The William and Irene Weinberg Family Baltimore Jewish Film Festival is returning to the Gordon Center for Performing Arts on May 6, bringing four recent Jewish films to residents along with speakers to provide additional context about the movies.
This year, festival attendees can watch one movie per week during the month of May with “Stella: A Life” (2023) screening on May 6, “Matchmaking 2” (2024) on May 13, “No Name Restaurant” (2022) on May 20 and “This Is My Mother” (2023) on May 27.
Melissa Seltzer, the senior director of arts and culture and J Life at the JCC of Greater Baltimore, said that the choices of films, speakers and live musical performances are based in Jewish culture and have an international focus.
“The question gets asked a lot: What makes a Jewish film? [It’s] Jewish history, Jewish heritage, Jewish culture. Maybe it takes place in Israel or there’s a Jewish director. There’s a lot of things that qualifies it to be a Jewish film. And specifically, this year, in addition to having the film, we’ve also built experiences around the film to explain more about the place, the people, the setting, the culture in which the film takes place,” Seltzer said.
Avivit Geva, the film festival director, said that three out of the four films have comedic elements but that one, “Stella: A Life,” is about the Holocaust.
Geva said that the film deals with difficult topics but is less emotionally heavy than other Holocaust-related films, adding that the selection team was intentional in creating a different experience than years past with some lighter screenings.
Seltzer explained that Geva goes through hundreds of films to make her selections, talking to other festivals, distributors and representatives. She compiles a list that a team at the JCC narrows down.
“It has to be [a new film], as new as possible, relevant and modern and speak to what’s happening in the Jewish community now, and it cannot be shown on a streaming platform,” Seltzer said. “We also try to have Maryland premieres or Baltimore premieres, so that it’s not shown anywhere [within] a certain radius around where we are, because, again, we want this to be a unique experience that people are coming for.”
The goal is also to represent different segments of the Jewish community with varied stories and representations of different practices and perspectives.
“We hope that each film in some way speaks to the diversity of our community as well. Now we’re trying to actually include everyone, young adults, adults, Orthodox, non-Orthodox Jews, non-Jews. I really feel that it’s part of the JCC [and its mission] of opening their doors to everyone in the community,” Geva said.
Unique to this year’s festival is the addition of interactive events, music and speakers before the start of the films. Seltzer said the structure helps support the film and gives people a better understanding of what they’re about to watch.
The events are unique, with two professional matchmakers coming for a “mix and mingle” event before the screening of “Matchmaking 2,” a celebrated chef and rabbi doing a food demonstration for “No Name Restaurant” and more.
“In this [year’s festival] it’s kind of a hand-in-hand approach where the film is supported by either the entertainment or the interactive experience before the film,” Seltzer said.
These cultural and community experiences are so important during a difficult moment for the Jewish people and, according to Seltzer, using art to tell stories is a key aspect of Jewish tradition. She added that making everything easily accessible and high quality takes a lot of preparation and effort, but that it can be a great way to bring people together and give them new perspectives.
“Judaism has a lot of oral tradition in it. And part of telling the Jewish stories is to tell stories. That happens in film, on screen and it happens in community,” Seltzer said. “To get people to come out to hear these stories, to create Jewish unity, to create unity altogether during a time where everyone is being torn apart, to experience something in a shared space is transformative, is really powerful. To create that magical moment takes a lot of curation and intentionality.”
