Movies galore this month at Windsor Jewish fest and a WIFF local retrospective

This year’s Windsor Jewish Film Festival is on the horizon, with the opening feature The Catskills kicking it off next Monday night. It will be followed by nine films over the next three days. The Catskills, helmed by director Lex Gillespie, tells the story of the famous Jewish resorts in upper New York State during their heyday in the 1950s and 60s. The fest's main schedule gets underway Tuesday with Sabotage, the unknown story of a women’s underground operation at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Then the film Listen, more than appropriate for our time, is the story of a young Israeli soldier who searches to find her captured colleague in Gaza. That evening the film Syndrome K, narrated by Ray Liotta, depicts an incredible episode where Italian doctors rescued Jews during the Holocaust by inventing a fictitious disease that kept the Nazis at bay. On Wednesday there's the Toronto-set musical Less Than Kosher, where a “wayward singer's life takes a divinely uproarious turn when she lands a cantor gig in her family's synagogue, sparking self-discovery, family mishigas, and unholy chaos.” Also screening that day is The Man in the Basement, a contemporary take on how antisemitism inadvertently affected one family. Later Running on Sand is about a young Eritrean refugee living in Israel and who disguises himself as a famous soccer player. Thursday also sees three films: The Story of Annette Zelman, a WW II story of star-crossed lovers of different religions and based on real events. Home depicts the challenges of an Orthodox man’s professional dream which is perceived as a threat to his ultra-Orthodox community. Finally, The Narrow Bridge is about the friendship between Israeli and Palestinian people united, having “lost a child or parent in violent conflict, transform their grief into a bridge for reconciliation.” Films are at the Capitol Theatre.

This will be a great month for movie watching in Windsor. Following the Jewish fest and celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Windsor International Film Festival hosts its first Local Retrospective the weekend of June 21-23 at the Capitol Theatre. These might even be considered Windsor classics, shot here or affiliated with Windsorites and having screened over the years at WIFF. Titles are 100 Films and a Funeral, Best of Mark Boscariol 48-Hour Flickfest, The Birder, Iodine, Kili Klimb, Last Call, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Roberston and The Band, The Quick and Dirty, Reset, The Rise and Fall of the Grumpy Burger, Saving Grace, Sometimes I Think About Dying, This is What a Feminist Sounds Like  and WIFF Shorts 1 & 2.