Welcome to the 26th Annual Beth Tzedec Calgary Jewish Film Festival – our 26th year of bringing our community together to explore the richness and diversity of our Jewish world through the magical lens of cinema!
We’re delighted to announce that, in honour of their dear parents Arleinz”l and Dovz”l, the Chetner family has generously endowed, in perpetuity, a new feature of our festival – the annual “Arleinz”l & Dovz”l Chetner AM YISRAEL CHAI Screening”. This year’s inaugural screening will feature the award-winning documentary Dust Bowls & Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie.
We are thrilled to have the Jerusalem Foundation of Canada as sponsors of the award-winning Israeli drama Where To?, as well as the charming Israeli dramedy The Wedding Entertainer.
We’re very pleased to have Calgary Jewish Federation join us as co-sponsors of the screening of the moving documentary I Draw Them the Best I Can, as part of the CJF’s community-wide Kristallnacht commemoration. And we’re honoured that film subject Adam Policzer, along with co-directors Jamie Michaels and Liam Karp will be present. This event is open to the entire community, free of charge.
Among the many special guests at this year’s festival, we’re excited and honoured to have Simon Mendes and Jacqueline G. Tepper, director and co-producer of the thought-provoking documentary The Darkest Light, in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. And we’re delighted to have filmmaker Caroline Kaye here with her beautifully made documentary Left Lane Straight.
Another special guest that you won’t want to miss is Warren Kinsella – lawyer, journalist, author, and subject of the powerful investigative documentary The Campaign: Disinformation in a Time of War. This timely film is presented in co-operation with Allies for a Strong Canada, and the Paperny Family JCC’s Jewish Book Festival, who will have Kinsella’s best-selling book The Hidden Hand available for purchase and signing. We are extremely grateful to Joe & Sondra Spier, and Ron & Barb Krell, whose generosity has helped make this event possible.
We are honoured and privileged to have Iris Haim and Tuval Haim, subjects of the life-affirming documentary The Choice, here as our special guests on Closing Night. Inspired by the international best-selling book The Choice: Embracing the Possible, this powerful film is presented in co-operation with the Paperny Family JCC’s Jewish Book Festival, who will have copies of the book available for purchase.
Among the other highlights of our festival, this year’s “Dr. Martha Cohen Memorial Screening” will feature the captivating romance/drama The Soundman. And this year’s “Dr. Ralph Gurevitch Tikkun Olam Screening” will feature a collection of three inspiring films: the documentary Sapiro v. Ford, which will be preceded by the documentary short The Asset, as well as the animated documentary short, The Sacred Society, which is being presented in co-operation with the Calgary Chevra Kadisha.
We’re honoured, once again this year, to play a part in the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta’s annual Jay Joffe Memorial Program. JHSSA will be co-sponsoring the screening of the entertaining documentary We Met at Grossinger’s.
And we’re very pleased to have JAC- Jewish Adult Calgary as co-sponsors of the multi-award-winning Israeli film Tell Me Everything, as well as the hilarious comedy Lost in Territories.
As always, we would like to express our deepest thanks to all our sponsors, without whom this festival would not be possible. It is their generosity, community-mindedness and commitment to Jewish culture that enables us to offer this event to the community.
And a special thank you to the members of our dedicated Film Festival Committee who have spent months previewing films in order to bring you a diverse selection of engaging films that we hope will move and inspire you, entertain and delight you, enlighten and challenge you.
Harvey Cyngiser