Welcome to the 25th Annual Beth Tzedec Calgary Jewish Film Festival – our milestone 25th year of bringing our community together to explore the richness and diversity of our Jewish world through the magical lens of cinema! We’re proud, once again, to bring you an exciting line-up of outstanding films and special guests, and are pleased that, during these challenging times for Israel and for the Jewish people as a whole, our festival continues to be a place where we can come together and experience the sense of community that has always been such an integral part of our film festival
We’re excited to be able to bring you the much-talked-about film The Road Between Us, the award-winning documentary that became the subject of great controversy when it was originally pulled from this year’s TIFF line-up, only to be ultimately reinstated. And we’re delighted to have JAC- Jewish Adult Calgary as co-sponsors of this gripping film, as well as the powerful drama Dead Language.
We’re happy to have Calgary Jewish Federation join us as co-sponsors of the screening of the moving documentary The Last Twins, as part of the CJF’s community-wide Kristallnacht commemoration. This event is open to the entire community, free of charge.
Another film that we’re offering to the community free of charge is the touching documentary Always Together, which follows a group of Israeli twelfth-graders from the Gaza border area as they navigate their final year towards graduation – together – in the shadow of October 7th. We’re thrilled to have the film’s director, Paz Schwartz, and one of the students featured in the film, Shahar Reuven, joining us in-person at the screening. We are grateful to Calgary Jewish Federation for co-sponsoring this heartfelt film and would also like to extend a special thank you to Joe & Sondra Spier, Ron & Barb Krell, and the Cyngiser Family, whose generosity has helped make this free screening possible.
Another special guest that you won’t want to miss is filmmaker Abby Ginzberg, whose outstanding documentary Labors of Love explores the life and legacy of Henrietta Szold, the visionary founder of Hadassah-WIZO. We’re delighted to have CHW (Canadian Hadassah-WIZO) join us in co-sponsoring this inspiring film.
Among the other highlights of our festival, this year’s “Dr. Ralph Gurevitch Tikkun Olam Screening” will feature the entertaining and inspiring film Charles Grodin: Rebel with a Cause, and this year’s “Dr. Martha Cohen Memorial Screening” will feature the captivating drama Midas Man.
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 documentary Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm, as well as the locally made short film Bazaar!….The Story That Needs To Be Told.
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