Windsor Detroit Film
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Good news! Jewish film fest changes not in response to threats
Sunday, March 31, 2024
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."
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Think of Malaga as a little Cannes
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
No particular need to hold over The Holdovers
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.
Monday, February 5, 2024
Anatomy of a Fall, this time with English subtitles
Also on YouTube is Nicole Holofcener’s You Hurt My Feelings (2023), the latest from the director of comedy-dramas about contemporary, female-focused and often overthinking American urban liberals. The focus of the plot is slight but enough to keep your attention on an incident in the marriage of yet another oh-so-modern-couple played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies. I didn’t recognize Louis-Dreyfus because her hair is shorter and she almost looks like Tina Fey. Holofcener is a one time protégé of Woody Allen and it shows, since these neurotic Manhattan characters could be right out of his films. Nothing special here but I can think of worse ways to spend a Saturday night.
The best rebuttal to the “it’s so unfair” chorus that Barbie (Greta Gerwig) didn’t get an Oscar nom for Best Picture and Best Director is Rich Lowery’s NY Post column. Check it out at Margot Robbie's 'Barbie' Oscars snub is no loss for feminism (nypost.com)
I hate to say it. But now when I see minorities in a film I have to wonder if this is because their inclusion is designed to fulfil diversity quotas. Starting with this year’s Oscars a film must meet two of four standards for Best Picture including at least one minority lead actor or significant supporting actors and the main storyline being the same. I never questioned who was in a film previously but now the thought is in the back of my mind.
And I’m still waiting to see Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (2023) that seems as elusive as the sun these days. It’s getting rave reviews but not available in any theatres nor even to rent online. Wouldn’t it be great if cinemas made available all 10 Best Picture nominees just before Oscar time?