The Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival kicks off Oct. 5 and 6 with “A Matter of Size,” a film about an obese Israeli who discovers sumo wrestling and starts the first Israeli sumo team.
The festival, now celebrating its 15th anniversary, will offer periodic showings of narrative films and documentaries through Dec. 1.
“We show one movie at a time,” said Ellen Blustein, the film festival program director. “The community up here likes to see every film. One year we tried it like a regular festival, everything at once, and people got really upset.”
The six films this year include “Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg” about radio and television personality Gertrude Berg on Oct. 12 and 13; “Nora’s Will,” a dark comedy about a woman reuniting with her family on the eve of Passover, on Oct. 19 and 20; and “Camera Obscura,” a surreal Argentinean film, on Nov. 16 and 17.
The festival closes Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 with “Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueberger,” a comedy about a feisty young girl studying for her bat mitzvah.
“We always try to feature a coming-of-age story. We hope to get families with teenagers to these films,” Blustein said.
Ticket prices are $10 and $12, and the films will be shown at Boulevard Cinemas, 200 C St., Petaluma, and Sixth Street Playhouse, 52 W. 6th St., Sonoma. For a complete schedule, visit www.jccsoco.org.