One year after its screening of “Rachel” sparked a local Jewish community uproar, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has released the schedule for this year’s festival, its 30th annual starting July 24.
Is another potential “Rachel” lurking among the lineup of 57 films?
Though organizers think not, and are confident that controversy will be avoided this summer, they also say they have no intention of backing away from challenging films.
“We have no wish to make milquetoast out of engaging and sometimes challenging film programming,” said Peter Stein, the festival’s executive director. “It’s been the hallmark of this festival to ask hard questions.”
Last summer the “hard” part came when Cindy Corrie, mother of the late pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie, appeared for an interview and Q&A session following the San Francisco screening of “Rachel.” In addition, the film, itself controversial, was co-presented by two organizations many deem to have anti-Israel leanings.
That perfect storm angered pro-Israel forces in the community.
In turn, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation took a lot of heat for providing funding to the festival. As a consequence, it issued grantee guidelines earlier this year to make sure its funds won’t provide a platform for those advocating boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
Although the new guidelines have no financial impact on this year’s festival — the funds from JCF for the 2010 event were allocated before the guidelines went into effect — the federation and the film festival nevertheless have been finding common ground.
“Continuing the strong relationship between SFJFF and JCF is truly important for both institutions. We value one another’s work highly,” Stein said. “This year we have had an ongoing dialogue with JCF about the new guidelines, their merits and potential drawbacks. We are confident that nothing in our mission, programs, films or values flies against the guidelines, and we are committed to being an engaged partner with JCF during this polarized time in American Jewish life.”
Said federation CEO Jennifer Gorovitz: “The JCF, joined by the Jewish Community Relations Council, has convened numerous follow-up discussions with festival leadership about the full spectrum of issues stemming from last summer’s festival and the expectations and application of the JCF’s funding guidelines. We are pleased that festival leadership has stated that it plans to abide by the guidelines, and that it will present an array of films aimed at appealing to a broad cross-section of the community.”
One change this year is that presenters, co-presenters and promotional partners will no longer be linked to individual films. And Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the co-presenters of “Rachel” last summer, is not part of the festival this year.
Nevertheless, added the festival’s new program director Jay Rosenblatt, “I don’t think we shied away from showing things as they are. Quality came first.”
“We remain dedicated to being an arts organization that reflects and helps build a Jewish community that values diversity of thought, debate and dialogue — even on difficult topics,” Stein added. “We look forward to working with JCF to ensure that both institutions are strengthening the community we have each loved and served for so long.”
Potentially controversial selections this summer could include “Budrus,” a documentary about the Israeli security barrier cutting through an Arab village. Also, there’s “My So-Called Enemy,” which follows two groups of young women –– Arabs and Israeli Jews –– at a conference and their diverging lives afterward.
These are two among several films that touch on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. But as always, the subject matter of the programming spans the entire Jewish universe.
“This being our 30th anniversary, we wanted to bring a celebratory energy to the festival,” Rosenblatt said.
Part of that will come in the form of more live music, including an appearance by Jewish rapper Socalled (in conjunction with the documentary about him (“The ‘Socalled’ Movie”).
The opening night feature is “Saviors in the Night,” a true Holocaust-era story about a non-Jewish German family that hides a Jewish woman and her daughter. Marga Spiegel, the 98-year-old real-life daughter, will be coming to San Francisco to attend the screening.
The topper on this year’s list of festival themes is “Tough Guys: Images of Jewish Gangsters in Film.” Titles set for screening include 1991’s “Bugsy” (starring Warren Beatty), the 1932 version of “Scarface” and “Lepke,” a 1975 film starring Tony Curtis as Louis Lepke.
The 57 films in the lineup will run from July 24 through Aug. 9 at the Castro Theatre and the JCCSF in San Francisco, the Roda Theatre in Berkeley, the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael and Cinearts @ Palo Alto Square.
Stein and Rosenblatt said the 57 films were the lucky ones chosen out of more than 600 submissions, and both say that paring down the list was not easy.
“I was very considerate and deliberate in the rejection letters,” Rosenblatt said. “Being filmmakers ourselves, we know how disappointing these letters can be. We got feedback saying ‘This was the best rejection letter we ever got.’”
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival begins July 24. Schedule and information: www.sfjff.org.