Annual Film Festival

Neighbours

Tuesday, October 26 virtual 

Switzerland, France, 2021 - Drama - Kurdish - 124 minutes

In a Syrian border village in the early 80’s, little Sero attends school for the first time. A new teacher has arrived with the goal of making strapping Panarabic comrades out of the Kurdish children. To enable paradise to come to earth, he uses the rod to forbid the Kurdish language, orders the veneration of Assad and preaches hate of the Zionist enemy- the Jews. The lessons upset and confuse Sero because his long-time neighbors are a lovable Jewish family. With a fine sense of humor and satire, the film depicts a childhood which manages to find light moments between dictatorship and dark drama. Little Sero gets involved in dangerous pranks with his friends, and dreams of having a television so he can finally watch cartoons. But he also experiences how the adults around him are increasingly crushed by the despotism, violence and nationalism which surround them. 

The film was inspired by the director’s personal experiences, and so his bitter-sweet memories connect the Syrian tragedy to the present.

Shared Legacies

Monday, November 1 5:30 PM

USA, 2020 - Documentary - English - 97 minutes

The crucial historical lessons of Black-Jewish cooperation are revisited and revived in this utterly fascinating, urgent call to action.

Common cause was found in the turbulent ‘60s Civil Rights era, as Jewish leaders backed Dr. King’s efforts at racial equality and harmony. Yet, the relationship has frayed in recent years, as a once mighty bond of support and respect has seemingly faded, been forgotten or ignored.

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Pivotal events come alive through a treasure trove of archival materials, narrated by eyewitnesses, activists, Holocaust survivors, and leaders of the movement, including Congressman John Lewis, Amb. Andrew Young, Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, Rabbi Peter S. Berg, Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr., members of the King family, and many others.

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With divisive seeds of hate taking root anew in the American landscape, a new generation also affirms their pledge to actively promote the values of social justice. This potent, inspiring story of unity, empathy and partnership validates the ubiquity of the human experience, and how freedom and equality for all can be achieved only when people come together.

This program is presented in partnership with:

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County of Ocean Cultural & Heritage Commission

Winter Journey

Thursday, November 4 4PM

Marquee Theater, Rt. 37 Toms River

Germany, 2020 - Drama - English, German - 90 minutes

George Goldsmith, nee Guenther Ludwig Goldschmidt, met his future wife, Rosemarie Gumpert, when they were both members of the Judische Kulturbund, or Jewish Cultural Association, a remarkable ensemble of Jewish musicians, actors, and dancers that was maintained as an insidious propaganda tool by Minister Joseph Goebbels. Guenther and Rosemarie performed with the Kulturbund orchestra between 1935 and 1941. Now living at the edge of the Arizona desert in Tucson, the elder Goldsmith shares his recollections of his tumultuous youth in a series of conversations with his son, Martin Goldsmith, who appears throughout the film but never on camera. Martin, known to American radio listeners as the long-time host of NPR’s “Performance Today” and the host of the PBS special “Classical Rewind,” used those conversations as the basis for his acclaimed book The Inextinguishable Symphony, which in turn inspired Winter Journey. Ostergaard weaves those conversations together with archival footage and ingenious green-screen recreations of actual events into a journey through time and space that leads inexorably to “the film’s gut-punch of a finale.” (HI) Dealing with themes of guilt, Jewish identity, the father/son dynamic, and the responsibilities of the Second Generation, Winter Journey is moving proof of William Faulkner’s timeless observation that “the past is never dead; it isn’t even past.”

The Jewish Federation of Ocean County Annual Film Festival is supported by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the American Rescue Plan Act. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this event do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.