Jewish Film Festival continues but timing and venue changed

The decision by The Playhouse independent cinema in Hamilton to cancel its hosting of the Hamilton Jewish Film Festival is just another example of a non-partisan institution caving to the anri-Israel - and frankly anti-Jew - hate crowd, which has been demonstrating on Canada's streets since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and kidnapping of Israeli Jews. The Hamilton fest, which in the past has collaborated with the Windsor Jewish Film Festival (WJFF), has saved the event anyway, moving it to an arts centre in neighbouring Ancaster. (One wonders how long before that organization caves because of threats.) The Playhouse weasley cited the all too typical reasons for cancellation: "numerous security and safety related emails, phone calls and social media messages," coming at a "particularly sensitive time." The Hamilton Jewish Federation was having none of it, citing "a small number" of individuals claiming "any film produced in Israel is a form of Zionist propaganda" and the cinema was "prioritizing the will of anti-semites over an apolitical cultural festival that stands for artistic excellence and integrity." It's considering legal action. The WJFF, the 21st edition of the fest - Windsor’s oldest film festival even predating the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) - is "most definitely going ahead", Windsor Jewish Fed director Dan Brotman told me. It's scheduled June 17 - 20. And at the Capitol Theatre, publicly owned by the City of Windsor. But this raises two questions. Why the later start? The event is usually scheduled mid-Spring. Second: why the change in venue? For years it has been held at Devonshire Mall's Cineplex theaters. I've contacted the federation for more information but have not heard back. I have also contacted Cineplex HQ to ask if this was a corporate decision. Businesses have long been known to shy away from anything controversial, let alone today's current events. It may have even been a Devonshire Mall management decision given the Christmas disruption at Toronto’s Eaton Centre by anti-Israel demonstrators, and I will contact them as well. In any case, the Hamilton event is hosting six films and I wonder, based on past collaboration, if Windsor will host the same. Programming director Joe Schnayer said the schedule will be posted "very soon" on the federation's website. But if the Windsor festival had to move from Devonshire for the same reasons the Hamilton’s original venue cancelled the show, or in the cliched "safetyism" term of our time, "out of an abundance of caution," it’s disgusting. Even more so in a city where there has been relative peace between Jews and Muslims, even since Oct. 7.

Congratulations to Windsor filmmaker Min Bae on his documentary about the horrific sinking of the South Korean Sewol Ferry a decade ago, with the loss of hundreds of school children in one of the world's most horrendous shipping disasters. The 90-minute Reset has already been screened at last fall's WIFF and has had screenings at a few other festivals and is scheduled this December at the Madrid documentary fest. It's also available online on several platforms. The film asks: "why the rescue of our children and people was neglected on the fateful day the Sewol sank." The movie's closest screening to Windsor near term will be April 6, 7 pm at University of Toronto's Innis Hall. "I think another screening is planned for Windsor," the filmmaker and University of Windsor film production professor told me. "I will keep you posted."

Think of Malaga as a little Cannes

The Malaga Film Festival, or as it's known here the Festival de Málaga, is now in its 27th year and seems a big deal in this exquisite midsize city in southwestern Spain (pop. half a million) and Picasso's birthplace. Now in its 27th year it has the flavor of a mini Cannes, with a huge red carpet rolled out all the way along a central promenade, a grand entrance way, and packed streets with people behind festival barricades around the central cinema, Teatro Cervantes in Malaga’s Casco Antiguo (old town). It ran 11 days in early March and I was happy to catch at least three of the flicks. The festival is a toast to Spanish cinema and so many of the films, especially those made in Spain itself, don't have English subtitles. I of course opted for the few that did, and they were all North American. The first was by veteran Spanish and internationally-acclaimed filmmaker Isabel Coixet's and her Things I Never Told You, part of a retrospective of her work. She attended the screening and it was a kick to see the Spanish paparazzi (or whatever the Spanish term is) out in force to snap pix of the director during her introduction. The 1994 release stars then popular actress Lili Taylor along with Andrew McCarthy and Seymour Cassel. This thoroughly American film, in English and shot in rural Oregon, is about a displaced young woman (Taylor) at wit's end after being dumped long distance by her boyfriend. It was fun to see Taylor again after all these years, whose demeanor was split between subtle sarcasm and calm anger in an obvious character study of the whims of anomie. The second film was Lumbrendream (Firedream) by José Pablo Escamilla of Mexico. Dark both figuratively and literally, this film about the trap of young people with no futures working in the fast food industry, was well acted. But its characters' angst had a repetitive element and the picture, shot in gloomy and tight indoor surroundings, had a claustrophobic quality. Yes, I looked at my watch several times! The third film was, from Cuba, The Wild Woman by Alan Gonzalez. Here we had at least the semblance of a plot and tension, which the last film lacked. Lola Amores as Youlanda, caught in a cycle of violence and on the run, is trying to find her son in the backstreets of Havana's barrio. (The flick had its world premiere last Sept. in Toronto.)....The festival’s central theatre, Cervantes - and a stone's throw from Picasso's childhood home - is a beautifully intimate opera house style historic venue. The Festival de Málaga may not have been Cannes but it had a similar atmosphere on a smaller scale, and, alas,  is located on the Mediterranean to boot.

No particular need to hold over The Holdovers

I wanted to like The Holdovers, Alexander Payne's celebrated and Best Picture nominated film starring Paul Giamatti. I caught it on an Air Canada flight to London, a surprise since the film was still out in theatres (but not in Windsor-Detroit to my frustration). When it comes to films, Air Canada is no slouch, with a great selection of several genres including obviously current releases. Giamatti is one of my favourite actors, best known for Miles Raymond's 2004 Sideways, a buddy film about a frenzied tour of California wine country. Giamatti is great here as well, about the best thing in this film that otherwise is depleted in story, quite a disappointment from what I was expecting and the generally quite favourable reviews. It’s about a group of students at a New England college in the early 1970's. Why that time I don't know, unless the filmmakers like the era's music; it could be set at any time. Giamatti is perfect as the irascible curmudgeon teacher Paul Hunham (more like Humbug, as the move is set at Christmas). You know the type, a pedant and sticker for details, the kind of prof students just love to hate. He’s a stuffed shirt and tight ass as well, which is the unexpected character reveal in this film, which is as much about his character's deficiencies as the dynamics of his supervision over a group of students who are stranded at the college, for whatever reasons, and can’t get away for the holidays. Frankly, I was expecting a film more along the lines of My Dinner with Andre (Louis Malle, 1981), with teacher and students, stuck together with nothing else to do, engaging in free-flowing dialogue about philosophy and life, with spark and wit bouncing off each one. It wasn't to be. Instead Hunham, the tight ass, forces his students to study over the holidays - what an  idiot! - until such time as one student’s parent arrives and rescues most of them for a ski vacation. That leaves just Angus (Dominic Sessa) and the film turns into a kind of buddy picture with Hunham letting his hair down (what he has of it) and trooping into Boston for the day with his student. But it doesn't end well for out ultimately sad sack hero, another plot twist that didn't need to be.

I’m in Malaga Spain and the Malaga Film Festival is on all this week. It's the first time I’ve been here when the festival is on. But to my chagrin the overwhelming number of films are in Spanish (makes sense) and lack English subtitles. But I am going to see an exception tonight, Things I Never Told You, 1996's Spanish director Isabel Coixet's American-based film starring Lili Taylor. It's being screened in the beautiful Cine Albéniz (photo left), right beside the Roman amphitheater and sheltered under the hilltop Alcazaba (fortress) on the edge of the old town, perfect for a scene in a movie.