilan Ramon, an Israeli payload specialist who kept kosher aboard the Challenger. Other talking heads include Neil deGrasse Tyson and “Sci-fi Rabbi” Josh Breindel.
It’s an intriguing and touching introduction to a surprisingly extensive subject; it seems like there’s enough material here for a feature.
Selections from Tucson J International Film Festival are available for virtual viewing; for details go to tucsonjcc.org.
