Film
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The Schmooze Making Home Movies in Interwar Poland
When the anti-immigration laws of the early 1920s effectively sealed the gates of the United States to would-be immigrants, the Jews of Eastern Europe who had arrived en masse between 1880 and 1920 could no longer hope to see their loved ones join them in America. Instead, those who could afford to traveled abroad, visiting…
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The Schmooze The Shaming of Eliot Spitzer
Is there anything more reprehensible than white-collar crime? Certainly, there are any number of moral offenses that may trump the impulses of rich white men to make themselves even richer. But even the most egregious of these can be rationalized (rightly or wrongly) through psychological profiling and the ascription of some mental disorder or social…
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The Schmooze Caught in a Sad Romance
Filmmaker Josh Freed is willing to do a lot for the sake of his art, including casting himself in a negative light. His debut documentary, “Five Weddings and a Felony,” which premieres November 6 at the DOC NYC film festival, is Freed’s personal journey as a Jewish 28-year-old New York guy, trying to figure out…
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The Schmooze Israel, Country of Refuge?
Crossposted from Haaretz “The issue of refugees is not foreign to us; not to Jews, and not to the State of Israel,” says award-winning filmmaker Shai Carmeli-Polak. Shai’s documentary, “Ha’plitim,” (The refugees) seeks to expose the moral and legal questions underlying refugee status in Israel. The film follows African asylum-seekers as they cross the Egypt-Israel…
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The Schmooze Francis Veber: Laughter from Pain
The veteran French comedy filmmaker Francis Veber, whose “Le Dîner de cons” was recently remade in Hollywood as “Dinner for Schmucks,” is a master of spoofing painful social anxiety and feelings of exclusion. His new memoir from Les éditions Robert Laffont, “Let This be our Secret,” addresses how Veber’s Jewish roots influenced his comedic skills….
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The Schmooze A Banal Return to Religion
Crossposted from Haaretz Many recent European films have addressed the fear of fundamentalist Islam’s growing strength. What makes “On the Path,” written and directed by Bosnian Jasmila Zbanic, unique is the fact that, as opposed to recently produced French or British films, it discusses this subject and its consequences in a Muslim country. The main…
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The Schmooze Seeing the Big Picture at the Haifa International Film Festival
Crossposted from Haaretz A look back at a film fest featuring debuts, adaptations and less-than-noteworthy efforts. Still the event was an affirmation of what Israeli cinema can achieve. Prizes were awarded to five of the seven Israeli feature films competing in the 26th Haifa International Film Festival, which ended Saturday night. Of the three best,…
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The Schmooze The Murder of a Nation
Genocide is a difficult topic, and the Armenian Genocide doubly so. Unfortunately, Eric Friedler’s “Aghet: Ein Völkermord,” a German documentary screened in August at the Montreal World Film Festival and last week at the ARPA International Film Festival in Los Angeles, takes a straightforward approach to its subject, and therefore falls short of its own…
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